The Commish Online www.thecommishonline.com
BLOG ARCHIVE: 10/01/11 - 10/31/11
10/31/11
It wasn't pretty, but it was dramatic. The way the World Series played out pretty much summed up the Cardinals' season: ugly at times, usually dramatic, and with positive results in the end. It doesn't matter how you get there as long as you arrive and there's an invitation for you.
For St. Louis, they accepted the last minute invitation, stormed in and surprised everyone by being the hit of the party. The Cardinals made sure America got to know names like Freese and Craig, all while earning their second championship in six years with less than the best talent. For the full summary, check out TCO's latest Hot Corner.
10/28/11
Wow. It all comes down to a Game 7, the first in a World Series since 2002. Rather than rehash yesterday's game myself, it's already been done several times over, including a handful of columns from ESPN, so let me guide you to them. Jayson Stark's version of "everything is the most remarkable thing ever" can be found here. A Game 7 preview can be found here. As for TCO's opinion of last night's game that some are calling the greatest World Series game ever played, I consider it to be one of the more dramatic WS games in recent memory, but it was far from the best in that much of the baseball played was simply... bad.
Miscommunication with fielders (Holliday/Furcal), dropped popups (Freese), failure to move runners along (several), wandering baserunners (Holliday), terrible decision making by infielders (Andrus), a manager (Washington) who acts more like a fan than a coach, and overall pitching that left a lot to be desired for World Series caliber talent, Game 6 was ugly. Embarrassing for the players. Terrible baseball. The hitting kept coming and the dramatic moments piled on top of each other like Cardinals players after a Freese home run, but to call the game "great" is misleading. Exciting? Yes. Drama-filled? Undoubtedly. Great? No.
Lastly, just knowing the frequency of breakdowns that had already occurred by mid game took a little of the surprise out of the late inning heroics because no matter who took the lead, it just seemed unlikely to last. In the '91 Game 7 between Minnesota and Atlanta, every inning and every pitch mattered more because it felt like if someone broke through, the game would be over. A batter reaching second base had more drama than the handful of home runs last night. That's not to say that yesterday's game wasn't fun - any baseball fan would have enjoyed the late innings. The point is to say that drama in the game backed up by solid play is what makes for a great game. Perhaps we will see it tonight.
10/24/11
To the surprise of this and just about every other baseball website, the World Series has been a collection of impressive pitching performances (sans Game 3) thus far. The only word to describe the sometimes ugly but evenly contested matchup is unpredictable. I'm not sure what is going to happen tonight, but I know I'll be watching.
10/21/11
Well I was right about Lewis having a strong showing but I didn't anticipate an even better outing by Garcia. In the end, as predicted though, Texas evened the series. My next prediction is for Texas for finish the Cardinals off in the next three games. For drama and baseball's sake, I hope I'm wrong.
10/20/11
Last night's game wasn't quite as ugly as anticipated, but the Cardinals did eke out the win as predicted. If the prediction holds, look for Colby Lewis to have a surprisingly strong showing tonight as Texas evens up the series.
10/19/11
The World Series is just mere hours away, so will Texas be claiming the crown, or will St. Louis and Tony LaRussa get another chance to hoist the heavy trophy? TCO has the breakdown for you, and for the latest predictions, check out Hot Corner now!
10/17/11
At the time of the first game of the ALCS, TCO's LCS Preview wasn't quite ready for publication, so we elected not to publish. For what it's worth, The Commish picked Texas and Milwaukee in 6 games, so he would have been 1 for 2. Stay tuned for the World Series Preview coming early this week.
The drama was sorely lacking in the LCS contests, so here's hoping the World Series will return some excitement to the game of baseball.
10/07/11
Two for two in TCO's LDS predictions so far, with two more deciding games today. Tune in to TCO for the LCS predictions once the National League finishes up.
