FULL MONDAY SHOW - The Canaries Show (manager Mike Meyer, president Brian Jamros) + Wolves title talk

Happy Hour with John Gaskins

Why not dream big? The Timberwolves can win the NBA championship this season, and Happy Hour host John Gaskins and his happy hour cocktail buddy Jon Oppold, a die-hard T-wolves fan, explain why and how over a beer at Oppold's bar and downtown Wolves games hangout, The Orion Pub.

Like the Wolves, the Sioux Falls Canaries have gone from punchline to playoffs the last couple seasons.

While the story of the Canaries — who open their 50-game home slate with a six-game homestand starting Tuesday — isn't quite the minor league version of the movie Major League, the script has certainly flipped, all under the guidance of a manager could be the star of a movie called "The Survivor" and owners who opened their wallets to make The Birdcage a far more attractive place for players and fans.

For players, a new clubhouse and an artificial infield playing surface that both looks cooler and attracts better players than the old grass did. Then, there's food, lodging, and even clothing upgrades.

If you've been to The Birdcage to see Canaries games the last few years, you've noticed both dramatic and subtle changes in the facility and the fan experience. That has intertwined with the team's results.

These aren't the same lovable losers playing in the same old dump. Not since new owners Brian Slipka and Anthony Albanese from Slipka's True North Family Companies took over in 2021.

The players Meyers used to try to recruit to The Birdcage mostly ignored him. Now, they perk up. It took a lot of heavy lifting to make that transformation. Meanwhile, crowds have grown gradually the last three seasons.

Meyer, the former University of Arizona Wildcat and professional pitcher, joins host John Gaskins for a deep dive into his baseball life and career and how he has seen the Canaries' transformation twice — the first time as the pitching coach on the Birds' only league championship team in 2008.

Before that, Canaries president Brian Jamros walks through the enhancements the fans may have noticed lately — a giant sparkling videoboard that provides elevated entertainment (and new bells, whistles, and features that will be on it in 2025), to new chairback seats in the upper bowl to new (faster) ways of purchasing food, to the shift of one of the stadium's bars, to a vaster array of adult beverages and kid-friendly fun (playground, bounce houses, interactive games).

The Birds have even restructured how they do ice cream for families to enjoy in a different way from the past.

So what's new and improved in 2025, and does the long-term future hold in an aging structure after the Birds' bid to occupy the Riverline District space downtown fell short?