Nothing Could Match Game Six, but Rangers want to Forget it

Twice the Texas Rangers were within one out or strike from winning the 2011 World Series on Thursday night.  They could not make the play or get the hitter to keep the St. Louis Cardinals from tying the game on two separate occasions and eventally winning in the last of the 11th on David Freese's HR.  Instead of a four game to two World Series championship for the fans in Arlington the series was tied at 3-3.


When they lost the chance to win on Thursday they lost their chance to win the series.  Chris Carpenter would start game seven for the Cardinals. He wouldn't be fully rested, but would be available thanks to the rain out of Wednesday's game.  That was a great break for St. Louis as it turned out.  Texas would go with a fully rested starter, but a far less experienced one.  The experience paid off.  While Carpenter had no command of his stuff in the opening couple of innings and gave up two first inning runs he came around.  The Cardinals got those two runs back in the bottom of the inning and never trailed again.


While the inability of Nelson Cruz to catch David Freese's triple off the wall on Thursday may be remembered by some as the play that lost the World Series for Texas it is open to debate.  Could an outfielder have made that play?  Sure SOME of the better outfielders could have, but Cruz is playing due to his bat.  No one should expect him to make many tough plays as that one was.  Should Ranger manager Ron Washington have had his best defenders in the game to protect the two run lead in the final inning?  That is a much better question.  Cruz, not unlike the Houston Astros' Carlos Lee (who ironically were involved in a deal for each other years back) tries as hard as he can and runs as hard as he can.  He just can't be compared to a Michael Bourn or many others in that category.  Remember, Cruz hit eight home runs during the post season to tie a record.  THAT is why he plays.


No, the question of whether the play should have been made really is one for Ranger skipper Ron Washington.  Should Cruz have even been out there? 


The Rangers, alas, join my Butler Bulldogs of NCAA basketball fame, as a team to make it to the final game two years in a row, but not able to get over the hump.  While everyone is patting the club on the back congratulating them for their great season and assuring them that that they have a good team with a great chance to be a factor for years that does not make up for not winning the big one...when it was right there in front of them.


It is not easy to make it to the World Series no matter how good you may be. Look at the Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox, Brewers, Braves and Rays.  All were darn good most of 2011.  None of them made it far.  The Red Sox and Braves didn't even make the post season at all.


There are no guarantees the Rangers will be back in the World Series soon.  It is certain they will have a competitive team for several years based on the player talent they do have and some of the prospects in their system.  But, strange as it may seem, the possibility always exists the Houston Astros will make it to the World Series before the Rangers do again.  It is just not that easy.


The fact that the St. Louis Cardinals made the playoffs, made it to the World Series and won the thing is frankly almost in the "Believe it or Not?"category.  There were so many things wrong and that went wrong with the club all year.  But somehow they got hot and the Atlanta Braves totally collapsed down the stretch and the Cards were able to clinch a playoff spot on the last day of the season behind none other than Chris Carpenter who shut down the Astros in Houston.


When the season was to begin they lost Adam Wainwright for the season.  Then when the season began they found they had no bullpen of any real ability.  Closer Ryan Franklin was better suited to setting off the post game fireworks.  Others who had been advanced through the Cardinal system could not get the job done in middle or set up relief.  Albert Pujols got off to a slow start.  Matt Holliday battled injury.  Thankfully, the Cards had taken a chance on Lance Berkman and he carried the team offensively through the early months.  


For much of the year the Cards trailed both the Pirates and Brewers.  About mid season the Pirates faded, but the Brewers never did.  The only real St. Louis hope was to win the wild card.  But the Braves, while well behind the Phillies in the NL East were well ahead of the Cards in that area.


Then something happened in late August.  Just when a lot of baseball fans were bemoaning the lack of any races in baseball just when King Football was about to dominate sports talk and newspapers the Cards got hot...the Braves started to freeze.  Over in the American League something similar was going on.  The Red Sox started to fade and the Tampa Bay Rays made their move.


We had pennant races down to the wire.   St. Louis had improved its bullpen with the addition of a few veterans and the maturing of others.  Plus, Albert Pujols was hitting.


The National League Central is often criticized for not fielding the best teams in the league.  The Pirates for years have been almost a laughingstock.  The Cards have been good.  The Astros had a run.  The Brewers had built a team to win in 2011.  The Cubs were usually flops despite their solid fan base.  The Reds had great tradition, but except for 2010 had not been consistent contenders.


Yet, the NL Central has had its fair share of two teams in the post season.  The Astros made it to the 2005 World Series out of the Wild Card.  The Cards and Astros were great rivals.  Earlier the Cubs and Astros were battling for the top. While the Astros fell to un-precidented depths in 2011, (they suffered the embarrassment of being the team selected by a fan as an opponent of the Phillie's Roy Halladay as the best team to throw a perfect game against in a video game.  Halladay did it and the fan won $1-million!) there is hope that new ownership can turn things around quicker rather than later.


In the meantime both the Cards and Brewers battled for the NL title.  By the very nature of the population distribution in the country and the fact that baseball has really never lost its position as the number one sport in the Northeast most media attention each summer is with the Yankees and Red Sox so having these two teams battling for the World Series while it was the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers doing the same in the AL was hard to take for many.


When we reached the World Series thanks to so many exciting games in earlier rounds even the jaded Easterners had caught the fever.  After game six the whole country remembered what baseball could be. It could have errors, planomas (plays not made), big hits, big misses and a lot of excitement.


The Texas Rangers may have missed out on their big chance.  The Cardinals may have won their 11th World Championship thanks to circumstances that included the weather.  But it was a great show.  Next season will have to do a long way to duplicate, but we can't wait to find out.

World Series Offers Personal Conflict

This World Series is rougher for me to follow that the one last season.  In 2010 I was more pulling for the Rangers than Giants because while I have been working in the NL with the Astros since 1995 I had Ranger roots for eight seasons prior to that announcing their games and didn't have a closeness to the Giants who represented the NL West and who the Astros didn't play any more than they did the Rangers.

This season is different.  I can't pull against the team from the Astros own division.  I have no hate or indifference for the Cardinals like some fans.  They are the Astros biggest rivals and some don't like Tony LaRussa any more than they did Tommy Lasorda of the Dodgers when the Astros were in the NL West.  Yet the Cardinals are a class organization with years and years of tradition and success.  Only the New York Yankees have more World Series titles.  That is something to admire not to disdain.

As long as the Astros are in the National League (most of us hope that will be forever) and I live in Houston and work on Astro telecasts that is where my loyalty will lie--with the National League Central.

Heck I was very happy when both the Brewers and Cards made it to the NLCS.  That says something about the strength in the often overlooked NLC.  So if he Cards win their 11th World Title--especially with former Astros like Lance Berkman and Octavio Dotel playing key roles I will be happy for them.

Does that mean I am not loyal to the state of Texas?  Some might say that, but I say the state has nothing to do with anything.  These teams represent cities (or in the Ranger's case, several North Texas cities with Arlington as the hub.)  They don't represent the state.  I suppose if the state only had one MLB or NFL or NBA team fans would root for that team no matter where it called home.  But we have two MLB, two NFL and three NBA teams.  Each has a home city.

And yes, you may correlate this to rooting for the Dallas Cowboys in Houston.  Why?  Houston has its own team.   In Austin or San Antonio or El Paso fans can root for whoever they want.  But why would a football fan in North Texas root for the Texans and why would a Houston resident (unless they grew up and/or lived a large portion of their life in DAFW) be a fan of the Cowboys over the Texans?   It has alway befuddled me and I suppose it always will.

So, in this World Series I am pulling for St. Louis.  Its a league and better yet division thing.  Then, when the Astros finally put it together again they can go to work knocking off one of the best   In the meantime you don't hate Albert Pujols.  You admire just how good he is and realize in the NL Central Astro fans are being given the opportunity to watch one of the greatest players of all time.