Reusse: Twins’ old spring home is gone, but won’t be forgotten
From Patrick Reusse at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on December 23, 2016:
Way back in the glory days of Gophers football, when Jerry Kill’s lads took a 5-3 conference record to the Citrus Bowl, an overriding question was aimed at friends who had made the trip to Orlando:
“How was Tinker Field looking?”
Tinker Field was home to the Twins in spring training from 1961 through 1990, and for the Griffith organization and the original Washington Senators dating to 1936.
There was considerable nostalgic attachment to the place for me, since I was quite the novice to covering sports events in non-Midwest places before being assigned to the Twins beat in 1974 for the St. Paul newspapers.
The football facility kept growing until Tinker Field’s right field was bumped up to the grating that held up one side of the aluminum bench seating for what was then called the Tangerine Bowl.
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Now comes the good news:
The Orlando City Council this month approved a plan for the Tinker Field History Plaza on the original ballpark site. The working idea is for plaques describing individuals and events important to its history, and other memorabilia.
There’s $100,000 remaining in the Tinker Field demolition budget. There’s another $200,000 required to get started, and then a fundraising effort to make it a first-class remembrance.
Read the full article here: http://m.startribune.com/twins-old-spring-home-is-gone-but-thanks-to-tinker-field-history-plaza-it-won-t-be-forgotten/407984276/
Originally published: December 27, 2016. Last Updated: December 27, 2016.