Twin-Tastic . . . Part 2

Soooo, here's the rest of the story!

Another wonderful friend of mine, who also happens to be named Sarah, works for the Mpls-St. Paul Magazine. She and her husband Michael were in our small group Bible Study this year. After getting to know E, and his passion for the Twins, she decided to work a little magic with her "contacts" and ended up arranging a pass for E to attend Twins batting practice - down on the field!!!

Words can't express how excited E was, and so were Michael, Sarah and I!!! (Henrik is still working in Wisconsin and is absolutely DYING that he missed out on this whole adventure!!) We walked into the Twins reception office and what do we see on the left - the World Series trophies in all their glory!

(I'm not sure if E really understood the importance, but I had to take a picture for Henrik!)

Then we took an elevator down into the depths of the Dome and walked through hallways lined with pictures of famous Twins players and historical moments. Around the next corner were the steps leading down to the dugouts and field!

As we came onto the field we quickly noticed that the Twins had already wrapped up batting practice. Our host, Molly, was apologizing that we had missed it, but I could tell by E's face and pure excitement about being down on the field that he hardly even realized that he had missed the players.

Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau were still in the dugout, but E was a little too overwhelmed yet to try to say hi to them. We just checked out the on deck circle and walked around a bit, just taking it all in. Soon all the Twins staff were encouraging E to try out the dugout and do some exploring.

The On Deck Circle
(E thought this one was much nicer than the one in our living room made out of blue masking tape.)

This is Tonya. She was just wonderful and gave E a ball from batting practice. She loved hearing E's stories and when we told her about Joe Mauer's influence on E's potty training last year - how he'd say "Mauer Power" everytime he was successful - she said, "I'm so telling Joe THAT story!". (I hope he gets a kick out of it!)

Here we are sitting where Gardy sits during the game.

Since all the players were gone, Molly took E back to the equipment room.

Here's E excitedly pointing at Joe's catching gear, but it got even better when . . .
Molly said, "Do you want to try it on?"

I couldn't believe it, but here I was looking at E wearing Joe's actual catching helmet and mask!
Joe's game bats . . .

and E trying one out. Seriously, I was surprised that he even got to touch the bats.

Trying out a real catcher's glove.

When we came out of the equipment room, the Twins staff were talking to former Twin, now pitching for the Rangers, Eddie Guardado. He was incredibly personable and and was willing to take a picture with us. After hearing that E wants to be a catcher when he grows up, Eddie offered to toss him a few pitches for practice.

Here's the pitch . . .

and here's E's first catch off a Major League pitcher!

When we left the field, Molly took us to her office and showed us some new memorabilia that is headed to the Twins Hall of Fame in the new stadium. These are the bat, balls, gloves and hat that Carlos Gomez was wearing when he "hit for the cycle" a few weeks ago. This is an amazing accomplishment (hitting a single, double, triple and home run in one game), and hasn't happened since 1984 when Kirby Puckett last did it!

Holding one of the balls that Carlos Gomez hit.

This is as close as E got to Joe Mauer - he was warming up in the bullpen not far from where we were sitting in the stands. The dream of meeting Joe Mauer is still unfulfilled, but, I guess that's probably ok so that E will still have a few things in life to dream about and look forward to. After all, he is only three years old!!!

We had great seats for the game - 6 rows behind third base which is a great spot to see the game, and is also right above the dugout. E loved watching the players come on and off the field. The Twins won 11 to 3 which was the icing on a most delicious cake! Thank you Michael and Sarah for making this happen. You have truly blessed our little boy with an incredible experience and we are so very grateful!