For all the flak it gets for being such a “boring” game, baseball sure didn’t live down to that reputation this past week. I can’t honestly say that last night’s 6-2 win by the St. Louis Cardinals over the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series to win the series 4-3 was exactly as thrilling as say, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Game 7 victory over the New York Yankees in the 2001 Fall Classic. But the epic seven game battle it just concluded? That was pretty special.
Lead changes? Check. Big hits at crucial moments by stars like Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman? Check. Hometown heroics? Those came courtesy of David Freese, who grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, hit the game-winning home run in Game 6 and wound up being named World Series MVP. Questionable managing decisions that paid off and questionable managing decisions that didn’t pay off? Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa gave us both of those, though so did Texas manager Ron Washington.
Just the lead changes in the last four of the 11 innings of Game 6 would have been enough to make this, the first World Series to go the full seven games since 2002, an instant classic. Your move, football.
