Game 163 selected as Game of the Year
December 25, 2009
On Christmas Eve, MLB Network aired a special called the 2009 Games of the Year. It was stated that a total of 2430 regular season games were played, along with 30 postseason games, which were all included to form the Top 9 of 2009 list.
The AL Central tiebreaker between the Twins and the Tigers ranked high in the minds of many people, but how did it stack up against the World Series, the postseason and Mark Buehrle’s perfect game?
The postseason took a majority of the games with five of the entries, while the tiebreaker and three other regular season games made the list.
Here is the complete list of the 2009 Games of the Year.
9 – Dodgers vs. Giants (MLB Recap)
8 – Twins vs. Athletics (MLB Recap | Twins Digest Recap)
7 – Phillies vs. Rockies, NLDS Game 4 (MLB Recap)
6 – Cardinals vs. Dodgers, NLDS Game 2 (MLB Recap)
5 – Yankees vs. Angels, ALDS Game 3 (MLB Recap)
4 – Yankees vs. Phillies, World Series Game 4 (MLB Recap)
3 – Rays vs. White Sox (MLB Recap)
2 – Twins vs. Yankees, ALDS Game 2 (MLB Recap | Twins Digest Recap)
1 – Tigers vs. Twins, AL Central Tiebreaker (MLB Recap | Twins Digest Recap)
The Twins were represented in three of the games, or one-third of the list. Unfortunately for them, they blew the lead in two of those games and came up on the losing end. It was all made up for, however, as those two losses contributed to the final game of the regular season.
It was surprising to see the Twins/Athletics game among the best games of the year. You have to give Oakland credit for not giving up when the game appeared to be lost and for pulling out an improbable comeback to upset the Twins by a score of 14-13.
The 10-run comeback was the biggest comeback in Oakland A’s history and second only to a 12-run comeback in franchise history back in 1925 when they were still playing in Philadelphia. MLB Network continually referred to this game as a 27-run slugfest. I beg do differ, I only see a blown 10-run lead.
The other two games on the list are deserving in my mind. There was little doubt that the tiebreaker would come out on top as it is an instant classic and the only AL tiebreaker to go into extra innings, but I was a little surprised to see Game 2 of the ALDS ranked so high.
With that game, the Twins blew yet another lead, this time in the ninth inning, before going on to lose the game in extra innings by a walk-off homer from Mark Teixeira. One would have to think that Buehrle’s perfect game would rank higher than this as it was a perfect game, but it still earned a spot higher than any game of the World Series.
The one thing that can be said about this list is that even though the Twins were 3-and-out of the postseason, 2009 was a memorable year for the club.
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