On Wednesday night, in the midst of a "prove-it" series against the Astros, the Twins were rudely interrupted by Mother Nature.
40 years ago, Wednesday would have played out much differently for Twins
The first year in the Dome was usually a sad adventure, but not on May 11, 1982.
May 12, 2022 at 5:26PM
Lightning. Rain. Tornado warnings. The game was suspended and made up on Thursday.
(Though considering the Twins were trailing 5-1 at the time of the interruption, perhaps the bad weather was more of a boon than a detriment).
In any event, it provided an occasion to tie together two very loosely connected teams: The 2022 Twins and the 1982 Twins.
Had last night played out 40 years ago, with the storm ripping through Minneapolis as it did, the official orders most likely would have been to play on.
That was, for you historians, the first year for the Twins in the Metrodome and all the protection from the elements.
Most nights in May 1982, the Twins would have been happy for any sort of interruption to the action on the field.
My colleague Pete Steinert noted in a message the other day that those plucky 1982 Twins went an almost unfathomable 3-26 in May.
That was after a 9-13 April and would be followed by an 8-17 June that left the hometown nine with a rather unsavory 20-56 record.
But on May 11, 1982, the Twins secured one of their rare May victories.
At home in front of an announced crowd of 8,321 indoor baseball enthusiasts, the Twins rallied from a 4-2 deficit to win 10-6 over Boston. Gary Ward had three hits and three runs scored, including a home run. John Castino drove in three runs.
It was a rare time that year, particularly that month, that the Twins used the hitter-friendly Dome to their advantage. By season's end, they had hit 148 home runs and surrendered 208 of their own.
It would, of course, grow to be a huge advantage with the Twins getting improving behind a young core (a rookie Kent Hrbek was on that 1982 team and would form part of the backbone of World Series champs in 1987 and 1991, as you all know).
But more than anything, you always stayed dry at the Dome and you could play through just about anything short of a collapsing roof.
There aren't many times I miss it, but maybe Wednesday was one of those nights.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
