The Metrodome served as home to the NFL Minnesota Vikings and University of Minnesota football, Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead concerts, Rev. Billy Graham revivals, two Final Fours, a Super Bowl, an MLB All-Star game, various tractor pulls, Monster truck shows, state high school championships, a Promise Keepers rally, Home and Garden shows, snowmobile races and, oh yes, the Minnesota Twins. The Minnesota Twins have won two World Championships in the Metrodome and called it home from 1982 through the 2009 season. The Twins regular season record in the Metrodome was 2,196 wins and 2,272 losses but the dome always seemed to provide a home field advantage for the Twins. The Metrodome was named after Hubert H. Humphrey who was a former Minneapolis mayor, U.S. Senator and U.S. Vice President. He was a big sports fan and rooted for the Vikings and Twins every chance he got. Because of his dedication to the state and to teamwork, the Metrodome was named in his honor. After the 2009 season the Twins moved to their new home at Target Field and the Metrodome which is still the home of the NFL Minnesota Vikings was renamed to Mall of American Field. The Metrodome was always more suited to host football games versus baseball games and Twins fans hated being indoors on those beautiful Minnesota summer days and evenings but when it was raining or cold as it can be in Minnesota in April and September, fans didn’t complain as they filed in to the dry and warm 69 degree climate controlled Metrodome.
“It was a weird place,” says Kent Hrbek, the Twins’ legendary first baseman who played a key role in both the ’87 and ’91 World Series wins and whose first full season in the majors coincided with the Metrodome’s big league debut. “When we first got in here, you look back at old pictures from ’82, it was just so plastic. “I remember there were signs, a black and white scoreboard, and beyond that, nothing. Just blue seats and concrete. It was something that was really different. Everybody was excited because it was state of the art and it was going to be warm every day. That’s what they sold.”
In spite of its bad reputation, the Metrodome does have a lot of Twins history attached to it which I am not going to rehash here now but the other day I ran across a nice piece written by Jayson Hron at Historically Inclined called Metrodome: Home sweet storm home. It is a nice history of what transpired in April of 1982 at the Metrodome when the 1982 baseball season opened to cold and snowy weather. I am sure most of you don’t remember what transpired back in 1982 in the Metrodome and some of you were not even around back then. If you have a few minutes, check it out.