Happy Puntober

Can Freddy Garcia become a Minnesota hero tomorrow?

What a week it has been, boofaphiles. The rebuilding project that is your 2008 Minnesota Twins is just a Detroit W away from the postseason. Joe Mauer has reclaimed his batting titile crown, Denard Span has made me look like an idiot for making fun of him this spring and Jose Mijares has (at least temporarily) replaced Pat Neshek as the bullpen man crush. But enough season wrap-up, we still have some games to play.

Roommate and I were in the building Thursday night for round 3 with the Sox. It turned out to be the greatest Twins game I have certainly ever attended, and perhaps the greatest I have ever seen. The 4th inning was really a nut pinch for everyone in the Dome. Within the confines of the smoker’s quarantine zone just out gate A, everyone looked either shell shocked or rat arsed. It was really a fantastic crowd that night though, and they got right back into the game in the home half of that inning. You all know what happened from there, and it was crazy and beautiful and euphoric and all those lovely things. I tried to write about it as soon as we got back, but even then, almost 2 hours later, all that came out was “Holy shit. Holy shit. That was awesome. Carlos Gomez. Holy shit. That guy can run the basebaths. Holy shit. WE ARE GOING TO THE MOTHER NAILING PLAYOFFS! DSpan is like the Barack Obama of baseball. Holy shit.” So instead of that being your recap I found this video instead.

Meanwhile, catching up with old friends, Johan was brilliant on 3 days rest Saturday, yet the stacked Mets are staying home once again this Puntober, downed 4-2 at the hands of the Marlins. I checked in with getboof’s Shea bureau chief Lacey for a first hand account of how the Metropolitans’ faithful were coping. “I’m at Shea now. Saddest thing ever,” she said. “I had bought a bunch of playoff tix but that doesn’t matter anymore.” No, Lacey, it most certainly does not.

In case you haven’t heard this story yet, after the game today the Mets had a ceremony to honor the memories of Shea Stadium and all the great players that have played there, or some bullshit like that. These poor sad-sack Mets fans stuck around for this dog and pony after watching their time inexplicably fail to qualify for post season play again. Ouch. If the Twins were eliminated today I don’t think I would have stuck around to hear what Marty Cordova thinks about the Metrodome.

Dudes, if you have any faith in Baseball Prospectus, you have to be feeling pretty good about how these next 2 days will play out. We have the advantage right now. Everyone make sure you have the champagne on ice before you leave your home this morning. Let us pop bottles this afternoon.

PS I stumbled across some Joe Mauer/Justin Morneau slashfiction. If you want it now it is here, otherwise I think I will FJM that beauty or something similar this week, you know, for the ladies. If you want to find more stories like this involving your favorite team or player, click here. Based on this database, Oakland A’s fans have the most fantasies about the team running train on each other in the clubhouse, with the Detroit Tigers coming in a distant second.