The need for a new ballpark in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS - It is a Wednesday evening and I sit inside looking out at a cold, cloudy, gusty, damp night and think about the playoffs in weather like this. It on one hand would make one say "Thank you" for the Dome. But at the same time, the Dome is not good for baseball in Minnesota.

Many might say, a night like this will give the home team an advantage. That could be true if they are Minnesotan grown boys, or from any part of the mid-west. Not for guys from Venezuela, California and Florida. Who would have the advantage?

As a fan, even though it is fun to brag to relatives in California that we can survive the weather here, it is no fun to freeze to death in cold damp weather.

So the solution is easy, we go inside the 70° Dome and watch the game. Not so fast. The Dome was not made for baseball. If you are in the upper deck, you can be far from the action. If you are down the left field line you need to get a massage, or find a unique way to re-adjust your neck after the game. If you sit down the right field line you cant see right field.

A new ballpark - not a stadium, but ballpark. A place the Twins can call home and be proud of it. A place that fans from other teams see on TV and want to come see in person. Take a look at what is proposed for the new stadium and I think that is what we would have. A place that Minnesotans and Twin fans would be happy to come to. A place where vesting players would enjoy coming to, not regret.

Any fan that has visited another teams ballpark and returned home to go to a game in the Dome knows the feeling that things are so much better when they are outside. That sitting in the Dome just isn't the same.

This offseason is the time to get the stadium deal done. Get things started, and moving in the direction so we can enjoy the ballpark before we can get the senior deal on weekday day games.

Red Sox in 0-2 hole

NEW YORK - The Red Sox find themselves in an 0-2 lead going back to Boston. Their one-two punch has been beaten. This does not look like the same Red Sox team that we watched sweep the Angels. Is there something about the Yankees? Is there a New York factor? Something that gets blocked when playing them? In the movie "Catch Me if You Can" they say the reason the Yankees always win is because of the pin stripes. That people cant stop looking at the pin stripes.

That cant be it. The Twins have their own pin stripes, so maybe it is the color, black pin stripes.

Whatever the combination is the Red Sox will have to over come it if they dont want to become the next victims of the "we have lost to the Yankees" that the Twins fell into.