good grief, it's the metrodome!

i thought this card was interesting. it’s a view you don’t often see, unless you watch a lot of twins games. it’s the inside of the hubert h humphrey metrodome. 2009 will be the final season for the dome, as in 2010, the twinkies will move into target field.here, on his 2006 upper deck card, ryan garko gets his pine tar going by the visitor’s dugout, which is essentially the back of the end zone when the metrodome is in football configuration.

i don’t know where to start with this.

ok. you can see the ceiling which is slightly darker than white. it's no wonder outfielders have a hard time seeing the ball sometimes. just to the right of garko’s head (his right) there is a speaker suspended from the ceiling. i think the ground rules state that if a batted ball hits the speaker, it can still be caught for an out. there are some dark circles in the upper left corner of the card. these are actually holes in one layer of the fabric hanging from the ceiling. i believe it was dave kingman who hit a ball into one of the holes. the ball never came down.

just above garko’s bat are the twins championship banners and the kirby puckett poster. these are hung, along with the other players whose numbers have been retired (killebrew, oliva, carew, hrbek, jackie robinson), on what are really very large drapes covering a bunch of seats that don’t get sold for twins games.

the barrel of the bat obscures the football press box, and right below the bat is the right field “baggy”. that’s the taller right field ‘wall’ that is really an oversized tarp. behind it are the football seats that get folded up during baseball games.

i can’t wait for outdoor baseball here.