Baseball is So Great

Best of The Blog #2: A look back in the wake of the 2011 World Series:

I go to Espn.com/mlb today and the opening story is entitled “Two Sides to the Story” and features a picture of an elated Yadier Molina in front of a somber looking Michael Young.  Yes, the dichotomy of winning and losing is key to any sport but, it’s not even close to what makes baseball so great.  What we witnessed this year for basically the last two months has been a story unfolding for the ages. It’s impossible to include all of the storylines and think about every different facet that went into the dog pile at the end of Game 7.  Baseball is about more than the Two Sides of the traditional sports story; it’s about the pitching matchups, the intentional walk, the unintentional intentional walk, the unlikely heroes, and the collapses by other teams over the course of a month that make it all possible.

The two sides to the story don’t even begin to explain the fight that the Cardinals went through to get there or how they had their backs up against the wall entirely too many times to not have gone down once.  The two sides to the story doesn’t include the injury to Brian McCann that rendered the Braves offense totally inept for the last 6 weeks of the season or mention how the Phour Phils were unable to live up to the billing.  It doesn’t mention how the Rangers were able to skirt face offs with a full force Justin Verlander.  It doesn’t include the dynamic between the omniscient (if his phone works) Tony LaRussa and the kindergarten-hyper Ron Washington.

When we limit baseball to simple wins and loses we lose the drama.  We lose the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th inning scores in Game 6.  We lose the millions that C.J. Wilson lost himself with each of his 19 postseason walks. We lose David Freese quitting baseball after high school only to recommit to the game and win World Series MVP.

What so many love about baseball is that it can be anybody at any time who helps you to a win. Game 7 showed that again with RBI’s from Allen Craig, David Freese, Yadier Molina and Rafael Furcal (a foursome that John Lackey would typically look good against).  Another thing we learned from this postseason is just how strong the we is.  I haven’t let the occupiers get to me here, the we is the baseball community.  Baseball lovers are strong as ever: World Series ratings are at their highest since 2004 when the Red Sox were doing something special.

What it comes down to is this:  Baseball is about so much more than the numbers, wins/loses, ratings, revenue, and champagne.  Critics say the game moves too slow for our ever moving society.  I don’t care.  Critics say there’s not enough action, that there’s too many commercials, or that the casual fan can’t understand the game. I don’t care.  Critics are just upset about missing out on what has been the two best months of baseball in my lifetime.

I’ve spent this whole article trying to mention everything that made the World Series Game 7 so awesome even if it failed to feature a walk off win or a brawl or serious 9th inning drama and I have yet to say the words Albert Pujols, free agency, or mentioned the Adam Wainwright injury that should have doomed the Cardinals from Spring Training.  I haven’t mentioned an injury to the Rangers MVP Center Fielder.  I haven’t mentioned the converted catcher that is now the closer for the World Series champion. If you don’t think this paragraph captures just how many sides to the story there are then you really haven’t been paying attention.  There’s always two sides to every story but in baseball there’s always about 100 more waiting to be told.

-Sean Morash