Wow! How awesome was that? Last night’s tiebreaker play-in game between Detroit and Minnesota before the largest baseball crowd in Metrodome history was truly one for the ages and one of the most stressful and amazing contests I’ve ever witnessed. But after nearly 5 hours of back and forth and give and take, my Twins won 6 - 5 in 12 innings and became the first team in history to win a division after being 3 games out with 4 to play, while the Tigers became one of a handful of teams to blow a 7-game lead in the standings in September—ouch!
So it’s on to a best-out-of-five against the Yankees, a team they have beaten a grand total of once in the last two years. I’m certainly proud of what this team has accomplished late in the season given all of the injuries (including 1/2 of their starters and All-Star 1B Justin Morneau), so if this is the end of the ride, so be it. Minnesota may be the biggest underdog ever in a playoff series, but we might as well play the games and see what happens. Go Twins!
Here we go again! After a wonderful stretch of 16 victories in their last 20 games (w/o former MVP Justin Morneau available no less), my Minnesota Twins have battled back from 7 games behind the Detroit Tigers to tie them in the standings and once again force a game # 163 to determine who wins the AL Central and advances to the playoffs. We’ve seen this before—last year the Twins tied with the White Sox but had to go to Chicago for the play-in game and suffered a brutal 1-0 defeat. The outrage over the location of that game actually forced a rule change in Major League Baseball (imagine that), and later this afternoon the Twins have home-field advantage in the tiebreaker game by virtue of winning the season series. A coin flip would have decided the site under the tiebreaker procedures of previous years, but this time it is based simply on which team had the best record in the first 18 meetings (the Twins were 11-7). So at least the head-to-head season series counts for something…
They are the first team in league history to need a 163rd game to finish the year in back-to-back seasons. They were 3 back with 4 to go and won 4 straight to close out the season and got some help from Chicago who won 2 out of 3 from the Tigers in Detroit. It’s the final year for the Metrodome (one of the greatest home field advantages ever), and they’re just not ready to say goodbye yet. The stars are alligned…now let’s go out and play ball like we’re capable of. Go Twins!
As the sun sets on my beloved Minnesota Twins and their incredibly lame starting rotation (Carl Pavano as the savior—really!?) after their latest losing road trip (2 - 4 combined against “Let’s have a fire sale” Cleveland and 1st place Detroit), I must admit to a great deal of satisfaction in the Yankees dismantling of the Red Sox this weekend. The only contest of the 4-game series not to be televised down here was the 15-inning scoreless epic (of course), but even the updates on MLB and ESPN were exciting until A-Rod ended the 0-0 deadlock with that 2-run blast.
For New York fans or Boston haters, this series had a bit of everything. Yankee pitching held Boston scoreless for an unbelievable 31 innings, the longest such streak for the Sox in at least 35 years. The Yankees ended up outscoring Boston 25 - 8, with 6 of those coming in Game 1. A-Rod came through in the clutch (for real) and all of the high priced free agent acquisitions (Teixeira, Sabathia, and Burnett) delivered. Teixeira even homered two pitches after Johnny Damon did in the bottom of the 8th to put NY up for good in Sunday’s finale, the sixth time this season that the two of them have gone back-to-back—incredibly the most ever for the same pair of players in one season in Yankee history. Now that’s a piece of trivia that’s hard to believe, especially when you consider how many years Maris and Mantle played together.
While I’m not optimistic, I still hold out a little faith that the Twins may eventually go on some kind of tear and challenge the Tigers and White Sox. But knowing the Red Sox are 6 1/2 back in the AL East and fighting for their Wild Card lives with Tampa Bay and Texas makes these final 50 games or so just a bit sweeter.
Wow! Talk about a deal to shake things up. I still can’t get a handle on whether or not the Magic trading for Orlando native and 8-time All Star, ex-Toronto Raptor, ex-New Jersey Net Vince Carter is a good thing or bad. And apparently I’m not alone, since an Orlando Sentinel poll showed that 49% liked the Carter/Ryan Anderson for Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston, and Tony Battie deal, while 50% did not.
I was resigned to losing Alston and Battie for financial reasons, since I figured the Magic needed to dump their salaries to be able to sign Hedo Turkoglu when he opted out of the last year of his current contract. But when Hedo’s agent rejected their first offer (apparently far below the $10 mil per for 5 years that Hedo was looking for), I think the Magic couldn’t let him just walk and get nothing in return (a la Shaq so many years ago). So when they had a chance to acquire a former All-Star and hometown boy (especially one that can create his own shot at the end of games), they jumped at it. And though he’s a couple of years older than Hedo, Carter’s stats (granted, on a far less balanced team) were better with 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists per game.
No one’s happy about letting go of Courtney Lee, who had a terrific rookie season, especially on the defensive side. And would I rather have Hedo and Courtney on the team than Vince Carter? I’d say YES, but waiting or negotiating for that possibility may have blown up in the Magic’s faces. It’s a shame Orlando is already breaking up a team that made it all the way to the NBA Finals and lost at least a couple of games to inexperience, not necessarily lack of talent. But GM Otis Smith has rolled the dice and gambled that Carter’s offensive talents and versatility (though not as unique as Hedo’s) will blend with his other 3 All-Stars and produce a championship. Now let’s see what he can do about the Power Forward spot and the bench. Antonio McDyess (sp?) for a start sounds pretty good to me.
Yes, in the immortal words of Hedo Turkoglu at the somber post-game press conference after Game 4 of the NBA Finals, that about sums it up. Easily the most gut wrenching, soul crushing, rip-your-heart-out defeat in the 20-year history of the Magic franchise, Orlando has no one to blame but themselves (even if the refs somehow didn’t see Kobe elbow Jameer in the face late in the OT and knock him to the floor) as they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
And the ironic thing is that Magic fans have seen it all before—14 years ago in Game 1 of the Finals against Houston, the Magic were up by 3 with 11 seconds left and a chance to put the game away by making one friggin’ free throw. But Nick Anderson ended up missing 4 in a row and Orlando let Kenny Smith tie the game on a 3-pointer to send it into overtime, which they proceeded to lose and ultimately get swept. Cut to the present, 11seconds left in the game. On a just abominable foul-shooting night by the whole Magic team (they missed 15!), Dwight Howard can essentially tie up the series with one free throw by making it a 4-point, 2 possession lead. But he misses them both badly, and the Lakers call time-out, down by 3. Does Stan Van Gundy put in a defensive replacement for the 5-10 mighty mite, Jameer Nelson, who had to be running on fumes after playing the whole 4th quarter despite returning from a 4-month shoulder injury? No. Does Stan Van Gundy elect to foul any Laker who crosses mid-court with the ball so there’s no opportunity for a game-tying 3-pointer? No. So with 5 seconds left Derek Fisher, the 3rd most prolific 3-point shooter in NBA Finals history, is left wide open (!) to walk into and drain a 3 right in Jameer’s face. Tie score. The Magic get a horrible shot by Michael Pietrus with 5 seconds left that has no chance of going in, and we’re headed to overtime. Game, Set, Match.
It was like a Twilight Zone episode happening before our eyes in the NBA Finals. Aren’t we supposed to learn from our past mistakes? 19 turnovers (7 by Dwight—again!), 15 missed free throws (4 by Hedo in the 4th quarter—are you kidding me?), 2 baskets total for All-Star Rashard Lewis (who went 2 for 10 in a must-win game—nice!), and a jaw-droppingly idiotic defensive strategy and execution on the most important play of the season.
Believe it or not, one Courtney Lee lay-up and one Dwight Howard foul shot is all that separates this Magic team from being up 3-1. Instead, the Lakers are ready to send them packing for summer vacation either Sunday here or Tuesday back in LA. Coulda, shoulda, woulda… It’s a sad day in O’town—this one really hurt.
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