When Abraham Lincoln spoke of the only institution greater than the American Constitution, it is generally understood that he was speaking of Heaven. I think he was talking about Major League Baseball.
The Twins decided earlier this weekend that if there was any shot at a division title still on the line in Sunday's regular-season finale against the White Sox, they would send Carlos Silva to the mound.
After the Twins dropped their second straight game to Chicago on Saturday and needed a Detroit loss to remain in the hunt for the American League Central title, there were some doubts.
But in a season where the impossible became the possible, the Royals pulled off a win over Detroit in Saturday night's contest, leaving Minnesota with an outside chance of earning the title.
Powerline's Paul Mirengoff sharply criticized the Wild Card system in contemporary baseball. It is hard to agree this evening with his assessment. The Twins passed the Tigers on the very last day of the regular season, and did so by playing some spectacular baseball. They did so by beating the White Sox, thus depriving the Southside Slackers of the last thing they could hope for this year: taking the home field advantage away from the Twins in the first game of post season play. The level of excitement in the Metrodome (and in my living room) rivaled that of post season games, and was amplified by the constant posting of scores from the Royals/Tigers game. This has been a great season for Twins and, until recently, for Tigers fans.
And incidently, Joe Mauer finished the season with the best batting average in either league. When that became clear during the game, Gardy had to bring him out to tip to the crowd.
Bonus joke. Dave Barry once noted something to this effect: the difference between a man and a woman is that a woman will choose to save the life of a child rather than throw to first base without even considering whether there is a man on second.
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