The smell of fresh cut grass permeates the air then all of a sudden senior Colton Gauger hears the griddle start to fire up for todays game. He walks out from the shop to take a look at the empty Twins’ stadium “Yea,” he thinks. “Today is going to be a good day for a baseball game.”

Each year the Twins hire huge amounts of workers to manage the many aspects of Target field. These facts include food prep, retail work, mascots and even those guys that yell for peanuts. 

“So my college friend Kelly (a guy) has worked there for three years and with the all star game being at Target Field this year they need more people to work in the stadium. So, he asked me if I was interested in working retail with him,” said Gauger. 

With any job process there is always the hiring process which takes the most amount of time regardless of where people work. 

“The hiring process took a couple of months,” Gauger said. “There were a lot of interviews, background checks and everything else under the sun. Finally, I got the call and had to go through 12 hours of employee training before being officially hired as a retail worker.”

With the average people in attendance being 24,372 per game there is no doubt that all the stadium workers are busy before, after and during the game. 

“It is an extremely fast paced environment. There are about 3 thousand people that come through the store before the first pitch is even thrown and after the game just as many walk through if not more,” said Gauger. “But in all honesty it’s completely worth it getting to meet the fans.”

“I work retail at the Majestic Twins Clubhouse Store; I stock shirts, make sales, run registers and help customers. Just about anything I can,” said Gauger. “And unfortunately, I have yet to meet any players because it’s pretty rare for them to come up to the stores when all the people are in them.”

At the end of the day though it is all about the interactions Gauger makes with the fans. “Honestly my favorite thing is the interaction with the fans,” said Gauger. “Helping them make their day at the ballpark a little better with a hat or a jersey or even just making someone’s day makes the job totally worth it.”