Some drunk jackhole on twitter:
@ChrisHornb
Ho hum. That was about the 3rd-most exciting Cardinals game I’ve seen in the last 12 months. #doyouhateusyet
I think they stole the A’s mojo.
Knowing that Game 1 absolutely would be Sunday night no matter what–and with the Nats leading–the Giants had boarded the team plane and watched the final inning there. Panda with the priceless photo:
Well shit. I feel like the NLCS is made up of two battling Anti-Christs that somehow I wish would annihilate each other and somehow Detroit beats the Yankees and automatically wins the World Series by default. There’s no way I could even muster a cheer for either the Giants or the Cards at this point. And fuck the Yankees.
See you at the Hot Stove I guess.
— Alan
This is what’s called a ‘premature congratulation.’
Fun reading through this thread this morning to see what y’all posted during the Cards comeback. I’m not a Cards fan, and was pulling for Washington simply to have a new face in the post season advance. But I have to give St. Louis a ton of credit for that one. And with Storen on the mound, no less.
Now with the A’s, O’s and Nats all gone, I’m done with baseball for the year.
LockerK
1826
Surprised to see the last two posts share my sentiment. I was hoping to see some new blood advance this year and was really pulling for the four teams that got eliminated this week. I’m done for the year as well – although maybe I should charge people to have me root against their team.
My mistake, btw, on the photo of the Giants posted up-thread. They were actually still in Cincinnati, since that’s a shorter flight if they had to start the NLCS in DC. So yeah, they were definitely flying, but flying home to SF about 4 hours ahead of the Cardinals.
sluggo
1828
I guess I’m in the minority on this, but I like this final four. You’ve got the last three World Series champions (2011 Cards, 2010 Giants, 2009 Yankees), and then the Tigers, who only have the first triple crown winner in 45 years and maybe the best pitcher of this generation in the prime of his career. You’ve got playoff heroes and pitching studs all over the place. I like it.
Yeah, it’s like a round of Championship Jeopardy…all the big winners from the past few years come back for one epic slugfest! Should be fun.
I do hope we get some new faces next year though. And no fucking Yankees.
Zuwadza
1830
I’m fairly new to baseball fanship, but is complaining about this sort of thing normal in baseball? It’s not like the O’s, A’s, and Nats were completely slaughtered in the divisional series; the league championship series came pretty close to looking a hell of a lot different. I’m not sure people would be complaining as hard if, say, the conference round in the NFL was Pats vs. Steelers and Giants vs. Packers.
There were new faces in the playoffs and they were only just barely eliminated in a bunch of great series. Seems crazy to complain about it. Not necessarily pointing the finger at anyone here either, I see the same sentiment all over the internets.
Complaining about anything and everything is what baseball fanship is all about!
Seriously, I think it’s just a matter of people pulling for the underdog. A lot of people loved last year’s ending because the almost-didn’t-make-it-in Cardinals ended up going all the way. If the Rangers had avoided shooting themselves in the foot in game 6, I think you’d have seen much less excitement (except in Arlington). The final four this year really don’t have any underdogs:
– The Cards won it last year. Plus, no one likes them except the state of Missouri. The East Coast hates them for what they did to the Braves and Nats, the West Coast hates them since they’re playing the Giants, midwest north of St Louis hate them because they’re not the Cubs, midwest south of St Louis hates them because of what they did last year to the Rangers.
– The Giants won it two years ago, and despite their poor showing in the first two games of the division series, are quite possibly the best NL team.
– The Tigers have crazy stars (Verlander, Cabrera, Fielder) and were generally expected to contend since spring training.
– The Yankees are the fucking Yankees.
No one to pull for if you’re looking for the underdog, except maybe St Louis, and everyone has a reason to despise them. Had the Os, As, or Nats made it in, large portions of the baseball world would have had reason to cheer them on.
Yeah, basically what bob said. It’s a long season. If you don’t bitch and complain about stuff you’ll probably wander off and do something more useful with your time.
Mainly it’s just the Yankees. They make it to the post-season virtually every year. The (largely correct) perception is that they buy their way in. It engenders a certain amount of annoyance among fans of other teams. There’s some talk about them reining in their free-spending ways, but we’ll see.
Yeah no.
Thanks to generations and generations of fans going back to the 1930’s in the Midwest and even further west, the Cardinals have one of the biggest regional fan-bases in all of baseball. Until the 1950’s, the Cardinals were the furthest south and furthest west team in all of major league baseball, and their flagship station–KMOX–and it’s 50,000 watt broadcast especially at night hits damn near everywhere in the country. Having Stan Musial as a player and guys like Jack Buck and Harry Caray broadcasting the games didn’t hurt them, either.
Until late this season, any time I went to a Nats game, folks wearing Cardinals gear outnumbered the Washington fans at the stadium. When the Cardinals played late series in Colorado and in Houston this year, the cheers for the visiting team were far louder–and better organized–than the cheers for the home teams having down seasons.
Trigger’s right, but that’s not what I meant. I wrote that poorly. I was thinking more about unaligned fans, those who aren’t already partisan to one of the four teams. If you’re already a Cards fan, or one of those misguided souls that like the Yankees, you’re not changing now.
Thongsy
1835
Yes, yes it is. It’s not like the Giants are yearly World Series contenders. The Giants have been in the playoffs 2 out of the last 3 years and were a losing team for 5-7 year period there if not more after the 2002 World Series. Alan’s Rangers have been in the last 2 WS and are a big money team so he probably just hating on the Giants and Cards for beating them.
Complaining and sports goes hand in hand. Along with irrationally hating opposing teams and players.
I think every Tiger fan knew that 4 runs wasn’t going to be enough with this putz on the mound.
Valverde and Benoit better not throw another pitch the rest of the post season.
rowe33
1839
DAMN YANKEES! Man, I just have no one to pull for anymore…first, the Rangers completely crap themselves and bow out. Then every other underdog loses, leaving me having to get behind the Tigers…and now this. Ibanez had his Wheaties for sure…
sluggo
1840
I …I … I’m stunned. The Yankees still need to win this game, obviously, but I don’t even know where to start right now.
First of all, the Yankees bats have been asleep all week, including tonight. To suddenly erupt for four runs in the bottom of the 9th … I’d written this game off innings ago. I’m still in shock.
Second, Ibanez. How many players have had two weeks like he’s had? He HRd to save the Yankees in the 9th in game 161 to help win the division, then won the game in the 12th. He HRd in the 9th to save game 3 against the O’s and won it in the 12th. And now he HRd again in the 9th to save them here. It’s crazy.
Third, baseball. What kind of crazy week has this been, where this stuff seems to happen EVERY NIGHT? The Yankees. The A’s. The Nats. The Cards. The Yankees. Pick a team, they’ve had a 9th inning comeback. It’s insane.
Finally, the relievers. In the past few years, it’s incredible to me how often you see big name closers just blow games in the playoffs. And not one run games, but big 3 and 4 run leads from supposed elite relievers. Can anyone name a big name closer (other than Mo, who’s blown a few himself) who hasn’t had at least one epic playoff meltdown in the last 6 years?
Just madness all over the place.
I love it.
Now we just have to see if the Yankees can get Ibanez up again so he can win it.
