My Day at Twins Fantasy Camp 2016

The Minnesota Twins may have been in Detroit on Tuesday, but the REAL baseball action was taking place at Target Field in their absence anyway.

Every year, the Twins Baseball Network hosts a Fantasy Camp day for members of its affiliate radio stations, one of which is Quick Country 96.5's sister station, KROC-AM. This year, Samm Adams and myself (along with fellow staffers Frank Spaeth and Kim David) won a contest and were able to head to Target Field for a cool day behind the scenes at Major League Baseball's most scenic venue.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and once we signed in with stadium security and traversed through the underground tunnels at Target Field, we found ourselves in the visitor's dugout, along the third baseline. The grass was brilliant green, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and it was almost surreal to find myself out ON the field.

We headed out to left field and shagged some fly balls, then headed in to do a little infield fielding work, took a little batting practice (with some helpful hints from Twins' great, Kent Hrbek), and got the full tour of Target Field-- including the room where they store the 250 beer kegs they go through during a normal game. (The tour guide pointed out, however, that when the Milwaukee Brewers were in town for a weekend game last year, that total went up to 450! Which, of course, made total sense to this Wisconsin native!)

The day ended with a lunch in the visitor's clubhouse, featuring your favorite ballpark food. It was a really fun day, and I'm lucky I was able to attend. Just being able to walk around on that turf-- the same turf where the big leaguers get to play-- as well as seeing your name up on the scoreboard, was pretty cool and made for a day I won't soon forget.