After our Storks got to know the Mall of America, a real landmark of the state of Minnesota, on Saturday, they visited another figurehead of the region on Sunday: Coach Marcel Rapp’s team attended a home game of the Minnesota Twins baseball team after the morning session. One of our players made a big appearance.
One day before the test match against MLS club Minnesota United FC, which kicks off on Monday evening at 7pm (Tue., 2am CEST), our mates completed an early, crisp session in which, after an intensive warm-up, they once again got down to business in game forms. At the same time, Timm Sörensen worked individually with several players. “We made a conscious decision before this training camp to take all the players from the squad with us. This also includes some long-term injured players who are still rebuilding,” explained our athletics coach. “We’re trying to get the mates back into team training as quickly as possible. We worked a lot in the weight room to achieve this. The sessions in the pool were also a building block of the rehab plan to help the boys make steady progress in terms of mobility and activation. Everyone has worked very well, so I’m very happy with the progress so far,” continued Sörensen.
Afterwards, the team had lunch before the KSV team bus set off for Target Field, the home of the Minnesota Twins. Our Storks, many of whom got off the bus in the jerseys of the home team thanks to the mall visit the day before, didn’t just watch the Twins’ home game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Phil Harres, Lasse Rosenboom, goalkeeping coach Patrik Borger, supervisor Lars Jordan and team manager Sebastian Ermuth were also allowed to accompany their teammate Marcel Engelhardt onto the field of the 39,504-capacity stadium. There, our goalkeeper had the honorable task of executing the first pitch, i.e. the first throw of the game, which marks the end of the preliminary program and the beginning of the match.
Whether it was due to the fact that Engelhardt had already made a number of throws in the course of his career – in any case, our keeper cut a fine figure on the baseball field and skillfully threw the hard leather ball to Minnesota outfield coach Tommy Watkins to the cheers of his teammates and the applause of the crowd. After Engelhardt’s big throw, our storks experienced the varied match against the Rays, in which the visitors from Florida narrowly prevailed 7:5 after two and a half hours.
“It was a great honor for me to open the game. I was chosen because we had a game form in training that I won with my team. I was then selected for the first pitch. It was a thrilling game with lots of action and many home runs, even though the Twins unfortunately lost,” summarized Engelhardt, who was also delighted to receive the jersey with his name on it from the Twins. “This jersey will have a place of honor in my home,” our keeper was certain.
