The Minnesota Twins may have ended their season with a sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees, but a little ‘Metrodome magic’ and some crucial victories to close out the regular season helped spread a campus-wide Twins fever that provided lasting memories for many Gustavus students.
This season marked the final year in the Metrodome for the Twins after playing 28 seasons under the Teflon roof, and the team’s playoff prospects looked dim. But after closing the regular season with 16 victories in their final 20 games, the Twins found themselves in a first-place tie with Detroit for the American League Central Division standings. This put the Twins in a one game playoff for an unprecedented second consecutive year.
This time it came with a chance to become the first team to win a division title after trailing by three games in the standings with four games to play.
Junior Twins fanatic Andrew Bryz-Gornia was lucky enough to buy an upper deck ticket to attend the game with his Gustie roommates. Bryz-Gornia, Junior Brady Skaff and Senior Chris Stewart were in online waiting rooms for tickets immediately after the Twins defeated Kansas City on the first Sunday in October to force the tiebreaker. Bryz-Gornia ranked the one-game playoff as one of his favorite Metrodome memories.
“I could feel the tension in every single at-bat. It was the only game I’ve been to where the crowd would stand throughout the entire inning the Twins were batting. The Dome was so loud that we couldn’t hear the music play after a home run, and I had a headache from about the fifth inning on,” Bryz-Gornia said.
Junior Garrett Clause made the trip to the Metrodome for the tiebreaker with family and friends. Clause has attended many sporting events, but said the Twins’ one-game playoff was one of the more intense games he’s seen.
“It was the most up-and-down sporting event I have ever been to. There were multiple times I thought we were going to win, and even more times I thought I was watching the last inning [ever played] in the Metrodome,” Clause said.
While some Gusties made the journey to the Metrodome to see the tiebreaker against Detroit, many students crammed into the Market Place to root for the home team. Although Junior Abby Williams had a night full of mandatory events, she still found time to cheer for her favorite team.
“I had to work at the Nobel Conference, so after I finished with that I rushed to the [Market Place] to see some of the game. Every LCD television and the projectors had the game on, and every table near the televisions was full of people. Then I had to go to choir, and everyone at the concert was being yelled at [as we were about to go onstage] because we all had our phones out so we could get game updates,” Williams said.
Junior Jon Guter stopped by the cafeteria during the game and was surprised by how large the crowd was.
“The place was packed,” Guter said. “Everyone was cheering for the Twins, and it was insanely loud.”
The Campus Activity Board had scheduled a trivia event that night at 7:00 p.m. as part of their annual Homecoming Week competition, but the Twins’ extra inning affair forced CAB to postpone the event a few hours.
In the end, the Twins squeaked out a 12 inning 6-5 win over Detroit to clinch their fifth division title of the decade. Baseball analysts instantly hailed the game as a classic game that will be remembered for a long time. The back-and-forth game will surely be etched in Bryz-Gornia’s mind for some time.
“We could see the [players in the] dugout spill out as [Carlos] Gomez rounded third, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” Bryz-Gornia said. “That was the loudest the crowd had been all day, and everybody stayed an extra 20 minutes to watch the team celebrate on the field. [The Twins’ playoff push] was really exciting, and it brought more meaning to this final season in the Dome.”
Clause cheered as he watched the Twins clinch a playoff berth and took some time after the game to see the team celebrate on the field.
“When we won I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. We didn’t leave our seats for half an hour because we just stood there enjoying the moment,” Clause said. “In my opinion it should be considered one of the best regular season games ever played.”
Williams rushed back to her dorm after the choir concert and arrived in time to see Alexi Casilla knock in Carlos Gomez for the winning run.
“I was sitting in the CF office, and yeah, let’s just say I had a sore throat the next day. I was so hyper that I couldn’t sleep until around 1:00 a.m.,” Williams said.
Bryz-Gornia will miss the Metrodome, but he is looking forward to the team’s move across town into Target Field.
“There was always a guarantee of the game being played every night. It’s definitely going to be different at the beginning and end of the season with how cold it’ll be.”
Clause is anxious to watch the team play in its new 40,000-seat venue that will offer stunning skyline views of downtown Minneapolis.
“I think it’s great. Baseball should be outside. Most Minnesotans our age haven’t even seen an outdoor professional baseball game, and that’s sad,” Clause said.
The Twins eventually bowed out in three games to the Yankees in the American League Division Series, but not before the Dome added another memorable game to its rich history.