The Impossible Dream [Link]
Perfect column by Jayson Stark, on the improbability of the Cardinals’ championship:
One strike away.
In the history of baseball, only one other team has ever done what these Cardinals have just done. Only one other team — the ‘86 Mets — ever tumbled into that one-strike-away abyss in a World Series and survived to pop the champagne bottles.
So think about that. In the first 106 World Series ever played, only those ‘86 Mets ever got down to their last strike and then won it all. Then this team found itself in that mess twice in two innings Thursday.
And consider this: with the way they got into the postseason — with not one win to spare — that means the Cardinals didn’t play a single game all year that didn’t count.
My congratulations to the second-most-successful franchise in baseball.
