Sunday, October 11, 2009

Achieving the improbable

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 American League Central Division Champions, the Minnesota Twins. Wait… huh? That's right. The Twins had front-row seats to the worst baseball collapse since 1901, courtesy of the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers coughed up a seven-game lead that they held at the start of September, and they also choked so much that they couldn't clinch the division while holding a three game lead with four to play. The Twins capitalized in game 163.

In one of the most exciting games ever to be played under the Teflon sky, the Twins had some more Metrodome Magic up their sleeves as they pulled off a 6-5 win in 12 innings. It should go down as an instant classic, ranking right up there with the World Series games of 1987 and 1991.

Big game
In light of this game being of such a huge magnitude, I decided to take in the game at Joe Senser's in Bloomington with my friend Cassie. Let me tell you, I did not regret that decision. The energy was just electric all night long.

The game got off to a rough start once Detroit jumped out to a 3-0 lead. I'll be honest: I didn't have a good feeling. In the Twins' at-bats, I saw the Delmon Young prior to his September surge, I saw Michael Cuddyer with a swinging strikeout reminiscent of April and I didn't see the fire and passion from the Twin as in recent weeks.

They narrowed the score to 3-2 with a run resulting from an error and a Jason Kubel upper-deck blast. Then Orlando Cabrera continued his hitting streak with a two-run shot in the seventh inning to lead 4-3. That got a big outburst of cheers. It felt good to finally have the lead and the momentum.

Nerves set in
Of course, Matt Guerrier took them away almost as quickly as they came with a homer to Magglio Ordonez to start the eighth inning. Tie game. From this point on, my nerves were going crazy, and they didn’t stop until the end.

It became a managing duel between Ron Gardenhire and Jim Leyland during the late and extra innings with a slew of pitching changes. There were sticky spots for both sides, but they got out of jams when needed.

Great plays were abundant throughout the game. Nick Punto threw home to save a run instead of trying to turn a difficult double play. Then there was Curtis Granderson getting too excited and then doubled off first base. And Michael Cuddyer's triple when the ball got past a diving Ryan Raburn in left field.

An unlikely winning pair
Everyone will remember the bottom of the 12th inning with two of the most unlikely Twins heroes. With speedy Carlos Gomez on second, Alexi Casilla (yes, the same Casilla who was sent to Rochester this season to deal with his hitting and mental mistakes) singled through the right infield hole for the division-clinching RBI.

Chaos ensued. Everyone at Senser's went absolutely nuts, and I'm sure we weren't the only ones. I started jumping up and down, screamed a little and high-fived Cassie.

After we calmed down a little, we sat there in awe. We had looked at each other in disappointment after the Tigers scored in the 10th and said "it's over." Now we were saying, "I can't believe what is happening." It was amazing to see what the Twins just pulled off. Absolutely unreal.

We were approached by a gentleman who had been sitting at a table near us. "Well girls, now you can relax." He said he had been watching us all night with our heads in our hands and looking nervous. "It's good to see some true fans," he said.

One to remember
This game No. 163 is certainly one for the ages. It is what sports are all about. This is why fans spend so much time devoted to their favorite teams; for games like this.

No matter what happens after this clinching game, (and by now we all know what has happened at Yankee Stadium) this is still a major victory for the Twins. To come back as they did (yes, even in baseball's worst division and with one of the worst collapses of all time) made for some outstanding and exciting baseball down the stretch. That's all you can ask for.

Who would have thought the Homer Hankies would once again be flying in the Dome one last time for playoff baseball? Not many, I'm sure. But this is why they play the games on the field and not on paper, because look what can happen. You can achieve the improbable.

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