Having an issue getting the pictures loaded, so rather than reminisce about the Metrodome today and the unbelievably awesome experience that was Sunday afternoon, I'll talk about what's going to happen there later today.

I was shocked to hear that there had been only nine one-game playoffs in history, given that this will be the third year in a row that we've had one. And while that is pretty weird no matter what, they don't tell you that through 1962, the National League had best-of-three tiebreakers. Still and all, there were only four of those (and incidentally, the AL had only one one-game playoff between its inception and that famous one in 1978). So in 105 championship seasons of Major League Baseball, making for something like 330 playoff teams (note that I took literally 15 seconds to try to figure that out in my head and don't really care how accurate it is), this is just the thirteenth time that the season has ended with two teams tied for one available playoff spot. So that it's happened three times in a row is pretty remarkable; that it's happened twice in a row to the same team is just plain weird.

Yesterday, the guys at Baseball-Reference.com were nice enough to pull up a list of all the playoff tiebreaker games ever. Here's a quick look at those twelve games/series that's a bit broader than what that list or Wikipedia will tell you:

1946: Cardinals vs. Dodgers (gm1, gm2).  Fun Fact #1: all four of the three-game tiebreakers in NL history involved the Dodgers. Here, the Bums dropped two kind of uninteresting games to the Cards, who would win the World Series over the Red Sox (culminating in Enos Slaughter's famous sprint from first to score the winning run in Game 7). The first game in Brooklyn was won 4-2 by the Cards in a bit of a back-and-forth contest, but the next day in St. Louis, the home team went up 8-1 before the Dodgers pushed three across in the top of the ninth to make it look respectable. Stan Musial went 2-for-8, though with a double and triple; Terry Moore went 5-for-10.

1948: Cleveland at Red Sox. Another yawner. Cleveland walked into Fenway and came out with an 8-3 win in a game that never got terribly close after they scored four to break a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning. Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau went 4-for-4 with two homers, and Ken Keltner was 2-for-5 with a homer and 3 RBI. It was a wasted opportunity for Ted Williams (1-for-4), who had been injured and ineffective two years before in what would prove to be his only shot at the Series. Cleveland went on to win the '48 Series in six games over the Boston Braves, and haven't won another one in 61 tries since. Time to start calling it what it is: the Curse of the Ridiculously Offensive Logo.

1951: Giants vs. Dodgers (gm1, gm2, gm3). Fun Fact #2: the only two playoff series to actually go the full three games involved the Giants and the Dodgers. The Giants took the first game 3-1, the deciding runs coming on a Bobby Thompson fourth-inning homer off of Ralph Branca. The Dodgers woke up in a big way for game 2, with Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Gil Hodges combining to go 7-for-13 with two homers and Clem Labine throwing a complete-game shutout for a 10-0 win. If you're reading this blog, you already know all about game 3. Fun Fact #3: Branca was also on the mound for the first game against the Cards in '46, meaning that of the ten games ever played in the entire history of three-game playoff series, Branca was the losing pitcher in three of them.

1959: Braves vs. Dodgers (gm1, gm2). Certainly lacks the glitz of the '51 playoff, but this one featured two one-run games, including a classic game two in Los Angeles. Lew Burdette cruised for 8 innings while Don Drysdale got beat up and lasted less than 5, so the Dodgers trailed 5-2 heading into their last at-bat, and the series looked headed back to Milwaukee for the deciding game. However, Burdette and then the Braves' relievers couldn't seem to get anybody out in the ninth, and the Dodgers tied it at 5. Three innings later, Bob Rush retired the first two batters before surrendering singles to Hodges, Joe Pignatano, and washed-up former star Carl Furillo to bring home the winning and series-clinching run. The Dodgers went on to beat the Go-Go White Sox in six games and were, at least by run differential, one of the weaker Series champs in history.

1962: Giants vs. Dodgers (gm1, gm2, gm3). Billy Pierce three-hit the Dodgers in game one, while the Giants jumped all over Sandy Koufax (who lasted only one inning) and a bevy of relievers on the way to an 8-0 win, paced by a homer by Orlando Cepeda and two by Willie Mays. In game two, the Dodgers scored seven runs in the sixth, but still needed a sac fly by Ron Fairly in the bottom of the ninth to win 8-7 (saving another awful outing by Drysdale). The Giants were down 4-2 in the top of the 9th of game three, but then scored four off of three different pitchers in the top of the ninth, and Billy Pierce came in to save the 6-4 win.The Giants went on to drop the series in seven to the Yankees.

1978: Yankees at Red Sox. Bucky F. Dent.

1980: Astros at Dodgers. There are the Dodgers again! I have to assume they were big favorites, hosting the game and having won two of the last three pennants, but the Astros went up 7-0 after their first four times up and erased all doubt early. Game 163 allowed Joe Niekro to pick up win number 20, turning in a 6-hit, 2-walk complete game performance. The Astros lost the NLCS to the eventual champion Phillies.

1995: Angels at Mariners. The culmination of one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history, the Mariners had charged to catch the falling Angels after trailing them by as many as thirteen games earlier in the season. A victory in this game seemed inevitable, though of course it's entirely hindsight: many will say the same thing if the Twins beat the Tigers later today, but right now we have no idea what will happen. Randy Johnson dominated, striking out twelve in nine innings. Mark Langston, whom the Mariners had traded to the Expos to acquire Johnson six years earlier, was knocked around in an uncharacteristic singles-and-walks attack by the homer-happy Mariners. This became every Mariners' fan's all-time favorite season, as they went on to an improbable win over the Yankees in the first-ever Division Series before falling to a vastly superior Cleveland team in the ALCS.

1998: Giants at Cubs. In the first-ever playoff for a Wild Card spot, the Cubs beat the Giants 5-3, taking a 5-0 lead into the ninth. Sammy Sosa went 2-for-4 but was unable to add to his 66 home runs; Gary Gaetti hit a two-run shot, #19 in his last decent season.

1999: Mets at Reds. Two in a row, both for the Wild Card. These were some serious Wild Card teams, ending the season tied at 96 wins. Al Leiter shut down Barry Larkin and the Reds on two hits and four walks in a complete game, 135-pitch shutout, while Rickey Henderson and Edgardo Alfonzo homered for the Mets en route to an easy 5-0 win. The Mets lost the NLCS to the Braves, the same team to which they lost the division title.

2007: Padres at Rockies. Everybody probably remembers this one. 13 innings, Padres score two, Hoffman implodes and gives up three, Rockies win. Holliday probably didn't touch the plate.

2008: Twins at White Sox. The game that finally made someone realize that, in a world with a ridiculous unbalanced schedule that means teams in the same division play each other 18 times a year, there's probably a better way of deciding things than a coin flip. I have no doubt that, if this game had been in the Dome as it should have been (they led the season series 10-8), the Twins would have won.that game. As it was, the coin didn't flip their way, and the Sox won 1-0 in the Cell on a 7th-inning home run by Jim Thome. Great game, a real classic. Never should have happened.

Of course, anything could happen across a sample size this small, but it's not surprising that a set of games between two teams who almost by definition are equally matched -- with equal records, at least -- should feature a lot of really, really close games. I have a feeling we're in for another close one this afternoon/evening. But then, if the Twins scored about ten runs in the first inning, I wouldn't be disappointed or anything.