Whether it was the Minnesota Twins re-signing superstar Carlos Correa, the Twins Winter Caravan greeting Twins territory, or TwinsFest making its star-studded return to Target Field, the Twins offseason was the most "normal" offseason the club's had in quite some time.
"A year ago we were in the middle of a Major League Baseball lockout. That offseason was anything but normal and there was also COVID so this has really been the first kind of true offseason that we've had in a long time," Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter told WCCO Radio's Steve Thomson on Saturday. "We saw a lot of excitement."
The Twins are turning their focus to what they hope is a successful and injury-free Spring Training in Fort Myers, an area hit hard by Hurricane Ian last September.
"Obviously Hurricane Ian was devastating to so many people throughout Florida but really Lee County might have been at the center of it," St. Peter said. "So many Minnesotans and people from the Midwest migrate there one way or another. The Twins are obviously a big part of that."
The Lee County Sports Complex, home to Hammond Stadium, was used as a staging area in the months immediately following Hurricane Ian welcoming in first responders, the National Guard, and FEMA.
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"Now the focus turns to some level of normalcy and baseball. I'm happy to report the facility is in good shape. We had some cosmetic wind damage and we'll get back to doing what we do and have done since there since 1991 which is bringing a lot of people to that area to watch spring training baseball."
Spring training was a discussion that came up with Lee County tourism director Tamara Pigott during TwinsFest in late January with Tamara Pigott who reported that 70 percent of the local hotels were open at the time.
"That's about 9,600 hotel rooms," Pigott said. "Not along the beach, or the coastline, but hotels that are within a couple miles of the stadium are open."
Pigott added during the discussion that improvements were being made each week across the region.
"Every single week there are more and more things reopening," added Pigott. "It's going to take some time before the hotels are able to be restored and the vacation rentals are repaired. Some things are going to have to be rebuilt and some things are gone."
St. Peter added Saturday that he believes Twins Territory will show up in a big way for spring training.
"I think we're going to end up selling north of 100,000 tickets. We'll be in the upper echelon of spring training again and that doesn't happen without people making the trips."
WCCO Radio will be in Fort Myers all week starting Monday, February 20 as Jason DeRusha hosts Drivetime with DeRusha starting at 3 p.m. each day.
The Twins play their first Spring Training game on Saturday, February 25.