2011 MLB Season & Playoffs

**LGB Cards** · 10-15-2011, 10:43 PM

First off, I am not going to act like I predicted this season cause if anyone did they were the only one. The epic breakdowns by the Braves and Red Sox turned to be two more notches in the historic disaster column of baseball history. Now we are down to the near end, the Cardinals are now up 3 games to2 and the Rangers are also up 3 games to 2. It would be easy to say that the Rangers and Cardinals will make it and shoot a guess in the dark but I don't really see it going that way. To start, the Rangers and Tigers are playing right now and the Tigers are up 2-0 in the middle of the 3rd. I think at this point that the Tigers will come back and win the series. The Rangers where hot but have put themselves in a spot to have to win 1 in the next 3 or their out but I think that is going to be too hard for them to accomplish. I think the Tigers will take this to 7 games and beat the Rangers to head to the World Series.

Now to the National League, the Cardinals are up 3 games to 2 and need to win 1 in 2 games to get to the World Series. I think that the Brewers had done themselves in before this series by dominating the Cardinals in the season and trash talking all along the way. I think the Cardinals get this done in 6 games and move onto the World Series tomorrow. This sets up a rematch of the 2006 World Series where the Cardinals beat the Tigers for their 10th Championship. This time is different though and presents a fairly neat twist. The Cardinals who were the benefactor of the Braves bad play and made the wild card in the last day of the season will have home field advantage in the World Series due to the National Leagues win in the All-Star which can largely be credited to Cecil Fielders 3 run home run. I bet Fielder will wish he didn't hit that if the Cardinals do indeed make it to the World Series, lol.

It is rare that a team can be rewarded this late in the season while still faltering in the regular season. The Cardinals, who were counted as out in August by even true fans will now play for a chance to go to the World Series and benefit from something that can be largely credited to a rival team and the team they beat to get into the Series. In sports we hear and talk about that special something that can't be seen, the IT factor, the X factor, intangibles, whatever you want to call them. The Cardinals have that right now, they are hitting, the unexpected people are coming up big, and the obvious factor that matters the most, Albert Pujols If Pujols and Holiday play as they are expected to play and all the other players are stepping up I don't see the Cardinals falling to anyone they face and their are others in the pro sports media that did actually predict the Cardinals winning it all, just not in the way it is happening. In a rematch of the 2006 World Series I seen the Cardinals taking it in 5 games with Verlander being the only winning pitcher. It will see the city of Detroit facing an old rival that stood in the way of a championship before and once again taking it away from a very good team. It will also show that you can be way, way down but never out, the Cardinals were way out and counted as out but in the end will come back to make the playoffs on the last day, make it to the World Series where they will have home field advantage, and in the end will take home the franchises 11th World Series title, first since 2006. But that is just my guess, and actually, in the time it took me to write this the Rangers are now winning 9 to 2 in the 4th inning so that goes to show that there is no telling whats going to happen this season!!! In my opinion this is exactly what baseball needed to have, this kind of crazy season that was full of twists, turns, and drama all the way to the last day. Not to mention that in the end that will represent the game well and not surrounded by controversy or the feeling of must win due to an astronomical payroll. This may be baseballs best year in 2 or 3 decades.