Yikes. Suddenly these last three with Chicago really do mean something, if not in the way he had anticipated.
If you hadn’t heard, the Twins won last night (http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20060928&content_id=1688734&vkey=wrapup2005&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb). The Chairman tied the game at one with a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth, and Jason Bartlett knocked in the winning run in the tenth. This game was significant for a few reasons.
First of all, Brad Radke pitched well. Of course, it’s the Royals, but 57 pitches in 5 innings is a good outing regardless. I mostly saw his velocity around 87-88 MPH, which is enough for him. If the Twins could squeeze five innings out of him in the playoffs, and avoid using Carlos Silva, that will be big.
And secondly, the Tigers lost last night (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260928106). Kenny Rogers got smoked. And suddenly, the Twins and Tigers are both 95-64. The Tigers hold the tiebreak (season series), so the Twins are still a de facto one game back. But it’s been a long way to the top, and this is something to savor, no doubt.
- There was quite a bit of baseball news yesterday. The Mets clinched long ago, but will play the postseason without their ace (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2606427). The NL is wide open, kids.
- It’s so wide open, in fact, that the NL central gap between the Cards and Astros is down to a half-game (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260928123). Everyone expected the Tigers to cave, and they didn’t. But St. Louis sure did.
- Daniel Cabrera nearly no-hit the Yankees on Thursday (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260928110). This would remain in the realm of “that’s neat,” except for the fact that the Yankees now sit at 96-63, just one game ahead of the Twins and Tigers for homefield in the AL (and, thanks to the All-Star Game, the World Series).
- The NL wildcard is plenty close as well. The Dodgers (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260928127&date=20060928) and Padres (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260928129) both won, with the Pads keeping their one-game NL West lead. The Phillies lost, (http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=260928120), leaving them on the brink of elimination.
So now you’re up to speed. Enjoy the final weekend, and see you in the playoffs.
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3 comments:
Let me get this straight, fellow Twins fans: last night, we've got Brad Radke coming back at the end of a year in which he's played with crippling arm pain, to pitch with a torn labrum and a stress-fractured shoulder, for what (as far as anyone knows at the time) may be his last appearance as a Minnesota Twin, after a 12 year career that put him third on the Twins' all-time list of victories, trying to help his team into first place...and the stadium isn't FULL?!? Fewer than 27,000?? I'm groping for words here...appalling, disgraceful, and pathetic come to mind.
No, I wasn't at the stadium either; but then, I live in Maryland. (So I did the best I could: for the first time, I paid $5 to watch the game on the internet.) So maybe I'm not entitled to throw stones.
But I was expecting a better showing from my fellow fans.
--Perry Beider
Clearly, Perry, you've been away from the Dome long enough to forget the most basic reality of baseball in Minneapolis- 27,000 is about 2,000 more seats with anything approaching reasonable sightlines than the Dome has available. Now, yes, the quality of the stadium becomes less of an issue when the team is crushing and the playoffs loom. But the simple reality is that the Dome has more than 20,000 seats where you are so unlikely to be able to follow the game as to make attendance pointless, except in those rare situations in which merely being able to say you were at the game is compensation for not having actually seen it. And sorry, but a late season game against Kansas City doesn't meet that criterion.
Personally, I go to all the games I can, but if the best seat available is in the 22nd row of a corner section that faces nothing but the folded-up seats behind Torii Hunter, I'm staying home and watching the game on TV.
On another note, there is a peculiar habit among sports fans in this country to make absolutely no distinction between a city of 500,000 and a city of 10 million when it comes to attendance at sporting events. Stadiums tend to be close to the same size in every city, but every city is expected to fill every seat, regardless of whether the numbers add up.
All that having been said, you may expect the Dome to be full to bursting this weekend for the White Sox, and it will sell out every game for the playoffs, as always. (Yes, I already have my tickets, in the 22nd row of a section that faces Torii Hunter's backdrop.)
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