Last night, I received a text. I can’t remember what inning of the game it was, but I remember the situation. It was the later innings and the Cardinals were down to the BoSox 3-1. Matt Adams was coming up to the plate to pinch hit for the pitcher’s spot. The text read, “You nervous???” To which I emphatically (or as emphatically as I could type) replied, “Nope.” After the impending strike out of Adams, I received another text: “How about now?” Of course, the smart aleck in me (influenced by my 8th grade students) replied, “I’ll be nervous with 2 outs in the 9th of an elimination game.”
The above, that’s how I truly feel. As I’ve said time and time again, I live, wear, breathe, eat, and sleep Cardinals’ baseball. I can’t worry. If I worried, I would worry myself into a lot of wasted sleepless nights. These guys, they come back. They face adversity and laugh in its face. That’s how it’s been for years upon years upon years. Although we see a completely different set of players, that’s what they do. It’s almost like when they are given the uniform in the majors, they have to take an oath that says, “I promise to make every part of the season, whether it be pre-, mid, or post-, as exciting as possible. I promise to fill the fans with adrenaline and take them to the brink of elimination, and then pull a fast one on them.” Yep, just made that up myself, but I’m pretty sure they do.
So, why not worry? Two words: Michael Wacha. Yes, I am completely and utterly aware that everyone needs to come off their high horse at some point. I am aware that not everyone can win every game, but I also have that sick, disgusting Cardinal fan confidence. That confidence that if you see me in the street sporting my Cardinals shirt, sweatshirt, jacket and purse while chasing around the two kids dressed from head-to-toe in Cardinal gear, walking the two mammoth dogs with Cardinal collars, comes off as cocky. Yep, I’m that disgusting.
Back to the issue. Wacha has the magic. The “David Freese of the 2011 postseason” magic. He’s also got that crazy confidence. The kind that makes him throw his glove down as hard as possible into the dugout bench in disgust with himself when he became one of the millions of pitchers that gives up a homerun to Papi. That’s that disgusting confidence; I like it.
Speaking of Papi, do you think you could intentionally walk a guy every now and again?! For the love of the game, the man is 11 for 15 in the 2013 World Series alone. That’s a whopping .733 batting average–just for the World Series. Is it admitting defeat, and being a coward if you walk him? NO. That was two capital letters: NO. That’s called smart baseball. It’s not rocket science.
One more thought, and this one is for Matheny. Please, oh please, oh please, do not make a bunch of changes to the batting order in game 6 of the World Series. It didn’t work in game 5. Call uncle, concede, call it a day. Put Beltran hitting second again, and let Craig come in to DH. He doesn’t need to be in the field either. He’s hurting, but he can still hurt Boston with his bat. And, while I’m on the subject, let’s give Danny another shot at short, could we? I’m sure Pete Kozma is a nice guy, but niceness doesn’t win World Series games. And now, I’m stepping off of my soapbox.
Overall, these guys, they’ve made a tremendous run. I’m incredibly proud to be a Cardinal fan. Fortunately for us, I don’t think they’re done quite yet. Pull out the paper bag for hyperventilating, these guys do their best work under pressure.
Here’s to a game 6 win!
Go Cards!
Photo: http://bostonherald.com
