MINNEAPOLIS -- Few people know more about "postseason" baseball for the Tigers and the Twins than Jack Morris.
As a Tiger, he was the ace on the 1984 World Series champion and on the 1987 American League East champion.
As a Twin, he pitched them to the 1991 World Series championship with a legendary Game 7 performance.
Now a Twins radio broadcaster, though not working Tuesday, Morris was at the Metrodome for the game.
"I've been through this (excitement) from a player's perspective with Detroit and Minnesota had to do this last year to go to Chicago," Morris said. "It's ironic it happens back-to-back years, but the division is just that way right now. I think it's unfortunate one team has to go home today. I think it should be a three-game playoff myself."
Family ties
For Tom Plotkowski of Shelby Township, the game date couldn't have worked out better. He was in the Twin Cities visiting his daughter, her husband and their kids.
He bought lower-level seats Sunday night for $27 on the Twins' Web site.
He and son-in-law Brad Nygaard, who grew up in Minnesota, made an odd couple walking to the Metrodome with Plotkowski wearing a Tigers cap and Nygaard in his Twins cap.
Father and son
For Chris White, leaving his Michigan home was difficult a few years ago.
Jobs forced the family to relocate to South Dakota. It worked out Tuesday, though, as he and his 12-year-old son, Matt, came for the game.
White was living in Lansing when he got hooked on the Tigers and tries to get to a few road games every year.
"I told Matt if we made the postseason, we were going," said White, wearing a Tigers jersey and standing along the third-base stands during Tigers batting practice.
Meeting up
Robert Nunez has his wife to thank for his freedom and arrival in the Twin Cities. Nunez is retired from Chrysler so he had the time to come to the game, and his wife made it possible as an employee of Delta. He hopped on a Tuesday morning flight.
The adventure for the Tiger fans he met at Hubert's restaurant across the street from the Metrodome was more involved. Joe Dudek of Madison Heights and his buddies left Detroit by car at midnight Monday and spent the next 12 hours driving.
Dudek knew they'd have to leave right after the game -- he had to work at Quicken Loans on Wednesday morning -- but didn't want to miss the tiebreaker.
In one of those odd twists of fandom, Nunez's daughter, Jenna Randall, works with Dudek at Quicken.
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