CHICAGO — Carlos Correa raised his hands in air as he ran towards first base and did so again once he reached the bag, a show of relief after some tough at the plate luck to begin the season.

Prior to his third-inning single in the Twins’ 6-1 win over the White Sox on Wednesday, Correa was 0-for-18 to start the season despite scalding the ball in many of those at-bats. Even in his first at-bat of the day, Correa struck the ball at 104 miles per hour off the bat to no avail.

He kept coming up empty.

“No frustration, just relief,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do any more. The first swing felt amazing. When I got that one, it was just have fun with the guys.”

And they sure wanted to have fun with him, too.

In the dugout, his teammates teased him, raising their hands up as if to signal for the ball, which teams do when a player records a memorable hit, like his first, and they want to keep it.

“Yeah,” Correa said. “I was expecting that.”

He didn’t have to wait quite as long for his second hit.

In his very next at-bat, Correa hit a double to left. He came around to score on a Byron Buxton double. And now, he said, it’s time to “start rolling.”

“I know Carlos put his arms up to the skies and was pretty excited for the first knock. Truth is, Carlos has had about as quality of at-bats as anyone on our team to this points,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I was amazed that he hadn’t had a hit yet. It actually didn’t make any sense because of how good he actually has looked.”

Twins wait it out

Pablo López didn’t know what to do with himself as the rain delay stretched on and on before Wednesday’s game, so he did something he never does: he took a nap.

The Twins starter, who had to deal with a rain delay before his first start of the season as well, figured he wasn’t going to hear word about a start time for hours, so he did his best to get some relaxation in, dozing off during the 3:20-minute rain delay that preceded the game. The series finale began at 4:30 p.m. instead of the scheduled 1:10 p.m. start.

“I was going insane,” the Twins’ starter said. “Ironically enough, the time goes slow, but also fast at the same time. Like I didn’t realize by the time we had a game time, I had been there for six hours already.”

Byron Buxton, who hit a home run and double in the game, got in a little rest, too.

“I got some of these towels and I sat in this chair. I covered up and I went to sleep. First time ever because I don’t take naps when we’re playing,” Buxton said. “Had a little extra juice in there from that nap.”

Some players played cards, some listened to music and others watched baseball on the clubhouse televisions. Correa had some other plans.

“Talk a lot of smack. Get ready for the game. Talk some more,” Correa said. “Eat. Hang around. Get ready for the game. Then just go play. It was a long day.”

Briefly

Randy Dobnak cleared waivers and accepted his assignment to Triple-A. Dobnak was designated for assignment on Monday. … Joe Ryan, who gave up one run in five innings in his season debut, will start on Thursday opposed by Astros righty Hunter Brown. … Radio announcer Kris Atteberry called Wednesday’s game alongside Justin Morneau with Cory Provus in Milwaukee for Bob Uecker’s celebration of life event. Provus worked alongside the legendary Brewers announcer before coming to Minnesota. Provus had intended on leaving after the game, but the rain delay made that impossible. With Atteberry on television, Dan Gladden handled the radio broadcast solo.

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St. Paul’s Como Planetarium will celebrate 50 years this month with a public “star party” that includes activities, telescopes and the opportunity to see a classic film and original planetarium equipment.

The public is invited to the free celebration from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Como Park Elementary School at 780 W. Wheelock Pkwy. on April 17. The party also will feature the “star ball,” the star projector that was used by the planetarium until around the early 2000s before it was replaced by a digital system.

“And we’ll have activity tables, as well — science-related activities. So people generally can come and they can kind of hop around to those different activities, or the telescopes or the planetarium as it suits them,” said Sarah Weaver, a science teacher on special assignment who leads the planetarium.

In Minnesota, there are only a handful of planetariums, such as the Como Planetarium, Weaver said, though some traveling inflatable ones do exist. Also in St. Paul is the Bell Museum’s planetarium.

Como Planetarium, which can seat up to 55 people, has been in operation since 1975. It is part of St. Paul Public Schools.

A giant globe of the Earth is suspended just outside the Como Planetarium at Como Park Elementary School in St. Paul on Thursday, March 27, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

‘You can do that in a planetarium’

A planetarium provides opportunities a teacher wouldn’t have in other spaces, said Weaver, who started in her role in 2018 and is the fourth planetarium teacher in its history.

“A classroom teacher cannot speed through time and show where the sunrise is changing on the horizon, but you can do that in a planetarium,” she said.

The planetarium typically sees up to 10,000 SPPS students on field trips each school year. Grant funding from 3M Co. supports transportation to the planetarium. The facility also can host groups from outside St. Paul schools.

‘Experiential learning’

The planetarium offers a range of lesson lengths, depending on the grade level and other factors. Como Park first-graders, who simply walk to the planetarium from their classroom, received a half-hour lesson recently. Third-graders, however, have 90-minute lessons.

Weaver works with other SPPS teachers and science specialists to develop her lessons. This has included other teachers on special assignment, such as Julie Hutcheson-Downwind – now principal at American Indian Magnet School – who implemented Indigenous education at the planetarium, teaching students about topics like Ojibwe constellations.

Special Assignment teacher Sarah Weaver teaches Students from Mellissa Anglum’s Como Elementary first grade class about the phases of the moon in the lessons room next to the Como Planetarium at Como Elementary School in St. Paul on Thursday, March 27, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Working with different departments helps support creating the best possible lessons, Weaver said.

“I feel like experiential learning is a great opportunity for interdisciplinary work and for kids to make connections that are not just within one subject area,” Weaver said.

Weaver uses the planetarium’s computer system to teach students about the solar system, locating constellations and other lessons based on the grade level. Fourth-graders, for example, may collect data by measuring the sun’s height in different seasons. An adjoining room also gives students space to do hands-on activities related to what they’ve learned, such as acting out movements of the solar system.

“I mean, part of science is being able to touch things and do things. So I have a tendency to like to teach that way. And while the planetarium is fabulous at showing visuals, it’s nice to have a bigger space for playing with those same concepts, but in a different way,” Weaver said.

‘First time ever’

The planetarium has also hosted other star parties, which is a big piece of what SPPS Community Education does, Weaver said. A recent star party was in preparation for the eclipse last year, Weaver said.

“And still, every single time we do a star party, there are people who look into a telescope for the first time ever,” Weaver said.

Weaver said throughout the planetarium’s history, the focus has been on the kids.

“And I believe the planetarium is an important and critical visual tool, an experiential tool for students understanding the sky and also their place on the planet,” Weaver said.

For details on the star party, go to stpaul.ce.eleyo.com/course/16759/spring-2025-adult/star-party-celebrate-50-years. To learn more about the planetarium, go to commed.spps.org/planetarium.

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CHICAGO — As the rain started and stopped throughout Wednesday afternoon, the Twins waited inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Rate Field, ready to play.

Their long wait — the Twins and White Sox were delayed for 3:20 before their series finale, the third rain delay in their first six games — was ultimately worth it. Once they finally hit the field, the Twins salvaged the day by winning their second consecutive game in Chicago, this one a 6-1 win, sending them home from their season-opening road trip 2-4.

It came on the backs of Pablo López, who threw seven innings of one-run ball, Byron Buxton, who had a pair of extra-base hits, including his first home run of the season, and Harrison Bader, who hit his team-leading third blast of the year.

López, who endured a lengthy rain delay before his first start of the season as well, was sharp from the get-go on Wednesday. He allowed just four hits, and got some good defense behind him, including a diving catch from Buxton in center and a basket catch on the run from shortstop Carlos Correa.

It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the White Sox broke through with second baseman Brooks Baldwin launching a solo home run. But by that point, the Twins had a large lead well in hand.

In the first inning, Buxton crushed a breaking ball left over the plate, sending it 446 feet out to left-center field. The Twins pushed the game out of reach a few innings later in the fourth when Bader, for the second consecutive day, hit a three-run home run, depositing a pitch into the left-field bullpen.

And in the fifth, Correa started a rally with a double. In addition to making a nice defensive play, Correa finally collected his first — and second — hit of the season after days of hard contact. Correa was 0 for 18 before watching a ball roll through the infield and into right, raising his hands to the sky as he saw the ball reach the right field.

In the dugout, his teammates teased him, raising up their hands as if to single for the ball, which teams collect when a player records a memorable hit.

Correa came around to score on a Buxton double — his second extra-base hit of the day — and Buxton scored the Twins’ final run on a Ty France hit.

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FCC Environmental Services will continue to collect residential trash across the city of St. Paul using 560 Randolph Ave. as its base of operations, at least for the next 90 days.

At the urging of Mayor Melvin Carter, the city council voted 6-0 on Wednesday to extend the mayor’s emergency declaration, which temporarily overturned a zoning challenge that had left the trash hauler’s chosen dispatch and maintenance site off-limits just before the start of its citywide contract.

“I will be supporting this … because it’s a critical responsibility of the city to collect trash,” said Council President Rebecca Noecker, who had led efforts two weeks prior to block FCC Environmental from the site.

“I do this without changing my strong position,” she added, blaming the hauler for any last-minute fumbling. “I continue to believe this is not the right site.”

Dispatch center

Noecker said she expected that the mayor’s office and FCC Environmental will use the next 90 days to scout out a better location for what will be a $25 million dispatch center, maintenance facility and compressed natural gas station for the company’s trash trucks. FCC Environmental has made no secret that while it intends to launch service with about 30 trucks, that number might more than double as it expands its presence in the Twin Cities and adds more municipal accounts.

The hauler purchased the former Randolph Avenue tow lot last August and then sought official clarification from the city that its existing “light industrial” zoning would allow trash truck cleaning, maintenance and dispatch, as well as a compressed natural gas refueling station. In response, the city zoning administrator last January called the uses comparable to those of a Public Works yard, which is indeed allowed under “I-1” zoning.

Expressing concern about safety and environmental impacts on their residential neighborhood, members of the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation appealed that finding to the city Planning Commission, which supported the stance taken by city staff. The neighborhood federation then appealed again to the city council, which voted 5-0 on March 19 to support the appeal and overturn the zoning decision, with less than two weeks to go before the April 1 start of citywide trash collection under the new hauler.

State of local emergency

Carter then issued the council a strongly-worded letter, saying the council had “plunged the city into crisis.” He followed that up this week by signing a “state of local emergency” declaration that went into effect Tuesday, just as FCC Environmental was scheduled to begin collection on residential routes citywide.

The emergency declaration could only be for three days without further council action, which was granted Wednesday, but not without some words of warning from the council president. Noecker said the next 90 days should be dedicated to finding an alternate location, and “not be used to undermine the council.”

So far, it does not appear that the company is on board. The Planning Commission’s zoning committee is scheduled to review a site plan for FCC Environmental’s proposed truck facility on April 10, and the full Planning Commission will consider their recommendation a week later.

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