The Daily Southtown's Nathaniel Whalen asks if there's still a rivalry between the White Sox and Twins. It seems, to me at least, like that question has a pretty obvious answer.
A: You better believe it.
I don't care if Ozzie says, "We just take the Twins the same way we take anybody else. The rivalry they had in the past was because the White Sox couldn't beat the Twins." He's paid to say that. He has to keep his troops motivated for 162+ games a year. If you start acknowledging that some games mean more than others, you run the risk of players giving less than the proverbial 110%. They won't be taking it one game at a time!
We can't have that. It would be baseball anarchy. Cats and dogs living together!
Seriously though, after 4 straight seasons where the Twins finished directly ahead of the Sox in the AL Central standings, one AL Central crown, one World Series title, one season where the Sox didn't fold in September against the Twins isn't going to diminish the rivalry. If anything, it will increase it.
The rivalry that began with Konerko's beer slide didn't end with a champagne shower in Detroit, Boston, Anaheim, or Houston. The rivalry that intensified with Torii Hunter's takeout of Jamie Burke stepped up to produce one of the best regular season games I have ever seen last year. Now, with the White Sox being the team with the giant target on their backs, I'm only expecting it to get better.