The regular season mercifully came to an end yesterday for 28 of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams. The Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals will make up the quartet of playoff teams in the National League, while the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have qualified in the American League.
But there is still one spot left, as the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins finished in a flat-footed tie for the American League Central division title, necessitating a one-game playoff between the two teams to be played Tuesday night in Minneapolis. The Twins entered the weekend trailing the Tigers by two games, but they rallied to sweep the Kansas City Royals while Detroit dropped two of three games to the Chicago White Sox.
Normally, a divisional one-game playoff would be played tonight, the day after the regular season’s scheduled conclusion. But the Twins share the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome with the Minnesota Vikings, who are scheduled to take on the Green Bay Packers tonight in the NFL’s Monday Night game (Vikings quarterback Brett Favre against his former team. We’ll address that tomorrow.) So baseball will have to wait.
A Casual Fan 