St. Louis’ 11th World Series title capped a remarkable 2011 MLB season.
It will go down as one of the best World Series ever played, seven games of baseball stretched over the final 10 days of what was a memorable season overall.
The St. Louis Cardinals capped a most improbable run with Friday's 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers, runner-ups once again on MLB's biggest stage. Game 7 proved anticlimactic following St. Louis' 10-9, extra inning triumph the night before, a contest that will be rerun on TV as well as in conversation for years to come like its Game 6 cousins from the 1975, 1986 and 1991 Fall Classics.
The 11th World Series title in Cardinals history, and second in the past six seasons, might also go down as the most unlikely of them all. Tony La Russa and his squad went to spring training as the best bet among NL Central teams to win the World Series following a most disappointing 2010 campaign. Things started to go downhill from there.
An early, season-ending arm injury to starting pitcher Adam Wainwright began the initial slide. Stalled contract extension negotiations with star slugger Albert Pujols also played a role, with there being early talk that St. Louis might deal him midseason if the team was not in playoff contention.
Early season woes included trouble at the backend of the bullpen where closer Ryan Franklin suddenly couldn't get his job done. He blew four of his first five save opportunities, all Cardinal losses. By the time St. Louis released him outright in late-June, 16 of his 21 appearances had come in St. Louis defeats, never a good stat for a pitcher you're counting on to close out victories.
As August drew to its end, the Cards were 10.5-games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, and 10 games out of the wild card race.
But unlike the 2010 season when St. Louis slumped badly with a 21-27 closing record, this year's Redbirds caught fire at the end. St. Louis reeled off 21 wins over the final 29 games and captured the NL Wild Card on what will go down as the wildest final day of a regular season in MLB history. They were underdogs in every playoff series, ignoring those odds to dispatch the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies, followed by the Milwaukee Brewers and finally the Rangers.
Disappointment simply is not an adequate word for what Ron Washington and the Rangers are feeling. Successive appearances in the playoffs is a difficult enough achievement, much less repeating with a league pennant. Making it even more painful is how close Texas was this time to winning its first World Series.
The Rangers will now attempt to pull off the fifth 'three-peat' at the top of the American League since division play began in 1969. If successful, Texas will join the 1969-71 Orioles, 1972-74 Athletics, 1976-78 Yankees, 1988-90 Athletics and 1998-2001 Yankees. It's never been done in the National League.
Texas first joins 28 other clubs in recovering from a season that fell short of a World Series title. Even St. Louis can't spend too much time celebrating with the free agent filing period beginning Oct. 30 and Pujols expected to be among the participants.
Rangers left-hander CJ Wilson is another potential free agent. Other big names include Milwaukee's Prince Fielder, Boston's David Ortiz, shortstops Jose Reyes of the Mets and Jimmy Rollins the Phillies, San Diego closer Heath Bell and potentially Yankees ace CC Sabathia.
Clubs will have until Nov. 23 to offer arbitration to eligible players who then have until Dec. 7 to accept. This year's winter meetings are scheduled for Dec. 5-8 in Dallas, with the Rule 5 Draft conducted on the final day of those meetings.
The mood in Dallas might be determined in the next 7-10 days. Like its counterparts in the NFL and NBA, Major League Baseball is also in the midst of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement; unlike the NBA and NFL, negotiations between the players and owners are proceeding smoothly. Recent reports are the two sides are down to the last obstacle, signing bonuses for the annual June amateur draft.
Baseball's present agreement was ironically struck during St. Louis' last trip to the World Series in 2006 and will expire Dec. 11.