How Brett Favre Is Helping the Yankees' Drive For 27

Is Brett Favre a Yankee fan?

Even if he isn't, a lot of Bombers supporters are certainly fans of No. 4 after his second unretirement and subsequent signing with the Minnesota Vikings set up a fateful Monday Night Football showdown with Favre's former team and Vikes' rival, the Green Bay Packers tonight at the Metrodome.

The huge regular season matchup was too big for the NFL and ESPN to move. So the American League Central one-game tiebreaker between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins—to be played at the same facility—is being pushed back to Tuesday at 5:07 p.m.

That's just 25 hours prior to the probable first pitch of Game One of the AL Division Series between the winner and the Yankees in New York.

This is assuming the Pinstripes opt for the longer, eight-day series to begin on Wednesday. Many believe they were already going to choose this series, so they can start CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett in four of the possible five games, but Tuesday's play-in game is all the more reason to play Game One on October 7.

The Favre-caused delay also keeps the other two AL playoff teams—Boston and Los Angeles—on their toes. That's because New York (thanks to finishing with the best record in the league) doesn't have to select which series it wants to play until an hour after the conclusion of the Detroit/Minnesota contest.

Another advantage for the Yankees is that Tuesday's starters—Rick Porcello and Scott Baker—will be unavailable until at least Game Three of the ALDS.  This, after Tigers ace Justin Verlander was already put out of commission for Game One due to the fact that he had to pitch Sunday's crucial game against the White Sox.

Everything is setting up nicely for New York, which is most likely rooting for the Twins to win (in 19 innings) on Tuesday. The Yanks went 7-0 against Minnesota this season and knocked out the Twins in four games in the 2003 and '04 ALDS.

The Tigers, meanwhile, were just 1-5 against the Yankees this year, but have a far better starting rotation.

The Bombers know to be careful what they wish for after drawing the apparently overmatched Tigers in 2006, only to fall to Detroit, 3-1, in the first round. But there's no denying New York is sitting pretty right now.

Thanks in part to Brett Favre.

Follow me on Twitter at JordanHarrison.

Jordan Schwartz is Bleacher Report's New York Yankees Community Leader. His book "Memoirs of the Unaccomplished Man" is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and authorhouse.com.

Jordan can be reached at [e-mail]