Before Twins players grab their bats, groundskeepers grabbed shovels
Snow was practically piled up to the bottom of the seats in the stands behind the Twins dugout at Target Field Wednesday, a day before the Twins' Kyle Gibson was scheduled to throw the first pitch of the 2018 home season at Target Field.
But the team says it's ready for Thursday's home opener.
"Put an email out yesterday to all of our front office staff and said you know if you've got a shovel that fits your hand nicely and its comfortable for ya, go ahead and bring that in. That'd be awesome. If not, we've got some for you to use," said Gary Glawe, the guy in charge of clearing winter out of the stadium before the Twins open their ninth season in their outdoor home.
"You know, we had 60 to 75 people show up this morning dressed for the weather and prepared to go," Glawe said.
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But when you've got more than 30,000 seats deep in snow, volunteers with shovels aren't going to get the job done before Thursday's scheduled 3 p.m. start against the Seattle Mariners. Not alone, anyway.
There were skid steer loaders pushing snow out the stadium gates, turf tractors peeling ice off the field tarp and cleaning contractors working their way seat by seat melting the snow and ice in the stadium with 10 one-inch high-pressure hoses.
"So in the seating bowl, we use the hot water method," Glawe said.
It's heated by steam piped over from the county garbage incinerator behind the stadium.
"You know we're pushing 130-degree water around and melting a lot of this snow right in place and washing the stadium at the same time," he said.
Some of the melted snow even drains into the stadium's rainwater recycling system, for use in irrigating the field and washing the stands later.
The turf is actually in pretty good shape already. Besides hot water, the heat from the incinerator also helps keep the field warm. The grass and infield were covered with a white tarp and a thick layer of ice after this week's snowstorm — looking more appropriate for the Minnesota Wild's skates than the Twins cleats.
But head groundskeeper Larry DiVito wasn't worried.
"It's a little crunchy. But we'll deal with it. We'll be here as long as it takes and get it done," DiVito said.
