The official announcement that the St. Paul Saints would become the top affiliate for the Twins came on Dec. 9, 2020. The distance of 11 miles from Target Field east to CHS Field was presented as a boon for the Twins in several areas, including moving players back and forth.
This seemed overstated to me, based on an assumption the Twins and the Saints would try to avoid being home at the same time.
After all, there's a finite number of baseball fans, and surveys suggest that number is being reduced every time one of us old-timers appears in the obits.
Dave St. Peter, the Twins president, said:
"We thought about the potential effect of being home at the same time. Then, Marv Goldklang, the principal owner in St. Paul, reminded us the Saints and the Twins had operated since 1993 paying no attention to one another's schedules, without much impact.
"Obviously, we were selling different products when they were an independent team, and we're still reaching different crowds. We decided to just let the schedules fall where they fall."
The benefit of proximity bragged about back in December 2020 came to the Twins' benefit dramatically Friday.
The Twins came home from Baltimore having looked at an X-ray indicating a broken finger for Carlos Correa, the $36 million shortstop and recently showing his talents as advertised.