Monday, August 28, 2006

Twins Own Sox & My AL Central SWAG

A tip of the hat to the Twins for their spirited play over the past few months. They do have a mastery of team baseball. It hurts to admit this but in head-to-head action, the Twins are better than my beloved White Sox. As the AL Central has become a three-way race, we see that the Twins own the Sox, the Tigers own the Twins, and the Sox own the Tigers. It’s like ro-sham-bo, AL Central style. So, who’s going to win? With about 32 games left, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Sox win by a nose, and in a strange twist the Twins win the wildcard. That’s right, I’m now saying that Detroit will be on the outside looking in on October 2nd, missing the playoffs by one game. I’m taking a cue from Forbes (and Colbert), be controversial, don’t worry about facts, and just state what you want to happen.

It looks like the Twins have the most heart and spirit, while the Sox have the most potential. The Twins are playing over their heads and will continue to do so until somebody wakes them up. So far, that’s been hard to do. On the other hand, the entire Sox team look like they’re going through the motions. If the Sox could display some esprit-des-corps and the starting pitchers could “manage” the game, the Sox will be in great shape.

I believe the Sox need to win 97 games to secure the division, so if they can go 21 and 11 down the stretch, we’re golden.

The Twins are a great team to watch, but some of their fans just drive me nuts. Why do so many Twins fans bother me? Because many of them are like indoor versions of Cubs fans – don’t understand the game, can’t name five starters, and cheer more for the free t-shirt between innings than they do for a good play. To their credit, most of the fans can read, so when prompted to cheer they do so. On August 18th, I’m at the dome for a game and a guy behind me goes ballistic because the “shortstop missed the tag” at second. I had to turn and tell the guy that it was a force out. “So he doesn’t need to tag him?” Ugh. Then there’s the ugly side of my instinctive, reactionary nature, which as a father I should now try to suppress. I’m sure Elise and Christopher will appreciate this one. As I entered the dome in my Sox jersey, a Twins fan comes up to me, gets in my face and starts booing. This is interesting, he made eye contact. Then he continues to boo – boo this, boo that, boo South Side, and then asks “What would Kirby say?” My immediate response was “not much now.” The fan walked away.

Any other predictions on the playoff race?