Minnesota State Fair!

Hey folk, it’s that time of year again!  I thought I would make sure you knew where to go to get your baseball fix while doing the Fair thing.  The Twins and FSN have their little shindig set up on the South East corner of the fair by the Snelling entrance.  If I remember correctly, it’s a big tent on the East side of Judson between Underwood and Cooper.   How about a helpful Map? 

Of course they have tons of Twins gear and such that you can pick up.  They have official Minnesota Twins Baseball licensed merchandise plus an exhibit of Twins baseball memorabilia and interactive activities for children and adults.  They also have free stuff and prize giveaways.  At the very minimum you can get Twins bags and schedules for next year!  Here’s the Fair promotional guide that you can look through for deals – baseball and otherwise!

I will admit that I really did only the most basic of searching for this and while I tried to find out if there was a schedule of player appearances at the Twins site and they didn’t have any Fair related info for current players.  But here’s a link to the alumni players who are going to be there. 

I did at least grab the link to the daily schedules.  If you know what day you are going, you can check to see what’s going on that day.  Of course, I have gotten the word from TC Bear that he will be in the parade every day at 2 pm so if you haven’t gotten your Twins fix by that point in the day, you know where to go.

And just because I found it and couldn’t resist sharing, here’s a little insight from April this year into what some of our Minnesota boys think about all that food on a stick!

A kind concessionaire named Brandi looked at the menu behind her and summarized it thusly: “How much more Minnesota can you get? Everything on a stick!”

Such adventuring spirit hasn’t quite infiltrated the home team, which, during the yearly Minnesota State Fair, tends to find itself in pennant races. Finding a walleye-on-a-spike veteran was harrowing.

Manager Ron Gardenhire? Nope.

“I’ve seen my buddy Walleye walk with a stick because he’s so drunk,” he said.

Reliever Brian Duensing? Negative.

“I don’t know if I could trust it,” he said. “The stick scares me. If it’s one a plate, sure. I might try it. I’m sure it’s not bad.”

Second baseman Orlando Hudson? You can’t be serious.

“I ain’t eating no fish on no damn stick,” he said. “I eat bass, crappy, walleye. But not on no stick. That don’t sound right.”

Everything else was fine. “This is a great town,” Hudson said, and it got even better when the threat of baseball contracting the Twins forced the city’s people to save their team. They could’ve said no. They could’ve done a bootleg job. Instead, they’ve got this new jewel in the middle of their city, set up and finished with a spike.

You know, I really think it would be fun to walk around the Fair with a couple of these guys on their first time!