NO WAY! The Twins are going to beat the Red Sox AND the Yankees, and take the pennant next year!

Since when do sports NOT have anything to do with nationalism? They have EVERTHING to do with nationalism! But if you are looking for the preferred "nationalism" sport in the US, you'd be talking football, not baseball. For the best writing ever on the subject of football and nationalism, read Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail". Best insights into a presidential campaign ever written (with the lowdown and dirty on Nixon, the Republican National Committee, the Committee to Re-elect, and the Washington Redskins).

Baseball, in the US, is known as the "national pasttime" or some such as I recall. Basketball is the most popular sport in the US these days though, I think anyway, in terms of the numbers of spectators both in the arenas, and on TV.