This Is Baseball Heaven

Sports fans, it's my favorite time of the year. I've always loved fall. The leaves change, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I love hot apple cider and pumpkin spice lattes...

But more importantly, it's the best time of year for a sports fan: you get football, baseball, hockey and basketball all at the same time.

And for me, October is particularly exciting because I have been fortunate enough to enjoy my favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, in postseason play a lot in the past decade. Not many fanbases can say the same.

I can't remember ever NOT loving baseball. When you grow up in St. Louis, it's nearly impossible to NOT be a Cardinals fan.

Me, at nearly 2 years old. Already a die-hard fan.

As a fan, the hope every year is that your team will make it to the playoffs and win a World Series. It's not an easy thing to do. Getting to the postseason is hard, and some fan bases, like the Cubs, haven't won a World Series in 105 years.

On opening day, in cities across the country, 32 different fanbases hope and dream that this will be the year that their team makes it all the way to the postseason and hold up that World Series trophy. But only one team can get that honor each year.

I realize that I am very lucky to be a Cardinals fan. While Cubs fans still wait for their curse to be broken, I have watched my team win 3 World Series Championships (well, I was alive in 1982. I can't say I remember it. But I was representin', as evidenced in the picture above) and they are now poised to win a 4th.

The Cardinals are moving on to their 2nd World Series in 3 years. They lost Tony La Russa. They lost Albert Pujols. They lost ace Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, and closer Jason Motte and were forced to rely on developing rookies into star pitchers.

And it worked. America may be sick of hearing about "The Cardinal Way," but you can't deny that they have established a culture that is based on winning and excellence. You hear it in the way the Cardinals players speak, manager Mike Matheny, and GM John Mozeliak.

I understand that outside of Cardinal Nation, no one was rooting for the Cardinals. Because in America, we like winners...until they win too much. Teams that have won too much, such as The Yankees, The Patriots and The Lakers garner a lot of hate from other fanbases because you're just tired of seeing the same team win all of the time. And when it's a team that over and over again prevents your team from advancing (for me, the Patriots constantly beating the Colts in the postseason was BRUTAL) you can't help but feel resentment and hatred. Why do they always have to win?

The St. Louis Cardinals now fall into that category of winning too much. 

But that doesn't mean that fans of the Cardinals are going to stop cheering on our team and say "oh, you haven't won in 25 years? Okay. Here. Let me tell my team to suck so you can win." Would Lakers fans do that? I live in LA. I can tell you that would be a "HELL NO." Would Yankees fans do that? Please, you jest.

There's been a lot of chatter and heckling about the whole "best fans in baseball thing." I'm going to say something here that many Cardinals fans may not like. I HATE the best fans in baseball thing.

How can anyone say who has the best fanbase? To say so is completely subjective. How it is judged? Attendance? Jersey sales? Ballpark environment? Smartest fans?

When you claim to say you're the best, you have to have evidence to back it up. Otherwise you just sound arrogant. Do the Cardinals have a case for being the best fans in baseball? Sure. The media has said it is. Players have made comments that suggest it is. But you won't hear me saying it. I'm proud to be a Cardinal fan and love the fanbase and definitely believe we have one of the best fanbases out there, but I'll leave it at that.

I mean, Cubs fans have been waiting 105 years for a World Series ring and they are incredibly loyal. That's dedication there. It's easy to support your team when they're winning. To keep supporting year after year and getting disappointed? Major respect. The Cardinals haven't given fans much to be disappointed about (though going up 3-1 last year against the Giants and losing still hurts).

It's been an exciting postseason and I am thrilled to see my St. Louis Cardinals vying for their 12th World Championship. This is what fans live for. You never know who the hero is going to be. In 2011, hometown boy David Freese made his way into the history books as the MVP of the 2011 World Series. In the 2013 NLCS, rookie Michael Wacha amazed us all by beating the probable Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw twice. He hasn't allowed a single run in the postseason. If he keeps this up, he will be a potential Cy Young candidate in the future.

Carlos Beltran is now finally going to his first World Series. I really hope he gets his first ring. Class act and all around amazing player. And in a way, the Cardinals owe it to him. Because it was the Cardinals who denied his previous World Series chances in 2004 when he was with Houston, and in 2006 with the Mets (sorry Mets fans, I know that one still stings). 3rd time is the charm?

This is Baseball Heaven. 2013 National League Champions. World Series Bound.

It's a great time to be a Cardinals fan. #12in13

Quick NFL Thoughts

Sports fans, I know I've been behind on posts. I was out of town for a wedding last weekend and I have been very distracted by postseason baseball (will post about that shortly).

We're about to head into week 6 of the NFL season, and we're starting to figure out what teams will be playoff contenders, which ones have a shot at being contenders, and some that are just plain not going to be in the picture.

At the beginning of the season, I completely whiffed on the NY Giants. I don't know what's going on over there, but it's not good. Who could have predicted that of  two New York teams, the Jets would have the better record? At some point the Giants will win a game and the Jets have a tough schedule so I would expect them to look more like the sub .500 team we expected them to be. But of the 2 teams, the Jets look like they have more of a shot to have a winning record this season. 

After Thursday night's game against the Bears, Eli Manning now has 15 interceptions on the season.

Gonna be a lot of this Manning face this season, I'm afraid...

While Eli is pacing himself for the possibility of most interceptions in a season, brother Peyton is looking like he is gunning to win back the title of most touchdown passes in a season. Peyton already has 20 TD passes in the first 5 weeks of the season. That's average of 4 TD's a game - wow. He's on pace to hit 64 TD passes. The record is 50. And Denver gets to play Jacksonville this weekend. 

Denver is definitely looking like the team to beat in the NFL, though the Cowboys sure made an exciting effort last week to steal a win. I don't know what this game is a reflection of, that Manning and Romo are just THAT good or if the Broncos/Cowboys defenses are THAT bad. Fortunately for Manning and Co., Tony Romo did was Romo does best...

To be fair to Tony, it was a tie game and had the Cowboys defense let the Broncos score quickly they might have had a shot at getting the ball back and a chance to win. But, those Tony Romo interceptions late in games definitely hurt.

Speaking of interceptions, what on earth is going on with Matt Schaub? Yikes. Granted, they were playing the San Francisco 49'ers who have one of the top defenses in the league. But that Houston - San Francisco game was just AWFUL.

It just further confirms why I wasn't high on Houston this season, and picked the Colts to win the AFC South. Houston has a lot of the pieces needed to be an excellent football team, but somehow they just can't seem to get it together. They may get a reprieve this week, since they get to play the Rams, who beat Jacksonville last week but not rather convincingly. The Rams, unfortunately for this fan, have a lot of their own problems.

The Colts, on the other hand, look GOOD. I mean, REALLY good. Did you catch that Seattle-Indy game? Wow. So impressed with the Colts. I think we all knew that Andrew Luck was going to be an elite quarterback, but to get this team from zero to the playoffs last season and continue to excel and get better this season? Winning against Seattle is huge. They are a fun team to watch. How lucky are Colts fans to go from Manning, perhaps the best quarterback the NFL has ever seen, to Luck, who could be the next greatest? 

Have to congratulate Andy Reid - I don't think anyone expected the Chiefs to be 5-0. While the Broncos look like the best team in the league, the Chiefs are giving them competition to win their division, which is kind of fun. At least gives both teams reason to keep striving for wins. 

Philip Rivers is throwing for 400 yards and San Diego still keeps losing. Great for fantasy fans, not so great for Chargers fans. 

We'll see what fun and surprises the NFL holds this weekend! What a great weekend of sports - NFL and postseason baseball - my favorite time of the year.

Working on a baseball post that will be up shortly. Until then, Go Cardinals!