The Denkinger and Joaquin Andujar series. I watched Game 7 in the bar of a bowling alley after a men's bowling league night in Columbia, South Carolina.

I was trying to hook up with a girl named Nina and yes I used the Pinta and Santa Maria line (with creativity, if I do say so myself).

I was pulling for Kansas City that night. I was never an Andujar fan, but I did like Saberhagen.

Tomorrow I'll be pulling for Texas, though I could find at least minor satisfaction in a Cardinal win. Not much though.


I think The Rangers just have to make certain they do not let Berkman or Pujols beat them.

Freese is unlikely to find more lightning in his bottle tomorrow. He'll be 29 for most of the 2012 season, and he only has 600+ AB's in his career. I think he's had his Bucky Dent moment.

Hamilton going long tonight was a very good sign.

I believe in the aura of Nolan Ryan, and The Rangers have more than earned a turn of good fortune in Game 7 after their past two seasons.



Maybe a tarp can gobble up some of Pujols before the game.

Tribe Fan in SC/Cali wrote:Too bad this drama is well after midnight on the east coast.

I was thinking the same thing as I watched last night. It ended about 1 AM here! Why does MLB insist on having all games played late in the evenings? I doubt that anyone who had school or work in the morning stayed up to watch.

And TX would have won the game twice, if they had last ups. But due to another stupid MLB decision, a wild card team has home field advantage? What does the AS game have to do with real baseball? It is an exhibition, and the fans want to see as many players as possible. Nobody cares who wins, or even if it is a tie!

It was 7-4 when I went to bed.

Charlie T was on the right track, but I would say--echoing Cali's observation that the ball that Cruz did not catch was catchable--that this WAS the Buckner game. A REAL right fielder (or at least one more familiar with the park) WOULD have caught that ball and that would have been it. Did Texas not have a slick outfielder on the bench to put in there? (Didn't Boston have a REAL infielder to sub for Buckner?)

JR -- sorry, dude, but you are not the commish. Butthead Selig is.

I don't recall at all what time it was Counsell scored in the 11th on the Renteria hit in '97.

I'm guessing that game officially began on October 26, and the Marlins clinch came in the early AM hours of October 27.

C.J. Wilson trying to keep Charlie from being prescient with his '85 series reference.

Wilson limits the damage and keeps the bases loaded as the inning ends.

I hate seeing walks and HBP having a big factor in the runs that might clinch it for St. Louis

Craig gets to the wall quickly in left and leaps perfectly to glove the ball and keep it from going out taking a Cruz HR away.


Texas has 9 outs to get three runs.

My wife was just asking me if it's been long since The Cardinals have won a World Series.

My reply started with, "For perspective remember The Cleveland Indians have not won a World Series since 1948, and in fact the Chicago Cubs have not won since 1908."

"The St. Louis Cardinals won The World Series in 1964, 1967, 1982 and 2006. And they've been in the World Series in 1968, 1985, 1987 and 2004."


Her reply was, "Oh. I sure hope Texas comes back in this game."

She continued, "when was the last time The Texas Rangers won a World Series?"

"Well going back to when they were the Washington Senators in the 1960's before moving to Texas?.........Never."

"The Texas Rangers used to be The Washington Senators?

"Yep."

"Damn, you know a lot about baseball."

"Most all Baseball Fans know that."

"Not in California," she said.


"Well let me qualify," I replied. "Any guys in their 50's and not flamingly gay would know that."

Man, I love that trophy.

My favorite trophy in sports.

Well, it's nice that the St. Louis kid turns out to be The World Series MVP.

Hard to not like that story.


And better yet, he really seems to understand and appreciate the magnitude of the honor.

The MLB minimum as his salary is a good foundation.

Tribe Fan in SC/Cali wrote:My wife was just asking me if it's been long since The Cardinals have won a World Series.

My reply started with, "For perspective remember The Cleveland Indians have not won a World Series since 1948, and in fact the Chicago Cubs have not won since 1908."

"The St. Louis Cardinals won The World Series in 1964, 1967, 1982 and 2006. And they've been in the World Series in 1968, 1985, 1987 and 2004."


Her reply was, "Oh. I sure hope Texas comes back in this game."

I think it was in the 9th inning last night (Thursday) when they had that graphic up about the teams with the longest World Series droughts, where both the Indians and Rangers were featured, and I thought to myself "bad luck." Because didn't Bob Costas start paying tribute to "those long-suffering Indians fans" when it looked like we were going to win in 1997?

I'm not a major Rangers fan or anything, but this still sucked. And following the Indians in '95, it's now the second time a team I've been pulling for has lost a Series on my birthday.

I'm in California, so I'm confused on time and dates with our various time zones around here. TDU is often a day ahead of most of us when he posts.

I'm guessing you are an October 28th guy?

Happy Birthday!

I really wanted Texas as it is American as apple pie to choose a team of preference in The World Series.

No consolation, I know, but it was a great series for just a general baseball fan without skin in the game to watch.

A consolation of sort is that baseball fans were able to witness Allen Craig and David Freese be driving forces to The Cardinals win. And both are $400,000+ guys.

VT'er wrote:It was 7-4 when I went to bed.

Charlie T was on the right track, but I would say--echoing Cali's observation that the ball that Cruz did not catch was catchable--that this WAS the Buckner game.

A difference between Red Sox fans and Texans is important to note here.

I don't think many Texans today dwell over NFL Hall of Famer Jackie Smith dropping a cake pass in the end zone that likely would have resulted in a Super Bowl victory for Dallas had had he hung on. Dallas ended up losing, and that Super Bowl ended up being Jackie Smith's last career game.

Texans and folks in Dallas-Fort Worth will likely concentrate on the many good things that Nelson Cruz did in the post season, and will not focus on one guy for the 2011 World Series loss.

Nelson Cruz did not act alone.

Nelson Cruz did not act alone.

Wasn't Cruz playing with a bumb leg???? I think so. It's not like he didn't give 100% effort. Funny thing. As I was sitting here watching that particular time in the game, I was more concerned with Washington and Napoli giving Freeze a steady diet of fastballs low and away. Nothing inside to move Freeze off the plate. No breaking balls in the dirt. Freeze saw enough of those pitches to get his timing down and he made Texas pay. Just goes to show how important it is to just put the ball in play and fouling off good pitches instead of hacking and missing. Much of the problems that Indian fans have to suffer through year in and year out.

If I were to pick one reason as to why the Cards won the series, it was their ability to put the ball in play. They made things happen. Errors! Infield hits! Placing pressure on the Texas pitchers and their defense. They never tried to win the game or come back from deficits with one swing of the bat. I think that's a trademark of Tony LaRussa's ballclubs over the years. Gotta say I was not very familiar with a lot of names in those Cardinal lineups, but they played the game the right way, win or lose.