Minnesota Twins to host Prince Night featuring inflatable purple guitars

Once again, the Minnesota Twins are holding a Prince Night at Target Field to honor the legendary artist.

This June, one day after what would have been the 60^th birthday of legendary musician Prince, the Minnesota Twins are holding a night in his honor. This is an ongoing tradition since the artist passed away in 2016. Shortly after his death in April of that year, the Twins paid respects by turning their field purple, holding a moment of silence, and releasing seven white doves to the sky. Then they won the game, 4-3, on a walkoff home run by Oswaldo Arcia.

Last June, the team honored Prince once again as the players wore Prince-themed purple shirts during batting practice and fans received some very cool purple Prince umbrellas that featured an image from the movie “Purple Rain.” There were also fireworks. Unfortunately, the Twins lost the game against Cleveland, 8-1.

This year, for their June 8 game against the Los Angeles Angels, the Twins will again celebrate the Minneapolis native with Prince Night. Inflatable purple guitars will be given out to the first 10,000 fans. These guitars will light up during a special seventh-inning stretch ceremony.

Fans that really want to go all-in on Prince Night can purchase a Prince Theme Night Package. This package includes a purple Prince hat with the traditional TC emblem on the side and, on the front, the symbol that Prince once used as his name when he became “the artist formerly known as Prince” in 1993. He was called that by the media because the symbol didn’t have a name. It was a mash-up of the gender symbols for man and woman. Prince changed his name to the symbol because of a disagreement with his record label. When his contract with Warner Bros expired in 2000, he went back to being known as Prince.

In addition to Prince Night, the Twins will have Prince-branded merchandise available year-round thanks to a deal with the singer’s estate that was announced recently. They will sell the purple hats that are included with the Prince Theme Night Package, along with Prince-branded baseballs, shirts and other items. All of these items will only be available at Target Field. It’s believed to be the first deal like this in major league sports.

Prince has long been a favorite of the people of Minnesota, going back to his early years as a self-taught musician who could play numerous instruments, which he did on his first two albums, For You (1978) and Prince (1979). On that second album, he had his first top 20 pop hit, the song “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” His third album, Dirty Minds (1980), was critically acclaimed despite its graphical exploration of sexuality and fantasy. Album number four, Controversy (1981) was more of the same.

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Prince hit the big time internationally with 1999, released in 1982. Then came Purple Rain (1984), both the album and the movie, and he had reached full legendary status. Purple Rain had two number one hits, “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy” and a third song, “Purple Rain” that rose to number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

Another song from that album, “Darling Nikki”, was the impetus behind Al Gore’s wife, Tipper, pushing for warning labels on albums with graphic lyrics. She bought the song for their 11-year-old daughter and was shocked when she listened to it, saying, “The vulgar lyrics embarrassed both of us. At first, I was stunned, but then I got mad! Millions of Americans were buying Purple Rain with no idea what to expect. Thousands of parents were giving the album to their children—many even younger than my daughter.”

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The Gore’s outrage led to the creation of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). They formed a list of the “Filthy Fifteen” most objectionable songs and Prince’s “Darling Nikki” topped the list. With that background, it’s not likely that the Twins will play “Darling Nikki” on Prince Night this year, but maybe the team’s number two prospect, Nick Gordon, will slip it into his walk-up song list when he makes the big leagues.