There is no shot they can give you for baseball fever

Well, how could I NOT talk about sports this week? Going back one week (which seems like a month in recent Minnesota sports time) my Minnesota Twins were three games behind the Detroit Tigers in the mild American League Central Division with only four games to play. No team in history had ever come back to win the division from three games back with four to play…until this year. The Twins defeated the Tigers last Thursday to pull within one game. This was still a tall task—two games back with three to play. It was especially difficult considering the Twins wouldn’t be playing the Tigers over those last three games. Instead, they had to sweep an improving Kansas City Royals team…which they did…while hoping the Chicago White Sox could win two out of three in Detroit…which they did.

This, of course, set up a wild day at the Metrodome on Sunday, when officials had scheduled a gigantic farewell party for the dome, in what was supposed to be the last Twins game there…ever.

The season ended with the Twins and Tigers tied for first place, forcing the one-game, winner-take-all regular season playoff on Tuesday evening. I can guarantee that there is absolutely no way you non-baseball fans could have had a more exciting and jubilant Tuesday evening than did us Twins fans. Most of us know that the game went 12 innings, with the local nine ending up victorious.

Normally, that playoff game would have been held on Monday evening, but there was the small task of eradicating cheeseheads from our midst via a Vikings victory over the Packers.

Being bumped until Tuesday causes some problems for the Twins. The win meant they had 20 hours to get to New York for the first game of the ALDS against the hated Yankees, or as Tyler native Jeff Steen would call them, the “Bankees.” The team arrived in their New York hotel at about 4:00 AM. First pitch was 5:07 P.M.

Of course with five straight exciting Twins games, each one more important than the last, we baseball fans picked up a lot of bandwagon jumpers…people who really didn’t pay much attention throughout the other 158 games this season. That’s OK, we’ll still take you.

Of course it is easy to pick up on the baseball novices most of the time…usually shortly after they speak. My favorite was yesterday morning on WCCO radio. The reporter asked a young lady the following: “So, how are the Twins going to do against the Bronx Bombers?” The young lady replied with a clueless, “I thought we were playing the Yankees.”

Funny stuff.

I spent the summer at the Opera House bemoaning the omnipresence of those “Damn Yankees,” and here I find myself with a bonus Act 3 in the fall. I hate the way the “Bankees” can throw money at any weak spot that pops up in their lineup and prey upon the smaller market teams. It seems like cheating to me. The Twins have won five division titles in eight years by playing smart, scrappy and fundamentally sound baseball on a budget. It’s tough to take that next step, however, on their payroll.

That’s OK though, I’d rather pull for the little guy any day. We’ll be lucky if they win one game against the Bombers, but what a season they gave us.

I thank them for delaying for one more week the inevitable rite of fall…cheesehead baiting.

And that will have to help pass the time until pitchers and catchers report in February.