City: Minneapolis, MN

Category: Spectator Sports

Telephone: (612) 375-7454 or (800) 33-TWI

Address: 34 Kirby Puckett Place

Description: Though its climate might indicate that Minnesota should be at heart a hockey state, the state also has a rich baseball heritage, from pickup stickball games in St. Paul parking lots to the community baseball teams that long gave farm towns something to do on weekends. The Minnesota Twins (for the Twin Cities), the state’s major league team since the Washington Senators came to town and changed their name in 1961, have in recent decades been Minnesota’s most successful pro team. Having won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 with a team including legends like Kent Hrbek and the late Kirby Puckett, the Twins are the only current Minnesota pro team to have won a national championship. Though they haven’t made it to the World Series since ’91, the team has consistently been among the best in the majors over the past several years, regularly making postseason appearances. The current face of the team is St. Paul native Joe Mauer, hottest batter in the American League. After starting their Minnesota career in a long-gone outdoor park, the Twins moved to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in 1982. The Teflon-topped Dome was a relative novelty in the early ’80s and became a local icon, thundering with noise as the Twins rose to glory in its vast indoor expanse. The Twins gave the Dome one last immortal game as they wrested the Central Division championship from the Detroit Tigers in a 12-inning heartstopper, then quickly dropped the succeeding series to the New York Yankees and prepared to move across downtown to Target Field, their newly built outdoor stadium.Though it’s going to get chilly late in the season, excitement for outdoor baseball is high, and the new stadium looks great. Single-game tickets for the 2010 season will start at just $11 (many packages and deals are available; see the Twins’ Web site for details), and catching a game at least once a season is a Minnesota must.