Twins pitching mound for sale, slightly used
It's a familiar task for anyone who has moved: you gotta go down to the basement and start clearing out all that stuff that isn't going to your new place.
That's true for pro sports venues, too. And now that amateur baseball has cleared out of the Metrodome and the last sinker flung over the plate, well, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority has got a pitching mound to sell you.
Mind you, it's not the original mound that the Twins first threw from back 30 years ago, when the Dome opened. That was on an elevator that raised and lowered the mound out of the floor of the stadium. But they've been using the portable one lately, including end of the Twins tenure at the Metrodome.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Technically, the item isn't on the market yet. The Minnesota Sports Facility Authority OK'd the sale of certain "assets" today, ahead of the Metrodome demolition.
"We have a number of items in this building, batting cages, NCAA seats, other things that are not necessary for operations of the Vikings," executive director Ted Mondale told the board. "Basically, left we have Vikings games, one monster truck show, and other than that, it will be very minimal."
Right now, the list is limited to stuff that might have been used for Final Four and baseball games, neither of which will be returning to the Metrodome. There will be a couple of forklifts, piles and piles of risers for folding chairs--and even a double-drum roller, the tiny compacter that used to make sure the base paths in the Dome were perfectly flat.
It'll soon be available for you, too, to keep grounds like they do in the Big Leagues.