COLUMN: Props to the St. Louis Cardinals, too bad for the Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves and their fans must be kicking themselves at the moment, thinking “What if?”
Going back to end of August, it looked like the Braves were a lock to clinch a spot in the playoffs as the National League Wild Card. For a second successive year St. Louis was looking like they’d be off for an early winter break.
Two-and-a-half months later, the Cardinals are World Series Champions and the Braves are the ones “enjoying” an extended winter break.
Naturally, I would love to avoid talking about the Cardinals at all, let alone in such a positive light, being a Cubs fan and all. Exceptions have to be made, and after what they just did it’s impossible not to talk about them.
It seems to me, however, the amazing season capped off by winning the Fall Classic has been slightly overlooked with the recent retiring of Tony LaRussa, now former head coach of the Cardinals.
La Russa deserves all the respect in the world, especially after what his team was able to do this year. It doesn’t hurt to be one of two coaches to have won the World Series in both the American and National Leagues. Nor does it hurt to have won two of three World Series appearances in seven years.
That of course is not to mention his implementation of the one-inning closer as we know today. For today, though, let’s set him aside and talk about the 2011 Cardinals.
As the month of August was coming to a close, the Cardinals were 10 games behind the Brewers in the National League Central, and in third place in the Wild Card standings behind San Francisco, and 10.5 games behind the Wild Card-leading Braves.
Not giving up on the season, the Cardinals went on a tear like very few teams in MLB history have done. They climbed all the way back from 10.5 games down to make it to the playoffs. In less than 40 days their fortunes had changed completely.
For La Russa and company, simply making it to the playoffs was not enough; they wanted to go all the way. Not only did they finish the regular season in stunning fashion, but they made it to and won the World Series.
They had to go through the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round. Boasting the best pitching staff in baseball and the best record in the National League, the Phillies looked well on their way to a second World Series title in four years.
The Cards walked into Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, for the decisive Game 5 in front of 40,000-plus fans, ready to make a statement. They did just that and walked away with a 1-0 win and a spot in the National League Championship Series.
St. Louis went on to dismantle the Milwaukee team that had finished ahead of them in the regular season 4-2 in the NLCS.
The only team left between the Cardinals and capping off one of the greatest playoff runs in baseball history was the Texas Rangers.
Coming from behind was the only way the Cardinals knew how to do it, and they did it again against the Rangers. They lost games 1 and 3 and then battled back in game 4, to tie the series at 2-2. Then, they lost game 5 and were up against elimination in game 6.
The great teams always save their best for last, though.
In a back-and-forth game, with plenty of hits and errors for all, the Cardinals got down to their last strike in the bottom of the 9th, down two runs. It was no cause for concern for these Cardinals.
World Series MVP David Freese ripped a two-run triple, to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Freese then outdid himself in the bottom of the 11th, hitting a walk-off home run to give the Cardinals the 11-10 victory.
Game 7 was merely a formality for these Cardinals, who would not be denied. They wrapped it up with ease — winning 6-2 — and concluding an amazing run.
These Cardinals won’t be remembered for a record number of wins, they didn’t have a touted starting rotation or a particularly intimidating lineup, but they got it done when they needed to.
As they say, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” For the Cardinals, it wasn’t over until they’d won it all.
– Spencer is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. He supports Manchester United and hopes to live long enough to watch the Cubs win a World Series. Send any comments to eliason.wright3@aggiemail.usu.edu.