World Series 2011

Apologies to all of my readeR for the unexpected lack of posts lately.

Rangers vs. St. Louis Cardinals -- 7 games

What a great World Series! I always root for a 7 game World Series. Well, unless a team that I despise is in it, then I hope for sweeps. But this series had it all; low scoring games, high-scoring games, drama, suspense, record-setting performances, unbelievable endings and even a malfunctioning bullpen phone. (Yeah, right.)

Game 1 was your regular World Series pitcher's duel. St. Louis scored 2 in the fourth, Texas scored in the fifth and in the sixth inning Allen Craig came up with a go-ahead RBI pinch-hit off of Texas' Alexi Ogando, who was unhittable in the ALCS against Detroit. That run held up the final three innings as the Cardinals took game one at home.

Game 2 was an even more tightly contested pitchers duel between St. Louis' Jaime Garcia and the Rangers' Colby Lewis. St. Louis struck first but not until the bottom of the seventh inning! And coincidently enough Allen Craig again came through with an RBI pinch-hit off of Ogando. Heading into the ninth inning it looked like Craig was going to be the early favorite for World Series MVP and Ogando would be the favorite for World Series goat. But in the ninth inning Texas managed to rally behind a sneaky yet all important stolen base by Ian Kinsler and 2 sac flies to take the lead. St. Louis couldn't answer in the bottom of the ninth so the series went from a seeming 2-0 lead for St. Louis to a 1-1 series tie.

Game 3 saw the series moves to Texas where warmer weather was sure to warm up the bats. And boy did they warm up! 23 combined runs and 28 combined hits in one World Series game! Allen Craig again started off the scoring but this time as a starter in the first inning. His home run would again make him a contender for World Series MVP... if St. Louis could hold on. All remained quiet until the fourth inning when the Cardinals put up a 4 spot and Texas answered with 3 in the bottom of the inning. Then in the fifth, the Cardinals added 3 more runs as did Texas. So they were already at 8-6 through five innings when the teams had combined for 8 total runs in both games in St. Louis. In the sixth inning Albert Pujols chimed in with his first big hit of the series, a breathtaking, majestic, 431 foot, three-run homer off of Mr. Ogando. St. Louis pushed another run across that inning to take a 12-6 lead. From that moment on Texas' bats just could not keep up. Texas' 3 errors did not help any. As the seventh inning rolled around, Pujols found the chance to hit another home run, but this was only a two run homer and it only went 424 feet. Texas added a run in the bottom of the seventh and St. Louis answered back with the same in the top of the eighth. The top of the ninth started with the game out of reach for the Rangers. The only suspense was that Albert Pujols had one more at-bat and a chance to become only the third player ever to hit 3 home runs in a World Series game. And that's exactly what he did with two outs. His shortest home run of the game, a mere 420 feet, made him part of history as he tied several records (home runs in a World Series game, RBIs in a World Series game, hits in a World Series game) and set the record for most total bases in a World Series game (14). Simply historic. On a side note, the next day my mom saw Albert's numbers for the game on TV and said, "Wow, he's having a good series." Then I told her those were his numbers for Game 3 ONLY!

Game 4 saw a return of the pitching duel. Derek Holland gave up just 2 hits to the Cardinals over 8 1/3 innings while catcher Mike Napoli provided all of the necessary offense with a three-run homer in the sixth inning. It was definitely a game for baseball "purists" since even the winning team had only six hits. But the series was tied now 2-2.

Game 5 was another low-scoring affair but it was hardly well played. The Rangers' pitchers gave up 9 walks while both teams combined for 3 errors. St. Louis did jump out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning but Texas came back with one in the third and one in the sixth to tie; then the final 2 runs of the game in the bottom of the 8th. Texas takes a 3-2 series lead with the last games in St. Louis... and Texas hasn't lost back-to-back games since August 23!

Game 6 was one for the ages! Like Game 5, the first 6 innings of Game 6 were close but sloppily played with way too many errors for teams that are supposed to be World Series caliber. Then in the top of the seventh inning Texas led off with 2 home runs and later added a third run to take a 7-4 lead and needing only 9 outs to clinch the World Series. In the bottom of the eighth, Allen Craig, drove himself in with a home run to get within 2. Fast forward to the bottom of the ninth with Texas still clinging to that two run lead -- 3 outs to the championship. The bottom of the ninth started with a Ryan Theriot strikeout -- 2 outs to the championship. Then Albert Pujols doubles to deep left center and Lance Berkman walks. Suddenly Craig is up again and ready to be a hero. Unfortunately for him he struck out looking -- 1 out to the championship. David Freese is at the plate and has 2 strikes on him... when he triples over the head of Nelson Cruz, and driving in the two tying runs! Molina lined out to right, ending the threat and sending the game into extra innings. In the top of the 10th, Josh Hamilton stepped up to the plate with one on and one out. All he did was hit your run-of-the-mill 406 foot home run, giving the Rangers another 2 run lead with just 3 outs to get. What a story! Former drug addict and alcoholic turned born-again was going to lead his team to a World Series Championship. The story seemed too good to be true. Two singles and a sacrifice into the bottom of the 10th meant the story may be in doubt. Theriot grounded out to third, scoring one run ball leaving just one out left. The Rangers properly walked Pujols but with two outs and two strikes Berkman burned them by hitting a single up the middle which once again scored the tying run!!! In the top of the 11th inning Texas could only muster a one-out single. In the bottom of the 11th however, David Freese, hero of the ninth inning, led off with a deep homerun that swiftly ended the game in favor of St. Louis!!!

What a game! The crowd went from deathly silent to full-blown frenzy in the bottoms of the 8th, 9th, 10th AND 11th innings. I've never seen a game, much less a World Series game, end with that much excitement! It actually lead to many people saying it was the greatest World Series game ever played! While I cannot agree with that because of the sloppiness in the first half of the game, I'll absolutely admit that it was probably the game with the most drama and best ending! Of course, the game only tied the series at 3. So there was also a lot of discussion about whether or not the Cardinals would have to win to legitimize that Game 6. Some people said of victory was not necessary while others said losing Game 7 would take away from the importance and excitement of Game 6. In my opinion Game 6 can stand on its own and a loss in Game 7 would not diminish the excitement or the importance of the previous game. BUT winning the last game would definitely ADD  to the historic nature of Game 6.

Game 7 was a tense one as no matter the outcome of this game, one team would be declared champs and one team... wouldn't. The momentum of Game 6 didn't seem to carry over as Texas pushed across two runs in the very first inning, powered by back-to-back doubles from Josh Hamilton and Michael Young. But just as the previous game ended, St. Louis answered right back with 2 runs after back-to-back 2-out walks to Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman led to a David Freese 2 RBI double. For the rest of the game, Texas' bats were very quiet as they never mustered more than one hit in any inning after the first. Meanwhile Allen Craig homered yet again in the third inning. Texas pitchers walked in a run and hit a batter to bring in a second run in the fifth inning. St. Louis added one more in the seventh and cruised to a 6-2 victory in Game 7.

My words don't begin to do justice to the excitement of these games. It was absolutely my favorite World Series since the 1991 Braves-Twins which goes down in my book as the greatest World Series ever! (At least of the ones I've seen and am able to comment on.)

Five months until spring training!

Just Joe

Et tu, Atlanta?

Back on June 8, I mocked the Chicago Cubs in my post Still the Team I Remember I mentioned how sick and tired I was of their losing ways. What I didn't mention was that I've put my support behind the Atlanta Braves. Few people know that I actually began rooting for them even before rooting for the Cubs. It was probably 1982 or 1983 when I first started watching the Atlanta Braves on TBS; Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Rafael Ramirez, Chris Chambliss, etc.

So how is my first year as a reclaimed Braves fan? It started off quite well actually. The Braves were the popular pick in the preseason to win the National League wild-card with a few people even picking them to win the East. Through most of the year the Braves had the second-best record in the National League behind their East rivals Phillies. In fact, on the morning of September 1, although the Braves were well behind the Phillies for the East lead, they had an 8 1/2 game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League wild card! Smooth sailing with only one month to go! I mean, it's not like these are the Chicago Cubs...

Here I sit on the afternoon of September 26, after watching my Braves go 9-15 in September while those St. Louis Cardinals are 16-7 in September, just hoping against all hope that the Braves can hang on to their one-game lead with three games left to play! I'm pretty sure I jumped off the Cubs bandwagon because of situations just like these. The only difference at the moment is that I KNOW the Cubs would not be able to hang on to this one-game lead whereas I'm not really sure if the Braves will hang on. All of my Cubs training tells me it's a lost cause already but I sure hope the Braves won't let me down. I would hate to have to call them "the stupid Braves" after just one full year of fandom.

Just Joe


NEXT WEEK:  LFL (... finally!)

Still the Team I Remember

Last year, after over 26 years of loyal Cubs worship, I gave up. It was just a few weeks into the 2010 season and I just couldn't take the frustration of watching a WAY overpaid -- even by baseball standards -- WAY underachieving team any longer.

This past weekend the Cubs played two extra inning games against the St. Louis Cardinals. With 2 outs and bases empty in the bottom of the 12th inning of the first game, Cardinals all-world first baseman Albert Pujols (who'd already homered once in the game) came to bat. In previous years it would be a "no-brainer" decision: walk Pujols and face whomever may be next. With Pujols' numbers down a bit this year and with .329 hitting Lance Berkman on deck, the Cubs decided to pitch to Pujols. Jeff Samardzija did well to only nibble at the plate and it was no surprise when his 2-1 slider looked like it was heading for the dirt. Knowing Pujols' talent -- and knowing Cubs history moreso -- it was even less of a surprise when Pujols dropped his bathead on the low slider and drove it out of the park to win the game, 5-4.

The very next day, Cubs pitcher Carlos Marmol was on for the one-run save in the bottom of the 9th. Back when I used to watch, Marmol was notorious for refusing to establish his fastball and instead, throwing slider after slider after slider. So with a runner on 1st and a full count to former Cub Ryan Theriot, I had giggle fits watching Theriot loop a hanging slider down the left field line for an RBI double. Then with the score still tied, guess who led off the bottom of the 10th for the Cardinals. Did you guess "Albert Pujols?" See, you're already thinking like a Cubs fan! As a Cubs fan, you're happy to know Marmol was no longer pitching but the bad news is the Cubs are still the Cubs. With Pujols leading off this time, the intentional walk strategy takes different factors into consideration, mainly "do you want to put the game winning run on base with no outs?" The Cubs again decided to pitch to Albert. This time instead of Pujols hitting a good pitcher's pitch out of the park, he took a hanging fastball from Rodrigo Lopez and deposited it in the center field bleachers to beat the Cubs again!

Oh, Chicago Cubs, you are incorrigible.

But gone were the days of wanting to punch a wall. Instead I took great pleasure in knowing I'm no longer emotionally invested in this mockery. Furthermore, I've found that not only do I not root for the Cubs but I actually root against them! And upon further reflection, I'm lucky it was only 26+ years of fandom when their World Series drought will be 103 years in October.

Just Joe