Lights out for Twins

Nostalgia crept in after the New York Yankees brought the Metrodome era to a close for the Twins. Closer Joe Nathan says he'll carry a handful of Dome dirt to Target Field's mound.

By JIM SOUHAN, Star Tribune

Last update: October 11, 2009 - 11:48 PM

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After the Yankees left the field and before workers arrived to dig up home plate late Sunday night, Twins closer Joe Nathan walked, head down, from the dugout and swiped two handfuls of dirt from the Metrodome mound.

He didn't expect to hear cheers, not after his failures helped the Yankees sweep the Twins in three games in their first-round playoff series. He had hoped to "slip in and slip out," but most of a crowd of 54,735 had stayed to look around on the last night of baseball in the big blue room, and they saw Nathan leaving the mound for the last time and cheered.

"I thought it was going to be me grabbing some dirt, just like a kid playing in the playground," Nathan said. "I didn't expect to stir the crowd or anything. I didn't expect the reaction.

"It was just something for me to bring a little piece of this place to the new place, sprinkle that on the mound. We've had some good times in this building."

Those times ended Sunday with a 4-1 loss to the Yankees, on a night remindful of how much havoc the Dome could wreak.

The Twins scored their run on Joe Mauer's single in the sixth and Yankee starter Andy Pettitte, who has pitched in big games since 1996, said, "That was the loudest I've ever heard a ballpark."

Perhaps the Dome wanted to make a clean break with Twins fans, because that noise also led to the key mistake of the ballgame. The Twins trailed 2-1 in the eighth when Nick Punto hit a leadoff double and raced to third on Denard Span's bouncer up the middle.

Punto heard the crowd's roar escalate as he reached third, and assumed the ball had reached the outfield, so he accelerated. Only too late did he see third base coach Scott Ullger telling him to stop, and he was thrown out trying to get back to third.

"I heard 55,000 fans screaming, and I thought the ball had gone through," Punto said. "The crowd was so loud I let it affect me. It's embarrassing."

The Twins won their two World Series while going unbeaten at the Dome, but that home-field advantage did not transfer to the new millenium. The Twins lost their last eight playoff games in the Dome (their Tuesday showdown with Detroit counting as a regular-season game.)

While Nathan quickly grew nostalgic, other players sounded happy to be heading to Target Field, which opens April 12. "I didn't do anything special here," said Michael Cuddyer. "I'll wait for the DVD set."

Even the Yankees' ice-breaking hit was remindful of the ugliest and most idiosyncratic aspects of the Metrodome's baseball configuration. Former Yankee Carl Pavano had shut out New York until one out in the seventh, when Alex Rodriguez smashed a pitch off the infamous "vampire seats" in right field -- the upright bleachers beyond the baggie.

Thus the Twins finished a season that began with high expectations, foundered amid injuries and inconsistent performances for much of the summer, and finished in a burst of drama.

Even with former MVP Justin Morneau lost for the season with a back injury, the Twins came from seven games behind on Sept. 6 to catch the Detroit Tigers on the next-to-last day of the regular season and force a one-game playoff for the division title.

The Twins became the first team in history to come from three games behind with four to play. When they beat Detroit in a 12-inning playoff on Tuesday at the Metrodome, many veterans of the organization described it as the most dramatic game they had ever seen.

Sunday's loss ended a five-game winning streak in the Dome. As the Yankees celebrated, some Twins thought about the season, some about the Dome.

""It was a great run this place had," Cuddyer said. "It went away kicking and screaming."

"I haven't really gotten that far, to think about all of that," catcher Joe Mauer said. "I was hoping to play again tomorrow."

Nathan proved more sentimental. He thinks a little Metrodome dirt should be exposed to the elements, just like the Twins and their fans.

"I'll do it on a quiet day," Nathan said. "Probably the first time I step on the field, I'll mosey on out there, do a little ceremony."

Late Sunday night, Twins employees repeated Nathan's gesture, gathering dirt from the mound and the batter's boxes, lamenting not so much the loss of the building as all of those cheers that resounded off the Teflon roof.

Jim Souhan can be heard at 10-noon Sunday, and 6:40 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday on 1500-AM. His Twitter name is SouhanStrib.

jsouhan@startribune.com