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That Game Seven of the 2011 World Series couldn't match the drama of Game Six was almost a given even before the first pitch was thrown. We don't talk about the finales of the 1975 or 1986 World Series in the same reverential tones as we do their penultimate contests, great though they may have been on their own merits. So unsurprisingly, we were not treated to a Jack Morris-level performance or an extra-inning walk-off win to complete the neat historical parallel provided by the Buck family’s "We'll see you tomorrow night!" calls following game-winning homers. Nonetheless, the first Game Seven in nine years required one more come-from-behind effort—down 2-0 before their starter had retired a single hitter—as well as heroics from some familiar names for the Cardinals to complete one of the most unlikely comebacks in baseball history en route to winning their 11th world championship via a 6-2 win over the Rangers.

Ultimately, the Cardinals should probably have voted Mother Nature a share of the playoff money, for Wednesday's postponement made Chris Carpenter available on three days' rest. That allowed Tony La Russa to bypass Kyle Lohse and Edwin Jackson—both fully rested after their Games Three and Four starts, in which they had combined to allow six runs in 8.1 innings—in favor of his ace. While not dominant, Carpenter had been more than serviceable in his Games One and Five starts, allowing four runs in 13 innings in the wake of pre-Series reports of elbow soreness.

Nonetheless, the Cards had cause for concern over Carpenter’s condition early. The 36-year-old righty had been roughed up in his previous start on short rest in Game Two of the Division Series against the Phillies, allowing four runs in three innings; in the first inning, he hardly looked long for this contest. Ian Kinsler slapped his second pitch into left field for a single, and while he was picked off of first base following the next pitch via a snap throw from Yadier Molina, Elvis Andrus came up next, walked on five pitches, and scored on Josh Hamilton's RBI double to right field. Michael Young followed with a bloop double to right as well, running the score to 2-0; at that point, Carpenter had thrown first-pitch balls to each of the first four hitters. He recovered to whiff Adrian Beltre on three pitches, finishing with an 86-mph cutter low and away and got Nelson Cruz to ground out, but in all, he threw just 10 strikes out of his 18 pitches.

As they did the previous night, when they overcame leads of 1-0, 3-2, 4-3, 7-4, and 9-7, the Cardinals stormed back against Rangers starter Matt Harrison, who had lasted just three innings in his Game Three start. Harrison got two quick outs before walking Albert Pujols on four pitches and Lance Berkman on five. Failing to get a borderline call on a low and inside first-pitch fastball—a problem that would continue all night, more to Texas’ detriment than to St. Louis’—Harrison fell behind David Freese 2-1; he battled back to a full count before Freese, whose final two at-bats on Friday night featured a game-tying triple and a game-winning homer, laced a game-tying two-run double to left center field. That gave the Cardinals third baseman a record 21 RBI for the postseason. Molina, the first of the six hitters Harrison faced in the inning not to start with ball one, drove a ball to the warning track, but Josh Hamilton made a leaping catch in front of the wall for the third out.

The Rangers threatened again in the second against a still-shaky Carpenter. Mike Napoli, still stuck batting seventh despite hitting .375/.500/.813 through the first six games of the series, led off with a single and was erased via a David Murphy forceout. Harrison laid a good bunt—as these things go—down the first base line to advance Murphy to second; he took third when Kinsler walked again and a pickoff throw bounced out of Albert Pujols's glove for an error. Carpenter escaped by getting Andrus to hit a comebacker.

That was the last real challenge Carpenter faced all night. To that point he had thrown 37 pitches, 20 of them for balls. Thirteen of the 21 sinkers he had thrown went for balls, as did seven of 15 cutters; he had thrown just one curveball to that point, reminiscent of Game One, when he threw just seven. Over the next four-plus innings, he would allow just three runners to reach: Beltre via a two-out hit-by-pitch on the left triceps in the third, Kinsler with a leadoff single in the fifth, and Murphy with a ground rule double to lead off the seventh—Carpenter’s final hitter of the night. He dodged one bullet in the sixth inning, when Allen Craig—playing left field after Matt Holliday's sprained wrist forced him off the roster—robbed Cruz of a homer; it wasn't Endy Chavez in the 2006 NLCS, but it was a steal nonetheless. Of the 54 pitches Carpenter threw over that span, 32 were sinkers (11 balls), 14 were cutters (5 balls), and nine were curves (two balls); within the context of the game, not only did he settle down, he raised kids and built a prosperous empire. Unlike his previous two starts, when all four runs came via three homers, he kept the ball in the park and wound up striking out five—his high for the series.

The Cardinals pulled ahead in the third inning. Craig, this man's pick as a difference-maker off the bench, had already gone 4-for-15 with two homers and a pair of very big pinch-hits through the first six games; here, on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, he pounded an opposite field solo home run on a high 91-mph fastball to give the Cards a 3-2 lead. They threatened again in the fourth via back-to-back one-out singles by Molina and Rafael Furcal, who after going 3-for-25 through the first six games had been bumped to the number seven slot and singled in his first two at-bats. A Skip Schumaker groundout to first base advanced the runners, and then La Russa let Carpenter bat with two out and men on second and third—a situation where pinch-hitting might have been justified had the manager a deeper bench or less confidence in his starter. Carpenter flied out, and while his turn was subject to a bit of second-guessing, his shutdown performance from there thoroughly justified his remaining in the game.

After the Rangers stranded Kinsler at second in the top of the fifth—he had advanced on an Andrus bunt, but Hamilton popped out foul to Freese, who reached for a nice catch at the rail, and then Young struck out on an 88-mph cutter that was low and outside—the Cardinals widened their lead in the bottom half of the inning. Though he had warmed up C.J. Wilson twice prior, Ron Washington bypassed him in favor of Scott Feldman, who, like the two starters, struggled with home plate umpire Jerry Layne's strike zone and was squeezed on some key calls. Feldman got Ryan Theriot to ground out after an eight-pitch battle, then walked Craig on five pitches, the third and fifth of which should have been low strikes according to the PITCHf/x plots at BrooksBaseball.net. He then grazed Pujols's jersey on an 0-2 changeup.

Washington, to his detriment, didn't have the lefty Wilson ready to face Berkman, who batted just .242/.333/.411 against lefties this year; though Feldman got him to ground out to first base, it advanced the runners—an acceptable result, albeit off of a bad process. The Rangers skipper then made an even worse mistake by intentionally walking Freese to load the bases, removing all margin for error and bringing up the pesky Molina, to that point 7-for-22 with three walks for the series, including a bases-loaded walk the night before. As BP alum Rany Jazayerli succinctly reminded us, Molina's expected OBP (.331 for his career) is higher than Freese's expected batting average (.298 in his career); even if you go by situational averages (Molina's career .347 OBP with the bases loaded, Freese's career .337 AVG with RISP), the tradeoff simply wasn't worth the loss of the pitcher's breathing room. Feldman fell behind 3-0, got the gimme’ strike with a sinker over the plate and then another on the outside corner; Molina thought the latter was ball four and started for first base, only to be called back. Feldman's next pitch, a 96-mph sinker, was a bit further outside, but PITCHf/x showed it to still be within the zone.

That forced in a run and forced Feldman out of the game; finally, on came Wilson, whose first pitch, a 92-mph fastball, drilled Furcal right on the hip, forcing in another run. He recovered to strike out Schumaker and throw a 1-2-3 sixth, but by now the Rangers were down three runs and were nine outs away from losing. Lightning would not strike in the same place twice.

La Russa had allowed Carpenter to lead off the sixth, which seemed like a curious move once he pulled him after Murphy's leadoff double, which came on an 0-2 hanging curve nearly identical to a pitch that he'd just let go by. Chavez, a lefty, was announced as the pinch-hitter; La Russa summoned Arthur Rhodes, pushing Washington to instead call upon Yorvit Torrealba. By letting his starter face one more hitter, La Russa forced Washington to burn a second player from an already weak bench. Rhodes induced Torrealba to fly out to center field—he didn't advance the runner—then departed in favor of righty specialist Octavio Dotel, who mowed down Kinsler on a four-pitch strikeout and got Andrus to fly out.

Down to their final six outs, the Rangers could ill afford to give up another run, but they did in the seventh. Mike Adams, drastically underutilized in this series (two appearances, four outs) struck out Pujols but failed to get a glove down in time to stop Berkman's comebacker; he reached on an infield single for the third time of the series. Squeezed on a 2-0 curveball, he walked Freese, then yielded a single up the middle to Molina, scoring Berkman to run the lead to 6-2.

That final run seemed to take the fight out of the Rangers; Team Entropy would not ride again. Lance Lynn needed just 11 pitches to work a 1-2-3 eighth against Hamilton, Young, and Beltre, and Jason Motte needed 11 as well to retire Cruz, Napoli and Murphy, the last out coming on a routine fly into the glove of Craig as Busch Stadium erupted while the Cardinals—the World Champion Cardinals—dogpiled near the mound.

It was just the third game of the series that was decided by more than two runs and the third time the deciding run was scored before the sixth inning; by this series' high standards, it was a dud. Nonetheless, it capped a remarkable comeback for the Cardinals. Down ten and a half games in the Wild Card race through the close of play on August 24, they won 23 of their final 32 regular season games, never losing more than two in a row, and then upsetting both the Phillies and Brewers, clinching their respective series on the home fields of the two NL teams that had better run differentials than they did.

The victory marked the Cardinals' 11th title, a total that trails only the Yankees' 27. It gave La Russa his third World Championship in his third decade—joining his 1989 win with the A's and his 2006 one with the Cardinals—and tying him with John McGraw, Miller Huggins, and Spark Anderson for sixth on the all-time list. La Genius made his mistakes in this series, particularly in Game Five—we have tapes, dude, and don’t you forget it—but he was out-mismanaged by Washington, whose batting orders, bunts, intentional walks, and questionable reliever choices backfired more often.

The two teams combined to use 58 relievers; I believe that's a record, but at this wee hour I am not sure. I do know that they both shattered the 2002 Giants' postseason record for most relievers used, with the Cardinals (75) and Rangers (70) ahead of the Giants' 62. Of those two units, the Cards' was by far the more effective one in the series; their 4.56 ERA, while unimpressive, trumped the 7.43 mark of the Rangers. Their 22/9 K/BB ratio (including three intentional walks) far outdid the Rangers' 21/20 mark (with six intentionals) as well—that's an astounding 20 walks in 23 innings for the latter. As a staff, the Rangers' 41 walks set a World Series record—a fitting albatross for Washington’s work.

Freese, who hit .348/.464/.696 with five extra-base hits and seven RBI, won MVP honors. He collected hits in six of the seven games and, all told, hit .393/.448/.787 with five homers in the postseason while becoming the sixth player ever to win both LCS and World Series MVP honors in the same year. Pujols, who ended with a .240/.424/.640 line, went just 1-for-19 with six walks (five intentional) outside of Game Three; for all of the bashing Washington took for his team's approach to the Cardinals' best hitter, it's worth noting that save for one night, the Rangers' pitchers were able to get him out consistently when they challenged him. Berkman hit a robust .423/.516/.577, my boy Craig .263/.417/.737, and Molina .333/.414/.417 with a team-high nine RBI. Napoli, who with one more well-timed strike on Thursday night would have taken home a new car, hit .350/.464/.700 with 10 RBI in a losing cause, and Beltre hit .300/.323/.567, but the Rangers' other big bats were held in check; Hamilton, who played through a sports hernia, batted .241/.258/.414, Young .259/.276/.519, and Cruz .200/.333/.440. The 28 plate appearances Napoli got were three fewer than Hamilton and Beltre, two fewer than Cruz, and one fewer than Young; an extra trip to the plate certainly could have meant something in Game One, which ended with him on deck, and might have mattered elsewhere, though he wound up being the right man in the right place at the right time in Games Four and Five.

Despite Friday’s anticlimax, it was a thrilling World Series by most standards, and it came at the end of a postseason that tied a record with 38 out of a possible 41 games played. Add in the final two nights of the regular season, and most of us have quite possibly experienced the best 32 days of baseball of our lifetimes. Team Entropy is all of us who stuck around to wring every last drop from this season despite our own favorites yielding to the hard facts of autumn and falling by the wayside. For all of the late hours—it’s past 4 AM as I type this, one of countless late nights on this beat—it has been a thrill to cover, whether from the ballpark, the barstool, or the couch, to connect with you, dear readers, and to occasionally connect for an occasionally correct prediction as well. I thank you all for tuning in to Baseball Prospectus and for following along on Twitter. By my count, we’re only about 110 days away from Pitchers and Catchers.

Thank you for reading

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ScottBehson
10/29
Yay Baseball!!!!

and thank you, Jay, for this excellent series of articles.


(I sure hope this series represents a tipping point away from small-ball overmanaging)
Marycontardi
10/29
While I consider myself a sports fan, this postseason (along with 1986, I was 2 for 1975) emphasizes why baseball is a lifestyle and a passion and further explains why all other sports are merely entertaining. As I often explain to my football loving brethren, I enjoy the pageantry of football but I need baseball. Thanks Jay, Team Entropy for life!
fgreenagel2
10/29
Great summation Jay. Nice work this year.
ofMontreal
10/29
Really good work Jay! Thank you.
mhmosher
10/29
In my opinion, this postseason was filled with terrible defense. It was pretty good on the drama side, but it lacked in fundamentals. I'd be interested to see how the total number of errors compared to years past.
brownsugar
10/29
I'm totally with this sentiment. I fell asleep on Game 6 after seven innings, thinking that a Royals-Astros interleague tilt in May would have provided a higher quality of play.

Then innings 8 through 11 happened. Whoops. I got all the terrible defense and none of the drama that night.
mhmosher
10/30
same here.
Sacramento
10/30
I was starting to fall asleep on the couch before the Cardinals started their comeback.
BillJohnson
10/30
Well, since you asked: This Series had 14 errors in 7 games (one of which went to extra innings, which we'll ignore), for exactly 2 errors per game on average. The average number of errors per Series game since 1992 has been 1.52, so this Series had more than average. However, there were several during this time with a higher average than this one. Interestingly, the most error-free Series on a per-game basis were also the shortest ones (e.g. 2007, with only 2 errors in a 4-game Series).

Compare this to regular-season games, which averaged around 1.25 errors per game, with surprisingly little variation from year to year. The number of games are great enough that the difference between regular season and Series error rates is very unlikely to be a small sample size effect; the Series games just tend to be sloppier. Why? Several reasons come to mind -- banged-up players at the end of the season, bad weather, nerves and nervous fatigue, who knows. Anyway, this Series was sloppier than average, but not outrageously so.
jjaffe
10/30
Interesting stuff, Bill. I would suggest that cold weather and out-of-position players (DHes like Michael Young playing the field, for example) might be the main reasons.

What about unearned runs as a percentage or average per game? I don't have the time or energy to check this minute but I'd be curious.
BillJohnson
10/30
At your service. There were 68 runs scored in this Series, 59 of them earned, for a percentage of 86.8% earned. From 1992 through this year, 912 runs were scored, 822 of them earned, for a percentage of 90.1% earned. So this Series had a larger fraction of unearned runs than average, but again, it wasn't way out there; 5 of the other 18 Series in this time (there was none in 1994, remember) had larger fractions, with the 2006 slopfest between St. Louis and Detroit being the worst, with only 72.7% of all runs being earned.
A few other trivia: the only "perfect" Series, in which all runs were earned, was the 2007 blowout of Boston over Colorado, where all 39 runs (29 of them by Boston) were earned, according to B-R. By contrast, every 7-game Series (SSS alert, of course) had an earned-run percentage that was worse than average for that time period. A majority of the 6-game Series were also sloppier than average.

I haven't done the math yet for regular-season play during this time, but for the 2011 regular season, a grand total of 20,808 runs were scored, of which 19,067 were earned. That works out to 91.6% of runs being earned, slightly more than in the Series since 1992, but probably not significant. Still, all else equal (and of course all else is _never_ equal), one would expect the better teams to allow fewer unearned runs, wouldn't one? But that isn't what has happened.

It's hard not to draw the conclusion that the circumstances of the World Series -- late in the year, with tired and banged-up players playing in crummy weather (remember how lousy the weather was in 2006?) and under a great deal of nervous tension -- do lead to errors, mental and physical, that wouldn't happen in the regular season. This probably needs further looking into, and I wonder if anything similar is observed in other sports with post seasons. It's interesting that in the very un-baseball world of grandmaster chess, commentators routinely remark on the unusually high number of errors in world championship matches, and normally take them for granted, rationalizing it all away as a natural product of the nervous tension of the match.
jjaffe
10/30
Interesting stuff, Bill - thanks for following up. A quick calculation shows that 91.7 percent of runs in the regular seasons since 1992 have been earned, so by that measure, we'd expect 837 of those World Series runs to be earned - that's less than one extra unearned run per World Series - it certainly doesn't sound like much, but it's persistent.
dethwurm
10/29
Off the top of my head, '06 and '11 were probably the two weakest TLR Cardinals teams I can remember, at least at the start of those years. Baseball is awesome.
rmnd3b
10/30
The 2007 and 2008 teams were weaker IMO, and while the 2006 Cardinals can be rightfully considered a bit of a fluke, this year's edition cannot. They had the best offense in the NL, and some midseason moves (especially in the bullpen) helped enable that furious September run that got them in the playoffs.
IvanGrushenko
10/30
Agreed. I think it's arguable that the 2011 Cards at the end of the year had the best lineup in baseball.

The midseason moves were amazingly effective for 2011 in fixing the two biggest weakneses of the team, namely defense -- Jay for Rasmus, Punto for Schumaker and Furcal for Theriot -- and bullpen -- Rzepczynski and Dotel for Franklin and Miller/Batista. Jackson was also an upgrade over McClellan. Yes they gave up 3 years of Rasmus for one year upgrades when they were already many games out but boy did it work for 2011!
Oleoay
11/03
Best lineup in baseball? They may have the best core, but shortstop and second base were offensive black holes.
Tarakas
10/29
Great write up.

Though I agreed that the Cardinals were underdogs in each series, I think people consistently underestimated their chances of winning each series. The team had made improvements which fixed some of their flaws and had gotten their act together later in the season. Being able to move away from a 5-man rotation also helped them. Lastly, any team that leads their league in runs scored has a chance to win any game.

A lot of people viewed them as pushovers going in. I always thought that while a flawed team, they had the ability to be dangerous.
rmnd3b
10/29
I gave up on the 2011 Cardinals several times this year. From when they were 10 games out, when they blew a 4-run lead against the Mets in the final stretch of the regular season, when the bullpen phone mess happened in game 5, to the ridiculousness of game 6, I, like most everyone else in the baseball world left them for dead.

This season has been excruciating. All those blown leads, the injuries, the Rasmus trade, and the dogfight at the end of the season. It's only fitting that it all ends in a fairly routine game 7.

Because of all this I sit here still in total disbelief that they actually pulled this off. I thought the 2006 NLCS would be the most dramatic sporting event I'd ever witness-I was wrong. And I'm so, so happy I was.

Go Cardinals.
lesmash
10/29
I have seen a lot of love thrown around for the 1986 and 1975 WS in addition to this year's series, but let's not ignore the 2001 series between the Yankees and the DBacks. In my estimation, that series trumped the 2011 series.

The Yankees were down 2-0 after wins by Schilling and Johnson to start that series; the Yanks came back to win games 3, 4 and 5, the latter two by scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th of B-H Kim and then winning in extras; then the DBacks trounced NY in game 6 by a 15-2 score, setting the stage for a truly memorable Game 7.

The Yanks took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 8th on an Alfonso Soriano HR off of Schilling, and Torre turned to the greatest closer in baseball history for a 2-inning save. Rivera struck out the side in the 8th, but Arizona scored twice in the bottom of the 9th to win the game 3-2, and the World Series 4 games to 3. An error by Mariano Rivera played a huge role in the outcome of that 9th inning and, therefore, the series. Even the best sometimes fail.

I thought the 2001 series had a ton of drama due to the Yankees coming in as 3-time defending champs, only to see the upstart DBacks take the championship on the arms of Johnson (3 wins in the series) and Schilling, and a miraculous season - and clutch bloop hit that was miraculously predicted ahead of time by Tim McCarver - by Luis Gonzalez.
jjaffe
10/29
The 2001 World Series absolutely belongs in the discussion among the greatest Fall Classics. Even as a Yankee fan who ended up on the wrong side of that one, I can certainly appreciate how remarkable that series was, and as a New Yorker, I know how much that team meant to the city after 9/11 — arguably more than any of the three champions that had preceded them, even in their defeat.

My comparisons of this series to 1975 and 1986 owe more to the impossibly high standard for the finales set by their respective Game Sixes — two games that make nearly every shortlist for the greatest World Series games ever played. Both of those series' Game Sevens produced more drama than the 2011 one did, and it's fair to say that Game Seven of 2001 did so as well. You'll recall, however, that Game Six of 2001 was a blowout of ridiculous proportions, as the Diamondbacks teed off on poor Andy Pettitte as he tipped his pitches, winning 15-2. Since that series didn't fit the pattern of this one, I did not bring it into the discussion.
BillJohnson
10/29
The Rivera error is another example of a point that I wish would be made more often: for a game or a Series to be "great" from a dramatic standpoint does not require that it be error-free, either on the scoresheet or in decision making. Clearly you don't want a game to be so blunderful that it is remembered mainly as a "comedy of errors," and those have happened in the Series. But many an incredibly riveting game has resulted from an error of commission, omission or tactics that grossly ratchets up the drama. Was this the "best" Series ever, in terms of error-free, precise play? No, and neither were the 2001, 1975 or 1986 Series. The most error-free seven-game Series since WWII (just counting player errors, not umpires' errors ...) was in 1985, between Kansas City and St. Louis. That isn't usually considered a "great" series from a dramatic perspective.
WaldoInSC
10/29
The greatest World Series involved teams you don't care about -- 1991's titanic Braves-Twins tilt. Two worst-to-first teams played five one-run and three extra-inning games. A walk-off ended Game Six and Game 7 went extras. Best ever.
jjaffe
10/30
Interesting point - at least in my own mind, some of the WS I've enjoyed most have been ones where my rooting interests weren't all that strong. 1991 fits that bill, 1997 too - I had a long-running soft spot for Cleveland, but really dug Livan Hernandez and a few of those Marlins - as well as this one.
rmnd3b
10/30
I would put the 2001 series in the discussion as well, and even with my personal bias I'd still put it above this one, just in terms of drama.

Not that I'm complaining that the 2011 series wasn't dramatic enough, mind you :)
roughcarrigan
10/29
How in the world did Jerry Layne get the game 7 assignment to ump behind the plate? Was there a sweepstakes ticket involved? There must be umps whose grades for their calling of balls and strikes over the course of the season was better than his.

By one count I saw, he was 11 unearned calls kinder to the Cardinals than the Rangers. Both of Craig and Molina should have been called out on strikes in the 5th inning rather than given a base by Jerry Layne. No, I don't believe he lacks integrity, just competence and unfortunately for Texas his screwups disproportionately hurt them.

If we're not going to use the best available technology could we at least use the best available umpires?

The Rangers had plenty of failings contributing to their own fate last night but Jerry Layne's incompetence also contributed and that's not acceptable.
JoeSky60
10/30
Agree, whole-heartedly. Not only that, but I heard that Layne was the crew chief. My thought was that the umpires should be getting a playoff share from the Cardinals. I'm not denigrating the Cards performance, by any means. I thought both teams played their hearts out, considering how beat up they were.

Also, second thought, when is the farce of home-field being determined by the winner of the All-Star game going to stop? It was stupid when it was instituted, and gets no less stupid, as the years go by, no matter what team you root for.
Oleoay
10/30
For as many times as I've seen the replay of Craig's catch in Game 7, I'm still not convinced it would've been a home run. Extra bases? Yep. But that thing looked like it would bounce off the top of the wall and that outfield wall looked pretty thick.

Something also that not many have mentioned, but kudos should go to Bud Selig for reshaping the regular and postseason schedule to allow for so many playoff games (and rainouts) while still getting things done before November. Based on the frequent bullpen usage too, it looks like the players had the offdays they needed as well.
rmnd3b
10/30
Ehhhh it looked like it was gone to me. It would have struck the back edge of the wall from the looks of it, so without going to deep into the physics of it I'd say it would have gone out. That's still speculation on my part of course.

I agree about the schedule. One off day for travel, that is all that was needed.
Meatpacker
10/31
Umm, Richard, before you praise him too much, take a look at next year's schedule. Opening Day is pushed back almost a full week, to the weekend of April 6-8. Back to November baseball in 2012.
rawagman
10/30
Great coverage, Jay, for a great postseason.
tmangell
10/30
Good job Jay!
IvanGrushenko
10/30
Yes, Thanks Jay!
jhardman
10/31
Rangers fan here - and I appreciated the overall coverage I received from multiple sources throughout the playoffs. My only issue with BP coverage was that we didn't get more BP writers giving analysis of the World Series. I enjoyed Jay's writeups. I would have liked to seen the impressions of other BP writers, though. I've said that multiple years running and still feel that way. You guys are baseball writers, so I'd think you'd all want to write about it. if it increases the number of articles for a couple of weeks, so be it. I'd be one that read 'em all.

I totally agree with the umpire comments. Was that the best MLB had for its ultimate showcase? Would love to see a breakdown of the umpiring for the Series. I thought it was bad all the way around, and not just toward one team.

Finally, it's hard not to state the obvious from a Rangers perspective - one of the past two years would have been a home field advantage if not for the stupid rule of home field advantage for the winner of the all star game. It's more extreme for a team like Texas, which plays to an advantage in a huge hitters park. It's a dumb rule - it needs to go away. (I'd say the same even if the AL had home advantage the past two seasons. It needs to alternate since the series can't and should not be played on a neutral field.)