Nightly Notes: Rainout Edition

With a doubleheader now on deck for tomorrow (along with a White Sox doubleheader just to make things interesting), there should be plenty for me to talk about in a Nightly Notes column tomorrow. Since there were some other things I wanted to discuss, it seemed like a good time for a non-game related Nightly Notes column. Here goes:

1.) The weather could end up being the Twins best friend in the race against the White Sox. While the rain in Baltimore is supposed to clear up by the end of tomorrow morning, it's a completely different story in Chicago. The Windy City is facing extended periods of rain and thunderstorms for the rest of the weekend. If the White Sox and Tigers are unable to play any of the three games scheduled for the weekend, that would put Chi-Town in an incredibly awkward position. More than likely at least one game will be able to be played in Chicago tomorrow, but I'm not at all confident that they can play two (and the Chicago groundskeeper, speaking in an interview on Chicago TV tonight, was not at all confident about Sunday). Could be a very interesting thing to watch develop.

2.) You've probably read by now that the Twins lost the AL Central coin flip and the Wild Card coin flip. While it would certainly be easier to win either of those tiebreak games at home, I still say that if a team can't win one game on the road with a playoff berth on the line, they don't belong in the playoffs.

3.) ESPN has an article up talking about Brian Cashman possibly leaving the Yankees at the end of the year. Included in the article is a discussion about how Hank Steinbrenner wants to bring back a multi-headed "advisory group" similar to what the Yankees had in place prior to giving Cashman more control back in 2005. Depending on how the group was structured, that could be good or bad news for the Yankees -- but I'm guessing it would be bad. Too often in the early 2000's the Yankees were trying to go in about 3 directions at once -- which is obviously impossible. Times may be getting tough in the Bronx, but I think having one person largely in charge of personnel is the right model to use, rather than establishing some sort of baseball Politburo with all of the internal politics that can bring. Of course, if Hank Steinbrenner turns the Yankees into a joke or an afterthought (like they were in my formative years), I certainly won't complain.

4.) There's just no way to give anyone other than Cliff Lee the AL Cy Young, is there?

5.) I can't wait for tomorrow morning's battle between Manchester City and Chelsea. At the beginning of the Premier League season I revealed that I was a fan of Man City, and pointed out how such an affiliation inevitably led to disappointment. If you aren't a soccer fan, you've probably not heard about Man City's rollercoaster season -- suffice it to say that everything that could go wrong did go wrong for most of the summer off-season and into the early part of the season. Over the last few weeks, though, the team was sold to incredibly rich owners who love to spend money, has won a few matches, and signed a player that should have been out of their league. In other words, they're trying to become the next Evil Empire. I don't know whether to be incredibly excited or horrified -- but for now I'll stick with excitement.

6.) Think the Gophers can beat Montana State to get to 3-0 tomorrow? Does it really mean anything if they do?

7.) Good luck tonight and tomorrow to the folks in Texas bearing the brunt of Ike. This is just one reason why I never want to live anywhere along the Gulf Coast.