The Sights of Twins Fest 2005

As I stated last week, I attended Twins Fest for probably the eighth or ninth consecutive year this weekend, and as always, it was a blast! I used to go for the autographs and unmatched access to the players, but ever since the team became competitive a few years ago, that has pretty much been impossible. Now I just go to for the baseball card show (which is still outstanding) and just to take in the sights and sounds. And yes, I do like getting all that free stuff. :)

Anyway, I snapped a few pictures this year for those of you who couldn't make it this year. Batgirl posted a few snapshots of her own, so hopefully between the two of us you'll see enough to help get you in a baseball frame of mind, even though it's just January. Tomorrow I'll be back with some thoughts and reactions from my Twins-centric weekend. In the meantime, enjoy the show!

-RM
(p.s. Sorry about the white space... I don't know what's causing it)

The crowds were huge this year, especially on Saturday when over 12,000 people were in attendance.
Johan Santana was truly the star of the show this year. Here you see him signing some 'graphs and talking on WCCO radio with Rita Maloney and John Gordon (right).
It was great to see this get-well card for Bob Casey. I don't know if Twins baseball would ever be the same without him.
I definitely got a thrill out of seeing Paul Molitor's HOF plaque.
What are the odds we ever see this model (which has been around for a long time) ever come to fruition?
Twins beat writer LaVelle E. Neal III interviews Twins president Dave St. Peter about this story for the Star Tribune, while right, Lew Ford signs some autographs.
A young fan takes his hacks and an up close view of the now not-so-new FieldTurf (right).