Talking Baseball: 11th Heaven: Wild Cards win World Series!

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In August, the St. Louis Cardinals trailed the Atlanta Braves by 10½ games for the wild ward spot in the playoffs. By the last week of September, the Cards still trailed the Braves by three games with seven to play. The Comeback Cards captured the wild card spot on the last day of the season when the Atlanta Braves completed one of the worst collapses in September in baseball history.

The Comeback Cards defeated the team favored to win the World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies with relative ease, then defeated their central division rivals who won the division title, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Game 6 of the World Series was an elimination game, with the Comeback Cards trailing 3 games to 2 to the Texas Rangers in the Series. It turned out to be a game for the ages, much like game 6 between the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets in 1986. The Comeback Cards trailed by two runs in the bottom of the ninth and were down to their last strike. They miraculously tied the game. The Rangers returned the favor in the top of the tenth inning. The Comeback Cards were down two runs in the bottom of the tenth and down to their last strike. Again, they miraculously tied the game. In the eleventh inning, hometown boy David Freese hit a towering walk-off home run to center field to win the game. (Freeze would be named Series MVP).

The gods of fate and destiny were on the side of the Comeback Cardinals. The anchor of their pitching staff, Chris Carpenter, would start on short rest in the decisive game 7. He immediately gave up two runs in the top of the first. But the Comeback Cards tied the game in the bottom of the frame. From there on out, it was all Cardinals on their way to winning their eleventh World Series title. The Texas Rangers, like the 1986 Boston Red Sox, will be forever haunted by the knowledge that they were one strike away from winning the World Series and let it slip away.

What the St. Louis Cardinals achieved is historic in the annals of baseball history. The Comeback Cards have essentially been playing elimination games every day since August when they trailed the Atlanta Braves by 10½ games. They rose to every challenge and found a way to win it all. It is arguably the greatest comeback in sports history. I tip my hat to manager Tony La Russa and the Comeback Cards for an historic season and their World Series title. We'll get you next year!

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today: 11th Heaven: Wild Cards win World Series