"The only thing the ballpark can give a visitor that he cannot get anywhere else is baseball."
– Shannon/Kalinsky
Welcome Visitors From
Flag Pole - Part 2
June 5, 2006 1:51 PM
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With the sun shining and my driving path taking me right by the place, I grabbed my camera today and took some pictures of the flag pole which stands in front of the American Legion in Richfield (just a few blocks south of the crosstown on Portland Avenue).
It's in amazingly good shape for its age, and because it is so tall, it can be seen for quite some distance.
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Though there was no plaque, just one look and it's easy to confirm that it is, in fact, the same one which flew over Met Stadium for all those years (see comparison at right).
The image on the left is a detailed enlargement from a photo I took on photo day, September 15, 1974 (the actual subject of the photo was, of course, Tony Oliva). The image on the right was taken today. There's no question that the detail at the top is an exact match.
While it is possible that such detail was common on large flag poles in 1955 (when it was presumably installed at the Met), I'm much more inclined to take B.W. McEvers and his story (see my original article) at face value.
So much of Met Stadium ended up at the bottom of a landfill in Eagan, that it's great to find a piece still being put to very good use.
Wouldn't it be amazing if this flag pole could overlook major league baseball again someday?
(By the way, I have been working on a long entry about the naming of the ballpark. Hopefully I can wrap that up and post it sometime later today or tonight. While there may not be much known about the Twins' thinking, there was a great deal of research involving branding and some of the potential companies. Thanks for your patience, and thanks for stopping by today! -- Rick)
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Comments
I think it would be somewhat neat to include the fonts of the previous ballparks. For instance in left field you'd have the 320' (or whatever it is) in the original font that Met stadium had.
For center I would like to have a 7' fence (or wall) as a subtle tribute to the metrodome--hey home run saving catches were a huge key to center field. I think the metrodome "408'" style writing could be in center as another tribute to the dome and all the game saving catches made in the dome.
Then in right have whatever the new stadium design warrants for the measurement mark.
This way we could include an element of the dome but not have to look at extreme ugliness
Posted on June 1, 2006 at 11:10 PM by Boof
The met home plate is in the park of mall of america, and We already have a homeplate to be installed. If Pohlad sells naming rights to land o lakes, we could keep the milk carton!
Posted on June 3, 2006 at 5:53 PM by Jason
Please, no Metrodome tributes whatsover! And please tell me someone can design an advertisement on something other than that god-awful shiny plastic junk that's hung all over the dome. If they do that at the new place, I'm not going.
Posted on June 12, 2006 at 4:31 PM by Bryan
getbocorl
Posted on September 19, 2008 at 11:02 PM by bastaeltt
I think it's great that they will use that flgpole!! Go Twins!!!
Posted on October 26, 2008 at 11:10 PM by Scott
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