The uniqueness of the Twins-Brewers rivalry

A question that I get a lot from people, whether it be on Twitter or in person, is “how can you cheer for both Minnesota and Wisconsin sports teams?” My stock answer is pretty simple: half my family is from Minnesota, and half my family’s from Wisconsin. This means that my rooting interests are split half and half between Minnesota and Wisconsin teams. I even listed the Brew Crew second in a 2017 fanpost where I ranked my favorite MLB teams. This makes it really interesting in my family when a Border Battle takes place.

I always get extra excited for a Twins-Brewers series, and that’s partly because of my family connections and partly because I think it’s one of the more unique rivalries in Major League Baseball. I say it’s unique because there isn’t a ton of bad blood (at the moment!) between the two teams and their fanbases. If you ask a Twins fan who their least favorite baseball team is, they probably aren’t going to say the Brewers. Same thing for Brewers fans with the Twins. This is probably because they’re not in the same division. My dad has told me that the rivalry was much stronger when both teams were in the American League, and that makes sense. If you only play one series against a team per year, you aren’t going to have too much animosity towards them. I think that’s part of the reason why the annual meeting between the Twins and Brewers is so fun. There isn’t a ton of pressure on either team because it doesn’t have much of an impact on division races, and that allows the series to exist just for the fun of it.

In a sense, the Twins-Brewers rivalry in its current form is incredibly Midwestern. It’s more of a friendly competition than anything else, and we all know that Midwesterners are stereotypically very friendly. This is in stark contrast to a series like Packers-Vikings, which is driven by a genuine dislike, some might say even hatred, that the two sides have for one another. That hatred is not really present in the baseball version of the Border Battle. The tradition and excitement is still there, though. For many baseball fans on both sides of the border. especially those with family ties such as myself, the Border Battle is one of the highlights of the season. And now that both teams are shaping up to be bona fide contenders, the matchups this year should be really fun to watch.