by Joe Buffaloe
Daily Lobo
I was lucky enough to grow up near St. Louis, the child of avid Cardinals baseball fans.
Since Tony LaRussa came on as coach 10 years ago, though frustrating at times, the Cardinals have been one of the most exciting teams in baseball to watch.
And now, for the first time in my life, I'm actually right when I say they're the best team in
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
the league. After all, they won the World Series on Friday in Game 5.
Of their past three seasons, this one looked the worst for the Cardinals. They, along with the rest of the National League Central, seemed to be avoiding the playoffs like the black death. After limping into the postseason, it was tempting to ignore them this year.
After all, the team's lay-down-and-die strategy in the 2004 World Series against Boston made me look like an idiot.
But this was the year of the underdog, it seemed. Detroit kicked off the trend by bucking the Yankees in the first round, before tearing through Oakland in the ALCS - this coming from a team that did not have a winning record from 1994 through 2005.
The Cardinals, for their part, were written off right from the start. But flying under the radar, they quietly dispatched San Diego, then shocked the Mets by winning the NLCS. Still, many - myself included - were unwilling to believe they might win it all. The beauty of sports, though, is we are often proven wrong.
This series was great for St. Louis fans for a number of reasons. Like the Blues, the city's NHL franchise, the Cardinals were in danger of losing in the playoffs so many times their appearances would seem like a joke. Luckily, Albert Pujols, David Eckstein, Chris Carpenter and company have dispelled this fear for another ten years or so.
Also, commentators and sports pundits won't be criticizing Pujols for never winning a World Series 20 years from now, after he's hit 2,000 home runs, won six gold gloves and hit .400 for his career - that's a modest estimate, by the way. If you say otherwise, you're just jealous he doesn't play for your team.
Of course, Pujols was no more responsible for the victory than anybody else. Third baseman Scott Rolen finally pulled his weight in the postseason, at least with the bat, and pitchers Jeff Suppan and Jeff Weaver, castoffs from other teams, pitched superbly in the sparse pitching rotation.
My favorite part of the Cardinals' victory, however, was the performance of shortstop Eckstein,
the littlest player of them all. As a boy who was consistently told he was too short for elite sports leagues, it warms my heart to see a 5-foot-7-inch, 160-pound man win the World Series MVP. Seriously, when you see him at the plate, you often become confused and wonder why the Cardinals put the batboy in the lineup.
In the end, I feel the Cardinals won because they owed it to me. A little voice in the back of every player's head was constantly reminding them that I'd trash them in the Daily Lobo if they lost.
Of course, some will say that the Cardinals had experience going for them, as Detroit literally threw away its chances at a World Series victory in a series of errors that would have suited a bad little league game. I guess that makes sense, though I like my explanation better.
In the end, it doesn't really matter how they won. What matters is that I can breathe easy with the knowledge that my team is better than everybody else's - until next season, at least.
