WINTER HAS COME AS WILD CARD CARDINALS WIN WORLD SERIES
[this post originally appeared at booktrib.com before Tony LaRussa surprisingly
retired as Cardinals manager - there are now less than 100 days to spring training!]
I was speaking metaphorically when I wrote “winter has come” to signify the end of the baseball season. Then a rare blizzard hit New York City Saturday October 29 that caused havoc to traffic and local football games.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ triumph in Game 7 over the Texas Rangers proved anti-climactic. Once Series MVP DAVID FREESE answered Texas’s two runs in the top of the first off Cardinal ace CHRIS CARPENTER with a resounding two-run double in the bottom of the first off overmatched young Texas southpaw MATT HARRISON, the tide in the game clearly changed.
When ALLEN CRAIG another young Cardinal who established his legend in this year’s post-season homered in the bottom of the third, the Cardinals took a lead that never was threatened in a convincing 6-2 win before nearly 50,000 crazed St. Louis fans most of whom dressed in cardinal red.
People will talk about Game 6 forever and Texas will have to lick its wounds until the bell rings next spring. Not once but TWICE were they one strike away from the World Series. A Texas newspaper even broke a story that they had won.
A premature headline that will go down in infamy with “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” that the Chicago Tribune released on the night of the 1948 Presidential election.
LOWENFISH’S LAW – that I have cited many times in these posts – should have dictated caution: NO LEAD OF FOUR RUNS OR LESS IS EVER SAFE IN BASEBALL UNTIL THE LAST MAN IS OUT. But I can forgive the excess enthusiasm because the Rangers have never won a World Series. Their
ancestor the woeful second Washington Senators franchise of 1961-71 never came close.
RANGERS BULLPEN IMPLODES:
The biggest factor in the Texas loss was the ineffectiveness of ALEXI OGANDO who shone in the earlier rounds of the post-season. He gave up key pinch-hits to ALLEN CRAIG in both Games 1 & 2. Only the daring stolen base by IAN KINSLER in the ninth inning of the second game and two clutch sacrifice flies by
JOSH HAMILTON and MICHAEL YOUNG gave the Rangers the victory.
But Ogando’s ineffectiveness continued and with the exception of young southpaw DEREK HOLLAND who pitched marvelously into the 9th inning of Game 4 allowing the Rangers to knot the Series at 2-2, no Ranger starting pitcher went deep into a game. It must have put too much of a burden ultimately on the relievers.
But Texas righthander COLBY LEWIS can start on my team any time. He’s a bulldog who attacks the strike zone without great stuff but great determination. He went to Japan to revive his career and the Rangers, who originally drafted him years ago, brought him back and he has served them well.
TWO CHEERS FOR LA RUSSA AND PUJOLS
And now St. Louis manager TONY LA RUSSA can claim a third World Series title to go with his 1989 Oakland A’s ring and his 2006 Cardinals ring. He is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame manager who knows when to push the right buttons most of the time. His gaffe at calling for the wrong pitcher in the bullpen in a Game 5 loss will now only be a footnote to history.
ALBERT PUJOLS is a marvelous baseball player on both sides of the ball. His
throw in the National League Championship Series to nail CHASE UTLEY trying to go from first to third on a ground ball to short was a great play I had never seen before. Giving out the sure out at first to get the bigger one at third showed baseball genius.
It reminded me of another play I had never seen: JOHNNY DAMON’s steal of second and third base on one play during the Yankees’ victorious 2009 World Series. Great players make great plays you’ve never seen.
As a hitter Pujols is fearsome. Even in a 0-for-15 slump after his 3 HR outburst in Game 3, the Rangers pitched around him and paid the greatest price when cleanup hitter LANCE BERKMAN came through time and time again esp. in the
dramatic Game 6.
Berkman was a wonderful story. Given up as well past his prime this past off-season, the switch-hitting slugger proved that he had plenty left in his tank once healthy and playing again in a winning environment like the one the Houston Astros provided early in his career.
Berkman actually apologized for not considering Texas as his home base because he thought the 2010 World Series-runner-up Rangers were only a one-year wonder. That admission showed more class than either Pujols or LaRussa showed and is why I only give them two cheers.
Pujols seemingly speaks to the media only after a Cardinals win. He refused to talk about his error that contributed to the Game 2 loss and his failing to swing on a hit and run play he himself called that contributed to the Game 5 loss.
LaRussa never explained what went wrong with the gaffe with the bullpen phone in Game 5, changing his story almost every time. He did abandon wearing sunglasses at night during the playoffs. He used to say that he wore them so other managers couldn’t look into his eyes as he was plotting his strategies.
As far as I know he didn’t explain his putting away his sunglasses.
But I give him his due for bringing a team 10 ½ games behind in late August into the winner’s circle. And I like the point SI’s JOE POSNANSKI made in a Oct 29 SI.com post. LaRussa is really a football coach and his highs and lows are of the humongous kind more common in that weekly sport.
I’ll leave the participation of both LaRussa and Pujols in one of Glenn Beck’s rallies last summer for another time. Both the slugger and the manager don’t have contracts yet for next year but I’d be very surprised if both did not return to try to defend their title.
FOOTBALL PROVIDES SOME MOMENTARY SOLACE:
The other sports mildly occupy my attention and I sure hope WISCONSIN bounces back from their heart-breaking loss at MICHIGAN STATE on a Hail Mary pass as the clock ran out.
I wrote that last sentence Saturday night Oct 22 after Wisconsin’s hopes for an undefeated season and perhaps a national championship game were dashed.
Game 3 of the World Series was the competition on the airwaves and I don’t like blowouts in any sport. So I missed the last two of ALBERT PUJOLS’s 3 HRs in the Cardinals rout to tried to will my Badgers to victory.
I not only failed that night but a week later on Sat night Oct 29 the Badgers lost another heartbreaker on the road at Ohio State. And again it was a Hail Mary – a desperation pass into the end zone - that did them in. They were outplayed by the Buckeyes for most of the game but like at Michigan State Wisconsin quarterback RUSSELL WILSON led a dramatic fourth quarter comeback.
The talented Wilson hopes to continue his career as a catcher in the Colorado Rockies system as well as one day become a NFL quarterback. But Wisconsin’s pass defense lapses at crunch time have shattered hopes that this will be a special season in Madison. Many games still remain and there will undoubtedly be more thrills ahead but not even a divisional Big Ten championship seems likely for Wisconsin.
WHY BASEBALL IS STILL BEST:
More than any sport I know, baseball connects to history. Every play has an antecedent in a play from the past. When IAN KINSLER & ELVIS ANDRUS turned remarkable double plays for the Rangers in the World Series, I couldn’t help think of how a second baseman like BILL MAZEROSKI or a shortstop like OMAR VIZQUEL (who is still active in his 40s) or OZZIE SMITH might have made similar plays.
So all hail baseball. And as I sign off for this season I have guarded hopes that the proposed expansion of the playoffs will not take place for at least a year.
And maybe just maybe the precursor will be the shortening of the regular season to no more than 156 games or even fewer.
Only 106 days remain until the greatest sentence in the English language rings true again: “The pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training.”
In the meantime, Remember – Take it easy but take it!
[this post originally appeared at booktrib.com]
I was speaking metaphorically when I wrote “winter has come” to signify the end of the baseball season. Then a rare blizzard hit New York City Saturday October 29 that caused havoc to traffic and local football games.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ triumph in Game 7 over the Texas Rangers proved anti-climactic. Once Series MVP DAVID FREESE answered Texas’s two runs in the top of the first off Cardinal ace CHRIS CARPENTER with a resounding two-run double in the bottom of the first off overmatched young Texas southpaw MATT HARRISON, the tide in the game clearly changed.
When ALLEN CRAIG another young Cardinal who established his legend in this year’s post-season homered in the bottom of the third, the Cardinals took a lead that never was threatened in a convincing 6-2 win before nearly 50,000 crazed St. Louis fans most of whom dressed in cardinal red.
People will talk about Game 6 forever and Texas will have to lick its wounds until the bell rings next spring. Not once but TWICE were they one strike away from the World Series. A Texas newspaper even broke a story that they had won.
A premature headline that will go down in infamy with “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” that the Chicago Tribune released on the night of the 1948 Presidential election.
LOWENFISH’S LAW – that I have cited many times in these posts – should have dictated caution: NO LEAD OF FOUR RUNS OR LESS IS EVER SAFE IN BASEBALL UNTIL THE LAST MAN IS OUT. But I can forgive the excess enthusiasm because the Rangers have never won a World Series. Their
ancestor the woeful second Washington Senators franchise of 1961-71 never came close.
RANGERS BULLPEN IMPLODES:
The biggest factor in the Texas loss was the ineffectiveness of ALEXI OGANDO who shone in the earlier rounds of the post-season. He gave up key pinch-hits to ALLEN CRAIG in both Games 1 & 2. Only the daring stolen base by IAN KINSLER in the ninth inning of the second game and two clutch sacrifice flies by
JOSH HAMILTON and MICHAEL YOUNG gave the Rangers the victory.
But Ogando’s ineffectiveness continued and with the exception of young southpaw DEREK HOLLAND who pitched marvelously into the 9th inning of Game 4 allowing the Rangers to knot the Series at 2-2, no Ranger starting pitcher went deep into a game. It must have put too much of a burden ultimately on the relievers.
But Texas righthander COLBY LEWIS can start on my team any time. He’s a bulldog who attacks the strike zone without great stuff but great determination. He went to Japan to revive his career and the Rangers, who originally drafted him years ago, brought him back and he has served them well.
TWO CHEERS FOR LA RUSSA AND PUJOLS
And now St. Louis manager TONY LA RUSSA can claim a third World Series title to go with his 1989 Oakland A’s ring and his 2006 Cardinals ring. He is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame manager who knows when to push the right buttons most of the time. His gaffe at calling for the wrong pitcher in the bullpen in a Game 5 loss will now only be a footnote to history.
ALBERT PUJOLS is a marvelous baseball player on both sides of the ball. His
throw in the National League Championship Series to nail CHASE UTLEY trying to go from first to third on a ground ball to short was a great play I had never seen before. Giving out the sure out at first to get the bigger one at third showed baseball genius.
It reminded me of another play I had never seen: JOHNNY DAMON’s steal of second and third base on one play during the Yankees’ victorious 2009 World Series. Great players make great plays you’ve never seen.
As a hitter Pujols is fearsome. Even in a 0-for-15 slump after his 3 HR outburst in Game 3, the Rangers pitched around him and paid the greatest price when cleanup hitter LANCE BERKMAN came through time and time again esp. in the
dramatic Game 6.
Berkman was a wonderful story. Given up as well past his prime this past off-season, the switch-hitting slugger proved that he had plenty left in his tank once healthy and playing again in a winning environment like the one the Houston Astros provided early in his career.
Berkman actually apologized for not considering Texas as his home base because he thought the 2010 World Series-runner-up Rangers were only a one-year wonder. That admission showed more class than either Pujols or LaRussa showed and is why I only give them two cheers.
Pujols seemingly speaks to the media only after a Cardinals win. He refused to talk about his error that contributed to the Game 2 loss and his failing to swing on a hit and run play he himself called that contributed to the Game 5 loss.
LaRussa never explained what went wrong with the gaffe with the bullpen phone in Game 5, changing his story almost every time. He did abandon wearing sunglasses at night during the playoffs. He used to say that he wore them so other managers couldn’t look into his eyes as he was plotting his strategies.
As far as I know he didn’t explain his putting away his sunglasses.
But I give him his due for bringing a team 10 ½ games behind in late August into the winner’s circle. And I like the point SI’s JOE POSNANSKI made in a Oct 29 SI.com post. LaRussa is really a football coach and his highs and lows are of the humongous kind more common in that weekly sport.
I’ll leave the participation of both LaRussa and Pujols in one of Glenn Beck’s rallies last summer for another time. Both the slugger and the manager don’t have contracts yet for next year but I’d be very surprised if both did not return to try to defend their title.
FOOTBALL PROVIDES SOME MOMENTARY SOLACE:
The other sports mildly occupy my attention and I sure hope WISCONSIN bounces back from their heart-breaking loss at MICHIGAN STATE on a Hail Mary pass as the clock ran out.
I wrote that last sentence Saturday night Oct 22 after Wisconsin’s hopes for an undefeated season and perhaps a national championship game were dashed.
Game 3 of the World Series was the competition on the airwaves and I don’t like blowouts in any sport. So I missed the last two of ALBERT PUJOLS’s 3 HRs in the Cardinals rout to tried to will my Badgers to victory.
I not only failed that night but a week later on Sat night Oct 29 the Badgers lost another heartbreaker on the road at Ohio State. And again it was a Hail Mary – a desperation pass into the end zone - that did them in. They were outplayed by the Buckeyes for most of the game but like at Michigan State Wisconsin quarterback RUSSELL WILSON led a dramatic fourth quarter comeback.
The talented Wilson hopes to continue his career as a catcher in the Colorado Rockies system as well as one day become a NFL quarterback. But Wisconsin’s pass defense lapses at crunch time have shattered hopes that this will be a special season in Madison. Many games still remain and there will undoubtedly be more thrills ahead but not even a divisional Big Ten championship seems likely for Wisconsin.
WHY BASEBALL IS STILL BEST:
More than any sport I know, baseball connects to history. Every play has an antecedent in a play from the past. When IAN KINSLER & ELVIS ANDRUS turned remarkable double plays for the Rangers in the World Series, I couldn’t help think of how a second baseman like BILL MAZEROSKI or a shortstop like OMAR VIZQUEL (who is still active in his 40s) or OZZIE SMITH might have made similar plays.
So all hail baseball. And as I sign off for this season I have guarded hopes that the proposed expansion of the playoffs will not take place for at least a year.
And maybe just maybe the precursor will be the shortening of the regular season to no more than 156 games or even fewer.
Only 106 days remain until the greatest sentence in the English language rings true again: “The pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training.”
In the meantime, Remember – Take it easy but take it!
[this post originally appeared at booktrib.com before Tony LaRussa surprisingly
retired as Cardinals manager - there are now less than 100 days to spring training!]
I was speaking metaphorically when I wrote “winter has come” to signify the end of the baseball season. Then a rare blizzard hit New York City Saturday October 29 that caused havoc to traffic and local football games.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ triumph in Game 7 over the Texas Rangers proved anti-climactic. Once Series MVP DAVID FREESE answered Texas’s two runs in the top of the first off Cardinal ace CHRIS CARPENTER with a resounding two-run double in the bottom of the first off overmatched young Texas southpaw MATT HARRISON, the tide in the game clearly changed.
When ALLEN CRAIG another young Cardinal who established his legend in this year’s post-season homered in the bottom of the third, the Cardinals took a lead that never was threatened in a convincing 6-2 win before nearly 50,000 crazed St. Louis fans most of whom dressed in cardinal red.
People will talk about Game 6 forever and Texas will have to lick its wounds until the bell rings next spring. Not once but TWICE were they one strike away from the World Series. A Texas newspaper even broke a story that they had won.
A premature headline that will go down in infamy with “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” that the Chicago Tribune released on the night of the 1948 Presidential election.
LOWENFISH’S LAW – that I have cited many times in these posts – should have dictated caution: NO LEAD OF FOUR RUNS OR LESS IS EVER SAFE IN BASEBALL UNTIL THE LAST MAN IS OUT. But I can forgive the excess enthusiasm because the Rangers have never won a World Series. Their
ancestor the woeful second Washington Senators franchise of 1961-71 never came close.
RANGERS BULLPEN IMPLODES:
The biggest factor in the Texas loss was the ineffectiveness of ALEXI OGANDO who shone in the earlier rounds of the post-season. He gave up key pinch-hits to ALLEN CRAIG in both Games 1 & 2. Only the daring stolen base by IAN KINSLER in the ninth inning of the second game and two clutch sacrifice flies by
JOSH HAMILTON and MICHAEL YOUNG gave the Rangers the victory.
But Ogando’s ineffectiveness continued and with the exception of young southpaw DEREK HOLLAND who pitched marvelously into the 9th inning of Game 4 allowing the Rangers to knot the Series at 2-2, no Ranger starting pitcher went deep into a game. It must have put too much of a burden ultimately on the relievers.
But Texas righthander COLBY LEWIS can start on my team any time. He’s a bulldog who attacks the strike zone without great stuff but great determination. He went to Japan to revive his career and the Rangers, who originally drafted him years ago, brought him back and he has served them well.
TWO CHEERS FOR LA RUSSA AND PUJOLS
And now St. Louis manager TONY LA RUSSA can claim a third World Series title to go with his 1989 Oakland A’s ring and his 2006 Cardinals ring. He is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame manager who knows when to push the right buttons most of the time. His gaffe at calling for the wrong pitcher in the bullpen in a Game 5 loss will now only be a footnote to history.
ALBERT PUJOLS is a marvelous baseball player on both sides of the ball. His
throw in the National League Championship Series to nail CHASE UTLEY trying to go from first to third on a ground ball to short was a great play I had never seen before. Giving out the sure out at first to get the bigger one at third showed baseball genius.
It reminded me of another play I had never seen: JOHNNY DAMON’s steal of second and third base on one play during the Yankees’ victorious 2009 World Series. Great players make great plays you’ve never seen.
As a hitter Pujols is fearsome. Even in a 0-for-15 slump after his 3 HR outburst in Game 3, the Rangers pitched around him and paid the greatest price when cleanup hitter LANCE BERKMAN came through time and time again esp. in the
dramatic Game 6.
Berkman was a wonderful story. Given up as well past his prime this past off-season, the switch-hitting slugger proved that he had plenty left in his tank once healthy and playing again in a winning environment like the one the Houston Astros provided early in his career.
Berkman actually apologized for not considering Texas as his home base because he thought the 2010 World Series-runner-up Rangers were only a one-year wonder. That admission showed more class than either Pujols or LaRussa showed and is why I only give them two cheers.
Pujols seemingly speaks to the media only after a Cardinals win. He refused to talk about his error that contributed to the Game 2 loss and his failing to swing on a hit and run play he himself called that contributed to the Game 5 loss.
LaRussa never explained what went wrong with the gaffe with the bullpen phone in Game 5, changing his story almost every time. He did abandon wearing sunglasses at night during the playoffs. He used to say that he wore them so other managers couldn’t look into his eyes as he was plotting his strategies.
As far as I know he didn’t explain his putting away his sunglasses.
But I give him his due for bringing a team 10 ½ games behind in late August into the winner’s circle. And I like the point SI’s JOE POSNANSKI made in a Oct 29 SI.com post. LaRussa is really a football coach and his highs and lows are of the humongous kind more common in that weekly sport.
I’ll leave the participation of both LaRussa and Pujols in one of Glenn Beck’s rallies last summer for another time. Both the slugger and the manager don’t have contracts yet for next year but I’d be very surprised if both did not return to try to defend their title.
FOOTBALL PROVIDES SOME MOMENTARY SOLACE:
The other sports mildly occupy my attention and I sure hope WISCONSIN bounces back from their heart-breaking loss at MICHIGAN STATE on a Hail Mary pass as the clock ran out.
I wrote that last sentence Saturday night Oct 22 after Wisconsin’s hopes for an undefeated season and perhaps a national championship game were dashed.
Game 3 of the World Series was the competition on the airwaves and I don’t like blowouts in any sport. So I missed the last two of ALBERT PUJOLS’s 3 HRs in the Cardinals rout to tried to will my Badgers to victory.
I not only failed that night but a week later on Sat night Oct 29 the Badgers lost another heartbreaker on the road at Ohio State. And again it was a Hail Mary – a desperation pass into the end zone - that did them in. They were outplayed by the Buckeyes for most of the game but like at Michigan State Wisconsin quarterback RUSSELL WILSON led a dramatic fourth quarter comeback.
The talented Wilson hopes to continue his career as a catcher in the Colorado Rockies system as well as one day become a NFL quarterback. But Wisconsin’s pass defense lapses at crunch time have shattered hopes that this will be a special season in Madison. Many games still remain and there will undoubtedly be more thrills ahead but not even a divisional Big Ten championship seems likely for Wisconsin.
WHY BASEBALL IS STILL BEST:
More than any sport I know, baseball connects to history. Every play has an antecedent in a play from the past. When IAN KINSLER & ELVIS ANDRUS turned remarkable double plays for the Rangers in the World Series, I couldn’t help think of how a second baseman like BILL MAZEROSKI or a shortstop like OMAR VIZQUEL (who is still active in his 40s) or OZZIE SMITH might have made similar plays.
So all hail baseball. And as I sign off for this season I have guarded hopes that the proposed expansion of the playoffs will not take place for at least a year.
And maybe just maybe the precursor will be the shortening of the regular season to no more than 156 games or even fewer.
Only 106 days remain until the greatest sentence in the English language rings true again: “The pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training.”
In the meantime, Remember – Take it easy but take it!
[this post originally appeared at booktrib.com]
I was speaking metaphorically when I wrote “winter has come” to signify the end of the baseball season. Then a rare blizzard hit New York City Saturday October 29 that caused havoc to traffic and local football games.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ triumph in Game 7 over the Texas Rangers proved anti-climactic. Once Series MVP DAVID FREESE answered Texas’s two runs in the top of the first off Cardinal ace CHRIS CARPENTER with a resounding two-run double in the bottom of the first off overmatched young Texas southpaw MATT HARRISON, the tide in the game clearly changed.
When ALLEN CRAIG another young Cardinal who established his legend in this year’s post-season homered in the bottom of the third, the Cardinals took a lead that never was threatened in a convincing 6-2 win before nearly 50,000 crazed St. Louis fans most of whom dressed in cardinal red.
People will talk about Game 6 forever and Texas will have to lick its wounds until the bell rings next spring. Not once but TWICE were they one strike away from the World Series. A Texas newspaper even broke a story that they had won.
A premature headline that will go down in infamy with “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” that the Chicago Tribune released on the night of the 1948 Presidential election.
LOWENFISH’S LAW – that I have cited many times in these posts – should have dictated caution: NO LEAD OF FOUR RUNS OR LESS IS EVER SAFE IN BASEBALL UNTIL THE LAST MAN IS OUT. But I can forgive the excess enthusiasm because the Rangers have never won a World Series. Their
ancestor the woeful second Washington Senators franchise of 1961-71 never came close.
RANGERS BULLPEN IMPLODES:
The biggest factor in the Texas loss was the ineffectiveness of ALEXI OGANDO who shone in the earlier rounds of the post-season. He gave up key pinch-hits to ALLEN CRAIG in both Games 1 & 2. Only the daring stolen base by IAN KINSLER in the ninth inning of the second game and two clutch sacrifice flies by
JOSH HAMILTON and MICHAEL YOUNG gave the Rangers the victory.
But Ogando’s ineffectiveness continued and with the exception of young southpaw DEREK HOLLAND who pitched marvelously into the 9th inning of Game 4 allowing the Rangers to knot the Series at 2-2, no Ranger starting pitcher went deep into a game. It must have put too much of a burden ultimately on the relievers.
But Texas righthander COLBY LEWIS can start on my team any time. He’s a bulldog who attacks the strike zone without great stuff but great determination. He went to Japan to revive his career and the Rangers, who originally drafted him years ago, brought him back and he has served them well.
TWO CHEERS FOR LA RUSSA AND PUJOLS
And now St. Louis manager TONY LA RUSSA can claim a third World Series title to go with his 1989 Oakland A’s ring and his 2006 Cardinals ring. He is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame manager who knows when to push the right buttons most of the time. His gaffe at calling for the wrong pitcher in the bullpen in a Game 5 loss will now only be a footnote to history.
ALBERT PUJOLS is a marvelous baseball player on both sides of the ball. His
throw in the National League Championship Series to nail CHASE UTLEY trying to go from first to third on a ground ball to short was a great play I had never seen before. Giving out the sure out at first to get the bigger one at third showed baseball genius.
It reminded me of another play I had never seen: JOHNNY DAMON’s steal of second and third base on one play during the Yankees’ victorious 2009 World Series. Great players make great plays you’ve never seen.
As a hitter Pujols is fearsome. Even in a 0-for-15 slump after his 3 HR outburst in Game 3, the Rangers pitched around him and paid the greatest price when cleanup hitter LANCE BERKMAN came through time and time again esp. in the
dramatic Game 6.
Berkman was a wonderful story. Given up as well past his prime this past off-season, the switch-hitting slugger proved that he had plenty left in his tank once healthy and playing again in a winning environment like the one the Houston Astros provided early in his career.
Berkman actually apologized for not considering Texas as his home base because he thought the 2010 World Series-runner-up Rangers were only a one-year wonder. That admission showed more class than either Pujols or LaRussa showed and is why I only give them two cheers.
Pujols seemingly speaks to the media only after a Cardinals win. He refused to talk about his error that contributed to the Game 2 loss and his failing to swing on a hit and run play he himself called that contributed to the Game 5 loss.
LaRussa never explained what went wrong with the gaffe with the bullpen phone in Game 5, changing his story almost every time. He did abandon wearing sunglasses at night during the playoffs. He used to say that he wore them so other managers couldn’t look into his eyes as he was plotting his strategies.
As far as I know he didn’t explain his putting away his sunglasses.
But I give him his due for bringing a team 10 ½ games behind in late August into the winner’s circle. And I like the point SI’s JOE POSNANSKI made in a Oct 29 SI.com post. LaRussa is really a football coach and his highs and lows are of the humongous kind more common in that weekly sport.
I’ll leave the participation of both LaRussa and Pujols in one of Glenn Beck’s rallies last summer for another time. Both the slugger and the manager don’t have contracts yet for next year but I’d be very surprised if both did not return to try to defend their title.
FOOTBALL PROVIDES SOME MOMENTARY SOLACE:
The other sports mildly occupy my attention and I sure hope WISCONSIN bounces back from their heart-breaking loss at MICHIGAN STATE on a Hail Mary pass as the clock ran out.
I wrote that last sentence Saturday night Oct 22 after Wisconsin’s hopes for an undefeated season and perhaps a national championship game were dashed.
Game 3 of the World Series was the competition on the airwaves and I don’t like blowouts in any sport. So I missed the last two of ALBERT PUJOLS’s 3 HRs in the Cardinals rout to tried to will my Badgers to victory.
I not only failed that night but a week later on Sat night Oct 29 the Badgers lost another heartbreaker on the road at Ohio State. And again it was a Hail Mary – a desperation pass into the end zone - that did them in. They were outplayed by the Buckeyes for most of the game but like at Michigan State Wisconsin quarterback RUSSELL WILSON led a dramatic fourth quarter comeback.
The talented Wilson hopes to continue his career as a catcher in the Colorado Rockies system as well as one day become a NFL quarterback. But Wisconsin’s pass defense lapses at crunch time have shattered hopes that this will be a special season in Madison. Many games still remain and there will undoubtedly be more thrills ahead but not even a divisional Big Ten championship seems likely for Wisconsin.
WHY BASEBALL IS STILL BEST:
More than any sport I know, baseball connects to history. Every play has an antecedent in a play from the past. When IAN KINSLER & ELVIS ANDRUS turned remarkable double plays for the Rangers in the World Series, I couldn’t help think of how a second baseman like BILL MAZEROSKI or a shortstop like OMAR VIZQUEL (who is still active in his 40s) or OZZIE SMITH might have made similar plays.
So all hail baseball. And as I sign off for this season I have guarded hopes that the proposed expansion of the playoffs will not take place for at least a year.
And maybe just maybe the precursor will be the shortening of the regular season to no more than 156 games or even fewer.
Only 106 days remain until the greatest sentence in the English language rings true again: “The pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training.”
In the meantime, Remember – Take it easy but take it!