Bellyaches aside, a day to remember at Target Field

Two Minneapolis police officers rounded up five boys from north Minneapolis on Wednesday to pedal from one of the toughest parts of town to the cushiest corner of Target Field, where candy, pop and ice cream flowed freely.

Before taking his seat for the Twins game, Kamau Anderson, 12, loaded up on peanuts and M&Ms in the Champions Club. He and the other boys faced dazzling options for filling their stomachs that included a carving station, made-to-order omelets, fresh orange juice, biscuits, sliders, nachos, fresh fruit and cheese.

"When I first came in here, I was like, 'This feels like a mansion,' " said Amantae Manson, 11, who obviously liked what he saw of the Champions Club.

The rock-star treatment at the ballpark is something the kids probably would never experience without the likes of Minneapolis police officers Mike Kirchen and Bill Kenow, who know the youths from travels in the city and their work at city schools.

The goal is to help the kids make friends and navigate from future troubles.

Kirchen and Kenow are two of eight officers who give out bikes and take inner-city kids to Twins games several times during the summer. The bikes and the tickets are donated by lawyer Mike Ciresi and Phillips Distilling heir Dean Phillips.

Watching the boys fill their plates and pockets in the Champions Club, Kirchen said, "Usually they have stomachaches by the third inning and they have to taper off."

The game-day chitchat was anything but serious as the boys careened from spot to spot. Cordale Marr, 14, sat on a barstool drinking a soda with a cherry. "It's like a real bar," he said enthusiastically.

The boys also gathered behind a window to watch some Twins take batting practice in a cage in the bowels of the ballpark.

"Is this the field?" one asked, while another shouted, "Is that [catcher Joe] Mauer over there?"

It was a helmet-less Mauer taking swings in shorts and blue knee-highs in the back-room cage. The boys quickly diverted their focus to the boyish-looking Alexi Casilla. Then they darted out to the real field to hang over the fence and seek autographs.

"How you doing, guys?" retired Twins right fielder Tony Oliva asked the suddenly quiet boys. To Markil Turner, 9, Oliva said, "Change your face. Smile."

Roderic Gholston, 12, was on his second trip with the police to the game. Like his friends, he was a man of few words. "I like to come here."