Twins Blog: The Boys Of Snowstorms
They're supposed to be the boys of summer. This season, they're the boys of snowstorms.
We're just 15 games in to the season and twice the Twins have had to cancel a game because of the weather. Not bad considering just seven games have now been postponed due to inclement weather in Target Field's four season history.
Those numbers don't account for the handful of other games where fans sat through rain, hail and threats snow. Let's not forget the earliest and coldest home opener since the team played at Metropolitan Stadium.
To ease the pain, at one game this season, the team served up free coffee and hot chocolate for what it calls a "unique circumstances" aka: cold, nasty, I-don't-want-to-sit-outside weather.
As many Twins territory hunker down for the night at home, the players boarded a plane for a weekend series in Chicago. The surprise of the unseasonal weather isn't lost on them.
Outfielder Chris Parmelee is from southern California. During TwinsFest in January he joked with me the weather for Opening Day would likely be colder than he'd prefer. Neither of us imagined this is what mid-April would look like.
On Twitter he wrote, "Why is it still snowing mid April? #notbaseballweather." And followed it with a wet and sloppy weather of the roads.
Why is it still snowing mid April? #notbaseballweather
— Chris Parmelee (@CParms27) April 18, 2013
Seriously? twitter.com/CParms27/statu… — Chris Parmelee (@CParms27) April 18, 2013
Pitcher Anthony Swarzak seems to have a better outlook, he joked he was suffering "Florida Problems."
I'm suppose to drive to the airport in this? #FLprobs — Anthony Swarzak (@ASwarzak51) April 18, 2013
Once on the plane, the team sat through something we usually experience during the off season or on the way to Spring Training: a de-icing.
Baseball season & we are de-icing. "Jingle Bells" and "All I Want For X-mas" coming from back of plane. #MNTwins twitter.com/HermTT/status/…
— Mike Herman (@HermTT) April 19, 2013
Once in Chicago, the team won't see sunnier skies. Meteorologists expect their record rain to move out of the area tonight and predict some light rain and the occasional snowflake tomorrow. Lovely.
We shouldn't complain, right? We're Minnesotans! We're hardy folks! We're also fatigued of this winter. As Jason DeRusha explained in his Good Question segment, we can't just pack things up and move into the Metrodome for the bad weather games. Rain, snow and sunshine are part of the deal when you have an outdoor stadium.
I've personally sat through game-postponing hail and sweltering games. Look at this lovely photo my friends and I snapped on July 20, 2012. It was 87-degrees with a 63-degree dew point. We were sweating without moving.
Fans that really deserve credit are those in Colorado. Like its beer, Coors Field served up a cold one Thursday night. It was a frigid 2-degrees when the first pitch was thrown. That ties Rockies' record for the lowest temperature to start a home game. Perhaps home field and home-weather advantage made a difference, the Rockies beat the New York Mets 3-11.
If you do have a ticket to postponed game you have two options, according to the Twins website. Keep your ticket for the rescheduled game, or trade it in for a voucher towards another Twins game.
