Way, way back in late August,
A.J. Pierzynski stole a win for the White Sox by initiating the slightest of contact during a rundown for an interference call from favorite ump Doug Eddings. After the vice president of umpiring officially declared the ruling a poor one,
I wrote:
If the Sox manage to win the AL Central by one game, this might be the first thing to point to.
As it turns out, the Sox won the division by a game, yet that play might not crack the top five. The top spot probably goes to
the brilliant "heads" call by Rick Hahn's son, followed by the Twins' sheer inability to win while leading the division and Cliff Lee's bad neck. The interference call is somewhere in the next group.
Not that it won't receive its fair share of attention in the coming days. After needing two extra days to win the American League Central by one game, they'll face the team that Pierzynski took advantage of the last time they met. If the Rays have enough fans to make noise, he'll surely be greeted with boos.
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Pierzynski didn't do any damage with the bat in
the division-clinching 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins, but he got his former team back with toughness, hanging onto the ball after Michael Cuddyer bowled him over for an 8-2 double play.
That was one of two plays I loved from Pieryznski. The second happened moments before, when Pierzynski blocked a ball in the dirt, then faked like it went behind him. Cuddyer didn't bite, but the important thing was that A.J. dug into his bag of tricks in the first place.
Here are some other snapshots that will stay lodged in my memory:
*When it came down to who should play center field in a crucial game, Ozzie Guillen and I were both right. Ken Griffey only needed an accurate arm to make his key play, and when it came time for somebody with range, Brian Anderson zoomed in to save the day and close out the game.
*Great camerawork showed Ozzie urging his outfielders to play shallower right before Alexi Casilla tried dumping a blooper that Anderson wouldn't allow to drop.
*John Danks blowing through a seventh inning for once, with such an overpowering arsenal that he forced Joe Mauer, the two-time defending league batting champion, to attempt a bunt. It didn't work, and Danks finished up the frame 1-2-3.
*Jim Thome raising his hands for what looked like a double-barreled high-five with Paul Konerko after his game-deciding homer, only to pop Konerko on the helmet with enough force to rattle his brain.
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And hats off to the Sox and Twins for
handling both sides of a thriller with grace:
"What a great game, what a way to get this done," A.J. Pierzynski said. "I give the Twins a ton of credit, the way they battled. I'm sort of speechless." [...]
"[Danks] threw a lot of two-seamers with velocity early and really hit his spots," Michael Cuddyer said.
"There was never much to hit over the plate. Then in the fourth, fifth
innings he mixed in that changeup and off-speed stuff to get us off the
two-seamer and then he went back to the two-seamer. He just pitched a
great game. Give him credit."
For my money, the White Sox and Twins have the perfect rivalry. Now
that the Sox officially defeated the Piranhas -- using the long ball
and defeating every attempt the Twins made at smallball -- perhaps
Guillen, Harrelson and the rest will finally see themselves as the equals they always were.
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After the Sox lost the lead in the division last week, I was commiserating with a Mets fan in my office, as his team had fallen upon similarly hard times. He had a great line.
"This month is like one big kidney stone," he said. "I just want it to pass, and I don't particularly care how it happens."
He also added the idea that a journey is more important than the destination is, as Hawk Harrelson might say, pure bull.
Back on Friday, I agreed with him 100 percent on both counts. Now, my feelings are
slightly different on the whole matter. Without the journey, the last three days would've been rather flat. Three pitchers working three consecutive brilliant outings on three days' rest. Alexei Ramirez's grand slam. The blackout. All of the moments mentioned above.
The rest of the league looks at the AL Central as the division nobody wanted to win, which is true enough. But knowing everything the Sox went through last year and this year, taking the pennant is nothing less than a spectacular accomplishment, even if they stumbled to the finish.
Look at it this way.
The 2007 season ended on Sept. 30 too, and here's what the Sox were looking at:
- Ninety losses for the first time since 1988.
- Jerry Owens nailing down the starting center field job.
- A 6-7-8-9 of Scott Podsednik, Juan Uribe, Danny Richar and Toby Hall.
- Andy Gonzalez replacing Paul Konerko, and Luis Terrero replacing Jim Thome.
- Mike Myers turning a two-run hole into a six-run chasm -- without retiring a batter.
Exactly one year later, the Sox are playing postseason baseball. It may not have been pretty, but as the departing Darrin Jackson might say, they don't put pictures next to standings. One year after summing up the season with "Bring out yer dead!" the Sox are playing in October, alive and very, very well.