I still got it!!!!

It was the summer of 1988 when I was working as a cashier at a West St Paul convenience store. The radio home of the Twins back then was AM 830 WCCO, which I happened to have on at work. As I was ringing up a purchase, I heard the ‘CCO radio guy announce that in five minutes they would be giving away an eight-pack of tickets to the first caller to correctly answer a trivia question. I waited with gleeful anticipation since I was such a sports trivia aficionado. Sure enough, I knew the answer to their inquiry: What was the score of the first regular season Twins game in the Metrodome? I correctly answered 11-7 and thus won choice seats behind home plate for a Saturday afternoon game that September!

I am happy to report that I still have that gift, and all without the help of Ginkgo biloba. As I was driving home Tuesday evening, AM 1500’s Matt Thomas was announcing a chance to win four Twins tickets to an upcoming Twins game. With the Toronto Blue Jays in town this week, the question pertained to the fact that, as of Tuesday afternoon, the Twins had not beaten the Jays since June 2007. The question asked was Who was the winning pitcher in that June ’07 contest and what was the historical significance of that game? I had no clue who the pitcher was until I heard the second part of the question. I recall Frank Thomas hitting his 500th career home run off Carlos Silva. However, I couldn’t recall if Silva stayed in long enough to get the victory.

After about five minutes of getting a busy signal, I got through. Since no one had answered correctly at that point, I had my shot. I guessed Silva as being the winning pitcher. I was told that was correct. Then I mentioned the Frank Thomas milestone. The call screener was silent for three seconds and then said “hold on.” I then heard Matt Thomas’ broadcast over the phone and was ecstatic when he announced the following: “We have a winner in our Twins ticket giveaway. Brad from Ramsey answered our question correctly. He will receive four tickets to see the Twins take on the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, April 28.”

Dang, I’m good!!!!

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