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The Twins exceed 2 million in season attendance for the first time in franchise history. It's such a hot ticket that Minneapolis police are cracking down on ticket scalping. Despite losing the game to the 2nd place Royals, the Twins still hold a division lead of 5 games with only 7 to play. Also see an ad for TwinsVision Pay-Per-View, the only way to watch these games without going to the Metrodome. Watch the full newscast here. Presented in partnership with TC Media Now. View full video

Baseball is a sport where tradition is engrained in the fabric of the game. As far as baseball traditions go, the Twins Cities have a long history, but the MLB history in the city is relatively young. Last spring, Paul Goldberger released a book called Ballpark: Baseball in the American City and he chronicled baseball’s different ballpark eras and what they have meant to the cities in which they reside. Here’s how the Twins ballpark history follows closely with trends seen through baseball’s different eras. The Suburban Era: Metropolitan Stadium Metropolitan Stadium was one of the first stadiums to be part of a trend that moved from city centers to the suburbs. One of the biggest reasons for this trend was the lack of space and rising cost of land. Bloomington allowed the Twins to build a large complex with plenty of parking, especially since the team’s fans would be coming from multiple states and cars would be the main form of transportation. Paul Golberger, the author, said, “Metropolitan, in the midst of a huge parking lot, exemplifies the notion of the suburban stadium (and how logical that it would become the site of the Mall of America, the ultimate suburban mall).” Some fans were sad to see the Met’s eventual demise. Goldberger said, “Fans do get attached to places because they have intense emotional experiences there, and understandably they become the source of deep-seated, meaningful memories.” The Met helped convince a franchise to move to Minnesota and it served the team well for multiple decades including the team’s first World Series appearance, but baseball continued to evolve, and the Twins made the move from the suburbs into the city. The Domed Era: The Metrodome Houston’s AstroDome ushered in a new ballpark experience for fans and Minnesota would follow, although it would be 17 years after the AstroDome opened. The Metrodome certainly had its quirks and as a multipurpose stadium it didn’t exactly ever feel like a ballpark. Everything about the stadium was fake from the grass to the pumped in air, but it certainly fit in with some of the stadiums at the time. “The Metrodome was one of the most egregious of the domed stadiums with no connection to anything around it and no natural connection to baseball,” said Goldberger. Some of the Twins’ most memorable moments came under a Teflon roof on artificial grass, but all the Dome’s flaws made the move back outdoors even more impressive. The Return to Downtown Era: Target Field Target Field opened in 2010 and it followed in the footsteps of plenty of ballparks that returned to downtowns across the United States and became part of the city again. Camden Yards in Baltimore, Coors Field in Denver, and PNC Park in Pittsburgh are just a few examples of what a city can do to make a ballpark integrated into a downtown footprint. “Target is a really fine example of the later generation, where baseball not only came back into the city but was of the city, integrated with it,” said Goldberger. Later he said, “The home stadium for any team you care about will become a place you feel emotionally connected to, even if it’s a lousy piece of architecture and doesn’t do its job very well. But in a place like Target you can have the same emotional intensity and the same long-lasting memories and have a much happier environment besides.” The Future Target Field celebrated its 10th anniversary last season and the Twins front office and the Pohlad family continue to make upgrades on a yearly basis. Some teams like Atlanta and Texas abandoned relatively new ballparks in hopes of creating a different type of baseball experience. “There’s no reason a ballpark can’t last for 50, 75 or even 100 years with proper care,” said Goldberger. “There is absolutely no reason that the Texas Rangers had to tear down Globe Life Park, which was only 25.” The Twins have also embraced another budding ballpark trend by creating specific spaces at Target Field. Areas like Bat & Barrel, Minnie & Paul’s and Barrio are open to all fans and combine a social atmosphere that is far from the traditional way of watching a game. Goldberger said, “We’re seeing much more in the way of social spaces in ballparks now, including standing room areas where people can get drinks and wander, treating the experience of the game more like a cocktail party than something you need to observe from a fixed seat.” Moving forward there could be another possibility for growth without leaving Target Field. Some organizations have started to create spaces around the ballpark that make for a full-day experience. “Team owners, wanting to have more sources of revenue, are buying and controlling adjacent properties outside the gate,” said Goldberger. “We see that at Wrigley Field, and also at Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals have developed the adjacent site as Ballpark Village.” Target Field has certainly been a revelation when compared to previous Minnesota ballparks, but fans were very passionate about some of the quirks with Metropolitan Stadium and the Metrodome. Baseball is meant to be outside under the sun and it will be exciting to see what Target Field could be in the future. What are your memories with all of Minnesota’s ballparks? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email View full article

All the Hall of Fame ballots are postmarked. More than 100 have been revealed. Of those, only three voters have checked the name of the greatest pitcher I’ve ever regularly watched. Johan Santana’s time on the writers’ ballot looks to be short and unsuccessful. Others have written compelling and thorough articles about Santana’s case. I’m mostly sad that he’s only 38 and we’re already having this discussion. I want to think about Santana at the height of his powers. I want to remember a game that still resonates with me more than a dozen years later. It’s 2004. The Twins have won the Central the past two years and they’re in first place now. It’s Aug.1 and their lead is five games over the White Sox. I’d graduated from college that spring and I’m lamenting the fact that I’m jobless, hours away from the Metrodome and with no money for a ticket anyway. Johan Santana is facing Pedro Martinez today. But I do have cable television and it’s connected to my fiancée’s 13-inch TV/VCR combo. It’s the only TV we have in the apartment we rented when I was still optimistic about finding a decent job near Morris, Minnesota. I’d be back at home living with my dad in a matter of weeks. But Santana was pitching this afternoon, so this afternoon things look bright. After getting Johnny Damon to ground out and striking Mark Bellhorn, Orlando Cabrera hit a home run in the first. Cabrera hadn’t been all that good that year. But Cabrera had just become a member of the Red Sox. Maybe the change of scenery would do him good. (It did. Cabrera hit .294/.320/.465 for the Red Sox that year after hitting .246/.298/.336 for the Expos.) Cabrera started for the Red Sox for the first time that day after he and Doug Mientkiewicz joined the Sox earlier in a four-team trade that saw the Twins pick up 19-year-old minor-league pitcher Justin Jones from the Cubs. Mientkiewicz’s departure was sad, as he joined A.J Pierzynski and Matt Lawton as players traded away after starting for the 2001 Twins team that sucked me back into baseball fandom. The Twins had stopped grabbing my attention as the ‘90s often found them mired in last place and found me in a new town with new friends who weren’t all that interested in baseball. But the Twins found new life in 2001, and found me, now away at college, with some friends who gave a damn about a pennant race and with access to cable television. Cristian Guzman reached on a single in the first but was stranded. Santana retired three straight in the second, striking out Jason Veritek and Bill Mueller. Corey Koskie doubled for the Twins in the bottom of the second and then scored on a Matthew LeCroy single. LeCroy was catching that day, with Joe Mauer’s rookie season mostly ruined by injury. Mauer was the first Twins player I can say I followed from the day he was drafted onward, but Santana was the first player I really saw emerge and become a star. Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones, Guzman, Koskie and Mientkiewicz burst onto the national scene in 2001, but as someone who was just paying attention for the first time in years, they felt a little more established. I knew they were young. I knew they were surprising, but they never existed for me as anything other than Twins starters. But Santana was a reliever in 2001, and by this point in 2004 I’d watched him become the best pitcher in baseball. Manny Ramirez homered in the second; the Twins were down 2-1. That was the last hit Santana gave up that day, but while Martinez’s 2004 was not a great year by his standards, the man still hadn’t posted an ERA above 2.89 from 1997 to 2003. Maybe this was it for the Twins. In the bottom of the sixth, Lew Ford doubled and then scored on a single from Hunter. The game was tied and it felt a little easier to breathe. Santana struck out Ramirez to lead off the seventh, but then hit Veritek. Veritek stole second and went to third on a throwing error from LeCroy. Veritek only stole 25 bases in his career, though 10 of those came in 2004. This game was one of only 16 that LeCroy started at catcher that year. Sixteen runners attempted stolen bases against him in 144 innings in 2004. LeCroy threw out only one. Maybe Veritek knew something. With Veritek on third, he scored on a sacrifice fly from Kevin Millar. Santana hadn’t given up a hit, but he’d given up a run and the Twins were losing once again. Martinez finished the seventh with the Red Sox still up 3-2. He was done for the day. Santana came out for eighth and struck out two, giving him 12 strikeouts for the day, one better than Martinez. With Martinez gone, the Twins came out swinging. Guzman and Ford hit back-to-back singles to start the inning and then pulled off a double steal. Justine Morneau hit a sacrifice fly that scored both runners when shortstop Cabrera committed an error. The Twins were up 4-3 and Santana was in line for the win. First-year but all-star closer Joe Nathan faced only three batters to secure that win. Santana, the best pitcher in baseball, had bested the previous best pitcher in a game that was very much a pitchers’ duel despite the 4-3 score. He may never get a plaque in Cooperstown, but Santana will be remembered by me, and I’m sure many other baseball fans, as one of the best to ever stand on a pitcher’s mound.