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| Cliff Lee (AP photo) celebrating the Rangers ALDS victory |
Last night I watched as the Texas Rangers won their first (ever) postseason series in franchise history. Cliff Lee topped off the night with a complete game gem to beat the Rays 5-1. The Rangers expertly navigated the bases as if their lives depended on it. It was beyond good baseball. It was fun!
While I do still bemoan the fact that my Cardinals are long gone for the season, I must honestly admit that our 2010 Cardinals would most certainly have been outplayed last night.
Nolan Ryan’s Rangers were aggressive with brilliant base running, phenomenal offense, pitching magnificence, manufactured runs and stolen bases. It was brilliant, scrappy baseball magic strung together in a way that I have really only read about. Visions of Whitey Herzog’s Cardinals - and what their version of smart small ball must have been like - were flashing before my eyes.
Maybe it was just the excitement of yesterday’s do-or-die postseason battle, but for the first time in a long time I was enjoying baseball for the pure energy of the moment - and I loved it!
If you are reading this today, I am guessing you too are one of the loyal (aka stubborn) baseball fans still fighting the good fight and savoring the last vestiges of the 2010 MLB season?
The Reds, Rays, Twins and Braves are all out, and the party is down to four.
Rangers versus Yankees (ALCS)
Giants versus Phillies (NLCS)
Warning: wavering, indecisive, attempt at an opinion-forming train-of-thought paragraph ahead:
Personally, I find it hard to cheer for the Phillies. (See: Friday May 7th CDD post )
But after their stomping of the Reds, I have a very, very small fondness in my heart for that scruffy bunch of mugs. And since another Yankees/Phillies World Series seems unfair and unimaginative, I guess I need to cheer for the Rangers? But then again… I really like that Derek Jeter… and Mariano Rivera … and David Robertson (my new happy pitcher fascination).
Hmmmm… the only team I don’t want to see in the World Series would be the Giants. That Tim Lincecum is just so hard to watch. You know what I mean….right? ;)
But no matter… Whether the Rangers continue to impress or the big money superstar teams run away with it all over again, I’ll be watching.
Don’t look now, but there may be only 3 weeks of baseball left!
Savor the postseason, play ball!
And in case you missed it! ---The UCB (United Cardinal Bloggers) October Project is in full swing with a roundtable discussion that keeps the baseball talk front and center. Each day is a new topic and today the bloggers chimed in on how they are spending October. Who is watching postseason baseball? Who has moved on to football? How do you compare to the other Cardinal faithful? Check out today’s answers here (link pending).
Who knows, I too may have to find a team to root for the in championship game. For now I leave my St Louis boys to rest and have taken to being outside more in the pretty Fall weather watching REAL Cardinals as they migrate to spend the winter with me in Oklahoma.
ReplyDeleteI always find it hard to root for other teams, but I am with you - I am so happy the Phillies beat the Reds. :) However, I am impressed with the Rangers. In my summer sport econ class we talked about the teams bankruptcy issues a lot(http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/080510dnsporangersauction.1e80b89a.html). I was sure that would be too much for the team to handle, but I was wrong. I am happy for them. To be able to shed that negative issue and play good baseball against great teams, is pretty impressive. Glad I can root for them to beat the Yankees!!
ReplyDeleteTotally understand the sentiment. Now I also have visions of Brendan, Yadi, Holliday, Freese and the gang migrating to Oklahoma for the winter. And I *LIKE* that idea! lol!
ReplyDeleteWow! I did not know that about the Rangers. That makes it all the more exciting to cheer them on?! Be careful... you may be making a Rangers fan out of me??
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