Thinking about the Twins' season, how sweet it is that the Twins came from out of nowhere to take this division title. I don't think enough can be said about the improbable September run they went on to essentially just make the Tigers look bad. On the other hand, the cynic's point of view might be one that says over the course of the season, if the season would have gone the way it should have, the Twins should have won the division by 5 or 6 games at least!
Oh well, the bottom line is that the Twins move on, while the Tigers hit the links. Up next for the Twins...(sigh)...the Yankees. Remember back in May of 2002 when the Twins scored 3 runs in the 14th inning to take a 12-9 lead at Yankee Stadium, only to have Jason Giambi (a Yankee for all of a month and a half at the time) hit a walk-off grand slam off of Mike Trombley for a 13-12 Yankee win? I remember that being a Friday evening and coming in for my Saturday morning airshift on KGFX, and I'll tell you what, you've never heard an on-air guy whine and moan on the air as much as I did that morning. I remember the wife of a certain Yankee fan in town (you know who you are) calling me up to tell me to pretty much "deal with it," as I paraphrase a little. I think "shut up" was the actual intended message. :o)
But anyway, it seems that that very grand slam (by a juicer) has assured the Twins that the Yankee mystique will never die, and that the Twins' hopes for a single win, let alone a series win, will also never live. What was the graphic I saw the last night? Something like, the Twins are 5-25 since 2002 in the Bronx, including the playoffs. The Yankees beat the Twins 3 games to 1 in both of their two previous ALDS series this decade, in 2003 and 2004. By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, the Twins' winning pitcher in both of those games was a guy named Santana......Where for art thou, Johan?!?! By the way, isn't it interesting that Giambi's 2002 walk-off grand slam came exactly 5 years to the day after David Wells pitched a perfect game against the Twins in 1997?
So, what reasons can we offer that might give Twins fans a reason for hope this time around? Well, they are the hottest team in the American League, winning 17 of their last 21, although all of those are against AL Central teams. Yes, the Twins were 0-7 against the Yankees this year, including a 4-game sweep in New York, but hey, if baseball were an 8-inning game, the Twins would have won 3 of them, and they would have won all 4 if they only played 7-inning games! I always knew softball had it right. :o) But then again...and again...and again...there's that Yankee mystique. It kind of makes Twins fans feel like they don't stand a chance, and maybe they don't. Obviously every analyst in the industry will feel the same way, but as one prominent analyst always says: "That's why they play the games!" I don't think the Twins will win a game against the team with baseball's best record, and most inviting home run porch, but I'll end that thought with two words: reverse psychology.
A lot of people agree on one thing regarding the Yankees -- you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Me personally, I hate the Yankees with a passion, and everything they stand for, but only in the business sense of the game. As a kid I always liked the Yankees, and even in 1996, when I was so sick of the Braves, I was thrilled when the Yankees won that World Series. I just got tired of 'em after that. I've mentioned before, I am fascinated by the history of the game of baseball, and you obviously can't talk baseball history without talking about the Yankees. I'm not old enough to have ever seen Mickey Mantle play, but oh, what I wouldn't give to go back in time so I could see him play just once. These days, it's not the players I hate, it's just the organization, which is to say, the owners. Like Chris Rock said in a stand-up routine last year, "Don't hate the playa, hate the game." The game in this case is the business, not what happens on the field. Call it jealousy if you want, but you don't see such one-sidedness in other sports like you do in baseball. Sure there are dynasties in football for instance, but they don't last for 15 years and longer, like the Yankees have.
I should wrap this, before I ramble too long and miss the first pitch of game one this afternoon (on KGFX). Good luck to the Twins, and to underdogs everywhere!
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