As cold as it will be today at Target Field, it could be a lot worse, according to Joe Mauer. The Twins' catcher said the coldest professional game he ever played was also a season opener, at Class A Quad Cities -- that would make it April 2002.
"It was opening night, and we ended up going 17 innings into the night," said Mauer, who remembers catching all 17 innings. "But we won. We were probably the first ones off the field. Shook everybody's hands and went inside."
Justin Morneau wasn't at that game, but he remembers the 2001 opener in Quad Cities also being the coldest game he's ever played. "I bet you it was in the teens, with the wind chill -- blowing snow and freezing cold," Morneau said. "But you know what? We survived."
The Twins hope to do that today against Justin Verlander, the Tigers' ace, a former MVP and Cy Young winner, who oddly enough has never won any of his five previous Opening Day starts. Verlander is 12-7 with a 3.21 ERA against the Twins in his career -- he's 7-1 with a 1.70 ERA over the past three seasons -- and has just signed a $180 million contract.
"If anybody has an advantage in the weather, it's the pitcher, because they control the tempo. They're moving, their heart is pumping, they're out there with the flow and staying loose every single pitch. Whether it affects him, I have no idea," Morneau said of Verlander. "We've seen over the last couple years, early, he won't pitch as hard. Later in the game when he needs it, he'll dial it up. Whether or not he's able to do that, I guess we'll find out."
And Morneau, who grew up in Canada, knows how to prepare for the low temperatures -- it's 26 as I write this, with the wind blowing toward right field.
"Sometimes you put too many layers on, you feel like you can't move," he said. "I'm just going to put hot sauce all over and throw some long sleeves on and some long johns and go out there and run around and enjoy it. We talked about it a little bit. We have all the cold weather gear now. It's not really an issue, I don't think."
Ron Gardenhire and Scott Ullger are in the outfield at the moment, hitting fly balls (or trying to -- accuracy isn't easy) off the wall to give the outfielders some experience with the caroms. Here are the lineups for the first game of the 2013 season, which opens at 3:10 p.m.:
