2009 MLB season in review: Minnesota Twins

The final year of the Minnesota Twins in the Metrodome, in 2010 they will move to an outdoor facility named, Target Field. Some call the Metrodome the baseball park that refused to die, after 162 regular season games the Metrodome was the host of a one game playoff between the Twins and the Detroit Tigers. For those that saw that game it was one of the best baseball games of the year and took nearly 14 innings to complete. While the Metrodome would not give up to the end of the season, nor the one game playoff, it eventually was put out to pasture by the power of the New York Yankees.

Their final record was 87-76 and after winning the one game playoff they were the American League Central division champions. In all they spent just nine days in first place, and they never had a lead for the division, but they won the division by one game. To put that into perspective they were seven games out of first in the first week of September.

Led by A.L. MVP Joe Mauer, the Minnesota offense was able to score 817 runs. As a team they hit .274, third best in the American League. They hit just 172 home runs while striking out just 1,021 times while drawing 585 walks. The lesson here is this is a team that knows how to get on base, and have their heavy hitters drive in runs. Their pitching staff was as impressive, while it featured three of their starting five scoring double digit victories. Their staff ERA was 4.50 and they gave up 765 runs. That would be the reason they were not in first place for very long.

In all 2,362,149 fans came out to see the Metrodome in its final seasons. For their 82 home games they averaged 29,162 fans and that was good enough for 15th among the 30 MLB teams. While that sounds like a lot they only managed to sell 59.9% of their 2009 ticket inventory.