It got a little giddy up in here last night as the Twins stuck a fairly convincing dagger in the White Sox in a game with several big moments. The usual disclaimer still applies -- nothing here is over yet -- but the Sox really needed a sweep. And losing Game 1 isn't the way to go about that. But we wondered, as we often do when a Minnesota rival falls flat on its face again, what was the reaction on the losing side? A sampling:

Rick Morrissey at the Sun-Times makes the peculiar argument that rooting for the White Sox is better than rooting for the Twins because Chicago is dysfunctional and managed to catch lightning in a bottle for a few weeks in 2005. He writes an entire column about how boring the "Twins Way" is.

What's there not to like about the Twins? That they're so likable. I'll ask all you admirers of the "Twins Way" which you would prefer: A franchise that year after year does things by the book or a franchise with a feuding general manager and manager that has the 2005 World Series title in its possession?

Later, he makes this distinction:

Here's why the Twins aren't getting tons of credit this year, Ozzie: They're an OK team. The Sox are an OK team. The Twins are a little more OK. That's it.

It apparently takes more than the best record in baseball since the break and a culture of consistent winning to elevate some people beyond "OK."

Phil Rogers, meanwhile, has the too-far-the-other-way antidote to those sour grapes over at the Tribune: a tale about how there's no shame in finishing second, since that seems to be where the White Sox are heading.

Having gone outside the organization to collect seven former All-Stars in a period of 395 days — from Jake Peavy to Manny Ramirez with Alex Rios, Freddy Garcia, Andruw Jones, Omar Vizquel and Edwin Jackson in between — it seems like at least a couple of people felt the White Sox should be playoff worthy in 2010.

But aside from Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Ken Williams, how many truly bought into the idea the Sox could jump from 79 victories a year ago to 95 this season? It's true that some picked the Sox to win the American League Central, but how many were before the defending champion Twins lost closer Joe Nathan?

In a point hammered home with an ugly 9-3 loss to the Twins on Tuesday, Reinsdorf could have as little to take away from 2010 as he did '09. But those seasons might have been his finest as a baseball owner.

If you're scoring at home, those seven all-stars are: an overpaid, injury-prone pitcher; an aging, controversial slugger who has added nothing to the mix so far; an overpaid, vastly overrated center fielder who cannot catch very well; a slop-throwing, No. 5-starter quality right handed starter with a 4.88 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP; the ghost of Andruw Jones; a 43-year-old legend, whom we could never say anything bad about but shouldn't have had to play this much; and a wildly inconsistent righthanded starter who is on his fifth team since 2005 and is owed more than $8 million next season.

FINEST YEAR EVER.

Southsidesox, meanwhile, at least had the good sense to write the obit:

The Chicago White Sox (Palehose, Good Guys) passed on September 14th at U.S. Cellular Field with 29,223 of their fans and, of course, the Minnesota Twins at their bedside. They are survived by their architects, Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen, and were preceded in death by the Designated Hitter and Logic. Services will be held at USCF September 15th-19th and again September 27th - October 3rd. In lieu of flowers, please purchase full-price admission to any of the remaining services at the previously listed dates or make a cash donation directly to Jerry Reinsdorf, 333 W. 35th street, Chicago. And a commenter on that thread summed up the game, Sox fans and the season pretty well: Teasing the Twins fans with some fargo speak wasnt getting it done, so I had to go with lutefisk and lutheranism to get the right level of agitation. It was nice to visibly upset the fans of the team that just kicked our [redacted] all year long. Indeed. The Packers are still the biggest rival in all of Minnesota sports. But in second place -- is there a team you enjoy seeing lose more to a Minnesota team than the White Sox?