Cardinals appease ghosts of World Series past
The St. Louis circle is unbroken. This was the classic Fall Classic get-even for what happened in 2004.
The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, overlooked, underestimated, beat up and put down, are the World Series champions. Maybe everything does even out over time. Maybe it only takes two years for everything to even out.
The Cardinals won the World Series by beating the Detroit Tigers in five games. These were the same Tigers who had taken the mighty Yankees in four games in the American League Division Series, and then had swept the Oakland Athletics in the AL Championship Series.
These were the Tigers who rolled through the best the supposedly superior American League had to offer.
But they couldn’t beat the Cardinals, which tells you something about the Cardinals: In this October, they were the best in baseball. OK, all right, they set a World Series record for the fewest regular-season victories by a champion.
That is interesting, but not because it makes the Cardinals relatively bad. It is interesting because it makes this October even more special.
So St. Louis celebrates its first World Series championship in 24 years. Maybe this was supposed to happen two years ago. Maybe it was more likely to happen two years ago.
But this is the St. Louis Cardinals team that won, the 2006 bunch that suffered defeat but persevered, and in October was better than anybody else the Major Leagues had to offer.
In the wonderful baseball tradition of this city, there have been many teams with bigger names, and bigger reputations. But the 10th World Series champion for St. Louis, this team, will have a special place on that long list of successful teams.
It overcame disappointment and it defeated the expectations, and, surprise or not, it went as far as a baseball team can go.
