TWINS: ULTIMATE SPOILER
Small-market team stands in the way of powerful Yankees
They wanted to move them.
They tried to contract them. And the baseball world watched in merriment as they became irrelevant, even giving up on themselves at this year’s trade deadline.
Well, here are the Minnesota Twins, still standing, and looming as baseball’s greatest nightmare, threatening to devastate the TV ratings and marketing campaign.
The team that Major League Baseball and its former ownership couldn’t kill off is on Broadway, facing the powerful New York Yankees at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday (ESPN) in a winner-take-all American League wild-card game at Yankee Stadium.
If the Twins win and advance to play the Cleveland Indians, that screaming sound you’ll hear
will be from the folks on Park Avenue and in the TV studios.
“We’re kind of the redheaded stepchild,” Twins catcher Chris Gimenez tells USA TODAY Sports, “of everything that goes against playoff baseball. I was watching SportsCenter (Monday) morning, and it was ridiculous. It was like they were already giving the game to the Yankees.
“I know they’re a good team, and we got swept here 10 days ago, but that was 10 days ago. They’re a damn good team, and nearly won the AL East, so it’s not someone we take lightly. But they’d be smart not to take us lightly, either.”
The marketing folks will tell you their affinity for the Yankees