He’s off to the Phillies, and he took out a full page newspaper ad to say thanks to his long-suffering fans.  Compare that, by the way, to Brett Favre, who’s headline on ESPN today involves him being miffed–still–that the Green Bay owners didn’t want to keep him.  Favre kicked the Packers around on national TV this year…twice.  And he said not a word about the fans who had lived and died with him, some of them for their entire lives.  (Seriously, how old is Favre?  He’s been QBing our entire football-following career, anyhow…)

Halladay, who was drafted by the Blue Jays back in 1995, said in the ad that he felt blessed to have been a part of the organization, and that he’d always have a special place in his heart for Toronto.

Here’s the ad, courtesy of Toronto Mike.

Sure, they lost last year’s one game playoff, against the White Sox, and thus ended up finishing second in their division.  But this year, we think, they can do it.

It’s a confluence of circumstances, really.  First off, that ridiculous rain-caused doubleheader last week against the Tigers, when the team was only two games back.  They won one and lost one, so no big drama results-wise, but then they kicked the crap out of the Royals for a bit, while the Tigers were busy losing two out of three to the White Sox (whose 79 win season is good for a winning percentage of .488.  Stunningly mediocre at best.)

One game playoffs are historically played the day after the regular season, in the stadium of the team with the stronger record in the season series (the presumptive division winner, if you will.)  This year, though, things are a little odd.

First of all, MLB instituted a coin toss to determine where the game would be played…and the Twins won it.  Good karma? Well, just wait.  The Twins play in the Metrodome.

You know who else plays in the Metrodome? The Vikings.  You know when they did that? About the same time the playoff game should have been in the fourth inning or so.

So, an extra day off for both teams ensued, but the Twins have all the momentum going into this one.  They took their last series, won their last game versus Detroit, and get to play in a stadium full of what will undoubtedly be some residually-hyped fans.

Plus, the fact that football was played there last night might do some odd things to the game.  Sure, the technicians try hard, but divots, uneven spots, and other weirdness just can’t be avoided, even on AstroTurf (although the Metrodome website assures us that the field surface is actually state of the art Field-Turf.  ‘Scuse us, Metrodome Gods.)

Point is, the Twins are more used to the havoc that home football games wreak on their playing surface than the Tigers.  Even though all but two of their games the day after football in the ‘dome have been played away in the last couple years, they still deal with practices, scrimmages, and all the other business sharing a stadium comes with.

The Tigers don’t, and that could be a difference.  Not to mention that whole, you know, psychological Minnesotans-are-winners thing from last night.  And the Twins have taken 18 of their last 23.

Meanwhile, the Tigers have a scratch-happy Miggy Cabrera providing distraction.,  If the Twins win, their resulting one game lead will be the biggest of the season.

Favre’s handing the baton: round two is on.  We’ll take the Twins. (And we may be blogging the game, so stay tuned!)

All of you who said Favre was done?  All the Jets fans–and players–who said he shoulda just stayed retired? Well, shoulda, woulda, coulda. As in, shoulda, woulda, coulda kept Favre.

There’s no super-duper analysis needed here, which is a relief, because it’s awfully early in the AM for us to be thinking.  Favre’s performance stands on its own merits, and the Vikings’ 30-23 win–despite a good day by Aaron Rodgers, who had the unenviable task of replacing Favre in Green Bay–felt much more decisive than the score showed.

Was it personal?

As they might say in the midwest, heck yes, you guys.

“You guys are going to print what you want.  I just did what I was expected to do today. You make that decision,” quoth Favre upon being asked whether or not this win–over a manager, owner, and coach he probably don’t like so much no more–was maybe just a little sweeter than your run of the mill Sunday.

This is not to say that Favre’s our new favorite.  We still think he’s a drama queen, and we’re not actually prepared to say this wasn’t a fluke.  His standard performance last year was much lower quality than what he showed last night.  Favre is clearly, given his off-season shenanigans, a guy who responds to emotional triggers: a team has to go way out of their way to show their love to sign him after he unretires (again), and he’s loath to give up the game. We think he’ll be trying to play long after he has any business in pads.

But last night showed us that day could be a long time coming.  Now if only the Vikings could light  a fire like this under Favre every week?  Minnesota ain’t exactly known for its’ dramatic personal interactions, y’all…

Interestingly, the article under the headline on ESPN is a Favre lovefest (typical) about how he won’t let his streak of 270 straight starts get in the way of what’s best for the team.
But what we’re reading? He isn’t really sure he can or wants to play a full season.
Calling Roger Clemens…

The turnout was pretty good, but it didn’t matter one way or another, broadcast-wise, because the closed roof at Reliant made for plenty of noise. We showed up about seven minutes into the first quarter, and the Vikings were already up.

Turns out Brett Favre was right: he can still throw the ball.  But he isn’t going to get to do so effectively if his o-line doesn’t tighten up.  Mario Williams, the Texans number one pick of a few years back (over Vice Young, as you may recall), sacked him once and got too close for comfort a few other times.  Williams is beyond talented, but he shouldn’t be able to break in that often and that seemingly easily.  Favre could have a crappy season, regardless of his talent, if that doesn’t change, and that would be a sad way for his career to end.  Through three quarters (though he was advertised as only playing the first half), Favre himself looked fine and at times even good.  Until he had to start backpedaling because he was about to get hit. Stupid o-line.

As for Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels, Rosenfels’ return to Houston didn’t go as planned–he wasn’t able to do anything effective.  Jackson looked fine despite his shoddy protection–he looks like a starting QB to us, but the fact is nobody can be sure how Favre’s going to develop (or, more likely, regress.)  Whether or not his less-trained-than-last-year body can survive the rigors of the season, we’re not sure, but we’re sanguine about the Vikings’ QB sitch:  they have two plus what, given what Rosenfels showed last year, should be an ok backup, assuming their offensive protection improves.

Oh, and the Texans freakin’ lost. Bah.

We know this because we follow him on Twitter.  Twitter’s great for us, and for funny people like Simmons, because it helps us pick up post ideas and follow breaking news–which today has clearly been key–and sound off accordingly.

But we’re still not sure it’s so good for athletes.  First off, some athlete twitters are fake: Kevin Youkilis recently pointed out that no social media that says its him actually is, and the account we all thought was his is now suspended.  Big Baby Davis’ account seemed to admit to being a fake and go dark that day we wrote that post about him…

…but some accounts are verified: that is, they definitely belong the athletes they claim to belong to.  And some of those are revealing some interesting perspectives on this whole Favre thing.  Everything here is directly quoted from UPH’s twitter feed:

Shawn Merriman: i think by him coming back this late puts pressure on the team. No i mean seriously if U were the starting QB & ur 3 weeks away from the start of  the season & “BRETT FARVE”say im coming back wut wud U do.

We see his point–team chemistry is really important, especially for a team that often sort of hovers on being good year after year like the Vikings.

Chad OchoCinco: Why don’t they fine Brett for retiring and coming back and stop worrying about me having fun on Sundays

Wow, bitter much?  Even if he’s joking, this kind of immediate reaction is pretty interesting.  Chad got fined for wearing an OchoCinco nameplate on his jersey to the tune of 5k.  He hasn’t always had a great relationship with the NFL powers that be, but it seems like he’s making the same point as Merriman is, here: Favre’s indecisiveness costs the the teams and the sport.

That he’s saying that to the world may not be the best choice….but it sure makes our job easier.

You know what? We’re over it.  Bill Simmons just started calling Farve “VD” because “we can’t get rid of him.”  Yup, he’s back, and he’s signing with Minnesota today.

Will he make the Vikings appreciably better?  Well, when he was with the Jets, he was up and down, and he doesn’t seem to have been working out quite as hard this off-season as last. We’d personally rather see Sage Rosenfels get some reps–the kid showed us something last year with the Texans.

We’ll have more on this later, but for now, just rest assured in the knowledge that the world rotates as usual: Brett Favre will be playing football tomorrow.