And the St. Louis Cardinals are 2011 World Series Champions...
Somebody pinch me. I must be dreaming...
Back in mid Summer, the Cards looked like a group of individuals, not a team, struggling to survive, struggling to figure out who and what they were. And maybe, even why they were there. Then the trade of Colby Rasmus and my friends and I all said that was going to be the biggest mistake in Cardinals' history. And we got the entire friggin' Toronto Blue Jays' bullpen for him. Ludicrous. Pathetic. Inconceivable. And the first couple of weeks with that rotation, it was. And then slowly but surely, that bullpen went from inconsistent to fairly good to consistent then to outstanding. And somehow that group of individuals took what their manager said to heart and became a team, a team that took its lumps and lost here and there but somehow took all those losses and turned themselves into winners. Atlanta broke down, stumbled to the finish line and the Cardinals passed them up on the last day of the season. And then just like that all bets were off.
And a monster was born. First the Philadelphia Phillies who were not only humbled but absolutely humiliated. And with a little nudge from a furry friend, the Brewers who with all their swagger and utter stupidity found themselves facing a team with a REAL BEAST MODE. And the Cardinals were on their way to the World Series but up against a great team in the Texas Rangers. No way could they beat that team, a team stacked with so much talent, so much potential that just putting the Cardinals in the Rangers' orbit just reeked of lopsidedness.
And yet here we are, a week later and one day after the greatest World Series baseball game perhaps ever played. And the Cardinals, my Cardinals are World Series Champions.
Is this heaven. No. It's St. Louis...