A heckuva night at the ballpark

As noted earlier, I recently celebrated my 50-year anniversary of attending major league baseball games. With the White Sox in town and the pennant race afoot, it seemed like a good time to start on year 51. Accordingly, I was at Target Field last night with a dear friend and former co-worker whose only known drawback is being an Avowed Yankee Fan. (Being a New York native, she gets a pass, though, on this one.)

Neither one of us are Twins' types but we know and appreciate good baseball when we see it. A little over three hours after we arrived, we left somewhat exhausted after a rollicking affair that ended with a bombastic home run in the 10th inning.

Although most of the media buzz around town was the news that a certain elderly, gray-haired quarterback was spotted entering the Vikings' digs in Eden Prairie, there were 40,000 of us who were on hand for one of the most rousing ballgames I have seen in years.

As the AYF noted, more people than usual were in their seats at the start of the game. Good thing, too. The locals started fast with a pair of home runs in the first inning en route to a 4-0 lead. The White Sox, three games behind in the standings and skidding fast, snapped back with three quick runs to tighten the game. And we were off and running the rest of the night.

Baseball doesn't often go like this. When it does, the game can become a whirling dervish and players sometimes amaze themselves. Take Minnesota OF Jason Kubel, for example.. On many occasions, Kubel looks at fly balls like a man fighting bees. In the 3rd inning on this night, however, he took off immediately in hot pursuit of a shot up the alley. Not only did he make a great catch, he quickly flipped the ball to CF Denard Span and nearly nailed Chicago's speedy Juan Pierre scampering back to first.

In the bottom of that inning, Jim Thome, a lumbering sort was standing on first base with two out when Danny Valencia launched a ball high off the wall in right field. Thomas runs like an out of control moose and headed home at what qualifies for him as full blast. But the Sox executed a perfect relay and nailed him for the final out of the inning. Have you ever heard 40,000 people go quiet at once? It's weird.

Chicago tied it up in the fourth but Minnesota's Delmon Young, in the midst of a terrific season, untied matters with a line shot into the left field seats.

It was still 5-4 in the 8th. Young was on third with one out when J.J. Hardy rapped a ground ball to second, Young broke for the plate but seemed out by 10 feet. No matter. He stiffarmed Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, causing another roar from the stands. For some reason, Pierzynski, who started his career with the Twins, gets booed unmercifully every time he is here. The crowd may have been puzzled as to Young's motives but they liked the idea anyway. (They may think otherwise later. Players have long memories. There will be a moment down the line when a game is out of hand and Mr. Young will get a chance to see the logo of a baseball quite closely. Let's note ahead of time that he will deserve this visit.)

It was still 5-4 when we began a memorable 9th inning. Matt Capps, the closer acquired from Washington a month ago, entered to save the night for the locals. Alexei Ramirez silenced the majority of the crowd instantly when he hit a laser shot into the left field seats. It might be the hardest line drive home run I have ever seen. At first, I thought it hit somebody in the head and bounced back into play. But, no, it was a fan who picked up the ball and nearly threw it from the left field bleachers to shortstop in disgust.

It looked like the Sox might win it right there when they loaded the bases with one out and their best hitter, Paul Konerko, at the plate. But Capps induced the big man to hit into a double play to end the threat.

At this point, the AYF observed something both of us had missed. It was roughly 10:00 p.m., normally the time when many Twins fans get up and leave no matter what the score. Not this time, though. They seemed to sense we were about to witness something memorable.

They were right.

The 10th inning was really something. With one out and nobody on, we suddenly saw a young boy, age 12 or so, sprint from his seat near the left field line out towards Young. The kid stopped short, got on his knees, waved his arms back and forth and bowed down a couple of times. He then ran back to his seat, which was only a section and a few rows from us. The security guards weren't fooled. They ran over to him and informed the lad he had witnessed his last pitch in person. The really weird part is it looked like he was there with his mother and a couple of siblings. They seem puzzled this intrusion wasn't appreciated by the guards ... although the crowd around us roared with pleasure.

I asked the AYF what would have happened if, as a youth attending games at Yankee Stadium, she would have done such an action. I can't remember the particulars of the answer but the general impression was there might be some horsewhipping involved.

This interruption may have inspired the Sox, who promptly pieced together three straight singles for a 6-5 lead. For all the world, it looked like the visitors were about to make a huge statement that the AL Central race was really up for grabs after all. Considering the hullabaloo caused by the visit of the grey-haired gentleman at Vikings' HQ, the AYF and I agreed that, if the school held, this game might end up on page 5 of the sports section today.

I still had this thought when Young led off the bottom of the 10th with a single. Thome strode to the plate. On the first pitch, the lumberjack took a mighty swing ... and missed the ball by a foot. Undaunted, he repeated this gesture and nearly knocked the ball into 4th St. for a game-winning home run.

The grey- haired fellow who garnered most of the headlines in the papers today (and, likely, for weeks to come) should only hope he ever gets cheered this loudly this year. Five minutes after the game, people were still yelling. The AYF and I agreed that it was one of the most astounding things we have ever seen on a diamond... even though our personal teams were not involved at all.

It may be tough to top that one. But the beauty of baseball is there is always another day.