World Champions

Most of you who know me understand that I have a deep love/obsession with St Louis Cardinals baseball. I hang on every pitch, every hit, every game, every year with the emotion of what can only be described as pure joy. When it comes to the Cardinals, I am very much like a giddy school girl on prom night.

I love baseball. It is the greatest game ever invented and the hardest game to play i.e. it requires tremendous athletic ability. People that play it are right up there, in my eyes, with the likes of John Lennon, JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Any player...any team....are all wonderful but if you wear a Cardinal uniform, you are a god. I have said the following often:

Since baseball is the sport that God plays in heaven with the angels, it is the only sport that she takes the time to watch.

Last night, the Cards, who all season have looked highly average, won the World Series 4 games to 2 against the Detroit Tigers. The video above shows the last pitch and the melee of love which ensued afterwards.

It was fucking awesome.

So many thoughts and emotions ran through my head. I thought of my dad and my grandmother and all the games we watched together. Both of them are no longer with us but I know that they are most assuredly smiling in infinity.....wherever the Great Spirit has taken them.

I thought of my 90 year old grandfather who, in his lifetime, has seen them win all 10 of their World Series rings. They have won in the years 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1982, and 2006. My grandfather was at one of those World Series victories. I don't remember the exact date but he told me about how, when he was just ten years old, he got to see Babe Ruth play at Sportman's Park in October of 1926. Amazing!

I have only seen them win twice in my lifetime. 1982 was a great year but this year, with my man Albert, was something truly special. The last time they went to the Series was just two years ago and they were swept by the Red Sox. Less than a week later, George W. Bush was elected President (for the first time) and my men's volleyball team lost to our arch rivals.

It was a dark time.

This year, in so many ways, the Cardinals atonement for their loss in 2004 shows up all their critics and proudly silences the loudmouths who speak of a supposed National League weakness. Their victory last night represents a harbinger of light...of good things to come in the next week and a half.

So, could it be that the country that I love so much is going to make up for the worst mistake it has ever made?

We will find out on November 7th.