White-Hot Twins Lurk In Their Garbage Bag Dome

The Chicago White Sox are SO 2005, aren't they?

If the AL Central race was a race track, and the Tigers were to look in their rearview mirror, they'd see two cars neck-and-neck behind them: the White Sox and the Minnesota Twins. But only one of those cars is zooming along (the Twins); the other is sputtering, in need of a pit stop.

It's the Twins, I hate to say it, that the Tigers should be worried about, if you believe our Blessed Boys should be worried at all, that is. The reason I hate to say it is because the Twins, playing in that garbage bag-filled Metrodome, scare the bejeebers out of me -- mainly because they play in that garbage bag-filled Metrodome.

The Twinkies are 37-11 in the HHH Metrodome, which repeats a pattern they've established in winning World Titles in 1987 and 1991 -- and some of the years before and since. They, for whatever reason, are just so gosh-darned hard to beat at home. And they used that home field advantage to seize all their postseason games in '87 and '91 in winning their two World Series. Forget the fact that in neither season did their regular season record warrant any sort of home advantage, but this is MLB and there you are.

The Tigers visit the Twins this weekend, and I'll look at the series with one eye shut and the other open. Minnesota is on a ridiculous 34-8 tear, and thank God the Tigers are only slightly worse than that, or else their lead would be several games smaller than the current 8 1/2.

Certainly I needn't remind you that the Metrodome has been the Tigers' own private house of horrors over the years. Even dating back to 1984 -- the Tigers' year -- the Detroiters have struggled to win games in Minnesota. It came to a head in the 1987 ALCS, with Games 1 and 2 in Minneapolis. The Tigers were blown away, dazed and confused in a frighteningly loud venue awash with white towels. It hasn't gotten any better since then.

Do I think the Twins can realistically catch the Tigers for the divisional lead? No. But they are very much in the running for the Wild Card, which means the Tigers might have to go thru them eventually to qualify for the World Series.

I just got a shiver.