So the Brewers rolled into the Twin Cities this weekend amid a sea of speculation and controversy. Will M&M (Melvin and Macha) still have jobs come Monday? Who will be called up to fill our pen and batting needs? Who will take over the closer spot? I'll get to those soon enough, but first lets talk about my experiences at the new home of the Twins.

Friday night was obviously a rough night for the Crew in MN. The Brewers dropped the opening game 15-3. Aside from Gomez's three run shot, this one goes down as the ugliest game I've ever been to. We ended up getting to Minneapolis about an hour ahead of game time and parked at the Metrodome and took the light rail to Target Field. Taking the light rail sucked, don't bother unless it's raining out. Walk, it takes just as long and you don't feel packed like sardines. There is a stop right at Target Field but we got off one early to go to a bar to kill some time. We ended up taking John's advice and hitting the 508 bar on 1st Ave. With your ticket stub, you got rail drinks or taps two for one. After we put down enough to get a decent buzz, it was off to the field. I'd definitely recommend this bar, and do go downstairs, it's a lot less crowded. We got to the stadium with about fifteen minutes till first pitch and decided to head up to our seats, but first we had to find a beer guy. After we got a round, it was off to our seats. We ran into Joe (the Beer Pen writer) and his wife Nicki on the upper deck corridor. This is the first time I've ever missed the first pitch, and I gotta say it wasn't as important as I thought. My buzz was keeping me interested even though our guys went down in order. Bush proceeded to give up his dignity and the lead. Bushy got into it with the home plate ump over what looked like a questionable call from my vantage point (the upper deck). Then much to my surprise Ken Macha came out and argued for his player, altough he failed to get tossed from the game, as I started to suggest by chanting "Toss him out, Toss him out, Toss him out." I got some funny looks from Twins fans over this, little did they know things were about to get stranger. When Bush was taken out, we knew Suppan was in by default. He is our innings eater, and our only option at the time (we'll get to this by the end of the post too). Suppan sucked as usual and was taken out and the rest is history. That is until the eighth inning when we're counting down to the end of the shutout to leave the place. I never leave until the game is over, even if we are getting our asses kicked. At this point the Twins fans had really gotten on my nerves as my buzz grew into a full on drunken state. At some point around the 13th run allowed I tweeted something about "Rally Cap Guy" and how lame they were, so mocking them, I put on a rally cap and tried convincing every Brewers fan to follow suit. It actually worked with a couple guys. So needless to say when Gomez hit his three run shot, I let the Twins fans hear it. I knew the game was out of our reach but I needed to let them hear some noise, I had heard it all game. As we left the game, I was singing, "Brewers, Brewers, keep turning up the heat." You know the song, I got some funny looks but had fun. I also high fived everybody as we left the park on the way down the ramps. Great time riding the light rail back too, I inadvertently stopped the light rail two or three times by sticking my ass into the closing doors. We headed back to God's country and hit the Taco Bell on the way home, delicious.

On Sunday, Bryan and myself headed back over to the park for another game. This time I went sober and arrived early with the intention of checking out the park. Mission accomplished. We again parked at the Dome and took the light rail down, got off early and walked the block up to Target Field. We laughed at the horrendous statue of Kirby and headed in. It was Joey Sideburns bat day, but only to the 14 and under crowd. We took some Deflate the Dome shirts along to hand out, as I have an abundance of them left (buy one). We gave away some shirts to some kids and a dude on his bachelor party. We checked out the different views from different seating areas and went up to the Metropolitan Club. We bought John's season tickets so we had access to this ritzy joint. Wearing plaid shorts, Addidas sandals and my Deflate the Dome shirt made me stick out like a sore thumb in a place that has a 29 dollar buffet. Yikes, a little rich for my blood. So we headed out in search of another Polish to see if it was as good as my drunken self remembered. It was, and if you get one, don't get it from the main food stands they don't have the fried onions that make it so good. My wife got a brat Friday night and the same thing, from the little side kiosk it was good, but the main food stands they weren't the same. Bryan had a burrito and liked it, although he will eat almost anything. The game itself was pretty sweet, we took an early lead and gave it up only to get it back with a Corey Hart homerun. Awesome, just a bomb. Prince hit a frozen rope out in right field and the crowd went wild, sorta. We saw the major league debut of Zack Braddock, which was pretty sweet. Hoff came in and pitched a good inning, followed by a nail biting close by the Ax man, John Axford. All in all it was a hell of a game. Saw the first win by the Brewers in a new stadium. Ate some chinese food on the way home and called it a night.

I was asked by my dad what I thought about the park. I said I liked it but not as much as Miller Park. He asked it I was just saying that because I'm a Brewers fan. I can honestly say that isn't the case. It is a nice park and we had good seats even in the upper deck but the atmosphere isn't the same. I think a lot of it has to do with not being able to tailgate at the game. This is a must when building a new park, even more so than a retractable roof. You need that vibe before a game. Going to the bar isn't the same, spending three times as much money and hanging out in a basement bar isn't as good as being in the sun, grilling out and drinking a cheap case of beer with friends. Call me old fashioned. There were a lot of seats where you would miss parts of the field too, not that there aren't at Miller Park. The best thing about the park is the skyline past right field of downtown Minneapolis. It sure beats the Dome.

Thats all for tonight, tomorrow I'll try to get to my feeling on the pitching situation we're about to have to face.

Have a great week.
Ronald