There are a lot of issues to talk about revolving around this years World Series championship by the St. Louis Cardinals over the Detroit Tigers. Some things statistical, lots of things magical. Where do we begin?
The Cardinals were more than just the underdog. They came into the post-season with the worst regular-season winning average of all time, at .516! But even as such, they never gave up hope. They, of all teams, know that statistics like this don’t mean diddlysquat! After all they lost in 1987 to the .525 (previous worst!) Minnesota Twins and in 1985 to the .562 (tied for previous fourth worst!) Kansas City Royals, both Midwest teams.
And here we were against the Tigers, undoubtedly one of the best and most-feared AL teams, especially throughout the first half of the regular season. Again, both Midwest teams. And while at the beginning of the playoffs everybody was talking about a Tigers vs Mets or even a repeat ‘subway series’ of Yankees vs Mets, I was pushing the notion of a Midwest World Series. How great would that be! And now, after the series, is something even the likes of Bob DuPuy, MLB’s President and chief operating officer mentioned:
To have them win the World Series for the 10th time with the great players they have and keep the championship in the Midwest — in the heartland — is a great thing for baseball.
And most things defied the odds, but worked! Jeff Weaver came from nowhere to go 1-1 this World Series (and probably would have been 2-0 were it not for cheating Kenny Rogers and the “Dirtgate” scandal, more later); Molina hit above .300; Wainwright had to step up as closer to replace Isringhausen and showed what he was made of, shutting up both Carlos Beltran and Brandon Inge, on potentially game-winning at-bats; and Eckstein, you little squeaker, you deserve the MVP!
While the Tiger’s pitching staff will be remembered for committing an unprecedented five errors by four pitchers in five consecutive games, which undoubtedly led to runs for the Cardinals, it also must be remembered that the Cardinals pitching staff shut down the Tigers offense, who batted the second lowest in World Series history, at around .190! If you were to tell me the 95-win Tigers would bat below .200, including Placido Polanco going 0 for 17, I would let you know in Gnarls Barkley fashion, “Well, I think you’re crazy! I think you’re crazy!”
But also, crazy, “just like me“! Like other fans, I grew out my playoff beard, or stubble in my case; I wore a St. Louis t-shirt underneath all my October layers that I didn’t take off or wash in nearly three weeks (I STANK!); and for every World Series game I wore – and never took off – a Cardinals hat that my friend Ashley Sell gave me a couple of months back when I visited my hometown and saw a couple of Cardinals games at the new Busch Stadium (did I mention they won the Championship in the first year of their new stadium? Cmon, that’s pretty effing magical!!).
But perhaps most magical is the ‘Sea of Red’ effect. This is a phenomenon I have been trying to explain to non-fans and fans from other cities for some time now. I went to a Mets game at Shea Stadium in September, after they had already clinched their division, which was probably why there weren’t a huge number of fans in the stands, but worst was the fans who were there were barely representing their team colors, blue and orange, two great complimentary colors! Whereas Cardinals fans are especially known to wear red no matter the weather or the situation. For our own players we give them something to revel in (from Flickr); for the opposing team we overwhelm them (from Flickr) with the Sea of Red:
We even overwhelm other cities with the Sea of Red!
As for Dirtgate:
I don’t want to hinge on our only loss to the Tigers, after all I never wanted a sweep, but I do want to keep a few things in perspective. Okay so Rogers joins an elite few with 20-plus scoreless innings pitched; but as has already been pointed out, he had this questionable ‘dirt’ on his palm as early as game 3 of the ALCS (from ESPN, pretty reliable source!) against the Oakland Athletics. So 7 of those 23 innings came after he washed his hands after the first inning of game 2 of the World Series, but who knows how many of those previous 14 innings were streakless from cheating? My prediction, or perhaps how I would like to see history avenge Rogers’s work ethic, is that Kenny Rogers will never again reach the postseason, and so his scoreless streak will end full stop at 23. Any pitcher who says this is a blatant liar:
I didn’t know it was there. They told me about [the substance], but it was no big deal.
How the hell do you not notice a “big clump of dirt” (Rogers’s words!) on your PITCHING HAND? That would be like a welder not realizing they are wearing 3D glasses instead of a standard welder’s mask! It’s just plain ridiculous! Your pitching hand is your main tool, and it’s filthy!
You are a cheater Kenny Rogers! And you committed your acts live on television in front of 18.2 million viewers:
Shame on you!
Related websites:
Speaking of the Sea of Red, check out this shot of Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis!
Another youtube video that exemplifies the Sea of Red effect, from Game 4 of the 2006 World Series