By: Martin Rand, III
Date: October 28, 2011
With the first game seven of the World Series in almost ten years looming, it's easy to only focus on who's going to win tonight. Although, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that both the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals have overcome incredible odds and should be happy with their season no matter what the outcome.
 |
| The Fall Classic has delivered on what its name states, with two teams that should be happy just to be in this position. |
The Lone Rangers
The Rangers are by no means a Cinderella team. No, there Cinderella story happened last year when they made it to the WS. Not everyone, but some ESPN MLB Analysts had them reaching the WS again this year.
However, I didn't think they would, and it wasn't just because my New York Yankees play in the AL (although that was part of it). I felt like the Rangers were on an emotional high last year, which propelled them into the WS and they couldn't recreate that magic a second time.
Last year, there were talks of the Rangers almost going out of business because the the owners couldn't find anyone to buy the team. The MLB had to take over the baseball operations of the team just to keep the sinking ship a float.
There was also a lot of controversy around the team. It was revealed that Manager Ron Washington had been using cocaine the season prior and their best player, Josh Hamilton, had also struggled with drugs and alcohol.
The Rangers were done.
Then, last July, against all odds and speculation, the Rangers caught the biggest fish on the trade market, Cliff Lee. A month later, Nolan Ryan, a former pitcher for the Rangers, bought the team. So, in a month's time, they got a ace pitcher and an owner. All this emotional satisfaction propelled them to the WS last year.
What did they have this year? They lost Lee to free agency, Hamilton has been hampered with a strained left groin and possible sports hernia for the last month and they had no emotional boost at the end of the season to get them over the hump of a long season.
No. All they had was a great manager who made the right moves at the right moments, a great owner who filled the hole left by Lee and a great team that stepped up when their best player was injured.
From a team on the brink of nonexistence, with a player addicted to drugs and alcohol and a manager using cocaine, to back-to-back AL Champions and possible world champions is remarkable.
The Early Bird Doesn't Always Get The Worm
The Cardinals are the Cinderella team this year. They didn't have all the issues the Rangers had, but they shouldn't had even made the playoffs let alone get to game seven of the WS; and what they did to make the playoffs broke MLB records.
At the beginning of September, the Cardinals were over 10 games back in the wild-card race to the Atlanta Braves. It was looking like their season was over.
I thought it was over as well. Throughout September, I kept seeing commercials telling people to buy their post-season tickets now because the Braves were going to be playing in October. There was no point in paying attention to the wild-card race anymore, so I didn't.
Then, with a week left in the season, all of a sudden, the Cardinals were only a few games behind the Braves. By the end of the week, the Cardinals were the NL wild-card team and the Braves were left to wonder, "What the heck happened?"
What happened was a team plagued with injuries all year finally got all their pieces back at the right time and made everything click. They won 23 of their last 31 games and proved it's not how a team starts the season but how it ends it.
All They Did Was Win
I know, in the world of sports, moral victories aren't often praised because it's all about winning. Yes, these two teams won the games they needed to get to this point, but the adversity they overcame to get here was half the battle. The character they've shown shouldn't be overlooked just because one of them won't wave a banner next season.
| Tweet |
