The Only Standing That Counts
Talk about a parable waiting to be told- that's the Twins and Tigers story for this year. The ONLY day that the Minnesota Twins were alone in first place in the American League Central Division was the last one. It was a long, slow season for the Twins. They were going nowhere on June 7. The Detroit Tigers had the best record in baseball, ready to run away with the Cinderella Tem aware. Everyone was saying of the Twins, stuck deep in third place, "Wait until next year."

Everyone but the players.

Since then the Twins have the best record in baseball. They hung on and played steady baseball even while losing to injuries: their rookie pitching phenom, one of their best veteran pitchers, and Torii Hunter.

Meanwhile, the Tigers began to meltdown and, since early August may have one of the worst records in baseball. The White Sox followed suit. And the Twins just kept playing the game.

Yesterday, when the last strike thrown and the last out recorded in Minneapolis and Detroit, The Minnesota Twins were in first place all alone for the only time this season.

And no one can take it away from them. It was steady baseball. It was not losing heart or hope. It was just going day in and day out and doing their job and knowing that was all they were called upon to do. They took the talent and turned it around and came out on top.

Life is more like a baseball season than a football season. In baseball there are 162 games, ten times as many as the NFL. The winning teams in football may lose one or two games in a season, sometimes three. Even the best teams in baseball will lose 60 or more and the worst team win that many. Perfect seasons don't exist. That's life. You win, you lose, you get rained out. You go back and do it again. One step after another, one day at a time, one game at a time.

There's also the one about the guys who come in at the end of the day get the same glory as the ones who have been on top all season. Perhaps they deserve as much or more because they played to the last and final moment.

Okay, I have just done the great American Sports pastime. I have spirtualized sports and baseball. I have turned it into a Great Big Hairy Paradigm. It's only a game. Bit perhaps if we saw life with a little less intensity and a little more day in and day out plodding from one day to the next, it might end up being a lot more fun.