Hold on to your butts. It's the Fall Classic.

Texas Rangers (96-66) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (90-72)
AL West Champs            NL Wild Card Winner
def. DET 4-2 ALCS         def. MIL 4-2 NLCS
def. TB 3-1 ALDS          def. PHI 3-2 NLDS

Six glorious months of summer, an interesting first half of October and we have our Fall Classic.  As is customary, we get a matchup few predicted, including myself (my preseason World Series was Angels vs. Rockies).  Don't worry about me; I stay away from the pony races.  I didn't pick either of these teams to make the playoffs, let alone be the last two standing.  I should reiterate what has been stated in previous posts: I am a Cubs fan, and I do not like the Cardinals.  In fact, I loathe them.  I respect the hell out of the organization, am envious of their accomplishments, but I hope they fail in winning their 11th World Championship.  I am still annoyed by 2006, when they limped into the playoffs, made a mockery of the short series format and became the worst team in  history to win the title.  As much as I would love to see a highly competitive, back-and-forth World Series requiring the maximum seven games for the first time since 2002, I would much prefer the Rangers to sweep in dominating fashion.  That aside, there is much to be excited about in this series.  And much to dread.



What Excites Me

1. The Rangers questing for the Golden Fleece
 Personal bias aside, it would be hard for anybody outside of St. Louis not to pull for the Rangers, seeking their first ever Championship.  Especially after winning the pennant last season only to get handcuffed by that superlative Giant pitching.
2. Ron Washington
 I love this guy, his unbridled enthusiasm, if you will, for his team and the game.  It's fun to see an old man leaping up and down and hollering across the diamond like he was back in short pants running around the playground with jam-hands.  It's rare to see such an emotive manager, having fun.  Most are like...
3. Tony LaRussa
 That stern, calculating face has aggravated me on countless occasions over the last, oh what has it been, 16 bloody years he has been dominating the NL Central.  But I've grown to love seeing the TV men cut to LaRussa in the dugout, pacing about his small space, his sculpted face pulled into a contemplative scowl.  He gives nothing away but disapproval.  He could make a boy feel awful naughty.
4. Corner Infielders
 The great Pujols in his 3rd Series; the young, seemingly out-of-nowhere David Freese; Michael Young (at least in STL); and Adrian Beltre, playing in his 1st Series, now recognized as a star.  Three of the best players in MLB over the last decade and an exciting upstart coming off winning the NLCS MVP.  
5. Rangers Ballpark at Arlington
 Like Camden Yards, there is just something beautiful about this ballpark at night.  They are the only two ballparks in baseball that somehow manage to make baseball look natural and pure and right under the lights.
6. Offense
 Each team had the best offense in its respective league in 2011.  Both are packed with exciting hitters with a lot of pop.  Pujols, Berkman, Holliday, Freese on one end; Beltre, Cruz, Hamilton, Kinsler, Young on the other.  It will be interesting to see which pitching staff finds a way.  Which leads us to...

Things I am Dreading

1. Offense
 I love a well-pitched game.  Baseball at its purest and most suspenseful.  A 1-0 duel where each team has to scratch for baserunners is far more exciting than a 10-8 slugfest.  Unfortunately, that might be all we see.  High-scoring, sloppy, and interminably long games that make you wanna go to bed at the first sound of "God Bless America".  And high scoring games will most definitely mean extremely long running times because of...
2. Tony LaRussa
 Maybe he's a bullpen genius.  We here at the Crum-Bum Beat believe Dave Duncan to be a witch.  But there is no arguing against the obnoxiousness of LaRussa's style of bullpen management.  He's not afraid to use five pitchers to get three outs, and given the superhuman performance of the Cardinal bullpen of late, he probably will.  And we will all suffer for it.
3. Don't Mess With Texas
 The television will not let us avoid numerous sightings of Nolan Ryan and George W. Bush winking at each other about how grand life is.  Though there is some pleasure in the range of disgruntled abhorrence that crosses the face of Ryan throughout a game, seeing the two, sometimes accompanied by the elder Bushes, hobb-nobbing behind home plate and the television's obsession with them makes one think of The Naked Gun with a modicum of guilty pleasure.
4. DH Debate
 Always with the handicap on NL teams in the AL park and AL teams in the NL park.  Poor poor pitiful AL has to figure out how to play a nine player game with only nine players.  And the NL has to figure out who doesn't field his position too good.  The DH will soon be baseball-wide if a team is moved to the AL, so this won't be a problem for long.  Though the greatest game we've come up with will take another hit to its constitutional integrity, there will cease to be a necessity for two leagues at all, and the World Series with never feel the same.
5. Starting Pitching
 I long for complete games and dominant starting pitching.  I despise Chris Carpenter and all his whiny-boy histrionics, but he is the most likely candidate to show what a starting pitcher can do for a ballclub.  This will likely be a bullpen series, as neither teams' starters have made a habit of even lasting six quality innings, let alone good ones.  Will the Cardinals' bullpen continue their absurd success?  I doubt it.  Will the Rangers hold off the Cardinals' bats in late innings?  More likely with Ogando and Feliz.  It will probably be shaky and time consuming.  We must all get prepared to spend a lot of time watching old men walking across the baselines

Things on which I Teeter Back-and-Forth

 1. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver
 Over the years I have come around to these two calling the biggest ballgames of the season.  Perhaps I am getting resigned in my old age.  I like Joe Buck, but he seems to be getting tired up in the booth.  His hammy game calling has gotten very monotone, and he has never been one for poignant catch-phrases at the right time.  No "And we'll see you tomorrow night!" or "I don't believe what I just saw!" or even "Go crazy, folks!  Go crazy!" (thank you, Jack).  And Tim McCarver.  It's hard to defend him unless you just give in to how funny he is when he tries so hard to tie two non-sequiturs together or construct an anecdote or simply inform us that it would be in the batter's best interest to not look at strike three.  Or that three strikes makes an out or three outs ends the inning.  Some folks surely like them.  I loved Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on Sunday Night Baseball, and it seems I was in the minority as they were replaced this season by a couple of clowns (there was even a very good blog titled Fire Joe Morgan).  I know many people despise Buck and McCarver.  They are fine and don't hinder my enjoyment of the game nearly as much as some other announcers these days.
2. Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols
 There is no avoiding the inevitable Pujols-possible-last-year-in-St. Louis nonsense nor the Hamilton-recovering-addict-rise-fall-rise-fall-rise blathering.  I get it.  Big news, emotional drama, one man, world on his shoulders.  They are both tired narratives, but we all know how much network announcers love tired narratives.  Life will be pumped into them until long after the horse has decomposed.  I am numb to it at this point.  As long as Pujols' contract stays away from the North Side of Chicago and Starlin Castro pisses clean, I'll be happy.  Nevermind, I was wrong.  This belongs in the Things I'm Dreading section.

The negative would seem to outweigh the positive, but the great thing about baseball is it writes itself.  We writers and fans are always wrong, maybe closer to right at times, but in the end, we are always wrong.  Human beings are capable of all sorts of things, and yes, we can still surprise.  Baseball is the best microcosm we have for observing the razor thin difference separating success and failure and how each is handled on an individual basis.  Though I will be drinking a far superior beer, I cannot wait for Joe Buck to tell me to crack open a Budweiser.  Play Ball!