For the 11th straight year I attended Twinsfest –
the annual winter gather of all things Minnesota Twins. Twinsfest 2014’s big
news was after years of being held at the Metrodome, it was moving to Target
Field. Fans were promised access to the high $ Champions, Legends, and
Metropolitan Clubs, free tours of the Twins clubhouse and press box, and for $5
you got to take 5 cuts in the Twins underground batting cage. Kids were
promised a change to play interactive games with Twins players.
In fact all of the above was true. I took the clubhouse and
press box tours, and enjoyed them. I watched some of players play various games
with kids which I thought was nice. Also fans got to watch real families play
the Family Feud game show with Twins players/coaches as team captains. It all
seemed to go over well. I also found Target Field is closer to my home, parking
was cheaper, the food more expensive, and the view of the lighted field when it
snowed on Friday night was amazing.
I go to Twinsfest though mostly to get autographs. I went
Friday and Sunday and scored a combined 43 autographs. That broke my previous
record of 37 set in 2011. Here is my list. All were on baseball cards except
where noted. Numbers next to the player means I got multiple autographs from that
player.
Corey Koskie, Trevor Plouffe, Anthony Swarzak, Andrew
Albers, Trevor May (2), Joe Mauer, Ricky Nolasco, Jason Bartlett, Casey Fien (2), Phil
Hughes, Brian Duensing, Kyle Gibson, Caleb Theilbar (2), Mike Pelfrey, Jared
Burton, Chris Parmelee (2),Chris Herrmann (2), Joe Vavra, Kevin Corriea, Tom Brunansky
(ball), Max Kepler, Eric Fryer, Austin Malinowski, Glen Perkins, Kurt Suzuki, Alex
Presley, Chris Colabello (2), Samuel Deduno, Scott Erickson, Aaron Hicks, Brian
Dozier, Jim Mudcat Grant, Darren Mastroianni, Alex Meyer, Sean Gilmartin, Kyle
Knudson, and Mike Kvasnicka
I was pumped to get Joe Mauer for the first time since 2008!
I was also pleased to get new Twins Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco, Alex Presley,
and Kurt Suzuki. The lines for mega-prospects Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano were
often longer than the lines for Mauer, but top pitching prospect Alex Meyer had
virtually no line.
My fellow autograph seekers told me they would have liked 5
instead of the 4 autograph stations available. Some of them were upset that the
minor league player autographs are no longer free as minor leaguers are now
mixed in with the regular players. I was disappointed that Oswaldo Arcia and
Josmil Pinto were not in attendance.
Some of the memorabilia dealers there were not happy they
were relegated to the basement were it was cold, cram, and the lighting if
poor. A few of them told me they would not be back in 2015. I would not be
surprised if the Twins phased out the memorabilia dealers all together.
Twinsfest seems to be going in a different direction.
However, as long as the Twins continue to have their players
sign autograph for a reasonable fee, I will be back for Twinsfest 2015 and
beyond.
