An Antidote to Steroids

7 October 2009



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Twins Beat Tigers in One Game Baseball Playoff

Major League Baseball has the longest season of any professional sport in North America, and quite possibly the world. For 162 games every year, baseball is in regular season mode. This year in the American League's Central Division, they needed a 163rd game to decide the champion. The Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers had identical records at 86 wins and 76 losses each. So last night, they played one game for the title. It may have been one of the most exciting games ever. After 3 extra innings, the Twins came out on top.

The quotations from those participating are testimony to just what happened on that field. "That has got to be one of the best games I've ever been a part of," Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge said. "It was hard for me to believe there was a loser in this game," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "That's the sickest game," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire to friends outside the clubhouse. "Was that sick, or what?" Note to non-American readers, "sick" has come to mean "great and wonderful" in certain quarters.

It wasn't just a players' game. The Baseball Nation was tuned in to it, quite literally. Reuters reported, "TBS' coverage of the American League Central tiebreaker, won by the Twins, drew 6.5 million viewers, the largest audience for a tiebreaker since 1998. It also marked a 57 percent increase over last year's clincher between the Twins and Chicago White Sox." And TBS is a cable network that some households don't receive.

It started off looking like Detroit's night. Miguel Cabrera's two-run homer made it Tigers 3 Twins 0 in the 3rd. Yet the Twins put a run on in the bottom half of the inning to keep it close. Another Twins run in the 6th made it 3-2. They took the lead 4-3 in the bottom of the 7th with a two-run homer of their own. In the top of the 8th, the score was tied 4-4. And that's where regulation play ended.

In extra innings, the Tigers took a 5-4 lead on a double that scored a pinch runner from first. The Twins responded with a run scoring single, playing little baseball instead of swinging for the fences. And then, in the 12th, another small ball play won it for the Twins.

The Twins now face the New York Yankees, who will likely beat them quickly. The World Series is some way off, but it looks like it will be played in Southern California, with the Dodgers taking the Angels in 6. Yet, the Twins and the Tigers gave baseball fans a night the likes of which hasn't been seen in some time. A game that mattered, that was close, and that was played more for honor than money. It's the perfect antidote to the steroid nonsense, pure, unadulterated baseball.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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