By Jon Laging

The Minnesota Twins are beginning the quest for their fifth Central Division title in six years. Is that pretty good or not?! They must have a good home field advantage to achieve that record.

No! Wait. They play in the scorned Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. The worst stadium in the majors. The stadium that is going to be vacated for an outdoor stadium with real grass, sun and balmy breezes.

Now, I too, am looking forward to watching my team play while sitting in the sun with a hot dog in one hand and a beer in the other. Nothing beats the taste of a hot dog while watching a baseball game outside. I loved them, in fact got the name of the maker, Schweigert, and tried them at home. It just wasn&8217;t the same.

But, I wonder if we&8217;re not judging the old Dome a little too harshly. Did we not think at one time of the Dome as our Dome? And considered it a wonderful advantage over visiting teams. The noise and the ceiling helped the Twins more than once during postseason play. I read the noise at times equaled standing next to a jet plane about to take off. What with the noise and the ceiling, fly balls became real adventures for visiting outfielders.

The fans had a great time in the &8220;Dome.&8221; You may have heard from me or another writer that during the World Series, when an opposing pitcher got knocked out, the fans would sing Roy

Rogers theme song. Happy Trails to You in the enclosed space. &8220;Tastes great, less filling&8221; thundered down from the seats. Those were the days. &8220;Ah memories.&8221; However, the &8220;Dome&8221; is now despised after 25 years.

The old Metropolitan Stadium was Minnesota&8217;s first big stadium. It was built in the hopes of attracting a major league club. It worked, the Washington Senators showed up in 1961. There was nothing terribly wrong with the Met, but the Vikings were joint users and grew tired of the baseball stadium&8217;s limited seating and lack of amenities, (expensive box seats), and wanted to move. An indoor stadium was proposed and the same amount of contentiousness occurred for it as for the proposed stadium just passed. But once built and inflated we had a protected seat stadium.

Being a purist I didnt like the Dome from the start. I felt baseball should be played outside, not in a building. My mind was changed to a degree when I went to a game with my son during a thunderstorm. We got drenched, but got to the Dome, dried off, while I continued to complain about indoor baseball, when it occurred to me that if it wasn&8217;t for the Dome we wouldn&8217;t be watching any baseball.

In addition to professional baseball and football the Dome has been Minnesota&8217;s playpen with 300 event days during the year. Colleges, high schools and others use it for sporting events.

Concerts and community doings are also held in the Dome It sounds like I&8217;m a booster for the Dome, I&8217;m not, but it does have an advantage over outside parks as my son and I found out.

I realize that the new stadium passed by the narrowest of margins with the understanding that a retractable roof not be included. It would take an act by a philanthropist such as Carl Pohlad, (ha), to add a roof to the present plans. But I know of no other major league venue that could use a roof more than Minnesota with our cold rainy springs and sometimes bitter autumn days, (although global warming will help us out, no doubt). Still, arent we as good a state as Wisconsin and aren&8217;t the Twin Cities just as big time as Milwaukee with their retractable roof stadium. I guess not. Well, the Twins can always use the Metrodome on rainy days.

Jon Laging writes a regional commentary from his home in Preston.