It will probably be decades before my team, the Washington Nationals, even make it to a League Series, let alone the World Series.
Therefore, I had no vested interest in the outcome of this year’s World Series that played out in such dramatic fashion over the past week. Except that I would have liked to see the Texas Rangers win their first title in franchise history over the St. Louis Cardinals – who had already won 10.
Alas, when the Rangers failed to clinch it on Thursday – after being just one strike away in both the 9th and 10th innings in Game 6 and leading the series 3 to 2 – I think most people sensed that they were just fated to be denied.
You study all year long, get straight A’s and then you have to pass the one test to pass the course. We didn’t pass each time.
(Rangers starting pitcher Colby Lewis, Yahoo Sports, October 29, 2011)
Therefore, as thrilling as the winner-take-all Game 7 was last night, it was rather anticlimactic when the St. Louis Cardinals prevailed to win 6-2, taking the series 4 to 3 and earning an 11th title for their trophy case.
The bummer of course is that this is the second-consecutive year the Rangers have come up short in the World Series, having lost to the Giants who won their first championship in franchise history last year. Indeed, one wonders if the Rangers have not inherited the curse that prevented the Boston Red Sox from winning a World Series title for 86 years…?
Anyway, congratulations to the Cardinals!
I just hope we don’t find out in a few years that their stars Albert Pujols and David Freese (the series MVP) fueled the Cardinals to this title on the same “juice” that Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco fueled the Oakland A’s to a World Series title in 1989. Is it just a coincidence that the mercenary Tony La Russa who managed the 1989 A’s is the same La Russa who managed this year’s Cardinals? I’m just sayin’….