They had just come off a horrible West Coast road trip. The other teams in their division had gotten red hot. There are actually graphs that plot the odds of making the post season. In early August that percentage stood at 4%. Meaning, sure, its theoretically possible but damned unlikely.
But baseball is a sport where the unlikely is always possible. And sometimes happens.
The Twins went on a tear, winning 20 games in the month of August and staying strong into September. Nothing slowed them down. Their All Star closer traded away? No problem, other guys stepped up. Their massive slugger Miguel Sano going on the disabled list, perhaps done for the season? No problem, other guys stepped up. In fact in one Sano-less game they did something never before seen in major league baseball. They hit a home run in each of the first seven innings of the game on the way to a lopsided pounding of a hapless opponent.
Over the weekend we went over for a family trip to the Twins game. This is something that has not happened in years. It was also the first game ever for the Youngest Generation.
True, he is here more interested in hearing for the 12th time today a spirited reading of "The Big Red Barn". But he clapped at all the right times and stuck it out for the full nine innings.
For a while there I was not sure that I would. The Twins pitcher got off to a rocky start, giving up five runs in the first two innings. One by the shameful route of walking a run in. The chances of the Twins winning this game were low.
So of course they went on to score 13 unanswered runs. I mean...they scored 13 before the Toronto Blue Jays even got another hit. In baseball there are things that are very unlikely...but I wonder if in fact there is anything that is actually impossible?
As a true fan I of course realize that my team no more expects me to apologize to them than I on so many fitting occasions expected to get an apology from them.
The odds at this time favor their making the post season. Those who figure such things say it is about 70% likely at the moment (9/18). But there are still a couple of weeks to play and in baseball, well, the unlikely is not the impossible and the likely never certain.
2 comments:
God bless. I know what futility is after the Cubs beat my Tribe - and let's not talk about the Browns. Still haven't seen a World Series win by the Tribe or a Super Bowl appearance by the Browns.
Not sure I will..... My grand daughter and grand son might, and I'm "learnin them right".
Well Oldster, like all Life Long Fans I have seen a lot. Execrably bad baseball aplenty. But given the nigh ultimate possibilities of baseball it has had its moments.
I was there at Game Six of the 1991 World Series when Kirby Puckett told the team "Hop on my back, I'm gonna carry ya!" That night he was more god than man. He saved the game with a game saving catch at the wall, then in extra innings hit one out to win it. I have never before or since been in a noisier place than that dreary yet acoustically intense Metrodome.
I think the mild hearing loss that annoys my spouse to this day started that night. TW
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