WP: Santana(no, not that one) (1-1)
LP: Correia (0-1)
SV: Crow (1)
Unlike the vast majority of citizens, I grew up very far from Twins territory in the major league sports desert of Oklahoma. When I was a boy there were a couple of occasions where my family would meet my grandpa in KC to see a Twins game rather than going the full 12 hours to the Great White North.
One incident from one of those games stands out to me. It was the mid-90s. Two teams with nothing to play for met in front of a sparse crowd in a beautiful stadium. The crowd was antsy and uninspired. No doubt future Twins' legends Pat Meares and Matt Walbeck were on the field of play.
Suddenly from out of view a figure leaps over the right field fence from the stands. The crowd emerges out of their daydreaming and cheers for the unexpected turn of events. The obviously inebriated fan runs around second and then third and then slides headfirst into home. From somewhere in the upper deck an old Minnesota fan grumbles about the security being too lax. A Royals fan in the row in front of him turns around and loudly responds, 'He's wearing a Twins shirt!', pointing down to the drunken grinning idiot proudly wearing a 1991 World Series Champion T-shirt.
Old Minnesota Fan: 'That doesn't matter. We never have this problem at the Metrodome!'
Royals Fan: 'That's because the Metrodome sucks!'
OMF: 'It's better than this crummy place!'
The Royals fan balled up his fists and looked poised to swing, but came to his senses just in time that hitting a 70 year old man wasn't the best course of action, and sat back down talking very loudly about how the Twins sucked.
As a ten year old sitting next to my grandpa, that is still the closest I have ever been to getting into a fight. And it taught me some good lessons. Royals fan was right, the Metrodome did suck, and it wasn't anywhere close to Royals stadium. And of course the Twins didn't have a problem with people jumping over the right field fence at the Metrodome for obvious reasons. But dammit, that didn't matter. I was going to support my grandpa and be the best 10 year old and 70 year old duo of fighters around.
Watching this game reminded me of that near fight in the very same stadium. Correia worked a miracle by pitching 7 innings of scoreless baseball, by rights he should've been back in the clubhouse already showered, shaved, eating an early dinner and catching up on the Mad Men premiere on his iPad. But he was still out there against all reason and sense, into the eighth, tempting fate. And like my grandpa, Gardy let emotions get the best of him and kept him out there against all logic and common sense.
I don't remember who won that game so long ago, because both teams sucked and it didn't matter, and I learned that sometimes your support of a baseball team makes no rational sense, but it's still important to go out there and get into near fights with fans of other sucky teams for non-baseball related reasons.
GO TWINS!
