2004 MN Twins Team Propaganda
Anyone who has followed the Minnesota Twins will undoubtedly remember this seemingly never ending mission they were on to have a baseball-only stadium built. The argument cooled slightly after winning the 1987 and 1991 World Series, but had been going on pretty much since the Metrodome opened in 1982. As someone who witnessed many games in the Metrodome, I had to agree. That stadium had no business hosting Major League Baseball...
So tear that damn thing down, you upper midwest construction company that I don't remember the name of...
In a rather shameless attempt at drumming up public support to build the proposed retractable domed stadium, the Twins had a baseball card giveaway promotion during the 2004 season.
The card backs all feature a Did You Know? statement, attempting to highlight all the good the Twins organization does for the community. Makes sense, but some of the things they tout seem kind of insignificant....
Some of them outright laughable....
For example...
The Vikings play 8 regular season home games (unless snow rips a hole in the Dome roof), the Wild and Timberwolves only play 41 home games in a season. Target Center and the Xcel Center hold less than 20,000 for thier games, the Dome holds about 64,000 for it's games. The Twins would have to draw really poorly (and they have in the past) in order to not outdraw the other three... Combined...
The 12 card "team" set only contains five players. Other cards in the set are just promotional sketches of the new stadium design. The card backs promote the back to back division champions, but one of the five players wasn't on the 2002 team... But that's just nit-picky on my part... Thinking positive, that is a sweet picture of Torii Hunter.
Did You Know? By using only their numbers, (and I'll only include up to 2003 since these were printed in early 2004) over five years, let's analyze their contributions... That is only $140,000 per year. Assuming that each of those 159 communities only has one ballfield that was renovated (unlikely), that is a contribution of only $4402.52, per community, in five years.
Thanks for doing it, but that isn't really worth bragging about... Especially considering they paid Joe Mays nearly $14 million to absolutely suck for 3 years in 2001...
In 2004, plans for the new Twins stadium included a retractable roof. Which makes sense and works for places like Milwaukee and Phoenix for how the roof is incorporated. I've never attended a game in a retractable roof stadium (besides Toronto and Montreal, but that style isn't being used anymore), so I don't know how it feels in real life. Judging only from what I've seen on TV, Seattle did it best.
Dear whomever wrote this card back:
COMMAS!!!!
That is just embarrassing...
This Did You Know? once again conveniently leaves out the factor of number of games played. The NHL and NBA arenas hold less than half of what the Metrodome holds, so there's an issue of scarcity, which drives prices higher. The NFL only has 8 home games, making their tickets even more scarce, despite the Metrodome holding about 65,000 for football. With much of the upper deck blocked off, the Dome still held over 43,000 for 81 Twins home games. $12 is reasonable, but it makes the Viking look like the real bargain here. But now the number of that lowest price ticket being available per game is the key... Something tells me lowest priced Vikings tickets are a tad more desirable than the lowest price Twins ticket...
Easily one of the games more underrated third basemen in recent times, Koskie's career was tragically cut short at age 34, via concussion. During his 7 seasons with the Twins, Koskie posted a very good .836 OPS, with passable defense.
These cards are feature dark, muddy photos, on the thinnest card stock Pohlad could cut a deal on. I had these cards sitting next to a box of kleenex, and almost blew my nose on Doug Mientkiewicz...
Did You Know? That I have no problem with this little trivia nugget. It's only slightly self-serving...
In 1994, Carl Pohlad declared the Metrodome "economically obsolete" and began making plans for a new Twins stadium to be built directly north of the Metrodome, on a chunk of land adjacent to the Mississippi River. It would have been a great setting, but that just didn't happen....
After ten plus years of fighting between Pohlad and the city and Major League Baseball, the riverfront site would no longer be available to the Twins, and they had to go a different route. This 2004 propaganda is the first from the Twins to reflect that site instead of their long desired riverfront location.
Their punishment for Pohlad's dickishness would be that their new home would have to sit in the shadow of Hennepin County's garbage incinerator. You can make a fence out of giant Topps baseball cards of the 1960's all you want, but we all know you're burning garbage behind them!
Did You Know? There is no way I'm even going to attempt to de-bullshitify those numbers... Judging from how disingenuous the other card backs have been, my brain is too tried to tackle this one...
When Target Field was finally built, the design was drastically different than the 2004 vision. There is no retractable roof, but the view of downtown Minneapolis is pretty cool. I would have preferred the river, but whatever...
At least you can finally see the sky!
This card stock is beyond terrible. There is no excuse for printing this bad in this century. I don't know who shot the photos for this set, they did a great job. But whatever Twins intern drove these to the Downtown Minneapolis Kinkos to be printed should have at least asked for some retouching and/or better stock... I'm sure Danno could have hooked him up...
Did You Know? That the Metrodome wasn't built for baseball? It was built to the Vikings specifications, then adapted to allow the Twins to play there when the Vikings let them. It's no secret that Calvin Griffith wanted the Twins to play at a renovated Met Stadium, but lack of upkeep left that thing structurally unsafe. Repairing that level of neglect would have been cost prohibitive. So the Twins were stuck playing baseball in a football stadium. For 28 years...
From the outside, I have to say that looks like an intriguing design. I like that open area between the outer walls and the access to the stands.
Did You Know? That Carl Pohlad started making his billions by repossessing farms during the Great Depression? But I'm certain he has only the purest and most genuine intentions for returning the taxpayers investment...
I didn't have a picture that mimics the sketch card, but this is kind of close... Right Field gate instead of the First Base entrance.
Target Field did include that Mankato-Kasota limestone that card was pumping up. I'm totally fine with covering the stadium with it. That flavor limestone is local and a good thing to tip your cap to your home and all that...
But it's just so... So... Khaki...
Bad printing of a good picture of a very good pitcher. I hate this card stock so very much...
Did You Know? Oh whatever...
Oh come on now, that's the same sketch from 4 cards ago! Could Pohlad only afford five total sketches?
Did You Know? Saint Paul native and Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer would have made a much better choice for a picture on the front of this card over the SAME PICTURE FROM 4 CARDS AGO!!!
Shannon Stewart was awesome when he came over from Toronto in the middle of the 2003 season. Don't let the picture of him looking like he was just called out on strikes dissuade you... If you can even see it through the awful printing this set features...
Did You Know? Well, that's actually pretty cool... And I love and respect Baseball America...
The walkway to the luxury suites reminded my of Wrigley Field in a way... In the end, the Twins did not go with this design. I'm glad because I'm not a fan of the luxury suite blue bloods lurking above the common folk, so we have to watch them looking down on us. I don't begrudge you your money to flaunt on extravagant baseball seats, but I don't need it rubbed in my face as this would have.
And I'm very glad they did this. I went to a Wild game in 2001 and loved the way the Xcel was set up. Allowing fans to see the field from the concourse seems like it should be a no brainer, and was something that always bothered me about the Metrodome.
So this is what Target Field came up with for a concourse. This picture was taken in May 2010, when the newness hadn't worn off and the team's performance justified the MUCH higher prices of Target Field vs the Metrodome (funny, I didn't get the card promoting that...).
12 card set and they have to repeat two images... Good job Twins!
They weren't able to get their long desired retractable roof for Target Field, but they did come up with an odd shaped canopy that spans the entire left to right field stands. Planners didn't want tall lights towering above the park, so they came up with the plan to store the lights inside the canopy.
Personally I think it's ugly and doesn't fit the rest of the stadium, but they sure are proud of it... Well, just look at the 2014 All Star Game logo...
Thanks for turning Minneapolis khaki too...
The back of card 12 was actually different... This was the Minnesota Twins call to action!
Now is your chance to fight for the Twins!
Forget about the 1997 referendum that capped Minneapolis' stadium contributions!
Forget all those secret talks of contraction in 2001!
Don Beaver who?
There were no stadium giveaways with ulterior motives this time. The only cards around were hanging out back next to the trash incinerator. But it was on that trip to Minnesota that I found this 2004 team set at the folks house. I forget that I forgot it there... So I brought it back to Denver and forget about it all over again until about a year ago, when it finally found a permanent home in the Twins albums...
And I don't mean to be too cynical, but this set leaves a really foul taste in my mouth.
Very passive aggressive in a highly midwestern kind of way...
Did You Know? The Twins got their stadium and Carl Pohlad didn't live long enough to see a game there.
And maybe I'm a bad person for that little fact making me smile...
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