Metrodome, Midway Stadium and an odd case of baseball nostalgia

Target Field and CHS Field opened in 2010 and 2015, respectively, and immediately qualified as glorious ballparks as well as massive upgrades from their predecessors.

The Twins played 28 seasons at the Metrodome from 1982-2009, while the St. Paul Saints had been longtime residents of Midway Stadium. The Dome was drab and utilitarian, the last place you wanted to be on a glorious summer day. Midway Stadium also opened in 1982, and by the time the Saints left more than 30 years later it was also showing its age.

What's strange is this: I miss both of those old dumps, and there is no disrespect intended in calling them such. The realization hit me as Patrick Reusse and I talked about both the Twins and Saints — as well as the upcoming townball state tournament — on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast.

This is not to say I liked them more than Target Field and CHS Field, the latter of which transitioned to become the home of the Class AAA Twins as the Saints evolved.

But there's a certain nostalgia for them that probably has as much to do with the nature of memory and my own preferences as it does the state of modern sports.

Twins games in the Dome, particularly in the mid-to-late-1990s when I attended a countless number cheaply on a whim as a college student, had a certain energy. You had to really want to be there, and if you were there you were invested.

It wasn't really the cool place to be. The signature food item was ... a hot dog. It was extremely basic and yet casual, like hanging out in a friend's basement that happened to be a Major League Baseball stadium.

Midway Stadium was the antidote in some ways — the outdoor option, the place where fun was encouraged and where it was more about a party than the nine innings of baseball.

But the real charm for me watching the Saints at Midway was less about the wacky promotions and more about how spare everything was. The ballpark wasn't trying too hard to impress anyone because that's not what the audience demanded.

What I can't quite reconcile is whether I'm remembering places or times. That's a trick the mind plays, often leading us to try to unsuccessfully replicate experiences.

Am I craving what it felt like when things weren't quite so serious, when we weren't all on our phones for nine innings? A time of young adulthood instead of middle age?

Probably. But I think I miss those old spaces, too, even if the new ones are great.

Here are four more things to know today:

*Twins starting pitchers still lead MLB in innings pitched and strikeouts.

*One of the big assumptions about the Vikings this season involves the health of tackles Brian O'Neill and Christian Darrisaw — both of whom had issues in 2022. O'Neill's return to a full practice Sunday for the first time since an Achilles injury late last season was both a reason for optimism and a reminder of the O-line's fragility.

*If you ever watched or read "The Blind Side," you might be blind-sided by this story.

*Star Tribune columnist Chip Scoggins will be my guest on Tuesday's podcast to talk about several things — including whether this is finally the year the Gophers offense under P.J. Fleck takes a giant leap into the modern passing era.