Tonight was an historic moment in baseball. The White Sox beat the Twins 1-0 in the AL Central Division play-off game. This means that both Chicago teams, the Cubs and White Sox, will be in post-season play for the first time since 1906 when they met in the World Series!
Congratulations to the Twins for a great season. It's too bad that their season had to end this way. And I still don't understand why home-field advantage is decided by a coin flip rather than going to the team that had the best head-to-head record.
But be that as it may, the Sox will be playing the Rays next Thursday in the American League Division Series. It should be a great series. The Rays are the biggest baseball story of the summer.
And what have the Rays done? Until this year, the Rays had a string of 10 straight seasons of at least 90 losses, a new American League record! The Rays entered this season with a career winning percentage of .399. They finished last in nine of their first 10 years. They had the worst record in baseball in each of the last two seasons.
Yet, somehow, this team with a $43 million payroll beat back the mighty New York Yankees and outlasted the world champion Boston Red Sox. They finished with a division best 97 wins and 65 losses. Their payroll ranks 29th out of 30 teams, well behind the $209 million spent by the Yankees!
I'm happy for the Rays and their incredible story from worst to first. We had the opportunity to see them in spring training 1 1/2 years ago in Ft. Myers, Florida.
But for me, I'm rooting for a White Sox and Cubs World Series. It would be pure bedlam. North siders against south siders. A windy city showdown! It would be a fall classic for the ages!
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