A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
It pains me not to be writing about the Milwaukee Brewers in this space, but I think I’ll recover faster from a 12-6 loss than I would had the Brewers lost on a Cardinals walk-off.
If I were to write a World Series preview from a Cardinals perspective, it would be full of bias and spite, so I’ll instead focus my efforts on my new (temporary) favorite team, the Texas Rangers, as I preview the 2011 World Series, which starts tomorrow night (TV schedule and pitching probables here).
There is still potentially a lot of baseball remaining in the National League Championship Series, and after three games obviously someone was going to have a two games to one lead. So it remains too early to panic and call the election.
I made that mistake back in 1982 when the St. Louis Cardinals won Game 3 of the World Series and had bolted to an early lead in Game 4. The Milwaukee Brewers came back to win that game and eventually had a 3-2 series lead before losing the Fall Classic in seven games.
But the first three games, as well as the National League Division Series before that, have provided some telling signs. After being a decent, but not a playoff-caliber team most the season, the Cardinals now seem to have that 2006 feel.
That World Championship feel.
To coin a phrase – could it possibly be Written In the Stars???
Right now I will give you several reasons I believe the Cards will be able to ultimately close the deal on Milwaukee.
Only a mere 12 months ago Texas was in the World Series where they came up sort versus the San Francisco Giants. Over the next eight days, they have a chance to return to the showcase of baseball’s finest. In their way stand the Detroit Tigers, who defeated the New York Yankees in five games following their first division title since 1987.
Both of these teams are easy to get behind. One team advances, the other will have to spend the winter waiting for their next chance.
The MLB postseason is down to its final four and these two teams could be matching up for a classic.
Behold the power of cheese.
Things have been pretty good in Wisconsin in 2011. Outside of all that political crap, the sports scene has been unreal. From the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, to the Packers’ run through the playoffs and their Super Bowl XLV win, and even Marquette and Wisconsin making it to the Sweet Sixteen, it has been a dream season for everyone in America’s Dairyland.
And then there are the Brewers.
Until early Friday evening, there had been two sporting events that I had personally attended in my life which I put above all others. One was a tense game on an early fall afternoon on the final weekend of the strike-shortened 1981 baseball season, when the Milwaukee Brewers downed the Detroit Tigers to earn the franchise’s first ever playoff berth.
The other came nearly eight years ago when the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks went to sudden death overtime in the first round of the NFL playoffs. The game ended with Al Harris’s ‘Divine Interception’, with Harris crossing the end zone literally right in front of me.
The Milwaukee Brewers walk-off win against the Arizona Diamondbacks last night to move on to the National League Championship Series may have them both topped.
Amanda Rykoff of ESPNW.com is the latest guest on the MLB Trivia Challenge Podcast sponsored by the M&A advisors at Generational Equity, experts on helping middle-market business owners sell their business.
With the divisional round in full swing, and multiple series set to be decided with compelling Game 5 matchups, Amanda tries her hand at five of Ari’s most challenging trivia questions of the season before delving into series playoff talk.
The Tinley children are on Fall Break, so we’re spending the week vacationing on Perdido Key. I was without Internet access until yesterday, when I successfully guessed the password for a wireless router in a neighboring condo. A word of advice: If you’re in Florida and your wireless password is “sunshine,” you’re inviting anyone who can pick up your signal to use your Internet.
Anyway, here are some things we learned this week:
Look, we all know that CC Sabathia is man of heft, specifically around his waistline. And as someone who has acquired his own waistline heft over the last few years, I applaud Sabathia for proving that even the chubby and rotund can achieve athletic greatness.
So I found ESPN.com’s treatment of Sabathia tonight to be particularly unnecessary.
Lost in all the hoopla of the Red Sox losing a 9-game lead to the Rays was the Cardinals overcoming an 8.5 game deficit to the Atlanta Braves. It was not long ago that the Cardinals seemed to have no shot at the postseason. Just ask Nyjer Morgan back on September 7th:
“Where still n 1st and I hope those crying birds injoy watching tha Crew in tha Playoffs!!! Aaaaahhhhh!!!”
I can’t be the only person who wouldn’t mind seeing the Brewers have to get through the Cardinals setting up a Morgan vs. Pujols confrontation.
This is the Divisional Series I am most looking forward to. Most likely, so should you. This match-up has all the makings of a classic, featuring two teams that have had good fortune shine upon them this season.
The Rays have a juggernaut of momentum going their way as they closed the season with five straight wins to bamboozle a stunned Boston Red Sox team and storm into the playoffs. They set a record by being the first team to make the playoffs after heading into the final month 9 games out. Tampa posted a 32-17 record after Aug. 8, showing that their surge is for real.
The Texas Rangers, on the other hand, led the AL West for the majority of the season and just concluded the best season in franchise history with 96 wins.
Despite having written about it multiple times, including here and here, and despite the fact that they have been playing with a wide NL Central lead for most of August and September, it is still a little surreal to me that the Milwaukee Brewers (96-66) are in the playoffs.
And with all of the possible scenarios that could have possibly shaken out this week, I’m very happy with the ways things turned out for the Brew Crew. Home field advantage and no Phillies in the first round? Fine by me.
Here is a preview of the NLDS matchup between Milwaukee and Arizona.
About 50 games into the season, at least one team from each division in the National League has emerged as the front-runner.
It’s not all that exciting when teams have the division essentially wrapped up in June, which is why the Wild Card race is the most interesting, at least to me.
While most sports pages Monday were focused on the latest chapter of the Minnesota Vikings circus, and to a smaller degree (sadly), the completion of the 2010 World Series – there was word that Commissioner Bud Selig was launching yet another of his patented trial balloons, again raising the possibility that baseball’s post-season field will soon add a new wrinkle, and possibly two additional Wild Card teams.
If you haven’t read AJ’s excellent preview of the 2010 World Series, go read it now. It’s pretty much everything you need to set the stage for what should be an absolutely thrilling series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.
This post is for one thing: predictions.
Vote in the poll below and use the comment section to explain your vote. (My pick under the poll.)
One of the charms of baseball is the endless supply of factoids, anecdotes, and statistics that are unique to each game, each batter versus pitcher matchup, and each series.
In 2010, there is one that easily stands out above all others as the most mind-blowing of all.
Care to wager a guess what it is?
