Truly A Fall Classic

It's been nine years since the last time the World Series went to a seventh game. That was the largely forgettable Giants-Angels World Series with the exception of J.T. Snow saving Dusty Baker's son's life and the epic choke job the Giants pulled in Game 6, allowing the Angels to rally and win. Since then, only twice has the Fall Classic even reached six games (both involving the Yankees). The series the AL team won usually had been sweeps, the NL winning ones were finished in 5 games.


This year, however, it's been trememdous. The Rangers and Cardinals have been thrilling for baseball fans. It's had a little bit of everything; great pitching, clutch hitting, historic performances, and the overmanaging display by both Tony La Russa and Ron Washington which you can expect to show up in Joe Girardi's binder for next season. Especially after the bizarre performance by La Russa last night. It's been 18 hours since the last out, and my head still hurts on all of Tony La Russa's moves in this game. And the shame is that it overshadows the exploits of Ron Washington, who's completely afraid to allow Albert Pujols to ever swing a bat. However, his strategy is working, so he can keep shimmying on now to a win away from the World Series (insert George W. Bush "Mission Accomplished" joke here).


Even with the 3-2 lead for Texas, I'm still uncertain who's winning this series as the Cardinals have the last two games at home. This is outstanding thing for baseball who should finally get the pay off with bigger ratings on Wednesday and hopefully Thursday with a Game 7. But even if it doesn't, it still won't ruin how entertaining a series we are experiencing. As a baseball fan who's become tired of one-sided World Series (not to mention early round playoff series as well in recent years), the possibly that a Game 7 could happen has me very excited.

Some other random World Series thoughts:

-Matt Napoli is your leader for Series MVP. It's clear after the crushed HR in Game 4, then the go-ahead double last night. The Cards don't have a clear leader; despite Pujols' 3 HR game on Game 3, he has no hits in any other game. I'm sure an MVP will present himself if the Cards do rally in the two home games.

-Derek Holland probably won't get to pitch again this series, meaning he won't win the Series MVP despite his great Game 4 performance. Doesn't matter; he wins the MVP in life after his performance in Game 5 as part of the Fox broadcast.

-Matt Holliday isn't going to win Series MVP. Looks like I got that one wrong from my preview post.

-Despite all the craziness that happened with La Russa and the controversy involving who was suppposed to pitch in the 8th, this is all avoided if David Murphy's grounder doesn't hit off Mike Rzepczynski. That's at least an out (maybe even a double play) and allows the Cards to pitch around Napoli and have Rzepczynski face Moreland in the lefty-lefty matchup.

-Home runs are usually mundane, but it seems like every homer hit in this series are either completely crushed or, in the case of Adrian Beltre, absurd looking. Part of that is a World Series blast is more important, but these are some larger than life shots.

-I hope I'm not the only NY Rangers fan to notice that both Rangers teams results seem to be tied together, at least since Game 6 of the ALCS when Texas won, but the Rangers lost to the Islanders. So far in the World Series, both Rangers won on Thursday and last night and both lost on Saturday. I'd root for a Game 7 Texas victory, however, that game won't end before New York's home opener, so Texas fans should root against the Leafs should a Game 7 be needed.

-When this is all over, I'm going to miss the Ron Washington Dance.