AL Central Tiebreaker: Who I'm rooting for

For a second straight season, the AL Central will need 163 games to decide the winner of the division. All it took was a monumental collapse from the Tigers and a greatly timed winning streak by the Twins. Tomorrow they will play, in what could be the last game at the Hefty Bag, for the right to play and probably lose to the Yankees. A lot of us will watch this game, solely for the fact that it's being played on a Tuesday. But only a few of us will have any rooting interest. So how do we decide the more worthy team? How about a straightforward but biased checklist?

• Salaries: I chose the Dodgers when I was a little kid, years before I found myself enamored in the world of finance. So when I am deciding on whom to cheer and who to jeer, I check out the payroll. The Twins are the epitome of efficiency, ranking 24th with an average salary of $2,251,699 and a total of $65,299,267. On the other hand, the Tigers are among the biggest spenders, ranking 5th with an average salary of $4,110,184 and a total of $115,085,145. (Twins +1)
  
• Ballpark: I understand in certain areas of the country, domes have there purpose to avoid unseasonably warm or cold weather. But apart from that what are domes good for? They are unsightly, require turf, and leave the possibility of pumping in crowd noise. (Tigers +1)
  
• Better Food: The Twins have the Met Jumbo dog, the biggest frank sold in baseball. The Tigers have Little Caesars. Bigger isn't always better, but in this case, it is. (Twins +1)
  
• Player to Cheer: The Tigers have the likable Curtis Granderson and the gritty Brandon Inge, but I went to the same high school as Mike Cuddyer. (Twins +1)
  
• Better Fans: Since I can't really differentiate between the two fan bases, we will change this category to "more deserving fans." Taking into account that it's been a quarter-century since their last World Series triumph and the despair felt all across the city due to the sinking automobile industry, it's the Tigers by a hair. (Tigers +1)

Final count: Twins 3, Tigers 2. Just like the rest of the season, this went down to the wire. But like I said, I went to school with Mike Cuddyer. So let's go Twins.