Rain Delay

When Kelli and I watch baseball, rain seems to find us. Of course, in the Metrodome we never had to worry about this. But one summer we followed the Twins to Kansas City and sat through rain while Johan Santana pitched them to victory and later that same summer, with Marty and Melissa in Colorado, we watched a thunderstorm literally roll in off the Rocky Mountains while sitting in the centerfield "rock pile" of Coors Field for a Rockies/Cardinals game. We found shelter in some unused and covered seats for the majority of the rainy game, but still, we decided then and there that we were meant to watch outdoor baseball wearing ponchos.

We had great luck last year at Target Field, in its inaugural season. We attended two games, the first of which was a gorgeous night game and the second of which with Shawn and Kali and was sunny and hot. Both games were won by the Twins. This year, I bought tickets to five games. Last Tuesday was the first game Kelli and I would have attended together this year. Hated rival Chicago was in town. I had never seen the Twins battle the White Sox in person. I still haven't.

We drove through pouring rain near Medford and the sky cleared up some by the time we reached the Twin Cities. We arrived at Target Field at 6:00, an hour before the start of the game, and the tarp was on the field. We watched an episode of Twins Live tape with host Roy Smalley and when 7:00 came around, the game was officially in a rain delay. We walked up to where our seats would be and talked for nearly half an hour with a retired usher whose niece teaches at North Butler. He offered us his house to stay in that night and we told him we had friends near the city. Funny thing was, neither of us think he was merely being polite. If we wanted to, we seriously could have stayed the night at this man's house!

We wandered into some areas of Target Field we had never seen, primarily the Delta Sky Legend's Club and the Metropolitan Club, and a little after 8:00, it was announced that the game had been postponed. We waited out the rush of exiting fans in Hrbek's bar and got a drink in before they tossed us out, then we drove back to Cedar Falls. We thought of staying with Kali and Shawn but with the game not getting made up the following day (our tickets will still be good for the makeup date), and with a daughter sleeping peacefully at her grandparents' house, a full night of sleep in our own bed sounded like the perfect way to cap off the rained out night (sorry DeBoers).

Speaking of Charly, we should have followed our instincts. Charly came down with the start of an ear infection (her first ever!) late Saturday. We got her to her doctor early enough on Monday and by Tuesday morning, she was acting pretty good. Our doctor thought we had warded it off. We contemplated not going and just sacrificing the tickets. Ironically, they'd still be good anyway! Suffice it to say, we went ahead. All in all, it was still fun to road trip together, hang out in Target Field surrounded by other Twins fans, and at the end of the day, I suppose I'd take a rain out over sitting in the Metrodome any time.

Here's hoping the weather cooperates next Tuesday when we go up to watch the Twins take on the Dodgers!