Being a Minnesota Twins fan is rough.
The Twins have been largely abysmal over the past few seasons and are on pace for a 100 loss season in 2016. With the season coming to a close, almost nobody showed up to watch Minnesota take on the Detroit Tigers on Thursday afternoon. I’m not being hyperbolic.
Check out the scene at Target Field during the first inning. There only appears to be four or five people in the left field bleachers.
today's Target Field attendance is Ellen and Pete pic.twitter.com/vwT7JcMOPI
— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) September 22, 2016
The rest of the stadium isn’t much better. The stadium looks practically empty.
Good seats still available at the first pitch of the makeup game. pic.twitter.com/tIT8StMS7h
— Tyler Mason (@tylermason21) September 22, 2016
To be fair, this is a makeup of last night’s postponed game. But maybe the Twins should have scheduled this as a true doubleheader, and not a separate admission split dobuleheader – that way, at least *some* fans would be in the house for the first game.
It’s hard to blame Minnesotans for failing to show up, scheduling issues aside. Aside from Brian Dozier, there’s not much to be seen. Sure, the future’s somewhat bright with Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, and Max Kepler, but currently, their mediocre production isn’t enough to get butts in seats. The Twins starter is 27-year-old Pat Dean, who I’m shocked to learn isn’t a computer generated player from MLB: The Show.
This is reminiscent of like 2015’s matchup between Baltimore and Chicago at Camden Yards, where zero spectators attended due to Baltimore protests.
After today’s doubleheader, the Twins only have one series remaining at Target Field, this weekend against the Mariners. The Twins will likely fail to draw two million fans this season for the first time in the history of Target Field, and the first time overall since 2004.
