From Wild Cards to the World Series

You know how I've often said that one of my favorite things about baseball in general and the postseason in particular is the narrative? The ever present possibility that a story could be written in which a long-time manager wins in his last season, a curse is reversed, a team that's only existed for four years defeats the Yankees with a bloop single on the last out of the last inning of the last game?

(Yeah, that one was particularly sweet)

My love of the narrative of baseball has made me root for the Braves in the hopes that Bobby Cox could cap his farewell season with a title, and for the Dodgers in the hopes of seeing Torre stick it to the Yankees for the way they ended their relationship. It's given me an improbable and durable affection for teams like the (Devil) Rays, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, or whatever they're calling themselves this season. And it was a potent enough antidote to make even 2004 -- even every impossible, insane, amazing, awful thing that happened in 2004 -- easier to digest (until I realized that it had started the process of stripping the Red Sox' fans of the veneer of loserdom that made them lovable, and turned them into a raving pack of douchebags. Now I delight in their pain).

So even if it wasn't my team doing it -- even if it wasn't the team I've rooted for, agonized over, sworn at and rejoiced with for my entire life. . .

. . . the story the Cardinals have written with the way they've played the last two months? The entire, impossible, insane, amazing story of coming from behind, of basically sneaking their way into the postseason and then taking out the 102 win Phillies, and then the team that beat them in their Division?

The story with the squirrels, and the Happy Flights, and the possibility of winning #11 in 2011, and Chris Carpenter going 9 innings for a one run win in the Division Series, and shutting Nyjer Morgan's damn fool mouth, and David Em-Effing Freese?

That, my friends, is one hell of a narrative, whether it's your team doing it or not.

Now to business: whether it was just to curry favor with me, or if you are actually all just this smart, only Tyler and Rob picked the Brewers to win the NLCS. So 0 points to them. FOX and JCD both picked the Cardinals in 7, so they get 4 points for the right team, but the wrong number of games. And the Washington Post, Colleen, and myself all get the full 6 points for saying Cardinals in 6 and getting the whole thing right.

So the standings after the League Championship Series is as follows:

WaPo: 18

FOX: 16

Colleen: 12
JCD: 12

Rob: 11
JordanBaker: 9

Tyler: 4

C S: 0

See you back here on Wednesday for the World Series picks!

That story