Ache #8: Black Out Game 163

When you mention "Game 163" up here in Twins Territory, most Twins fans will smile. They remember Alexi Casilla knocking in Carlos Gomez in the bottom of the 10th inning for the 2009 AL Central title.

What fans have erased from their memory is the Game 163 when the ball didn't bounce their way. The Blackout Game 163 against the Chicago White Sox on September 30th, 2008.

A little background on the 2008 season first: nobody expected the Twins to even be relevant enough for a Game 163. Torii Hunter had signed with the Angels after the 2007 season. Johan Santana was traded to the Mets for a handful of prospects. The Twins also lost Carlos Silva in free agency to the Mariners, and traded pitcher Matt Garza to the Devil Rays for Delmon Young and utility infielder Brendan Harris.

Francisco Liriano's dominant rookie season had been cut short by Tommy John surgery, which forced him to miss the entire 2007 season. Third base, as it had been since about 1991, was a question mark as well.

The Twins proved the experts wrong.

The young outfield featuring Carlos Gomez (who was centerpiece of the Johan Santana trade), Denard Span (the Twins first round pick in 2002) and Delmon Young (the 2007 Rookie of the Year runner up) held their own. The combination of Nick Punto, Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris at third base didn't solve the long-term need but got the job done.

The young outfield was fun to watch in 2008, even

with the weird cut-off sleeve uniforms

Livan Hernandez won 10 games for the Twins before being placed on waivers in August, while Glen Perkins and Kevin Slowey led the team with 12 wins a piece in a new-look rotation that also featured Nick Blackburn, Scott Baker and occasionally Boof Bonser.

Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan were all All-Stars. Morneau won the Home Run Derby. Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle. Mauer won his second Batting Title and his first Gold Glove.

And most importantly, the Twins were in position to win their fifth AL Central title in seven years at the end of September.

After falling to six games under .500 in June, they rattled of 10 wins in a row to get back in the race. After August 1st, the division leader changed 18 times. The Twins were 2.5 games back entering a crutial three game series at the Metrodome with the first place White Sox on September 23rd with 6 games left. The Twins swept the series, including a series finale in which the Twins erased a 6-2 deficit before winning the game in extra innings to take a half game lead into the final regular season series against the lowly Royals (75-87) while the White Sox had a four game series against the Indians (81-81).

All the Twins had to do was beat Gil Meche, and

they couldn't do it...

The Royals won the series against the Twins 2-1. The White Sox split the four game series with Cleveland to force a tie atop the division.

The Coin Flip

The Twins and White Sox finished with an identical 88-74 record, meaning the two teams would play one game to determine the 2008 AL Central champion. A major factor in Game 163 in 2008 would be home field advantage. In 2008, home field advantage during a one-game playoff was determined by a coin flip. The Twins and White Sox were both 53-28 at home and 35-46 on the road, so whomever was given home field would have a considerable advantage. Chicago won the coin flip, so the Twins would have to travel to US Cellular for the game. However, the Twins had won the season series over Chicago 11-8 and fans argued that the Twins should have had home field advantage. The rule was changed during the following off season.

The Game

White Sox fans were encouraged to wear black, which is why the game is referred to by many as The Blackout Game. The Twins started Nick Blackburn (11-11, 4.05 ERA) against John Danks (12-9, 3.32 ERA) who was pitching on three days rest after allowed 7 ER against Cleveland in Game 1 of that series.

Danks allowed 2 hits over 8 scoreless innings. The middle of the Twins lineup (Mauer, Morneau and Cuddyer) went a combined 1-for-9. The one hit was a Michael Cuddyer double in the fifth inning. A Delmon Young sac fly moved Cuddyer to third base with one out. Brendan Harris hit a shallow fly ball to Ken Griffey Jr in centerfield. Cuddyer tried to tag up and score, but Griffey threw a bullet to catcher AJ Pierzinski to gun down Cuddyer at the plate.

Yup. Junior played for the White Sox

Nick Blackburn also pitched a great game, except for one pitch to Jim Thome in the bottom of the seventh inning:

Even though this happened, I still can't hate Jim Thome

Thome's solo blast was the difference maker as the White Sox won the game 1-0 and won the AL Central Division title.

The White Sox would lose to eventual American League Champion Tampa Bay in four games.

Ache #7: Kurt Rambis and the Triangle Offense

Things were going downhill for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2009. Kevin Garnett, traded two years earlier, had gone to back-to-back NBA Finals. Meanwhile, the Wolves had gone through five head coaches in five seasons.

Following a 24-win season in 2009, Kevin McHale fired Randy Witman (who was 38-105 in 2+ seasons) and hired long-time LA Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis. Rambis, an assistant under Phil Jackson with the LA Lakers, was a student of the triangle offense...an offense that produced 11 NBA titles. An offense that had produced 11 NBA Titles was worth a shot, right?

What is the Triangle Offense? 

The Triangle Offense has been, pretty much irrefutable, the single most dominant offensive attack (in any major sport) over the past 20 years" - Chuck Klosterman

The Triangle Offense was designed by Sam Berry at USC in the 1940s. It was picked up and developed further by Tex Winter, who would coach at Kansas State as well as for the Houston Rockets. It really took off when Winter became an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls in 1985 and began to teach the offense to Michael Jordan. Two years later, the Bulls hired the head coach of the CBA's Albany Patroons Phil Jackson (as an assistant), who immediately became obsessed with learning the style under Winter.

When Phil Jackson was promoted to head coach of the Bulls in 1989, he had mastered it and coached the Bulls to 6 NBA titles between 1989 and 1998,, then would win four more titles with the LA Lakers from 2000-2010, including a three-peat in the early 2000s.

The Triangle focuses on three players: the center at the low post, the forward at the wing, and the guard in the corner. The strategy is to create good spacing between players and allows each one to pass to four teammates. Every pass is dictated by what the defense does.

Why didn't it work for the Wolves? 

Phil Jackson had a couple once-in-a-generation players playing for him: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neil.

Kurt Rambis did not.

He would have to make due with the youngest roster in the NBA featuring Kevin Love, Al Jefferson, Corey Brewer, and rookie Jonny Flynn.

Also, David Kahn was putting together his roster.

If there were any wheels in David Khan's head, you

would probably see them turning in this picture.

A key component of the Triangle is the players you have on the court. To say the Wolves didn't have the talent of the Bulls or Lakers dynasties is a dramatic understatement. In Rambis's first year with the Wolves in 2009, the team won 15 games...their lowest win total since the 1991-92 season.

Rambis and David Kahn agreed that the reason the team wasn't clicking was because they weren't "athletic enough". The Wolves ranked 20th in PPG (98.2) and 29th in Opponent PPG (107.8). They figured the odd man out on the offense was 290 pound center Al Jefferson (the Triangle suited 325 lb Shaquille O'Neil just fine...) Jefferson averaged 17 points and 9 rebounds that year.

Following the 2009 season, Kahn traded Jefferson (the final remaining piece of the Kevin Garnett trade three seasons earlier) to the Utah Jazz for Kousta Koufas (who played 39 games for the Wolves) and two first round picks: Dontas Motiejunas (Rd 1, Pick 20 in 2011) and Terrence Jones (Rd 1, Pick 18 in 2012).

D-Mo and Jones never played for the Wolves. Motiejunas was drafted by the Wolves, then immediately traded to Houston with Jonny Flynn for Brad Miller (who played 15 games for the Wolves) Nikola Mirotic (who never played for the Wolves but was immediately traded to the Chciago Bulls for Norris Cole and Malcom Lee), Chandler Parsons (who refused to play for the Wolves, so he was traded back to the Houston Rockets for cash) and a first round pick in 2012 which ended up being Andre Robertson (who never played for the Wolves, but was traded with Malcolm Lee to Golden State for cash).

Photographic evidence that Braid Miller did,

in fact, play for the Timberwolves

Got it? Me neither.

With Jefferson gone, it opened the door for recently-signed draft bust Darko Milicic to assume the center role with second round pick Nikola Pekovic (6'11", 307 lbs, seemed to fit the mold of a David Kahn athletic center) coming off the bench. The Wolves also acquired Michael Beasley, Luke Ridnour and Sebastian Telfair and drafted Jonny Flynn's former Syracuse teammate Wesley Johnson  with the fourth overall pick (over players like DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George and Gordon Hayward).

Rambis had his re-tooled, athletic and faster roster. This would be the breakout year for the Wolves, right? The pieces were in place.

(They weren't.)

The Wolves won 17 games in 2010, and Rambis was fired in the second year of a four year. He went 32-132 in his two seasons with the Wolves. The Wolves hired Rick Adelman to replace him.

Adelman won 26 games in 2011, and the Wolves finished 40-42 in 2012...their best season since 2004.

Rambis was re-hired by the Lakers as an assistant after getting canned by the Wolves. A year later, he would follow Phil Jackson, who was hired as the president of the New York Knicks, to the Big Apple. He worked as an assistant under Derrick Fisher for two seasons until Fisher was fired by Jackson would fired in 2016. Rambis was named the interm coach, and led the Knicks to 9-19 record over the final 30 games that year.