The new Champs
Have refrained from posting here until he Series was over. Wanted to watch it, digest it, think about it, and not research other things at the same time. So here, in no particular order, are some thoughts on the just completed World Series.
1. Congratulations to the Cardinals. My grandfather would be pleased, as would my wife’s grandfather. Both were diehard Cardinals fans.
2. For an exciting Series, it certainly was sloppy. There were way too many errors, a handful of base running blunders, a missed cutoff, and even a couple of pick-offs. Not the best played World Series ever.
3. Did you notice the inordinate number of fielding plays made by pitchers? There were a bunch of those in 2006 which Detroit pitchers didn’t handle well. At least this year most were cleanly fielded. Wonder what it is about the Cards that brings out a lot of fielding plays by the pitcher?
4. It was good to see Lance Berkman win a ring. Always liked him (although he was never exactly a favorite), but, like everyone else, figured he was through. Nice to see him play for a winner and to also do well in the World Series.
5. Who the heck are Alan Craig and David Freese? Tell me you expected either to be a hero before the playoffs began. Many years some obscure play rises to prominence in the Series. This year was one of those.
6. Sorry about the Rangers. Good team, good ownership and leadership (love Nolan Ryan) but no pitching.
7. Speaking of pitching isn’t it amazing just how much better Chris Carpenter is than all the other members of both staffs?
8. If you’ve been around here much, you know I’ve always wondered about the role of managers in a game. This Series strikes me as having been played pretty well (except see above) despite the best efforts of both managers to utterly hash it.
9. Tell me you predicted the following scores: 3-2, 2-1, 4-0, 4-2. Bet you didn’t. This was supposed to be the second coming of “Murderer’s Row” from both teams and we ended up with a surprisingly low scoring Series. Only game three (16-7) and game six (10-9) were really high scoring affairs, and game six went eleven innings. It’s really kinda strange considering the lack of quality pitching on both teams.
10. If I’m happy for Berkman, I’m sorry for Michael Young.
11. And now we get to see what happens with Albert Pujols.
Tags: 2011 World series, Alan Craig, Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, David Freese, Lance Berkman, Nolan Ryan
Verdun2's Blog 
October 29, 2011 at 2:47 pm
[…] but I have a feeling this is going to take a lot out of them, and let’s face it– like Verdun said, their pitching is not that good. Feliz and Ogando alone cost them the Series, but you […]
October 29, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Berkman has always seemed like a good guy and he paid his dues for several years with Houston.
I hope that Pujois stays with the Cards, but I think it’s going to be an interesting off season from many standpoints. First of all, who can afford Pujois? The Yankees and Redsox don’t need him. The Cubs? I wish the Mets could get him, but they’re strapped for cash, as are the Dodgers.