Tony LaRussa's Cardinals took care of business and closed out their first world championship in 24 years last night. The predication I made before the Series (in my head, not on this blog) was the Tigers in 5 games. Well, I was right about the number of games, but not the winner.

The Cards went 83-79 in 2006. I don't think anyone believed they'd even be a factor this post season. But they accomplished what the big money teams (Yanks and Mets), and the low-budget, moneyball youngsters (Tigers, A's) failed to do: Bring home a World Championship. Overall it was the Cardinals' 10th World Series win, second only to you know who. The Yankees are first with 26.

Earlier in the week, the Mets Carlos Delgado said something along the lines of feeling cheated that the Mets weren't in the Series, that they were the best team in the NL. I know what he means. The Yanks should have been there. And Fox felt the same way, with the ratings lower than expected. If you were Fox, who would you want in the Series? A bunch of no-names from Detroit vs. a barely .500 team with one true superstar (Albert Pujols)? Or an All-Star team (Yanks) vs. a near All-Star team (Mets)? But the Yanks and Mets choked when it counted, and the Cards and Tigers played hard when it counted. Something has to be said about that.

Jeff Weaver pitched the game of his life, going 8 innings and giving up only 4 hits and 2 runs, while striking out 9. Why couldn't he do this in NY? Another guy who sucked for the Yanks and pitched well in the post season for another team.
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One more thing. Jeannie Zelasko of Fox gave Joe Buck a run for his money last night in the Most Annoying category. While presenting the World Series trophy (with Bud Selig) to the St. Louis execs, she kept trying to get them to say "the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals!" to get the crowd going. She kept repeating the phrase and when they weren't repeating it like parrots, she came right out and asked them to. They still didn't. Good for them.