It was truly a spelling bee for the ages.

In a departure from previous years, the Scripps Howard company chose to split the spellers into two teams, rather than having an individual single-elimination competition, in order to promote camaraderie and sportsmanship. The teams would face off, round after round, with one designated person from each team choosing words for each speller from the other team, or "throwing" the words. The teams would face off for a certain number of rounds, and by the end of the match, whichever team had the most spellers left would win. That way, the best spellers in the country would bring glory not just to his or her overbearing parents, but to the team as a whole.

It took Bee officials a long time to decide how to name the teams—several were for using winning words from past Bees, but others feared that, say, the chiaroscurists verses the succedaneums might create problems. After much discussion, the officials decided to use the opportunity to honor two of the many ethnic and cultural groups that make this country so great—after a lot of thought they settled on naming one team after the immigrants from South Asia who have contributed so well to American society and another in honor of people of the multiple birth persuasion, whether fraternal or identical. Ladies and gentlemen, in the 2005 Scripps Howard Spelling Bee, it is the Indians versus the Twins. May the better team win!

In the weeks before today's finals, the two teams played 12 preliminary matches. These matches were closely fought and deathly long; many of them lasting well into the night and featuring exciting heroics. Who can forget when young Shannon Stewart of Miami, Florida finally ended Thursday's match for the Twins with a surprise clutch spelling of NEPHALISM (From the Greek and French; total abstinence from spirituous liquor), or when Travis Hafner of Skyeston, North Dakota, dooked a surprise J.C. Romero NOPALRY (Derivation uncertain. A plantation of the nopal for raising the cochineal insect.) into left field to end last Tuesday's bonus-time marathon?

The series has had its share of surprising miscues, too, from Matthew LeCroy's rather shocking stumble on GROUND BALL (A batted ball that bounces along the ground) two days ago or when Jhonny Peralta completely blanked on how to spell YOU CALLED IT YOU CATCH IT, MORON (I got it! I got it! I ain't got it!.)

As a result of these highs and lows, coming into today's final match, the two teams had played themselves to a perfect tie.

Now, early commentators thought that today's final match would prove to be somewhat unbalanced as the Twins were bringing an ace word thrower to the mic today, one Johan Santana of Venezuelia, Minnesota, and the Indians were countering with this drunk man they found on the street:

A fair fight? I say not. Yet Santana faltered early on, hanging a word of obvious Latin derivation to Victor Martinez, which he promptly smashed over the left field fence. Before anyone knew what was happening, the Indians were up 2 spellers on the Twins after their half of the first round.

The Twins quickly gained a speller back when the hometown favorite, the prepubescent Joe Mauer correctly spelled MENISCUS (a cartilage disk that acts as a cushion between ends of bones that meet in a joint.) but by the third round, the Indians had the advantage again when Coco Crisp went long with COCKAPOO (The unholy combination of a cocker spaniel and a poodle.) Unknown to Santana, Crisp breeds Cockapoos.

For the most part, though, Santana was incredible—causing 14 spellers to flail wildly and burst into tears and run to their mommies. And his team soon tied up the match when the smallest speller, one Little Nicky Punto, rounded the bases with LILLIPUTIAN (see: Little Nicky Punto ).

The match went on and on, the Twins and Indians spelling equally well (or badly) as time went on. The game stayed tied through the allotted nine rounds, and went into "bonus time." The Twins began to suffer injuries—one Justin Morneau of the great state of Canadia left the match with a strained philange, while Little Nicky Punto got hamstrung over HAMSTRING (The one thing LNP hadn't hurt yet.) and will be on the DL for an unspecified period of time.

We should pause here to note the efficacy (kick-ass-ness) of the Twins relief throwers. While Joe Nathan faltered a bit in the tenth, he was able to maintain his composure and throw out a key ELEEMOSYNARY (of or pertaining to alms, charitable) to retire the side. Young Masters Nathan, Juan Rincon, Jesse Crain, and J.C. Romero managed to use their extensive knowledge of words with unknown origins and similarly pronounced variants to hold the Indians for five rounds.

The Bee had gone 13 rounds, and the spellers were getting tired, not to mention the observers. Most of the Twins had gone out with various and sundry spelling-related injuries and the only thrower they had left was one Terence John Mulholland, who had been recently showing signs of senility and could accidentally give an opposing speller a word like KITTY (kitty).

But then, in the bottom of the 13th round, young Lew Fordwalker of Tatooine, Texas stepped up to the mic and changed the momentum of the game.

In a surprise move, young Fordwalker stretched SUPERHETERODYNE into a double, and then waited for one of his teammates to spell him home.

And then came Jacque Jones, who, with one swing of the APPOGGIATURA (something to do with music, I really can't remember.) brought Ford home and gave the Twins the victory.

Good spelling, boys. Good spelling.