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On Friday afternoon at Target Field, Twins president Dave St. Peter announced that there will be two new members to the Twins Hall of Fame in 2018. In the players ballot, former Twins closer (and Twins Daily Winter Meltdown guest) Joe Nathan was announced. In a non-players ballot, former Twins president Jerry Bell. They will be the 32nd and 33rd Twins Hall of Famers.The Twins will have pre-game ceremonies on the field before games on August 3rd and 4th, games against the Royals. "The Pohlad family and entire Minnesota Twins organization would like to offer congratulations to Joe Nathan and Jerry Bell on their well-deserved election to the Twins Hall of Fame." Joe Nathan became the Twins all-time leader in Saves with 260. He pitched for the Twins in 2004 through 2011, seven of his 16 MLB seasons. Over his time with the Twins, he went 24-13 with a 2.16 ERA in 463 1/3 innings. He struck out 561 in that time. Nathan came to the Twins in one of the most famous Twins trades. In 2004, Terry Ryan traded catcher AJ Pierzynski in exchange for Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser. Jerry Bell became the third president in Twins history in January of 1987. He kept that role for 16 seasons. He was key in work done to ensure Twins baseball remained in Minnesota long-term. He oversaw the development, design, construction and opening of Target Field. He also was very involved in the development of the Twins spring training facilities in Ft. Myers. The first 10,000 fans at Target Field on Saturday, August 3, will receive a Joe Nathan Hall of Fame bobblehead. On August 4th, the first 5,000 fans will receive Jerry Bell and Joe Nathan Hall of Fame pins. Notes St. Peter also announced that through the Diamond Awards, nearly $4 million has been raised to help the Bob Allison Ataxia foundation and the research of the University of Minnesota.This is the sixth year that Twins Fest has been at Target Field. Over 60 current, former and future Twins will be in attendance. There are still some tickets available. Proceeds from the event go to the Twins Community Fund.St. Peter noted that they hope that there will be approximately two million fans at Target Field in 2019, about the same as 2018. He said that about 80 to 90 percent of season ticket holders have renewed, a number that will be around 12,000.He pointed out that the Gophers will be playing Oklahoma at Target Field on April 20th.He again mentioned the NDSU football season opener will be at Target Field against Butler. Over 29,000 tickets have already been sold.He also said that there will be at least one concert at Target Field this summer. That information will be coming in the near future. Click here to view the article

Why is there a need for a Metrodome baggie wall in right field? Do we have to remember that the Twins played 27 years in the Teflon Palace? For fans, there is nostalgia and of course two World Series titles, where the Twins won all 8 World Series games at home. Target Field ushered in a new era of outdoor baseball, modern day amenities, the iconic Minnie and Paul Logo in centerfield, a green batter’s eye with 14 spruce trees and slightly similar dimensions of the Metrodome. Those dimension and the so-called worst batters eye in the league, suffocated the offense in the first couple of seasons. The trees were removed after the inaugural 2010 season but the dimensions remain the same. Principal Architect of the firm Populous Earl Santee transformed Target Field from an urban parking lot to one of the best ballparks in America. Remember that Santee designed the ballpark on a small 7.5 acreslot which as he described left Target field like a muffin. The below street level playing field, the small foul territory, and seats next to it in the 100’s section are crammed in that confined 7.5 of urban acreage in what I call the stump of the muffin. The spacious main concourse, press box, corporate suites, Metropolitan Club, Legends Club, the grandstands in left and right field, and the skyline seats under the canopy are the top of the muffin. They are sprawled out and over the field and “does its own thing” (If you are wondering where I came up the idea name of the bottom of the muffin Stump) Along with Santee, former Twins Executive Jerry Bell, has his fingerprints all over the ballpark. Bell wanted the ballpark to be fair to both hitters and pitchers. The small lot only provided Twins fans with a capacity of 39,020, good enough for 22ndin all of major league baseball. The muffin-like design created an intimidate view of the players and field for the fans. For Santee’s craft, he was awarded the 2010 Star Tribune’s Sportsperson of the Year. All of these characteristics should make Target Field an urban hitters park. But after the first couple of seasons they formed Target Field into a pitchers park. Below, is a graphic taken from BallparkMagic.com. The numbers on the green field are the current Target Field dimensions and the numbers in the black are the old Metrodome Dimensions. The left field foul line is now at 339 feet from 343. The left center gap is now at 377 feet from 385. Dead center is now at 404 feet from 408. The wall from left field foul pole to the right field gap is now at 8 feet from 7.1. The wall from right center to the right field foul pole is at 21 feet from 17. The right field wall sadly reminds fans of the Metrodome infamous right field baggie, has the out of town scoreboard and an awkward Kasota overhang. With the increase of the wall in right field and the so-called left center gap called Death Valley, Target field now slightly favors right-hander hitters instead of left-hander hitters. Left handed hitting first baseman Justin Morneau complained about hitting at Target Field because of the wall in the right field. "Right-center to left-center is ridiculous," Morneau said in an e-mail to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "[it's] almost impossible for a right-handed hitter to [homer to the] opposite field and very difficult for lefties. It affects the hitters a lot, and you start to develop bad habits as a hitter when you feel like you can only pull the ball to hit it over the fence. You take those habits on the road." The inaugural season impersonated Target Field as a pitchers park and probably failed to meet Jerry Bell’s fair ballpark satisfaction. Hitters from the Twins and other teams complained about the14 black spruce trees in center field because it was hard to see the ball and dangerous. In the daytime and in the breeze the ball became hard to pick up from the batters back. Then manager Ron Gardenhire joked he would chainsaw the trees on his own. At the end of the 2015 season, the 14 black spruce trees were removed. Hitters also had a hard time picking up the ball from the green batter's eye. At the start of the 2014 season, the Twins painted the green backdrop black to reduce glare from the sun. Then Detroit Tiger and now current Twin Tori Hunter, was quoted by Pat Borzi in a Sport on Earth Article. "For me, a good park to hit in is a batter's eye that's all black," said Torii Hunter. "Minnesota is all black. Seattle is all black. At our park (Comerica), it's dark green and some black, so you can kind of pick up this little white ball.” At the end of 2014 Season Bryz a fellow writer at Twinkie town said that Target field is getting more hitter’s friendly and the narrative is changing. http://www.twinkietown.com/2014/12/17/7406221/is-target-field-a-pitchers-park-or-hitters-park According to ESPN Stats and Info with the two statistics Park Factors and Average Home runs agree." Park Factor compares the rate of stats at home vs. the rate of stats on the road. A rate higher than 1.000 favors the hitter and below 1.000 favors the pitcher. Teams with home games in multiple stadiums list aggregate Park Factors. " If you really want to get in-depth with park Factors read this http://gosu02.tripod.com/id103.html Basically, this quantifies how much the park factors in producing runs.<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/130618419@N08/18678682113" title="Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 11.02.44 AM by Scott Cummings, on Flickr">< img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/342/18678682113_300e63ff3a.jpg" width="500" height="208" alt="Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 11.02.44 AM"></a> Clearly Target Field is playing more fair, but favoring hitters only slightly. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see Target Field fallsin the end of the season for Park Factors and Home Runs Per Game. Will 2014 be a fluke? Or will 2015 show that it really is a fair ballpark that Former Twins executive Jerry Bell wanted?