Like everyone in baseball this time of year, Kevin Dutcher is preparing for the season. But rather than taking extra batting practice or shagging fly balls, Dutcher - the Twins' music director - is honing his playlist for the team's inaugural season at Target Field.

All the music you hear at the new open-air ballpark, aside from the National Anthem and the organ, will come from long-time music fanatic Dutcher's stadium library of around 30,000 songs.

Dutcher has held the music director's post since 2000 ("We've made the playoffs 50 percent of the time," he notes. "That's not a bad record.")

Dutcher, a freelance director, music director and actor in Twin Cities theater circles, approaches his role as the Twins' music director in much the same way he goes about designing sound for theater productions.

"My job in theater is to enhance the drama of the production," says Dutcher, 48, an Iowa State University graduate. "That's what I try to do at the stadium, to help build up the excitement and the tension, try to fire people up, keep them interested if we're getting shellacked or if we're way ahead in the game."

Players name their walk-up music preferences, which often change during the season, in a questionnaire they get from Dutcher during spring training.

Dutcher hasn't tried out the sound system at Target Field yet, but he's looking forward to a cleaner, clearer listening experience than the muddy-sounding Metrodome offered.

I had heard they were big fans, so I sent an e-mail off. Ten minutes later I had an e-mail back from their guitarist, Tad Kubler, saying, "Is this serious, because (frontman) Craig (Finn)'s going to flip?" Ten minutes after that I had an e-mail from Craig saying, "We would absolutely love to be a part of this." Then he and Tad cranked it out.

I'd be a liar if I didn't mention "Welcome to the Jungle." In the classic rock vein, "China Grove," "Gimme Some Lovin'," "Immigrant Song," by Led Zeppelin. A lot of Prince, Replacements, Husker Du. I enjoy playing local bands. I'm trying to play more current local bands: Red Pens, Solid Gold. We'll see how that goes.

Sixty percent rap, 35 percent rock and then Michael Cuddyer does the country. He came up with a couple batting practice CDs last year that were about 35 to 40 percent country because that's what he likes. Some of the other players were complaining about that. I said: "Talk to Cuddy."

That's from the movie "Rock Star." It's a fictional band, Steel Dragon. That's a song he brought with him from San Francisco after the trade. He had chosen that one there. Once he developed into a closer, we turned it into this anthemic stomp-fest with graphics and the visual behind it, married the two and made this big production out of it.