Finding bliss in the blistering cold

Kade Brannon finds the Twins game to be worth it after all.

By Nick LaFrombois | Clarion Correspondent

Frozen. Small Clouds of breath fill his field of vision as he walks up to Gate 34 of Target Field. Kade Brannon doesn’t want to be here, and he regrets being convinced to come to the game. The Minnesota Twins are playing the Chicago White Sox, two teams both out of playoff contention, two teams he doesn’t care about.

“I’m not even a Twins fan. I’m from Texas — I’m a Rangers fan.” Brannon said.

Kade Brannon was convinced to come to the game by his friends. “I have a lot of homework I have to do,” Brannon said. Kade was going to stay in the comfort of his apartment in the Midland Terrace complex. He was planning on cooking himself warm meal for dinner of eggs, ham, and toast while diligently studying homework in the warmth of his room in order to get a head-start on homework, but his friends implored him to come to the game. It was a Bethel Student Government event, and his friend, Tyler, had an extra ticket.

Kade steps inside the main gate and is greeted by a twins stocking cap, courtesy of the Twins organization.

“That was pretty cool, it made the cold it a little more bearable,” Brannon said.

Kade takes a look at the field, looks down at his ticket, and realizes his seat was in the highest-up section in the stadium. Section 309. The seats tower over the rest of the field, making the players, and the rest of the fans, look like ants. He takes his seat alongside two of his friends, as they were some of the people to arrive the earliest to the game out of the Bethel crowd, separate from the BSG- sanctioned buses.

“I really didn’t want to be there.”– Kade Brannon

Kade sits in his seat, multiple stories up, exposed to the blistering wind with no cover available, wearing only a sweatshirt for warmth.

“I really didn’t want to be there,” Brannon said.

A worker for the Twins walks up to him and his friends and offers them free baseball caps if they move forward in the stands, and show off their new twins gear.

“He walked up to us and said he would give us hats if we moved forward and stood up to be on the big screen,” Brannon said.

Kade moved forward in the seats with his two newly acquired Twins hats, now slightly warmer than sitting at the peak of the seats, and sure enough, at the bottom of the 2nd inning, Kade and his friends, along with their new Twins hats, were shown on the big screen for all of Target Field to see; standing and cheering, looking blissful as a cold night became seemingly warmer as it went on.