Cardinals Win!

I love the World Series.

The St. Louis Cardinals just defeated the Detroit Tigers to win the Series in five games. TV ratings were down again, as Americans turned to Dancing with the Stars instead, and sportswriters grumbled about the small-town teams that lacked star-power and weren't scoring runs. But personally, I found the Cards' victory extremely satisfying.

Jeff Weaver pitched two outstanding victories. This is a guy who the Angels dumped mid-season. Same story with Preston Wilson, who was a mid-season pick-up from waivers and started in the outfield.

Tony LaRussa is a class act as a manager. He's got a brilliant baseball mind, he's a terrific leader and he's got great instincts.

I love Albert Pujols, who is the best player in the game even though he didn't have a great Series. And it was nice to see Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen come through under the spotlight.

And little David Eckstein was the MVP, with timely hits and a .367 average. He's 5' 7" of scrappy, competitive hustle that is distinguished by his irrepressible will to win. If you're a baseball fan, you can't help but admire David Eckstein, who was cut from his college team. LaRussa says he's the toughest player he's ever managed.

I feel badly for Jim Leyland, who is another great, great manager. But what he's done with the Tigers is not diminished at all by the loss.

I remember watching the Tigers and Cards play the 1968 World Series, with stars such as Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, Roger Maris, Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda, Al Kaline, Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich. Back then there were day games during the week, but my sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Rudaseal was a baseball fan and had a television wheeled to our rooms where we watched the games. It made the whole thing seem so ... important, like a foreign invasion or presidential election. I can still recall the entire line-ups from both teams. Tiger sluggers Al Kaline and Norm Cash carried Detroit offensively. But Lou Brock had an amazing Series, with 13 hits and 7 stolen bases. He just dominated the attention in every game.

Still, the real storyline was the picthing. Denny McLain won 31 games that year and was the Game 1 starter, losing to Gibson, who had perhaps the finest year ever for a starting pitcher, with a 1.12 ERA. But it was Mickey Lolich (aka The Fat Guy), who won three games to lead the Tigers, beating Bob Gibson 4-1 in Game 7. He also hit the only home run of his career in Game 2, and was the World Series MVP. Both Gibson and Lolich pitched 27 innings and had identical ERA's of 1.67!

It was one of the greatest World Series of all time and I watched every minute of every game and it was that October of my 11th year that I became a baseball fan for life.