Golly

O'er the land of the Freese

The superlatives have all been taken, the cliches de-mothballed and paraded about, the dead horses brought out and beaten again, the comparisons all deepened with another re-etching. 

Yes, same guy

1975, 1991, 1986, look in record books, go through your ticket stubs, file through the memory bank, pick one, pick any.  2011 World Series Game 6 will stand as a worthy rival for craziest, wildest, ugliest, worst, nuttiest, awesomest Series game of all time.



Not the reason, but not helpful

Box scores, highlights, the written paragraph, none of that will help you understand the game if you didn't see it.  The sloppy defensive play was not to be believed.  Every home run, every lead change was apparently the back-breaker.  The managers were running out of maneuvers.  Twenty-seven outs wasn't enough to decide it.

Oh, sorry, pardon me...

The theme for the game will be "one strike away."  The Rangers could have, should have, put it away twice with two out and two strikes.  The Cardinals shouldn't have been here anyway, so to have two strikes with two out on two separate at-bats in an elimination game was to them like having lunch at noon.  St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa rode the razor's edge of brilliance and catastrophe, the difference of course riding on David Freese's 11th-inning walk-off homer.  Ron Washington had who he wanted where he wanted them, but the players have to play the game.  An infielder has to field his position, a closer has to make his pitches.  Even LaRussa, in his quietest moments between games, has to acknowledge that as fact.

Not clutch

Heroes and goats lined up to have their credentials punched -- Michael Young committed two fielding errors and Matt Holliday and Freese committed one each.  Nelson Cruz appeared to have misplayed Freese's triple in the 9th inning.  Josh Hamilton appeared to put the game to rest.  Lance Berkman was clutch.  Albert Pujols let his presence do the work. 



If you haven't seen the game, find a way to do so.  If you weren't available or had no interest in a midwest and Texas series, redeem yourself and find that someone who has it on tivo or MLB.tv archives or somewhere you can return to the rails of historic baseball.


Nolan Ryan's Facebook status

Exciting Game 6's have a tendency to belie a pedestrian Game 7, but if the 2011 post-season continues in its current state, Friday night's game will be no slouch.