Cards Cap Unbelievable Comeback For 11th World Series Title

Sports are made for fairy tale endings. We see it all the time in movies like Rudy, Remember the Titans and others, but sometimes it seems that there are no such endings in the real sports world. Hollywood can make a great fake fairy tale ending but none of that could come close to what took place in St. Louis late Friday night. The St. Louis Cardinals completed one of the most incredible comebacks in sports history, defeating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 of the 107th World Series. The victory wrapped up the 11th World Series for the franchise and it's their second since the millenium hit.

Written off in August, the St. Louis Cardinals made a furious comeback in the final weeks of the regular season to overtake the Atlanta Braves and clinch the Wild Card on the final day of the season. What did that get them? A date in the NLDS with the MLB-best Philadelphia Phillies and their lights out pitching staff. Trailing 2-1 in the series and with their backs against the wall, the Cards pulled out two tight games in a row to win the series. By now, Chris Carpenter's legendary Game 5 pitching performance against Roy Halladay has found it's place in Cardinal baseball folklore and the win was easily the playoffs biggest upset. Division rival Milwaukee was standing in the way of the pennant but, again, St. Louis found a way to win. The offense averaged over seven runs a game in the series and it seemed like Tony La Russa almost averaged that many trips to the mound to change pitchers every game.

It's safe to say that the Cardinals were underdogs in the LDS and LCS and that didn't change in the Fall Classic. Texas lost last year's World Series to San Francisco but was back again with a powerful lineup and a bullpen that had been pitching extremely well. Many experts picked the Rangers in six games and the Cardinals seemed to just be a nice story but a team that was going to finally run out of October magic. Wrong. In one of the best World Series in a long time, the two teams went back and forth and four of the games were decided by two runs or less with only one game being decided by more than four runs. For the Cardinals it usually wasn't one of the stars who played the role of hero, but rather one of the role players. Allen Craig won Game 1 with a clutch pinch hit and nearly won Game 2 in the same way. Game 3 was a slugfest that became Albert Pujols' game to write his name into World Series record books. After dropping Games 4 and 5 the Cardinals once again found themselves with their backs against the wall.

A better script couldn't have been written. Relentless team battles back time and time again with the hometown kid hitting a clutch triple to tie it up. Then that same kid blasts the walkoff homerun a few innings later. Talk about a fairy tale ending. Trailing 7-4 in the eighth inning, Allen Craig hit a solo homer to cut the lead to two. At the time it seemed irrelevant but hindsight is always 20/20 and if Craig doesn't hit that home run than David Freese may not even get the chance to be a hero...for the first time. The Cardinals were down to their last strike but Freese's two run triple in the ninth tied it up and forced extras. Josh Hamilton promptly launched a two run homer to put Texas up by two again but St. Louis rallied one more time. This time Lance Berkman had the game-tying hit and that set the stage for Freese's 11th inning leadoff home run to dead center, sending the city of St. Louis into a frenzy. There would be a Game 7 in the World Series for the first time since 2002.

There was only a quick moment of doubt that the Cardinals would win Game 7. Texas took a two run lead in the top of the first but Freese erased it with a two run double in the bottom half of the frame. Allen Craig homered an inning later to give his team the lead and later on, leaped up to rob Nelson Cruz of a home run. Up four in the top of the ninth, Jason Motte delivered the pitch to David Murphy who hit a fly out to left. Craig twisted around before getting under the ball. He caught it, raised both arms in the air and hugged Jon Jay. On the infield Yadier Molina leaped into Motte's arms while Pujols and others ran to join the dog pile on the mound. They hugged, high-fived and put on their championship shirts and hats. The St. Louis Cardinals had, perhaps, just completed the greatest comeback story in the history of sport. Down 10.5 games with a month remaining, coming back in all three postseason series including the World Series where they were down to their final strike twice.

How did they do it? The stars performed well like they should have but the St. Louis Cardinals are not the World Series champions if it isn't for Freese, Craig and the bullpen. Craig wasn't even supposed to be in the lineup for Game 7 but he wound up hitting the go-ahead home run and taking away another. Freese made a critical error in Game 6 but made up for it with his two clutch hits. The bullpen was atrocious at times during the regular season but, with a few exceptions, was lights out in the postseason. La Russa wore a path to the mound, making 3-5 pitching changes a game and he made the right move almost every time.

There will always be talk about the baseball postseason struggling to get viewers on television and many will say it can't compete with the NFL. That might be true but here's what I know: America just witnessed one of the best postseasons any sport has ever offered. Baseball is a special game and what makes it special is hard to describe. Those who love it can relate and those who don't will never understand the true beauty of the game. The 107th World Series will go down as one of the all-time greats and one that truly showed the beauty of baseball.

The only sadness in my heart now is that the season is over. Start the countdown now: 100 days until Spring Training begins. Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals on winning their 11th World Series title.