MINNEAPOLIS -- Dick Bremer said he’s had plenty of time to prepare for what a spring and summer without baseball would be like for him, so it’s “predictably different,” he says, to not be in the broadcast booth at Target Field as the home schedule gets underway -- but he’ll always be a part of that booth now.

On Thursday, in commemoration of Bremer’s 40 seasons behind the microphone for television broadcasts of Twins baseball, the organization dedicated that television booth as the “Dick Bremer Broadcast Booth” before he threw the ceremonial first pitch to formally usher in the 2024 home schedule.

Now that Bremer has no broadcast obligations, he seems most excited for Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, when he’ll take on his next baseball adventure: a playing career in a senior baseball league.

“All these great guys that I worked with -- Harmon [Killebrew], Bert [Blyleven], Jim Kaat, Justin [Morneau] -- they had great playing careers and then great broadcasting careers,” Bremer said. “I’m going to try to do it in reverse. I did my 40 years broadcasting, and now my goal is to be the oldest American League Rookie of the Year ever, at age 68.”

And how about, well, finally getting a chance to enjoy a beer during a game?

“Yeah, honestly, there’s a snappy retort to that, but I never did that,” Bremer said. “Now, some of the partners I worked with, I don’t know.”

Bremer was cracking those jokes with the trademark humor that piped into living rooms across Twins Territory for four decades, but Thursday was certainly an emotional day for the longtime broadcaster, his family and a party of roughly 75 people, Bremer said, from Dumont, Minn. -- the tiny town in western Minnesota where Bremer grew up before the franchise had even relocated from Washington, D.C., to the Twin Cities.

He choked up as he spoke of the plaque that would be affixed outside the broadcast booth in his honor, and he accepted a commissioned metal art piece that recognized his 40 years behind the microphone, along with a $5,000 donation from the Twins to baseball in Dumont.

He walked down the hallway to the booth that he’d called home since 2010 and unveiled the plaque with his photo and a paragraph of his career accomplishments, a few hours before he threw a good first pitch, signed the baseball and gave it to his elementary school teacher, Darlys Forcier.

That’s who Bremer was -- and is -- as he continues his involvement with the organization as a special assistant and ambassador in the front office: a native of small-town Minnesota who had the ability to connect with all folks across Twins Territory through his lived experiences around the organization.

“It's hard to imagine there's any broadcaster that we've had that has worked more tirelessly on behalf of the organization to preach the gospel of Twins baseball than Dick Bremer,” Twins president and CEO Dave St. Peter said. “For that, today, we are really thrilled to have an opportunity to pay tribute and to honor him.”

One thing that Bremer remains proud of is the trivia fact that he worked alongside five Hall of Famers as part of his broadcasting career: Paul Molitor, Jack Morris, Kaat, Killebrew and, of course, his longest-tenured analyst partner, Blyleven.

It’s his most recent broadcast partner, Morneau, who pointed out that, at every step of the way, Bremer was the one to guide each of them in their journeys from the field to the broadcast booth.

“My parents would sit at home and listen to you call the games, calling my first home run or my first hit or the big moments that have happened throughout my career,” Morneau said. “I can't say how grateful I am for your time in the booth calling the games, but also sharing that time with you and the friendship we've built over the years.”

Though Bremer won’t be in that booth for the first time since the 1980s, the golf courses now beckon, and Bremer claims that he’s been told it’s possible to catch walleye in Minnesota’s lakes without needing to drill a hole through ice first.

And as he emphasized several times on Thursday, he’ll still be around the ballpark, and he’ll still be around the game -- perhaps even on the mound in that senior league.

“The bar’s pretty low,” Bremer said. “My spin rate is in the single digits. But I love the game, right?”