CP: I'm the least likely person to like Target Field. RN: Get in line. I was recently asked to name a Minnesota Twin, other than the justifiably celebrated Mr. Mauer. My reply? César Tovar. He was playing the last time I attended a Twins game. Of course, I was 12 at the time.

CP: I think my only trip to the Metrodome was to see the AIDS quilt sometime during the Reagan administration. If someone says "Tony Oliva" to me, all I can think of is: "and Dawn." But I do like our new urban ballpark. A lot.

RN: Same here. I have a pathetic, Tiger Beat-worthy crush on it. If it were a man, and it were legal, I would marry it.

CP: Hey, it's a stadium, not Leif Garrett.

RN: Mr. Garrett isn't -- well, wasn't -- half as pretty as Target Field. And we don't say stadium, we say ballpark.

CP: Its location between the garbage burner and those parking ramps is far from picturesque. But how much cooler are we to have a downtown ballpark that is not surrounded by acres of surface parking?

RN: It's ingeniously woven into the city's fabric. Not just the trains, either, but streets, plazas, skyways, the works. How about those camera- ready skyline views?

CP: You can't really see the park from the outside, but from the inside it looks better than Channing Tatum in a beach-volleyball movie. The design makes it seem smaller than it is.

RN: Other than the Guthrie, are there better sightlines in a publicly funded entertainment venue? Talk about your primo concert amphitheater. Has Prince booked the joint yet?

CP: Concerts are planned, but not this year. It's hard to believe it seats 39,000 -- only 11,000 fewer than the monstrous TCF Stadium at the U.

RN: I love how Le Parc Tar-jhay celebrates the team and its history. It's the state's largest -- and least boring -- interactive museum.

CP: As Twins prexy Dave St. Peter told us on our tour, "For 23 years, we have occupied one corner of a football stadium." End of that era. This sucker is baseball-centric.

RN: The omnipresent Target-style signage is a little disconcerting. I kept thinking we'd run into a bin of Michael Graves toilet brushes or a Choxie display.

CP: Yes, the bull's-eye (as the park should come to be called) is everywhere, reminding us that major- league baseball is a big business. And this field will prove a giant ATM for the Twins.

RN: I wouldn't be surprised if every hot dog sale is followed by, "Would you like to open a Target charge and save 10 percent?"

E-mail: witheringglance@startribune.com.

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