It's snowing here in NYC in October....what the hell? Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals for winning the best World Series I have ever witnessed. Seven games of hard fought, nail biting excitement. The fans definitely got their money's worth with this one. The best game of the series, which also ended up being the most pivotal one, was obviously Game 6. The Texas Rangers came within a strike....yes a strike from becoming champions. Not once, but twice in subsequent innings only to give up the lead in each. David Freese, hometown kid from St. Louis and series MVP, hit a 2-Out, 2-Strike, 2-Run triple in the bottom of ninth to tie the game at 7. After Texas blew another lead in the 10th, Freese hits a walk off HR in the bottom of the 11th to win the game and tie the series. Although the entire game was plagued by errors, both teams had their chances. It was just clutch hitting by the Cardinals that ultimately won them the game.
All the momentum shifted to the Cardinals that night and the Rangers really had no chance. Chris Carpenter started Game 7 and he came through to hold Texas to 2 runs and 2 hits in 6 innings pitched and that's all she wrote.
This Game 6 is going to go down as the best game in World Series history. Some people may argue about many of the walk off home run endings, the Carter home run, the Puckett home run, or even that Fisk home run. Then we have the games that had that rally at the end of the game, like Arizona against the yankees or Mets against the Red Sox. Yeah, those were great moments but they definitely weren't great games or at least to the magnitude of this Game 6.
So now begins the baseball off season. The wheeling and dealing during the winter months usually makes or breaks teams. This year's biggest free agents are Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes. I think their respective teams, the Cardinals and my Mets lose them both. Let's look at Pujols' situation. Tremendous ball player. Numbers production are astronomical. Why didn't St. Louis make and effort to sign him last off season? According to Pujols, he felt disrespected when management never made and offer. Once that story hit the media, management extended an olive branch with a contract, to which Albert said no to. Pujols has been hitting 30/100 since like 5 years old and for the team not to extend his contract in a timely manner - they deserve to lose him. Fast forward to today and one ring later. What else does Pujols need to prove in St. Louis? On the the next one.
The Reyes situation, on the other hand is a little more complex. Bottom line....Reyes wasn't supposed to have the season that he had this year. He was supposed to put up average to decent numbers and further prove to the Mets that he is nothing more than a sometimes great player. He won a batting title, the first in franchise history and further solidified his role on this team. Without Reyes, there is no Mets offense. Period. Everyone in baseball sees this, every Met fans knows this, why doesn't management. Jose Reyes is the catalyst of all catalysts. Remember what Rickey Henderson was to Oakland? Even with Canseco and McGwire slugging, they weren't the same without Rickey. Jose Reyes is something like that. The Mets owners don't see the real value in Reyes and are going to pitch him a low ball offer, I promise you that. They have only one shot at this. I promise you, they will low ball him and he goes elsewhere. I see him going to Boston where they have a lot of salary coming off the books. And he's a better fit at the top of the order than Elsbury, who is more of a 2 hitter. Prince Fielder, I forgot about him. He's gone from Milwaukee. I see him destined to become a Chicago Cub. I believe new GM Theo Epstein is going to make a big splash this off season.
That's all for now. Until next time.
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