![BRIAN PETERSON ¥ brianp@startribune.com Minneapolis, MN - 10/06/2009 Minnesota Twins -vs- Detroit Tigers (One Game tiebreaker for the division title) ] Detroit Tigers Brandon Inge, with his shirt bloused out, gets hit by a pitch in the top of the 12th inning with bases loaded and looks back to umpire Randy March for the call. But the Tigers didn't get the call they felt they should have gotten in the top of the 12th when a pitch hit Brandon Inge in the shirt with the bases loaded. And wasn't called. Plate umpire Randy March didn't see it, didn't hear it -- but most importantly, didn't call it. "I did not have the ball hitting him," said Marsh after the run the Twins scored in the 12th turned out to be the winning run Tuesday night, instead of the tying run or perhaps one that merely reduced the Tigers lead. After all, there's no telling what might have happened if Marsh had said, yes, the pitch hit Inge.](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/CL6XUANIZ6N67BFKQOGKCKFIPQ.jpg?&w=1080)
It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small.
Yes, that's the opening lyric from "Let it Go," which yes is from "Frozen," which yes has been playing in heavy rotation at our house as our five person kingdom of isolation (three of them ages 5, 3 and 3 months) navigates the challenges and joys of working, learning and playing while staying home.
But let's apply it to sports for a moment — and particularly to Game 163 of the 2009 MLB season between the Twins and Tigers, the replay of which starts at 10:15 a.m. Thursday on Twitter and on the Twins web site.
A day after that game — still the best professional game I've ever helped cover — I could have told you everything about it. A little over 10 years later? I was surprised to re-learn some of the very basic details from the deadline story I wrote and just re-read.
The Tigers took a 3-0 lead? The Tigers also led 5-4 in the 10th before the Twins tied it thanks to a misplay? News to me.
I only remember two things about that game, really, because distance has made everything else seem small: 1) Carlos Gomez scoring the winning run on an Alexi Casilla single in the bottom of the 12th. 2) Brandon Inge being grazed by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of that inning, but having it go uncalled (excellent Brian Peterson photo above). The Tigers did not score.
The second piece was the main subject of the story I wrote. I still very much remember talking to Inge in the dingy visitors clubhosue at the Metrodome, in what was the second-to-last Twins game in that building. He was polite, earnest, immensely disappointed and full of truth. He called it "the greatest game I've ever played in," but he couldn't stop replaying all the what-if moments.
"No matter what we did, it seemed like it wasn't meant to be," Inge said that night.
