So we called our shot.
Sort of.
On September 27th, "Saying Goodbye To David Freese" was posted on Cards Diaspora.
The theory nearly 2 months ago was that the Cardinals wouldn't want to go to arbitration again with Freese and that dealing him would be not only fiscally prudent, but allow for better on-field production as well.
Fans were encouraged to send Freese off with gusto.
Funny the things you forget on the way to a World Series run. Because yesterday the Cardinals dealt the third baseman to the Angels for Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk. Fernando Salas was also sent to the Angels in the package.
Unfortunately, the Angels might not be playing in Busch Stadium for quite some time. There will be no curtain calls; no Sign Guy puns. So all we're left with is the web to pay tribute to the man that will go down as the human ecstasy hit… invocation of his name takes us to a happy place.
It's true. We'll always have 2011.
Let's watch together…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PZVCrKcOl78?rel=0
You in a better mood?
You're damn right you're in a better mood. That clip LITERALLY never gets old.
Hell, even Cards Diaspora has gotten it's fair share of run from David Freese related material. Like the time we had a story about the 2011 World Series that no one had ever heard before.
He came home to St. Louis on December 14th 2007 via trade with the San Diego Padres for Jim Edmonds. At the time it looked like a cheap PR stunt from the Cardinals. Sure he's a minor leaguer… and yes, Jimmy Baseball is one of the all-time fan favorites… but he's from STL!
Turns out the salary dump was the start of the John Mozeliak era – an era that has had very few missteps. This happened to be the fulcrum for successes that the Cardinals appear to just beginning to reap the benefits from as it pertains to personnel.
Freese has never played a major league game without the Birds on the Bat across his chest. He not only represented the Cardinals well after vaulting into the national limelight post 2011, he was living out many of our dreams:
Grow up in St. Louis, play baseball for the Cardinals, become a World Series hero.
We did that too. We did it in our backyard.
Don't know about you guys, but I think everyone is kind of onboard with this trade. Freese gets a new start and a chance to get paid. The Cardinals get some pretty solid prospects that can help ASAP and in the long term as well.
If you'd have told us that the David Freese era was going to end in 2 NL pennants, a World Series and him starring in the single best baseball game that we'd ever get to see… would you have made that trade?
We all know the answer.
Best of luck to Mr. Freese in Anaheim. Unlike Albert's departure to SoCal, there will be absolutely no hard feelings. Everyone will be pulling for the guy to be better than ever as an Angel.
Fitting, seeing as he was kind of ours for the past few years.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
