OAKLAND -- It's not every day that a playoff series goes to a Game 7 -- and it's even rarer to just happen to be less than a block away.
So, after the Twins played their series opener at the Coliseum on Monday afternoon, around 20 players made the short walk next door to Oracle Arena to watch the Golden State Warriors' 96-88 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Western Conference Finals.
"We saw that it was a big Game 7, so I talked to a couple of [my teammates] and got my agent on it," said second baseman Brian Dozier, one of the masterminds behind the operation. "I told him to be on the lookout and make a connection. Right when [the Warriors] won [Game 6], we booked it just like that."

Dozier, Trevor Plouffe, Ervin Santana, Ricky Nolasco and others took over a luxury box, where they watched the game and got a rare opportunity to relax together and bond as a group. That was more rewarding to them than the game itself, given their variety of backgrounds and rooting interests in the game.
"Most of us were basketball fans, but some of our guys, to be honest with you, I don't think they even knew who was playing," Dozier said. "You had that wide range of people that were just there to have fun, and we had an awesome time."
"The best part was all of us being there together," added Plouffe, a longtime Lakers fan.
An assortment of Twins staff members and coaches also made their way over to the game, with a notable absence: manager Paul Molitor, who ended up watching the game on television.
"If a guy's trying to break into the lineup, don't be afraid to invite your manager," Molitor joked.
"I just asked them about it -- they say they all had a ball," he said.