Here we go again

The St. Louis Cardinals lost again last night, the first time they have lost a game started by their ace Chris Carpenter this postseason. But, thanks to a Prince Fielder homer off Rangers "ace" CJ Wilson in the All Star Game and "This time it counts", The Cardinals are heading back to St. Louis to play game 6 and hopefully game 7. See, most teams don't really thrive when their backs are against the wall. It's a wonderfully overused cliche that leads people to believe that athletes love this kinda thing. Some of them do, but I would be willing to bet my coffee money that to a man, most players would rather be wearing The Rangers shoes right now than The Cardinals.

On July 29th, St. Louis was 56-50 and a game and a half behind first place Milwaukee. Just two days before, they traded Colby Rasmus (starting CF) and pitchers Trevor Miller, Brian Tallet, and P.J. Walters to Toronto for Edwin Jackson, Corey Patterson, Marc Rzepczynski, and Octavio Dotel. It wasn't a blockbuster trade by any means, but it was a trade that would start to pay dividends as the season got longer. Exactly one month after this trade, the Cardinals found themselves 10.5 games behind first place Milwaukee and for Cardinals fans the season appeared to be over. I don't need to tell you what happened next because Joe Buck and FOX have jammed the "miracle in St. Louis" nonsense down your throat everyday for the past week or so. What needs to be said is simple. Tony La Russa doesn't care what you think of his chances, he doesn't care how many times you have counted his team out and he knows that the only people who need to believe in him are the 40 men on the roster and the coaches he trusts. Just a side not. They are sold; hook, line and sinker.

This team has never quit on their manager and I don't expect them to start now. They have battled through adversity the entire season and this team came together when they could have grown apart. This team pushed themselves when the season got tough and ugly. When this team could have folded up the tent, they refused. It's often said that a team takes on the personality of their leader. I would go a step further and say that La Russa, a grizzled veteran who is a no nonsense, business first type of guy, who shows very little positive emotion and plenty of negative emotion, took on the character of his team. He started to have fun and stopped taking things so seriously. He started to laugh at jokes and have fun on flights. He was reminded that these are grown men playing a kids game for a King's ransom. Now that the series has come home to St. Louis and The Cardinals are down 3 games to 2, they likely won't press or try to do too much or be somebody they are not. They will do exactly what got them to this point in time; they will play their game and they will do things their way. That's the only way Tony knows how to do things and I strongly believe this team will complete the impossible and raise the world series trophy high in the air following a dramatic game 7 victory. Once that happens, the rest of the baseball world will see Tony acting like a kid, like his players have been doing all season.

Much will be said about "Phone Gate" in game 5 of this series. To quickly refresh your memory, La Russa called down to his bullpen to get two guys warm in the eighth inning, Repzynski and Motte. Apparently the bullpen coach didn't hear correctly and he only had Rzepczynski warming. On the second call down, La Russa again asked for his closer, Motte, and the bullpen coach now heard Lynn. La Russa is the king of the match ups and because his bullpen coach didn't hear correctly, the game got out of his control, which for a control freak like La Russa must feel like the end of the world. Rzepczynski was left in the game to face Napoli (Napoli was 1-5 vs. Rzepczynski prior to this at bat) and he drove in 2, which would be the game winning RBI.

If I am wrong and St. Louis loses this series, pundits across baseball will point to this meltdown as the reason why they lost. I have a feeling La Russa will draw on a line I heard from Jim Leyland, shortly after his Detroit Tigers lost the world series to La Russa's Cardinals in 2006. When asked about the pathetic defensive display (his team made an uncharacteristic 8 errors in that series, most of them on balls fielded by his pitchers) by his entire pitching staff and asked to point the finger in blame, Leyland responded with something like this. When we win, it's because the players did their job and won the game. When we lose, it's my responsibility. I am the manager and if you want to point the finger, you don't have to go far because I am to blame. It's that kind of attitude that encourages La Russa's players to give 150%, to play their best when presented with the challenges of winning two games when it seems like winning those games is impossible. The ability to take responsibility for his team, even when it is crystal clear that the players screwed the pooch, is another example of why Tony La Russa will walk through the doors in Cooperstown shortly after he hangs up his spikes for the last time. The question being, will he add another world series ring to that legacy this week. I believe he will.