We will see you tomorrow night!!!

That's the phrase I heard from the late great Jack Buck October 26, 1991, after Kirby Puckett hit a walk off homer in the 11th inning of game 6 off old man Charlie Liebrandt in the 1991 world series. It was a moment that gave me chills and at the time, I didn't know what that was about. I was 13 years old and learning about baseball, learning about clutch performances and all the ups and downs that come with big wins and even bigger defeat.

20 years and one day later, Joe Buck, son of the great Jack Buck, uttered those words when David Freese went walk off last night to give his team the victory they so desperately needed. I don't know who is going to be the hero tonight, I don't know how the game will play out, and of course we do not know which team will celebrate or which team will be crushed in defeat. I do know that we got what we all wish for. Game 7.

We can discuss and debate much of game 6, which will go down as one of the greatest games in the history of baseball. It was ugly at times with countless mental as well as physical mistakes and that game was beautiful as well. It was one of the most incredible games you will ever see in baseball and let's just hope game 7 gives us more of the same. I stand behind my recent post and believe that St. Louis will be hosting a victory parade tomorrow afternoon and I feel confident that La Russa will do what he did in 2006. Win a world series, with a team that many said had no chance to make the playoffs, couldn't beat Philly in the first round, wouldn't be able to shut down The Brew Crew in the LCS and definitely wouldn't be able to handle a very hot Texas team. If we have learned anything at all from sports, what we think is going to happen doesn't always happen. When we think a team is dead and they have absolutely no chance to win, like last night when Texas was one strike away from the first world series win in franchise history, St. Louis fought back to win a game they needed to win. If you love baseball the way I do, you are excited for the final game of the 2011 mlb season.

World Series Game 6 postponed due to rain

For the first time in many years, I want to give Bud Selig credit. Actually, it's likely that Joe Torre or somebody with a brain made that decision. Nonetheless, it was the right decision and someone over at MLB should take full credit. I can remember watching the world series in Philly a few years back. The final game of the series, the game that put a ring on the fingers of the Phillies players, was decided after 5 innings because of rain. Yes, I understand that baseball has changed the rules this season and all rain shortened games will be continued the following day. That doesn't always work out so well, because for some unknown reason, the umpires and baseball do everything within their power to finish playoff games on the day the game starts. I understand that it's a nightmare to figure out how to schedule another game when you refuse to schedule days off in the playoffs. However, when a team sends their ace to the mound and he gives them the best chance to win a baseball game, how can you deal with the rain shortened games? Well, currently baseball likes to enjoy a lengthy rain delay and then restart the game once the rain has stopped (even if they know for a fact the rain will continue during the game) and that's not good for the pitchers. Example, The Detroit Tigers have the best pitcher in major league baseball on their team. You know what happened in his starts this postseason? It rained! It rained practically each time the guy took the bump. So, here we have a guy with an elastic arm and heart the size of Cleveland, sitting in the clubhouse trying to weather the storm, pun intended, as he waits to hear whether or not baseball will resume the game. Then, two hours into the delay, Jim Leyland decides that when the game resumes, Verlander will not be on the mound. Now, Detroit is forced to use their bullpen instead of their ace to win a playoff game, an elimination game at that. What's the point? I am so glad you asked. The point being that if baseball and the suits in New York know that a game will be rained out or delayed by rain, skip that day and play the following day. What's that, TV executives don't like that? Ticket holders don't like that? Tough shit! The game is more important than TV contracts and the sooner Selig gets that through his empty head, the sooner this game will be better because of it.

Have a good evening Bud and enjoy your fancy dinner.

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.

I haven't been able to watch as much of the World Series as I would like, but I am thankful for MLB Network. They do a great job of breaking down the game, showing highlights/low lights and the best part, Mitch Williams rips players and managers to shreds.

That being said, I just want to address the elephant in the room. Albert Pujols refused to speak with the media after game 2 and I need to call him out on the carpet. Albert is the star of the team, he's the guy asking for $300 million at the ripe age of 31 and he's the face of the Cardinals franchise. It's his responsibility to be the man when he goes 4-4 and hits the game winning, walk off dinger. It's also his responsibility to take the heat when things go South. For example, the cut fastball that Jon Jay tossed into the infield last night in the bottom of the 9th was an absolute disaster on every possible level. Jay threw a cutter to nobody in particular. Pujols didn't get over to cut the ball off in enough time and that allowed what would be the winning run get into scoring position. Great heads up play by Elvis Andrews, but let's be honest. It's the first baseman's job to make sure that doesn't happen and the runner stays at 1B so you can keep the double play ball in order, especially considering that your genius manager ripped his closer, who is the guy you want on the bump when you need a few strikeouts, in favor of a guy who turns 42 years old in a few weeks. If you are willing to ask a team for $300 million when you know you don't deserve it, the least you could do is stick your neck on the line and take one for the team when they need you to.

Mitch Williams was asked if the official scorer would address the ball thrown by Jay and charge an error to Pujols or Jay and his response was on the money. "I think the only error made in the 9th inning was by Tony Larussa who put Art Rhodes in the game when Motte is a strikeout guy who throws a hundred miles an hour and is a really tough AB." Let me ask this question. When Boston was on the brink of an utter collapse in the final game of the 2011 season and Johnhy Papeldouche was torching Camden Yards with unleaded gasoline, did Tito yank him out of the game? A step further, would Girardi ever take Mariano out of the game in that situation? The answers are no and no way in hell!! Larussa is a genius and I have been tooting his horn since they started to climb back into the fight for the wildcard late in the 2011 season, but he screwed the pooch last night. Instead of taking a 2-0 lead to Texas, the Cardinals head to Arlington tied at 1 game and they have Kyle Lohse heading to the mound tomorrow.

Give me Moore

If I posted this kids picture on Friday morning, September 30th, I wouldn't hold it against you if you had absolutely no clue who he is. Aside from the die hard fan base in Tampa and the fantasy baseball contingency, nobody would recognize that face. His name is Matt Moore and at 22 years young, he is the top prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays organization and #10 on the Baseball Prospectus top 25 list and has started 1 game in his MLB career. A single game, at Yankee stadium, in which he struck out 11 over 5 innings. Oh, he also pitched in relief at Fenway Park. So, other than getting his feet wet in the two biggest pools in MLB, he hasn't really done much. He became the first pitcher in the history of baseball to start game 1 of the playoffs with only one career start under his belt.

As impressive as all of that sounds, he was even more impressive once he stepped on the mound. He was in control of the game from the first pitch he threw until the last pitch in the 7th inning. He challenged Texas with his fastball, practically saying in the process "This is what I've got. If you can hit it, good for you. If not, then I guess I'm gonna be here a while." His fastball registered at 99 and his change up and curveball were coming in at around 85. He pitched backwards, starting hitters off with off speed pitches and blowing them away with heat. As I was watching the game I was impressed with his stuff, but I was even more impressed with his composure. His ability to control the at bat, on his terms, at his pace and with his best stuff. It was truly impressive to watch and even more impressive once I read an interview with Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach. He said about Moore's performance "I don't know that he's old enough to fully understand how these guys hit in this park. It could have played in his favor." I tend to disagree with those thoughts. I have a difficult time giving credit to sheer luck. That would lead me to believe that the guy didn't actually go out there and get guys out. I mean, if he pitched a great top of the first inning, maybe that quote by his catcher would be acceptable, but he went through that lineup three times! He forced Texas to hit his pitch and that was something they were unable to accomplish. The kid came into their house, he shoved it down their throats and on this day he was better than they were. It was the most impressive start I've seen in a playoff game since, well... since, um. Yeah, it may be the most impressive start by a rookie pitcher in my entire lifetime. Matt Moore isn't just a top prospect anymore, he's a force to be reckoned with. Just ask Texas.

Above the grade

Through 4 weeks, the San Francisco 49ers sit atop the worst division in football with a record of 3-1. Head coach Jim Harbaugh was paid big money to come in here, take a broken team, with mediocre players, and build them into a winner. The season is often broken down into 4 game segments and dissected from there. With 1/4 of the season in the books, The Niners are feeling very good about themselves and have proven that they can win games ugly.

I have watched this team play very good football, only to find a way to lose the game. Under Mike Singletary and Mike Nolan, they rarely played a pretty game, but on those rare occasions when they did, the found a way to lose the game and with it, the confidence that can be built from playing a good game. Thus far, Harbs has this team believing in each other. He has given Alex Smith a very simple game plan. Don't turn the ball over, make the smart decision with the ball, trust your teammates and don't fuck it up!

A lot of analysts and "experts" love to give credit to the players when things go right and rip the coach to shreds when things go wrong. In this case, I'd have to give a lot of the credit to coach Harbs. He took over a terrible team, with a lot of bad players and expectations by a fan base that is still living in the Joe Montana Superbowl days. Well, maybe we have moved on to the glory days of Steve Young, but however you slice it, we expect to win. He was forced to do a lot in a short amount of time because of the lengthy NFL lockout, he was forced to give Alex Smith the starting job simply because the GM refused to go out and get a free agent QB. He took control of this team from the word go and put his fingerprints all over this team. He couldn't change the roster, he couldn't change the talent on that roster and he couldn't change the fact that this team has become accustomed to losing. But what he did change, was their perspective, their attitude and their willingness to work hard. I feel strongly that the players on this team have contributed in ways that I never imagined, they have busted their ass and played with a lot of heart and soul. That being said, the coach is the reason why they are playing such an inspired brand of football and I am really glad that The York's wrestled Harbs away from the Miami Dolphins and thus far, he's worth every last dime.