It's opening day and outdoors baseball for the Twins

• Target Field

Target Field

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MINNEAPOLIS - After more than 15 years of wishing, planning and building, Target Field hosts its first official Twins game today in downtown Minneapolis at 3 p.m.

A long list of pregame ceremonies precede this afternoon's game between the Twins and the Boston Red Sox. Carl Pavano starts for the Twins against Boston's John Lester

The late Carl Pohlad first started talking about building a new ballpark for his Twins more than 15 years ago. In April 1994, the team's owner announced during a welcome-home gathering in downtown Minneapolis that his team needed a new stadium. Controversy about paying for the new stadium began a short time later A contentious special legislative session in 1997 went nowhere, and Pohlad talked of selling the team to someone who would move it to North Carolina. With no stadium solution in sight in 2001, Pohlad offering the franchise for contraction, which was stopped by a Hennepin County judge. Five years ago this month the Twins struck a deal for Hennepin County to pick up most of the construction cost of the open-air stadium, a plan approved at the tail-end of the following year's legislative session. Pohlad died in January of 2009 and his sons are now operating the franchise. Target Field's ultimate price tag is more than half-a-billion dollars.

However, the Twins will come into Monday's game on a losing note. The Chicago White Sox topped Minnesota at home 5-4, on a pinch-hit single by Andruw Jones in the bottom of the eighth inning. Paul Konerko, Gordon Beckham, and Mark Kotsay all homered for the White Sox as they salvaged a win in the three-game set, and moved to 2-and-4 on the young season. Justin Morneau had a two-run single and Joe Mauer doubled twice with an RBI for Minnesota, which broke a five-game winning streak. Mark Buehrle gave up four runs in eight innings to improve to 2-and-0. Nick Blackburn gave up five runs in seven-and-two-thirds innings for the loss. He's 1-and-1.

Tags: mn sports, proam, baseball, twins