Blog post

January 7, 2010 [LINK / comment]

Target Field is complete

As temperatures drop below zero in the northwoods country of Minnesota,* there is actually some good news from the Twin Cities: "Mortenson [Construction] has completed all major work on the new $425 million Target Field more than two months ahead of schedule..." And so, the front office staff of the Minnesota Twins has moved into their spiffy new offices adjoining the team's modernistic new home. See MLB.com.

Also, Mike Zurawski pointed out to me that the interactive seat viewer page on the Twins' Web site shows a "411" marker at the deep corner just left of dead center field, but no "404" marker. Assuming that is how they are going to do it, that will be among the refinements I'll have to make in the Target Field diagram prior to Opening Day.

* The weather ain't much better here in Virginia: snow is falling once again, as another wave of arctic air pushes through.

Dawson gets the call

Andre Dawson was the only player chosen by the baseball writers for the Hall of Fame this year. He played for the Expos for eleven years starting in 1976, and later for the Cubs, the Red Sox, and the Marlins. He ended his career after the 1996 season in the city of his birth -- Miami. Over his 21-year career in the majors, he racked up 438 home runs and 2,774 hits. It was his ninth year of eligibility, and he surpassed the required 75 percent threshhold by a small margin. Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were close behind, just under 75 percent, but they are expected to make it next year. Dawson played for over half his career in Montreal, and if he chooses to enter the HOF with an Expos cap, he would be the second player in franchise history to do so. (The fact that the Montreal Expos no longer exist, or rather have transmutated into the Washington Nationals, creates a somewhat awkward situation.) The first Expos player to get the call from Cooperstown was Gary Carter, inducted in 2003. See MLB.com.

Comerica Park update

I set out to do a couple minor correction to the Comerica Park diagrams, thinking it would be a "quickie," but not long after I got started I realized that I had to make several significant corrections. The lights and profile are more accurate than before, and the lateral aisle in the upper deck is now shown, but there are also several minor revisions to the shape of the structure. The grandstand between first base and the right field corner is angled slightly less than I thought before, and the "bleachers" in right field are about eight feet shallower.