Baseball always leads to October and here we are just a few days from the beginning of what could be the most iconic World Series of my lifetime.
The two Evil Empires will clash in a heavyweight fight as the Dodgers and Yankees will bring a compelling series with no shortage of stars on either side. If both teams were completely healthy, it would be an all-star game in each matchup.
Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, are some of the bigger names for the Bronx Bombers. While the billion-dollar Dodgers and their 700-million-dollar investment will hope to pay off with Shohei Ohtani. Along with their other stars like Freddie Freeman who is playing on one ankle, Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow, and Teoscar Hernandez.
The teams have met on eleven other occasions in the World Series; 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1963, 1977, 1978, and 1981. It’s the matchup that has happened the most in the World Series.
Some of baseball’s greatest moments have occurred in this rivalry in the Fall Classic. From Mr. October Reggie Jackson’s three home runs on three pitches in Game 6 of ’77’ to Don Larsen’s Perfect Game in the fifth game of the ‘56’ series.
Even Anderson’s own Carl Erskine was on those ‘50’s Brooklyn Dodgers teams with the likes of Sandy Koufax and Don Newcombe. Erskine also played alongside Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Resse, Duke Snider, and Jackie Robinson.
The immortals of this great game have graced these franchises across their chest.
Legends will be made in the 2024 World Series as two of the most iconic franchises in sports will clash for the title.
I will be watching, when possible, but for me personally, my best baseball memory revolves around the 2011 Cardinals, the last time my favorite baseball squad was able to capture the Commissioner’s Trophy and man was it unbelievable to watch as a child.
That team found itself 10.5 games out of a playoff spot with less than five weeks remaining in the regular season, only to claw its way back into postseason contention after trailing the Atlanta Braves all year long. In the final game of the regular season the Cardinals and Braves were tied for the final postseason spot.
After dominating the Houston Astros, led by starting pitcher Chris Carpenter in their final game of the regular season, claiming the final spot with a 90-72 record, moving onto the National League Division Series. (Wild Card was not introduced until 2012)
The Cardinals faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS; who bolstered one of the best teams in that era; emerged in talent on the mound and at the plate. It was hard to find a better trio at the top of the lineup with Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard.
On the mound they had actual pitchers; not just flamethrowers; guys who had to locate to be effective like; Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt.
But we had our own hitters; Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday, and an unsung hometown hero who put together the greatest postseason in Cardinals History; David Freese.
The Cardinals went down two games to one after Hamels picked up a huge win. It seemed like there wasn’t much hope, but we were wrong. St. Louis then rallied back to win Game 4 by two runs and then came the decisive Game 5.
It was two workhorses on the mound, Halladay and Carpenter, fighting for the right to play the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series. One run was all that was needed as Skip Schumaker doubled to score Rafael Furcal in the first inning. The remaining 8 innings was all pitching for both sides. Carpenter pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out only three batters, but got outs throughout the night on weak contact and fly balls.
The Cardinals advanced with a 1-0 win, knocking out the Phillies, who coincidentally knocked the Braves out of the postseason in the final regular season game. Philadelphia pulled out a 4-3 13-inning win over Atlanta to keep them out of the playoffs, just to lose to the team they preferred to play in a dramatic 5-game series.
St. Louis then moved to the NLCS with the Brewers, dropping the opening game 9-6, before dropping 12 runs in Game 2 to even the series. Freese led the way throughout the series, hitting .545 with 3 homers and 9 RBIs, earning NLCS MVP Honors. The team ended up winning the series in 6 games, advancing to the World Series, meeting another talented team in the Texas Rangers.
These were not your dad’s Texas Rangers with the greatest arm in baseball on the mound with Nolan Ryan; This was an explosive team on offense with the likes of Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Mike Napoli, Adrian Beltre, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young. At the time, it didn’t seem like much, but all those guys have officially retired now and ended up with a combined total of 1,850 home runs. Beltre just entered Cooperstown last season.
But we all know pitching carries a serious weight in the postseason, and that was the weakness of the 2011 Texas Rangers. Even still, the series went 7 games and turned into one of the greatest World Series of all time.
Back…. and… forth…. was the series as St. Louis secured the first game 3-2. Texas turned that around with a 2-1 win in the second game.
Game three of that series was an offensive spectacle for Cardinals fans, and for an 11-year-old me at the time, I thought it could not get much cooler than that win.
St. Louis poured on 16 runs and it was an explosion on offense for my favorite athlete and the best hitter of my childhood in Albert Pujols.
Pujols is larger than life to me; Not only because he has 703 home runs and had the greatest decade of hitting in Cardinals history from 2001-2011, but because he is a good person, who played the game the right way for so many years. The slugger registered 3,384 hits, 2,218 RBIs and hit .296 throughout 11,421 official at-bats. He also never struck out more than 93 times in a season, find me the next guy in this world of baseball who puts up numbers like that… I will be waiting for a long time.
In that critical game three, Pujols went 5-for-6 with three moonshot home runs, driving in 6 RBIs, tying the record for most home runs in a postseason game and most in a World Series game. It was no Mr. October performance, but it was for me at that time.
Now we felt like the series was ours with a 2-1 series advantage heading into Game 4.
Texas responded with huge wins in Game 4 and 5, stealing all the momentum, just needing one more win to secure its first World Series Championship (at the time).
Then came Oct. 27, 2011, which is a date that probably etched on bridges, walls, and buildings countless times throughout the City of St. Louis.
The game was intense as both teams battled throughout the entire game. Hamilton got the Rangers on the board with a single to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Berkman then clobbered a two-run shot in the bottom of the inning to give the Birds the lead at 2-1.
Clawing back were the Cardinals each time the Rangers took the lead. In the 7th, Texas thought it had done enough after pouring on three runs to take a 7-4 advantage over St. Louis after homers from Beltre and Cruz, and a single from Ian Kinsler.
A sliver of hope was back in our minds after Allen Craig hit a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth inning and the bases were loaded. Texas reliever Mike Adams got out of the jam with a 7-5 lead, and I just felt like it was over. But I did not turn it off, and man, I am sure glad I stuck it out.
The Rangers put in their closer in Neftali Feliz, a 23-year-old right hander who had established himself at that time as a reliever, picking up 72 saves between 2010 and 2011.
Feliz started the ninth inning on the right foot with a strikeout of Ryan Theriot. But the young pitcher knew it was going to get harder with Pujols in the on-deck circle and Berkman in the hole. Behind him was Craig, Freese and Yadier Molina.
Pujols doubled to center before Berkman walked. Craig would be called out on strikes for the second out of the inning, putting all the pressure on the hometown kid in Freese.
A little background information on Freese.
Freese originally went to the University of Missouri before quitting baseball. He then realized that he missed it and went to St. Louis Community College, before moving on to South Alabama. He was drafted by the San Diego Padres and was traded to the Cardinals for Jim Edmonds before the 2008 season.
Freese had two strikes and a bat with the entire stadium standing behind him and around him, watching his next move, as the Rangers were probably preparing Champagne in its clubhouse.
Feliz left a fastball over the plate and Freese didn’t miss it, smoking the ball to the fence, barely beating the outstretched glove of Nelson Cruz in right field.
“It’s off the wall, one run scores, here comes Berkman, Freese has tied it, seven to seven,” Broadcaster Joe Buck said.
As I am losing my mind inside my living room. That wouldn’t be the end of the game either as Texas got the final out of the inning and we went to extras.
As the Rangers took a 9-7 lead in the top of the 10th inning, from a Josh Hamilton towering blast, we were back in the same boat of hopelessness. Then came the bottom of the 10th inning.
Theriot grounded out to score Daniel Descalso, Pujols would be intentionally walked to get to Berkman. The switch-hitting ageless wonder in Berkman did his job, singling up the middle to tie the game at 9, scoring Jon Jay and getting to the 11th frame.
Freese then walked it off with a home run to centerfield in the bottom of the 11th inning, sending the Cardinals to a winner-take-all Game 7. The high and low feeling of those 3 innings were not good for a person’s well-being. But the team never quit after countless times of being down to the final strike or out, they battled and gritted their way to a championship.
Then came the final game, led by Carpenter on the mound. The 36-year-old did everything he could on the mound during that season after losing Adam Wainwright to injury, Carpenter gave everything he had in that final postseason run.
He threw 237.1 innings in the regular season, which led the entire league. In that postseason he finished with a 4-0 record in 36 innings and an ERA of 3.25. He tossed 6 innings of two run baseball in that Game 7, before Jason Motte closed the door on the Rangers and finished the book on the 2011 Major League Baseball Season as the Cardinals celebrated their 11th world championship with a 6-2 win.
Freese ended his monumental postseason run with 21 RBIs, setting a single-postseason record that stood until 2023, when Adolis Garcia had 23 for the Rangers, which is ironic because he actually started as a Cardinals player.
Thirteen years later, and the Birds are still searching for that 12th title. But it will be tough to top that experience during the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals World Series Championship run.
Will this World Series top that one? We’ll wait for the results to decide on that one.