As long as we're talking about what everybody except fans of one team would be happy to see, can we all agree that unless you're a Minnesota Twins fan, you're rooting for the Chicago White Sox in Monday's rainout makeup game?
The White Sox were to host the Detroit Tigers Monday afternoon, ESPN2 carrying the game. If the White Sox win, they'll force a one-game playoff against the Minnesota Twins Tuesday for the American League Central Division title. Who other than Twins fans, who'd get to proceed directly to the playoffs with a Tigers win, doesn't want to see that?
Even Tigers fans wouldn't get much out of a win by their Bengals. Sure, it's fun to knock a rival out of the playoffs, but a Tigers win would knock the Twins, also rivals, into a playoff spot, and that seems like a wash to me.
OK, some Chicago Cubs fans would probably like to see the White Sox go down, but I'm guessing plenty of them are hoping for an all-Chicago World Series. That hasn't happened since 1906, and therein is one of the great baseball stories that most baseball fans don't know much about.
The '06 Cubs were the greatest regular-season team in history, better than those 114-win New York Yankees 10 years ago. The Cubs played 10 fewer games, and they won 116. They're the only team ever to win three-quarters of their games. Nobody else has even come close. A team would have to win 122 games nowadays to play .750 ball.
And the White Sox, who won 93 games -- similar to a 100-win team at today's season length -- beat those Cubs in the Series in six games. It was the third modern World Series. This year's will be the 104th, and the White Sox over the Cubs in '06 is still the greatest upset of them all.
But more important than that: A White Sox win means baseball on Tuesday, which means no off days before the playoffs begin in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Yes, let's have that. A lot of people will be staying home from work on Tuesday anyway. Shouldn't they have some baseball to watch?
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