Best Game Ever
I posted it last night on Facebook and I feel the same way this morning – Game 6 of the World Series was the best game I’ve ever seen.
The Cardinals won 10-9 to force a Game 7 tonight in St. Louis. If you’re like me, you have no idea how they won. They were down to their last strike twice – the first time in the ninth inning when David Freese delivered a two-run triple to tie the game. A better right fielder than Nelson Cruz would have caught that ball before it ricocheted off the wall.
Then in the 10th, Lance Berkman singled to right-center to tie the game again after Josh Hamilton had seemingly won it for the Rangers in the top of the 10th with a two-run homer.
If I had been covering the game for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I know how I would have felt in the pressbox trying to write my story. It was an epic game, one for the ages, and I would have tried to convey what it was like to be there and experience the whole darn thing.
When I call it the best game I’ve ever seen, my definition of “best” doesn’t mean that it was a well-played game. It was anything but – the Cardinals committed three errors, and the Rangers had two.
Have you ever seen a major-league third baseman drop a pop-up before? I hadn’t either, but that’s what happened with Freese. I don’t even know him and in fact had never heard of him until the playoffs started, but I was sure happy that he got a chance for double redemption, smacking that huge triple and then drilling that walkoff homer in the 11th off of Mark Lowe.
If I were Freese, that would have been tough to live with that error in the offseason if Texas had won.
And as happy as I was for Freese, I felt bad for Lowe, the former Mariner who wouldn’t have been in the game if Texas had had any other pitching options.
The Cardinals are an amazing team. They should have folded after Matt Holliday was picked off of third base in the seventh inning when the bases were loaded. I have no idea what he was thinking there, but Rangers catcher Mike Napoli caught him napping. If I were a Cardinals’ fan, I would have been furious at Holliday.
The Cardinals should have folded after Rafael Furcal bounced out lamely with the bases loaded in the eighth – or was it the seventh, I forget.
And in the 10th, they didn’t have a position player available as a pinch-hitter so they had to go with Kyle Lohse in the pitcher’s spot in the order, and what did he do? Simply lofted a bunt over the charging Adrian Beltre that sacrificed the runners to second and third.
I’ve always loved the American League and the DH because I can’t stand watching pitchers hit. They’re not big-league hitters. Most of them are not even minor-league hitters.
But last night, I changed my mind a bit. It was interesting to see how much the pitcher’s spot in the batting order affected managerial decisions. Should you pinch-hit or not? As the benches got shorter, Tony LaRussa and Ron Washington had limited options.
If this game had gone a few more innings, I think every man in the dugout and bullpen would have played.
It was just terrific stuff all the way around. Mariner fans would say that Game 5 of the division series against the Yankees was the best game they’ve ever seen, but if you’re a baseball fan, last night’s game topped them all.
Can’t wait for Game 7 tonight. And keep this in mind – the last eight times a Game 7 has been played in the World Series, the home team has won.
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TOMORROW: Predictions on the Coug and Husky games.
Totally agree, Jim! Early in, with the 2 colliding Cardinals putting on a Little League fielding exhibition followed by Freese’s Little League-type popup error and a couple of Texas errors, our group said “this game is a joke…these are supposedly professionals in a World Series, for crying out loud!” But from the 7th inning on, especially via those two miraculous St. Louis comebacks from the dead, then only to be topped by Freese’s walkoff game-winning homer, it was a “beaut” of a baseball game. Way too much beverages of choice were consumed in the process, for which I am royally paying for today, but I wouldn’t have traded a single moment of that experience. People can diss sports and sports fans all they want and say it’s a waste of time and hard-earned money watching overpaid professionals throw, catch and hit balls in mega-million dollar stadiums while our country and its people economically struggle to provide their families with food, shelter and clothing. But give me a game like last night and a World Series like this any time and any place and I’m there. I could give a hoot who wins this thing, but tonight one team will win the 2011 World Series and I’m totally looking forward to the ride!