Doubt? What Doubt?

Ok, so I have to admit, with two strikes,two outs in the 9th inning and the Cardinals facing a 4-2 deficit, at Houston none-the-less, I had my doubts. Just an inning and a half earlier, the Astros' Lance Berkman had effectively driven the proverbial knife through my heart with his three run homer off of Cardinals' ace, Chris Carpenter. "This can't be happening," I thought to myself. The sudden realization of the Cardinals pending elimination, all the hard work gone in 5 measly games and our iconic Busch stadium no longer being of use, had finally weighed down unto my stunned soul. "This isn't over!", I angrily and defiantly yelled to my sister, but the tears slowly coming to roll down my face told otherwise. And so, with those two outs and two strikes in the top of that ninth inning, my sister and I watched the Cardinals' set-up man David Eckstein deliver a hit that extended the game and our season, in patient silence. The only sound to be heard was the room's loose fan, creaking as it slowly rounded, almost as if we were in a hospital room and a loved one lay on their death bed. My sister and I had decided that we would watch the game until the last out, with the plan to change the channel as soon as we saw the game come to an unmistakeable end. We wanted to make sure it was over, but didn't want to watch, or hear, the city of Houston celebrate. "keep your finger on the buttons!", I yelled at Nan. "I know, I know!!!", she yelled back. We were also intent on muting out the play by play anouncers, as they had begun to describe how long the Houston Astros were waiting for this moment. This wasn't a moment to cheer for Cardinal fans. It was one of mourning over the loss of our season and stadium. My sister and I were not going to let that sacred moment become ruined by Houston's jubilation and the broadcasters' insensative comments that were effectively announcing us dead, even as we were still making our last attempts to breathe. Edmonds came up to the plate and I still yelled to Nan to keep her finger on the remote. "Game 6, Game 6, Game 6...", she chanted, referring to Edmonds dramatic walk-off homer in game 6 of the NLCS, a game we had attended a year earlier. "No, No, that won't happen", I sullenly replied. And yet, with the creaking fan above us, we watched, almost in a trance. It was too painful to watch, yet too important to abandon. "Can you turn off the fan?"Nan asked, and in an almost comical way, the fan's creaking seemed to die away as a heart monitor would in a hospital room. But Edmonds drew a walk from the unshakeable Brad Lidge and the best hitter in the game came up to the plate. The game sort of built up for this At-Bat. Pujols had failed to deliver any runners in scoring position both in the 1st and 3rd innings. Still, Pujols is the best hitter in the game and if this game was going to end, at least it would with our best chance out there on the field, in the batter's box. With an 0-1 count, Lidge left a hanging slider for Pujols to hit a monster 3 run game winning homer. Flair for the dramatics? Yes. A beating pulse for the Cardinals? Yes. Two girls screaming, jumping and clutching each other like over-grown infants? Yes. Of Course. Boy was that home-run amazing. Our beloved Cardinals' win left us in a sort of daze. We walked around in a dream-like state, repeating the words, "I can't believe that", over and over again. With the miracle fresh in our minds, my sister and I went off to pray. There was no other way to explain it, it had to be some sort of divine intervention. Even if you don't believe in that sort of thing, you have to admit, that was a pretty special Home Run. Sure the Cardinals are still down 3-2 in the series, but until Wednesday night Cardinal fans can rest assure that our ball park and team are still alive and kickin'. Our big guys pulled through. We turned off that creaking fan, only to hear that towering shot give our team a strengthening heart beat. Andy Pettitte was seen in the dug-out reacting to that Home-Run with an "oh...my..Gosh." Astro fans were heard screaming, "Nooooooooo", in the dramatic way only seen in movies. Cardinal fans presumably all turned their fans back on, in need of cooling down after all that jumping and hollering they endured, explaining to each other the moment they knew we still had a shot at this thing. Then, slumped in exhausted relief. Oh my Gosh, indeed.

Prize Photo

That's me on the right, laughing and yelling in desperation for the lady to take the picture and that's Nan on the left, cheesin' and running at the same time. But we got our photo by the champ flags in the forbidden area! moohoohahahaaa

Cardinals vs. the World

Oh geez. I couldn't be happier. Well, I could be happier if .....the Cardinals win the world series! AHHHHHHHH. That is a very feasable possibility. After sweeping the overmatched Padres, the Cardinals are on their way to playing their new rivals, the Houston Astros. After last year's NLCS, I don't expect anything less than another classic of a match-up. Here's my analysis of the post season thus far.

• The Red Sox and Yankees were eliminated in the first round. Although this poses a problem for the networks who were hoping for a rematch of last year's ALCS and ratings galore for their dirty/greedy little hands, that won't be the case. For baseball lovers, this is an opportunity to have a 'clean' World Series, free of the evil- super duper rich teams.

• Yesterday, some of the media were whining about the scheduling for the teams playing in the ALDS/ALCS. Something about having to play 2 games in a row because of a rain postponement and traveling across the country. I dunno. Screw 'em. Let the babies whine. They didn't care about the Padres/Cards fans when we were scheduled at the insanely unfair time slots. One of the games were on at 10 am on a weekday for the West Coasters, while the Cardinals' clincher was scheduled at 10 pm my time (central time) with the game not finishing until after 1 am. That is how they treat the team with the best record in all of baseball? All of this so that the Yankees/Angels game, the network's priority, could be shown at primetime hours for the country. This isn't the first time Major League baseball has scheduled a Cards post-season game that started at 10 am or pm for the teams involved. Bud Selig apparently said this would never happen again a few years ago. (*smirk) Not only were our scheduled times disrespectful, but the media is claiming it would only be fair to switch the starts of our games so that the NLCS play a day earlier (today) and the ALCS teams get a day off so that they could play tomorrow. Boo freaking hoo. That would only inconvenience our fans again by changing our plans at the last second. I had these tickets for a month now and asked off of work for Wednesday, not Tuesday. They should just deal, like we had to. Maybe it's Karma. Either way, Major League Baseball got theirs. Although I'm sure they won't learn from their unjust mistake, I will revel in the fact that their prioritizing got them in this little mess in the first place. Moohoohahaaaaaa.

• I don't want to face another 'cursed' team in the WS, if we're fortunate enough to make it. (fingers crossed, please God, Pleeeeease let us win) I'm sick of this "awww, they haven't won in 5,000 years, how sad, let's root for them" crap. What about my needs??? lol.

• I just found it interesting how the BoSox last out recorded was a groundball by an old fan favorite, Edgar Renteria. Seems the If you can't beat 'em, join 'em idea kind of backfired on my old buddy. *cheesey grin.

ok, so I went to the last regular season game at Busch. Everything about the game was goosebump-worthy. The fans were told to sing the National Anthem on our own. No sucky musician to forget the words, no famous face jumping on the bandwagon or posing as a Card fan for the day, just our thousands of voices in unison. The Cards won a comebacker, which I guess is appropriate. After the game, everyone, I mean, everyone stayed for the ceremonies. Over a hundred former and current players were called onto the field. There were videos about those who passed, about our old friend Jack Buck, and about the game of baseball that moved people to tears. The ceremony closed out with the Clydesdales coming out and circling Busch. That was unexpectedly more exciting than I thought it would be. The season just flew by. The only thing that could make this year more perfect were if we could just win that WS.

I also went to game 2 of the NLDS. Fun Fun Fun. Even if the seats we had were kind of sucky, I refuse to go any further in complaint because the important thing to me was winning. We had our thunder stix and I made sure they were put to use. Loud use. Me and Nan got some cool pictures. Our favorite was the one by the championship flags way up high above the outfield. I didn't know we could move our way over to them. As we were trying to get our picture taken, an usher-dude/ championship flag-area Nazi was yelling at us for being up there. He was literally yelling his ass off and saying something about having had a man removed from that area in cuffs. Our photo is kind of telling as we yelled at the lady to hurry and take the picture, meanwhile the guy's still yelling his butt off. It was kind of a "Damn it, Johnson,pull the trigger!" movie moment . But when you see the picture, you'll know it was all worth it.

Tomorrow and the day after I go to games 1 and 2 of the NLCS. Please God, Please let us win.

GO CARDS!