baseball!

Miracle of all miracles: on a whim, I checked the Twins website on Monday night to see if any tickets had become available to last night's playoff game. It was a few minutes to midnight when I checked, and I was told that they were sold out and sent to an online "waiting room." Then, at midnight, the screen changed, and I was whisked away to a page that produced two $27 tickets in the first row of the upper deck, on the third base line. We frantically typed in credit card information, and were even able to use the remaining $18 of a gift card toward the price. We got the tickets! and were at last night's game...scoring a spot in our usual parking lot, despite the absolute parking-related mayhem downtown, getting to the Dome with a few minutes to spare and not missing a thing.

The game was *magic* - that two-run Cabrera homerun? What the hell, man? Who is this guy? Every time he's come up to bat for the past month, I've looked over at my husband and said, Will Ferrell-style, "He's electric right now." He really is! I just read that he's taken whatever team he's on to the play-offs in four of the past six years. At one point, the ball boy was running over to get a stray ball, and Cabrera held him off and got it himself...he helped the ball boy out! Who does that?

And that twelfth inning...goosebumps galore. I love that Casilla and Gomez got to be the heroes, after such a rough year for both of them.

When it ended, after about ten minutes of applause and screaming, Cuddyer stood facing the crowd, and pointed out at us and clapped. Cabrera did a very theatrical double-bow. Punto was running around slapping the hands of every fan he could touch...it was just absolute magic. So many great photos of the night, too:

Carlos Gomez: airborne.


Joe Mauer: adorable.


Orlando Cabrera: airborne.



I love baseball. I love the Twins. That is all.