NLCS: October baseball baby!!!!

 

#12in12

My team, The St. Louis Cardinals, defending World Champions, have again defied all the odds and made it to the NLCS. 

No, that's not the newest crime drama on television, sure to be spun off a dozen times, its the National League Championship Series...a best out of seven series featuring the two best teams in Major League Baseball's National League.  The winner of this series, will go on to play the winner of the American League series (the ALCS).  The winning team of that World Series match-up will be crowned "World Champions" and be awarded the "Commissioner's Trophy".  Fame and fortune accompany that title..."World Champions"  My team is of course the improbable winner from last year, The come from behind team who took it all to win their 11th World Championship...This year, coming from way behind and out of a less than spectacular season again....this year, we aim to make it 12.

Is this newsworthy?  Blog-worthy?  Even worth mentioning since the game is really only seriously played in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Japan and of course America...technically I think its still played up in our neighbor to the north...but It's probably ranked somewhere between Canadian cuisine, and maple syrup drinking contests...

Hell yes its blog-worthy!!!!

If you don't watch baseball, or worse have caught a mid-season game or two on television, all of the hoopla can be a little hard to understand.  Normally 2.5-3.5 hours of some of the most mind numbing "sport" is enough to turn anybody off. I've heard it compared to watching paint dry. In fact the only ones who make it through the mid-season are the diehards, the sports writers and the players themselves.  I think even their wives turn the game off after a while, settling for mobile updates, and occasionally congratulating their hubby's on twitter or facebook.  All of it though is worth it.  All of that blistering hot mid-season, summer baseball is practice for this.  For people like me, baseball season starts in September.  I check on our stats, our injuries, see who's been brought up from the minors to stay, and whose had to go back home.  I get a read of how the season went, and what our prospects for October look like.  I do this because this is what it's all about.  Baseball in October is post season baseball.  Baseball in October is what the dreams of little boys who one day woke up to be men are all about.  For the players, especially the newer ones, this journey started some 15-20 years earlier...Saturday morning T-ball games, to their first little league night game.  Seasons upon seasons of practice.  Seasons upon seasons of success, failure and heartbreak.  Time and time again they've had to say "we'll do it better next year".  Now here we are in October and in 4 stadiums across America, the proverbial next year is finally here.  

How you got here is of no consequence.  The fact that you got here says it all.  Fans angry about their teams disappointing performance often blame "bad luck" for their lack of a postseason appearance.  They quote stats, blame umpires; criticize and berate coaches, managers, owners and even their fellow fans.  They do this simply because they're ugly people and they fail to understand that all of baseball, All of baseball, from every single gorgeous spring day with clouds and hotdogs and fireworks, to every sweltering hot summer day, so miserable that you can barely stand it...all of it is practice for playing in October.  How you got here is of no consequence, the fact that you had the skill, fought hard enough, battled enough adversity, fatigue, injury, rain delays, personal problems and had enough dumb luck to get here puts everybody on an even field.  Nobody here is playing for second, nobody here wants to go home and everybody here is at the top of their game.

Make no mistake, somebody will win this series and advance, celebrating and cheering the entire way.  Somebody else will go home on a quiet flight.  Somebody will cry tears of joy, somebody will cry tears of mental anguish so excruciating that it could only come from failing after a 20 year journey.  Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what it's all about.  This is October baseball.  

 If I close my eyes, I can smell the grass, the hotdogs, the sweat, the excitement.  I can hear laughter, and cheers.  I can taste the first sip of cold beer hitting my lips, I can see the pretty girls walking to the stadium.  I can see fathers pointing and sons nodding, I can picture the players signing the autographs, nothing short of 10 foot tall giants of herculean status to their fans both young and old.  I can feel my wife's hand in mine gently saying I love you with a squeeze.  Most of all I can feel the hope, the hope that gets reborn every year, the hope that this is maybe "our year".  For the next three hours, I have no bills, no mortgage and no worries.  

Busch Stadium, St. Louis Missouri.  I've sat here on the edge of my seat many times. 

For the St. Louis Cardinals and their rookie manager, we again hope and pray that this is our year, our 12th year...

For my non-American readers, the movies below may help if you're interested in trying to figure out just why I go so nuts in October...

Movies, there are more, but this will get you started. 

1. The Natural (1984)
2. Field of Dreams (1989)
3. Bull Durham (1988)
4. The Rookie (2002)
5. Major League (1989)

Join us on October 14th as the Defending World Champion, St. Louis Cardinals meet the San Francisco Giants