Well, here we are! Postseason baseball has finally arrived! A season that feels like it just came and when is reaching it’s endpoint. All twelve teams that was able to make it to the playoffs has legends of fans with a super amount of optimism that their teams will be the ones that will hold the Commissioner’s trophy less than a month from now. My team is no other than the St. Louis Cardinals.
This has been quite a season for the Cardinals! Despite the usual amount of frustrations that occurred for a few weeks with slumping hitting and not so great starting pitching, this has been the most fun I’ve had following the team in quite some time. I’ve got to see Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado put up MVP-caliber seasons. I’ve got to see a handful of promising young prospects that have been developing in our farm systems for the past few years such as Brendan Donovan, Juan Yepez, Nolan Gorman, Andre Pallante, Matthew Liberatore, etc. And of course, I got to see absolute Cardinals legends that I have been watching since childhood in Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright band together for one last time before their inevitable retirements. Oh, and I also got someone on my team named Lars Nootbaar. How much better can it get than that! Well, there is one other way it could get better. That of course being a World Series title!
I know asking for your team to win a championship is a LOT to ask for. At the end of each year, there is only one team that will be able to stand above all and win the whole thing with a championship trophy over their heads. However, I don’t think there’s been any Cardinal team in my lifetime that I desperately want to win it all than this one, even more so than the 2004 and 2005 squad. While those teams were undeniably better than this year’s group, there would just be something truly magical if a Cardinal team with Albert, Yadi, and Waino would be able to win one last ring together. It would make for the most perfect storybook ending imaginable and seeing three World championships in my lifetime would leave me more than satisfied for at least the next three to five years. As amazing as that would be, how likely is that of actually happening? Well, to be honest, not very.
First off, they would have to get past the Phillies in only a best-of-three series starting tomorrow. While the Phillies have less wins than the Cardinals this year, there are some things worth point out. Firstly, they have played in a much more competitive division with having to play a good chunk games against the 100+ win teams of the Mets and Braves which makes them more familiar facing off against winning teams. Secondly, they have two guys on the mound in Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola who can be absolute beasts on the mound and have give the Redbirds trouble over the years, especially Wheeler. Thirdly, they have a lineup with a handful of known Cardinal killers such as Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and the now infamous Nick Castellanos. Lastly, this is their first playoff appearance since 2011, the year which the Cardinals stunned the World Series favorite Phillies in five game and would later go on to win the title that year. While there is no member remaining on that 2011 roster, you know the players are going to play with that exact mindset and do everything in their power to send the main trio who were part of that 2011 team home and into early retirement. As much as I don’t want this to happen as that would be an absolute embarrassment and humiliation, I can also see that actually happening. After all, not very many players out there get to leave the game on top.
Even if they are able to get past the Phillies, they will have a tough road ahead of them. The road would include plenty of competitive and loaded groups who might just be even better teams than the Cardinals played during their championships runs in 2006 and 2011. If they win the wild card round, they will have to take on the Braves, who are not only the defending World Champions but have been hands down the best team in baseball since June, where they played at an exaggerated 114-win pace and was able to steal the division crown from the Mets in the final week of the season. Even if they get past that, then they will have to get past either the juggernauts of the Dodgers and Mets or the young, talented group of the Padres. Even if they miraculously get past all of that, they will likely have a team like the Astros or Yankees waiting for them, both teams who no doubt are hungry for a championship than possibly any other team in the playoffs. If you look at numbers, predictions, and analytics, the Cardinals being able to get pass all of those teams to win the World Series really doesn’t make sense. But then again, when has baseball ever made sense?
Throughout the pass month, I have tried harder than ever to keep my expectations for the playoffs in check. So that no matter what happens, I will be fine and be prepared for any possible outcome. If our season happens to end this weekend or we fall in any other round, then I will remember to cherish the memories that I had with this magical season and ignore the ones that I would rather forget. As much as it would hurt to not see this core of Cardinals win a ring, that is the harsh reality that is with sports and especially baseball.
You never know what’s going to happen once the playoff began. We have seen this time and time again. It doesn’t matter how much talent a team has or how many games they won in the regular season. At the end of the day, you still have to play every game and win every series for your team to come out on top. We saw that last year with the Braves, we saw it in 2019 with the Nationals, and these Cardinals saw it in 2006 and 2011. When you’re in, you’re in. Just play better than every opponent you face and you will win! It shouldn’t be that simple but it is what it is.
Regardless, I had a fun time following this team in 2022, most fun I’ve had watching the team since their 2011-2015 playoffs runs. I’ve seen glimpsers of those teams during this season and I might even see that in the coming days and weeks if everything is able to click at the same time. Even so, I’m blessed with the memories that this team gave me this year as well as many prior years in the 21st century.
To Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright, thank you so much for everything you’ve done for this organization and I wish you all the best for the foreseeable future!
Adam's Blog 