Baseball That Matters

When a new Minnesota Twins season schedule is published one's eye usually goes to the start of the season and who do the Twins open up against, when and where is the All Star Game and then your eyes go to that last series of the year. Who are the Twins playing and more importantly will those end of the season games matter? Watching the Twins take on the Royals in front of a sold out Metrodome meant the stadium was closing its doors to baseball soon, but more importantly it meant those games were meaningful. As a fan you want your team to be competitive, but ultimately playing important baseball at the end of the season is all that really matters to you. You want the feeling of watching those same players you've watched night after night keep playing until that last out of the year because that represents a team effort worthy of a possible playoff berth. Observing the next fresh, new and exciting young prospect play games as regulars sit the bench while the leaves change color means your team is playing out the dreaded string. Not the scenario you envisioned when that season schedule first hit your hands. The Minnesota Twins have teetered on the edge of playing games that have mattered very little this year, but when your team is playing game number 163 for the right to go to the playoffs you have to conclude this season has been worthy of praise. Today the Twins will go to the payoffs or fall short by a game for the second year in row. Losing would be disappointing, but every Washington Nationals and Kansas City Royals fan along with each person representing a team not playoff bound would give up a week's worth of sleep to be in this tiebreaking game. Win or lose this season has been unexpectedly entertaining and that is all anybody wanted when the season began.