Jim Souhan: Target Field: 'The greatest field you'll ever play on'

Saturday morning, Gophers baseball players gathered at the Metrodome, boarded the light rail train to Target Field, dressed quickly, rushed toward the diamond ... and stopped.

Some stopped in the dugout and gawked at the scoreboard. Some stopped on the dirt warning track, uncertain whether they should disturb the shockingly green grass.

"When I walked out there," said shortstop A.J. Petterson, "that was about the coolest thing I've ever seen."

The Twins allowed the Gophers to play the first game ever at Target Field, and the score hardly mattered, as Gophers players and Twins fans spent most of the day gazing at the architecture and the city skyline.

Louisiana Tech won 9-1 before a meandering and ever-changing crowd of 37,757, the largest ever to see the Gophers play in Minnesota, as Minnesotans treated Target Field more like an outdoor museum than a ballpark. "I keep pinching myself, asking, 'This is Minneapolis?' " said Bob Bussler of Winthrop. "I can't believe we have this."

"Having indoor baseball in the state for so long, as long as I've been alive, and we're the first team that gets to play in this stadium, that's pretty special," Gophers catcher Kyle Knudson said. "It's something we're going to remember for the rest of our lives. I'm already getting goosebumps thinking about it."

Twins officials said fans began lining up outside Target Field at 8 p.m. Friday. Twins broadcaster Kris Atteberry heard about two fans who walked to the ballpark from Columbia Heights starting at 4:45 a.m., because buses weren't yet running.

Just about all of the Gophers are Twins fans, and they provided a symbolic transition from the Metrodome by riding the light rail train from the old ballpark to the new ballpark. "We were supposed to be there about 9:20," Pettersen said, "and everyone was there at 8 a.m."

The Gophers adroitly avoided distracting fans from the ballpark's amenities. If someone spent 20 minutes waiting for a Murray's steak sandwich, they didn't miss much.

"I went to a few games at the Dome every year," Pettersen said. "This is the way baseball is supposed to be."

For most of the game, the Gophers played as if they didn't want to become the first Minnesotans to touch home plate, reserving that honor for Joe Mauer. They scored in the bottom of the ninth when Pettersen drove home Kyle Geason.

"We had a lot of fun with it," Geason said. "It was a really good experience. I liked the scoreboard -- it's so big. I felt like I was in my living room watching a game."

His starting catcher, Clint Ewing, hit the first home run at Target Field, an opposite-field shot to left field in the fourth. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to play in front of 36,000 people," Ewing said. "Great atmosphere, great field, and that's something I'll be able to tell my kids and grandkids for the rest of my life, every time we watch a Twins game.

"I know a lot of our guys said they became Twins fans overnight.

"It felt like just another day ... except you're playing on by far the greatest field you'll ever play on."

Gophers coach John Anderson noticed his players worrying about damaging the grass. "You walked out there, and it was like the middle of July," he said. "We're walking around town and everything's dead and nothing's growing, and you walk out here and it was a beautiful sight, this emerald-green-covered surface. You don't want to do anything to harm it."