Lift Your Wings and Fly

[flwyd]

For the first time since I've followed baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals are world champions.

The whole post season was very dramatic for the redbirds. Underdogs the whole way, the stars were not the big names. Perennial sluggers Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds were hardly a factor at the plate while the big offensive weapons were Scott Rolen (most notable for Gold Glove awards), David Eckstein (shortstop MVP of all things), Yadier Molina (a catcher batting 7th), and So Taguchi, a part-time outfielder in for defense. Their starting pitchers were phenomenal. They were able to take advantage of Tiger mistakes at critical moments and recover from their own mistakes without too much damage. They played old-fashioned baseball where home runs are a surprise, defense is a premium, and the team which makes the most key bunts wins. They didn't dominate; they just won. Ty Cobb would be proud.

Smart money before the playoffs was on a New York subway series. A Mets/Yankees series also would have been exciting, averaging three or four homers per game. But I can watch sluggers any day at Coors Field. Given the choice, I'll take the on-edge excitement of a series where errors on the pitcher lead to more runs than shots out of the park.

Go Cards!

Comments

[billingb.livejournal.com]

Although MLB doesn't seem to be overly happy about the world series (worst ratings ever) I was thrilled to watch good solid baseball. I think that the whole MLB system is set up on the belief that more home runs and higher scoring games will draw more casual fans. I wish they would put more energy into drawing in those fans and having them understand that a series like this is what really good baseball is all about (well aside from 5 Detroit pitchers making errors in 5 games).