Target Field Devolves Into Feral Junkyard 

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

"Fuck Edina!"

Honestly? It looks like a good time. It’s been a rough season already for the 29-34 Minnesota Twins. Fan morale is low, so low, in fact, that we’re topping “most aggrieved” lists. And as this drone footage shows, attendance is way, way down—25th outta 30 MLB teams.

But when you combine harsh direct sunlight with light beer and high-salt foods, something magic happens. Live baseball enjoyers get a little slap happy, and it's no longer about the game; it’s about the vibe. And, at Tuesday night's game, the vibes led the masses to chant “Fuck Edina” for reasons that may never be clear.

Also at last night’s game: shirtless dudes. Lots and lots of shirtless dudes. 

According to The Athletic, this is a thing called the “Tarps Off” movement, and it’s sweeping through Major League Baseball. It originated in May during a St. Louis game where fans tore off their shirts and used them as rally towels, aka man pom poms. If they want to take the chaos to the next level, they should find a way to co-opt the San Francisco Giants’ (now forbidden) triple crotch thrust trend.

Caucus Chaos: Time to Nix Endorsement Conventions?

Minnesota’s system for caucusing is over 100 years old and, after a tumultuous weekend at both the DFL and GOP conventions, people are once again debating whether or not they should exist. One argument against? It’s too easy for under-qualified candidates to astroturf at these things. “What the endorsement process has become is a way for extremist candidates to take control of their parties,” DFL convention delegate Jessica Shaten tells Ana Radelat at MinnPost.

While thousands of people show up to vote, they’re not always predictive of a voting population that’s in the millions. Neither Tim Walz, Mark Dayton, nor Arne Carlson received party approval their first times running for governor. And getting a convention thumbs up doesn’t always narrow the candidate pool anymore; current candidates like Mike Lindell, Angie Craig, and Michele TaFoya are still running despite failing to secure endorsements.

“I think it's really time for both political parties to take a look at [ending endorsements],” former Minnesota DFL Chair Mike Erlandson tells Cathy Wurzer for MPR News. “The challenge, of course, is that the people that have to make the change are now elected officials, and they're a product of that system.”

Sacred Indigenous Land Likely to Cease Being Dog Park Soon

A detailed report confirmed what many Indigenous people already knew: The Minnehaha Dog Park is located on Mni Owe Sni, a sacred site where Dakota people are buried. Now the Minneapolis Park Board is looking into decommissioning it. 

“It’s nice to be able to bring your dog somewhere to not be leashed, and at the same time, this isn’t the right place,” Maggie Lorenz, who’s on the Park Board’s Native American advisory council, told Susan Du at the Strib in late April. “We don’t want to take something away, an amenity that the community really values ... so we’ve been working with the Park Board about considerations around relocating it.”

The resolution to close the park will go before the Park Board’s Planning Commission on Wednesday night (you can watch it live on YouTube), and it seems likely it will pass and move on to a full advisory council vote.

"We have to close the off-leash dog park, that's where I'm at," Commissioner Dan Engelhart said at a May meeting. "People are going to be in their feelings in less than healthy ways about this," he continued, likely referencing online advocates who are trying to keep the area unleashed. Might as well open a dog park inside Lakewood Cemetery...

Watch Pilllar (Politely) Turn Down Collab With Live Nation, Chase Bank

Northeast Minneapolis’s Pilllar Forum Cafe started out as a coffee and eco-conscious skateboard shop, eventually adding a music venue to its list of offerings and hosting a variety of punk and hardcore acts. It's a real DIY kinda space.

So when the organizers behind Minnesota Yacht Club, the nostalgia-fueled two-day music festival on Harriet Island, came calling with interest in Pilllar hosting an activation during the event that would involve teaming up with Live Nation and Chase Bank, Pilllar's answer was a firm “no.”

“I, um, just don’t think it aligns with our values,” Pilllar founder Corey Bracken explains to someone over the phone, which he video recorded and posted on Facebook. “Knowing how Chase has been over the years, with the Epstein stuff and definitely their in fossil fuels and fracking all over the world.” He mentions that Live Nation isn’t a great fit to collab with his indie venue, either.