Minnesota Twins '09 Unis

[FSUViking]

The ignorance surrounding Minnesota weather never ceases to amaze me.

[Pirate]

I was in the dark with Minnesota waether too. It was an earlier argument hear tha made me look it up. The average precipitation is also higher in Cleveland and Boston than Minnesota. I think that is the telling stat. Precipitation is what would keep you from playing the game.

As for the Pohlad Patch, I like it. And I like how the two are stacked.

[BJBerthiaume]

I have a hunch that the Twins will wear their current jerseys for the first year of Target Field, and then once the second year comes around, they will change it up.

As for the jersey, looks good. Not too cluttered, but they got everything on there.

[BallWonk]

I was in the dark with Minnesota waether too. It was an earlier argument hear tha made me look it up. The average precipitation is also higher in Cleveland and Boston than Minnesota. I think that is the telling stat. Precipitation is what would keep you from playing the game.

As a Minnesotan, I actually find the weather in Boston that time of year to be much less pleasant. Minnesota doesn't get all that much cold rain, and the wind tends to be less biting in Minnesota in April than in any East Coast city. As unpleasant as a 25-mph wind sweeping across the Dakotas can be, a 30-mph wind off the Atlantic is worse.

Even October isn't that big a problem for Minnesota. The earliest a blizzard has hit the state was October 16, and that was in 1880. And like most blizzards outside of the November-February season, it mostly died out after crossing the Minnesota and Red Rivers. The only significant winter storm ever to hit the Twin Cities during the baseball season was the Halloween Blizzard of 1991, which in a normal season would only have affected Game Seven, and even then they'd have been able to start the game.

The bigger problem in Minnesota is summer storms. I was in the Dome one of the few times a tornado system moved across Minneapolis without breaking up, and as eerie as it was to see the Dome turn green, it was a heck of a lot safer to be inside than out. Though a tornado isn't really a threat in the city, but the hail and lightning are significant potential problems with that sort of storm, which is not uncommon in the Twin Cities.

On balance, I'd say the benefits of an exposed stadium outweigh the drawbacks, but most people outside Minnesota seem to focus on the wrong drawbacks.

[CS85]

I am one of those that thinks sports weren't meant to be played in a dome, but I can understand why teams would need one/want one. The answer: retractable roof. The Texans are the only team in the NFL to boast this feature, and I think Minnesota could be the second. It would make sense for both Twins/Vikings and it would probably get them a nod for a superbowl and possibly all-star game in the near future of it's construction.

[Burning River]

I am one of those that thinks sports weren't meant to be played in a dome, but I can understand why teams would need one/want one. The answer: retractable roof. The Texans are the only team in the NFL to boast this feature, and I think Minnesota could be the second. It would make sense for both Twins/Vikings and it would probably get them a nod for a superbowl and possibly all-star game in the near future of it's construction.

Arizona is retractable... Indy is retractable...

Anyways... I like the Twins Uniforms. I have to agree and say that they did a nice job with stacking the patches on the one sleeve. Obviously, being a Memorial patch allows this to fit.

[McCall]

I am one of those that thinks sports weren't meant to be played in a dome, but I can understand why teams would need one/want one. The answer: retractable roof. The Texans are the only team in the NFL to boast this feature, and I think Minnesota could be the second. It would make sense for both Twins/Vikings and it would probably get them a nod for a superbowl and possibly all-star game in the near future of it's construction.

Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Field), Arizona (U of Phoenix Stadium) and now the Cowboys' New Stadium in Arlington are all retractable-roof stadiums.

[pittfan11]

That Carl patch sucks.

[TruColor]

Those are averages. Weather in the Upper Midwest has extreme fluctuations, so it could easily be 30 and snowing one day, and 65 and sunny three days later.

We can get that in about a half-hour here in Colorado.

[BallWonk]

Those are averages. Weather in the Upper Midwest has extreme fluctuations, so it could easily be 30 and snowing one day, and 65 and sunny three days later.

We can get that in about a half-hour here in Colorado.

You just say that because you Coloradans know how jealous the rest of us are that you live in Colorado.

I remember one freak summer day in Minnesota. Mid-1980s. July or August. I biked to the lake with a friend around noon, and the temp was hovering around 100 with an unusually dry wind blowing off the prairie. The wind shifted around to the north in the early afternoon, giving us an incredible tailwind on the ride home, and not long after nightfall the temp was passing into the mid 30s. High next day was about 50 degrees.

But a lot of the popular image of Minnesota weather is Fargo-inspired myth. It's not actually more changeable than the East Coast; in my experience both Philly and DC have more unstable weather most of the year than Minnesota. Winter storms aren't really a problem in the Twin Cities from April to October, and there's no Florida-style monsoon or Mid-Atlantic-style daily summer downpour. Thunderstorms are more common, more severe, and longer lasting, and the summer humidity can be unbearable, comparable to the worst that Missouri or the Deep South can generate. (Though nothing compared to East Texas or the Gulf Coast.) The Metrodome's chief benefit to Twins fans was not heat in the cold months, but AC in the hot months.

[The_Admiral]

Upper Midwestern thunderstorms are great if you're just a spectator and not trying to drive home or anything like that. It's some wrath-of-a-vengeful-Old-Testament-God stuff. Those giant lightning bolts can be amazing. Second only to ice storms in terms of strikingly beautiful destruction.

[The_Admiral]

double post!double post!

To salvage it, I will say that the Twins' uniforms have become classics, and as a charter team that has been wearing navy and red since the days of the Washington Senators, they're entitled to keep their colors, redundant as they may be. However, I would like to see the TC cleaned up a little bit (make the T match the one in the Twins script, it can't be that hard; I dunno what to do with the C) and really emphasize that logo as they enter their outdoor era. That means scrapping the last vestiges of the underlined M: if it's being worn on the road hats but not the homes, and there aren't separate road batting helmets, then it's only being seen when the Twins are in the field on the road. Why even bother? Commit to the TC.

[no97]

That Carl patch sucks.

Have you seen the patch Carl designed when his wife Eloise died?

http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?id=z33...ettfgkxazubcevz

That being the case, I think it's perfect...

Moose

[gosioux76]

The Metrodome's chief benefit to Twins fans was not heat in the cold months, but AC in the hot months.

That's a great point. People don't believe me when I say the hottest summers I've ever experienced didn't come while living in Dallas or New Mexico, but in Minnesota and North Dakota.

[FiddySicks]

Those are averages. Weather in the Upper Midwest has extreme fluctuations, so it could easily be 30 and snowing one day, and 65 and sunny three days later.

We can get that in about a half-hour here in Colorado.

You just say that because you Coloradans know how jealous the rest of us are that you live in Colorado.

Colorado and Alaska are the only two places outside of California that have ever seriously considered living in. They're both absolutely beautiful.

[Don]

Those are averages. Weather in the Upper Midwest has extreme fluctuations, so it could easily be 30 and snowing one day, and 65 and sunny three days later.

We can get that in about a half-hour here in Colorado.

You just say that because you Coloradans know how jealous the rest of us are that you live in Colorado.

Colorado and Alaska are the only two places outside of California that have ever seriously considered living in. They're both absolutely beautiful.

i lived in Colorado for 2 and a half years and I never wanted to leave. the myth us east coasters have of Denver being on a mountain top could be nothing further from the truth. the summers are so much more bearable than the ones here in Maryland, and since im a snow junkie, i loved loved the winters, especially the blizzard of march of '03, that was heaven.

[swilson160]

I've seen some rumors about uniform changes in 2010. We'll see. I can't imagine they'd be a complete overhaul. Maybe an alternate or something?

Because what the Twins really need is an alternate uniform.

The Twins might have the greatest gap between the high quality of their uniform elements -- scripts, cap logos, basic uniform appearance -- and the utter crappitude of their uniform set taken as a whole of any team in professional sports. Part of me prays that they have an overhaul of simplification (plus a fixing of the TC logo). But mostly, I just dread what the crew of uniform-destroyers the Twins seem to employ would do to ruin the uniforms even further if given a broader mandate for change than their normal annual game of "find one isolated element and make it worse."

A much smaller part of me secretly hopes the Twins throw everything out the window and develop entirely new uniforms with a blue-and-green color scheme for 2010 to symbolized the return to playing on natural grass under the open sky, with new marks for every element, from the caps to the jerseys to the logo. It'll never happen, but if they were to make major changes, that's what I'd like to see.

I don't think they need to start from scratch, but I also think blue/green would work really well for the Twins. I did a concept a few years back based on this idea (I'll just link so it doesn't swallow up the page).

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b84/swil...Twins-Sheet.png

[BallWonk]

I don't think they need to start from scratch, but I also think blue/green would work really well for the Twins. I did a concept a few years back based on this idea (I'll just link so it doesn't swallow up the page).

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b84/swil...Twins-Sheet.png

I remember your concept, and particularly liked what you did with the home uniform and fixing the contrast problem with the TC logo. The contrasting outline thing is a nice solution.

I did a similar concept a while back, which I'll link to solely as an example of how the Twins might look if they kept the pinstripes with a blue-and-green scheme and how the TC logo could conceivably be changed to incorporate the distinctive jersey script T. The specific details of my concept aren't worth notice.

My old green and blue Twins concept.

The two non-negotiables for me in any Twins uniform redesign would be keeping the pinstripes (home and road) and keeping the word "Minnesota" on the roads.

[spyboy1]

I've seen some rumors about uniform changes in 2010. We'll see. I can't imagine they'd be a complete overhaul. Maybe an alternate or something?

Because what the Twins really need is an alternate uniform.

The Twins might have the greatest gap between the high quality of their uniform elements -- scripts, cap logos, basic uniform appearance -- and the utter crappitude of their uniform set taken as a whole of any team in professional sports. Part of me prays that they have an overhaul of simplification (plus a fixing of the TC logo). But mostly, I just dread what the crew of uniform-destroyers the Twins seem to employ would do to ruin the uniforms even further if given a broader mandate for change than their normal annual game of "find one isolated element and make it worse."

A much smaller part of me secretly hopes the Twins throw everything out the window and develop entirely new uniforms with a blue-and-green color scheme for 2010 to symbolized the return to playing on natural grass under the open sky, with new marks for every element, from the caps to the jerseys to the logo. It'll never happen, but if they were to make major changes, that's what I'd like to see.

I take offense at the statement "utter crappitude of their uniform set taken as a whole of any team in professional sports". That's nuts. They've got a perfectly good home and road pairing and gorgeous home and road blue alternates with the addition of a great Saturday throwback alternate for this year.

Their vest jersey is nothing to get excited about, but 5 out of 6 good ones is a pretty damn good average.

And not one of the Twins jerseys ever shows up on any "worst jersey list". The biggest gripe I could see is the "Twins script" becoming dated since it's over 20 years old now.

Why on Earth should the Twins dump their traditional blue and red for blue and green color set just because they are playing outside? This has been their franchise color set dating back to the days in Washington and I don't see it ever changing.

The one thing I can't quite get a handle on it the "Carl" patch. First, if he's dead, shouldn't it be over the dome, to imply that he's in heaven, and not underneath down there towards, say, Hell?

Second, if you put that patch on the chest, it would look like it came off a mechanics uniform! It didn't exactly come off quite like the jersey-matching Eloise patch.

[BallWonk]

I take offense at the statement "utter crappitude of their uniform set taken as a whole of any team in professional sports". That's nuts. They've got a perfectly good home and road pairing and gorgeous home and road blue alternates with the addition of a great Saturday throwback alternate for this year.

Their vest jersey is nothing to get excited about, but 5 out of 6 good ones is a pretty damn good average.

First off, 5-for-6 isn't all that impressive. I once saw Puckett go 6-for-6. Second, the Twins aren't anywhere near 5-for-6. The Twins have precisely one uniform with no major flaws: The standard road. The regular home has the TC cap, which I love dearly, but which is by any objective standard one of the worst caps in all of pro baseball. Then they have the blue alts, which under pretty much all lighting conditions visibly clash with the blue of their caps. I don't care how pretty your blue alternate jersey is; if it doesn't match your blue caps, it's a crap jersey. Then there's the vests, which contrary to your assertions regularly made worst-jersey lists. Then there are the red TC alt caps, which make no sense within the context of the Twins uniforms and which serve as a visual reminder of the absolute worst years in franchise history. (If you weren't a Twins fan in the early 1980s, count your blessings. I was. And by the way, nobody liked the red TC caps back then.) Now this year they have the new alternate "throwback" uniforms that don't actually match anything they've ever worn before.

So. Combine some excellent elements: The Twins script, the Minnesota script, the M logo, the TC logo in form if not in actual execution, the two-guys patch, the franchise-identifying pinstripes at home and away. Then mix them them in the absolute worst possible way, with enough mismatching alternate uniform combinations that all 10 players in the lineup could wear different uniforms like a troupe of clowns, and the only reasonable question is whether the Twins are as bad as the Mets, uniform-wise, or worse. On a good day, I'd argue "not worse" because the debasing crappitude that has infected the Twins uniforms would be easier to cure than the clashy black thing the Mets have going on.