2008 Woodie Awards
Cards fall into place
Larry Stone (The Seattle Times)
Issue date: 10/30/06 Section: Sports
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ST. LOUIS- The mock newspaper, "The Onion," has this headline in its latest edition: "World Series overshadowed by thrilling new MLB labor agreement."
It's supposed to be comedy, but sadly, it has a ring of truth to it. When Bud Selig and Donald Fehr are the breakout stars of October, you know it hasn't been a great postseason.
Heading into Game 4 on Thursday night at Busch Stadium, in fact, the World Series had been pretty much a dud, light on both drama and substance. The prevailing images through three games: a dirty hand and a muddy field.
Baseball fever: Catch it.
So the World Series needed exactly what it got Thursday. A game, for starters. What little drama had been building this week might have been totally quenched by yet another rainout.
But this wasn't just any game: It was a thrill ride, rife with comebacks and breakdowns, rallies and pratfalls, heroes and goats. In short, the kind of crackling good game that should define the postseason, not be the exception to the rule.
By the time it ended with a 5-4 Cardinals victory, there were more vivid moments to be replayed for posterity than in the other three games combined.
The ultimate hero was the littlest man on the field, David Eckstein, whose two-out double in the eighth inning off Joel Zumaya_his third double, and fourth hit, of the game_brought home Aaron Miles with what proved to be the winning run.
"He's the definition of a clutch player, and you try to give an example of what that means," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "Hitting against a guy throwing 100 miles an hour, that's all you need to know, him coming through in that situation. He's the toughest guy I've ever seen in a uniform."
Detroit left-fielder Craig Monroe missed being the hero by half an inch of leather, laying out full length in a heroic diving effort for Eckstein's ball, only to have it tick off his glove and trickle to the wall.
Now the Cardinals are on the verge of their first World Series title since 1982, which would make them, at 83 victories in the regular season, the losingest champions ever. That's a distinction that they wouldn't mind a bit, considering the alternative. Ask the 2001 Mariners how many of their 116 victories they'd trade for a title.
It's supposed to be comedy, but sadly, it has a ring of truth to it. When Bud Selig and Donald Fehr are the breakout stars of October, you know it hasn't been a great postseason.
Heading into Game 4 on Thursday night at Busch Stadium, in fact, the World Series had been pretty much a dud, light on both drama and substance. The prevailing images through three games: a dirty hand and a muddy field.
Baseball fever: Catch it.
So the World Series needed exactly what it got Thursday. A game, for starters. What little drama had been building this week might have been totally quenched by yet another rainout.
But this wasn't just any game: It was a thrill ride, rife with comebacks and breakdowns, rallies and pratfalls, heroes and goats. In short, the kind of crackling good game that should define the postseason, not be the exception to the rule.
By the time it ended with a 5-4 Cardinals victory, there were more vivid moments to be replayed for posterity than in the other three games combined.
The ultimate hero was the littlest man on the field, David Eckstein, whose two-out double in the eighth inning off Joel Zumaya_his third double, and fourth hit, of the game_brought home Aaron Miles with what proved to be the winning run.
"He's the definition of a clutch player, and you try to give an example of what that means," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "Hitting against a guy throwing 100 miles an hour, that's all you need to know, him coming through in that situation. He's the toughest guy I've ever seen in a uniform."
Detroit left-fielder Craig Monroe missed being the hero by half an inch of leather, laying out full length in a heroic diving effort for Eckstein's ball, only to have it tick off his glove and trickle to the wall.
Now the Cardinals are on the verge of their first World Series title since 1982, which would make them, at 83 victories in the regular season, the losingest champions ever. That's a distinction that they wouldn't mind a bit, considering the alternative. Ask the 2001 Mariners how many of their 116 victories they'd trade for a title.
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