Cardinals win the World Series!
Leading in to the World Series, all the talk was how dominant the Detroit pitching staff had been and how they would be responsible for winning the World Series. Well, the experts were right. The Detroit pitching staff were responsible for the outcome of this World Series, but unfortunately their efforts on the field led to the St Louis Cardinals winning. During the World Series, the Tigers pitchers committed 5 errors, some of which led to runs scored by St Louis at pivotal moments in the game.
Prior to the series starting, I told my friend in St Louis that they would need to improve their hitting in order for them to have any shot at winning the series. However, the Cardinals didn’t really hit that well during the series, as seen in the stat box below. What does stand out is just how poorly the Tigers pitching was during the series - the same pitching staff that defeated the Yankees in 5 games and swept the A’s in 4 games walked a total of 23 Cardinals’ players on top of the aforementioned errors.
Forgetting the awful performance by the Tigers, it really was an incredible performance by a St Louis team that had the fewest wins (83-78) of any team to reach the post-season. They now have the honour of having the lowest amount of regular season wins in the same season they became World Series Champs.
Detroit gave St Louis a lot of opportunities during the series, and to the Cardinals credit, they took advantage of the situations and are now World Series Champs for the 10th time.
Albert Pujols great defensive play denied the Tigers
The celebrations begin for the first time since 1982
This was really surprising, considering how badly the team had been doing through the season. Honestly, I almost thought they wouldn’t make it. But, YAY! They did!
I didn’t think they were going to win either, but I’m glad they did!
Baseball? I don’t get it.
Quick question though, why is it called the “World Series”?
The explanation is that when the term “World’s Championship Series” was first used in the 1880s, baseball was almost exclusively confined to North America, especially at a highly skilled (and paid) level. Thus it was a “given” that the winner of the major league championship was also the “world champion”. The title of this event was soon shortened to “World’s Series” and later to “World Series”.
Sounds like bollocks to me.
How can a fact sound like bollocks?
It sounds like bollocks because the term ‘World Series’ implies that teams from around the world participate. They don’t, only teams from North America do, therefore how can they claim to be the best in the world, when they only play against teams from the same continent?
It would be like the Brisbane Broncos claiming they are the World Rugby League champion, or the Canterbury Crusaders claiming to be the World Provincial Rugby champion, or Barcelona claiming to be the World Football champion.
I’m glad you were the first person to ever think of this!
It’s not going to change, so why bitch about it? You know it’s stupid, I know it’s stupid, everyone does.
It’s annoying nonetheless
More trivia:
The first several contests between the two league champions were reported under a variety of titles — “championship series,” “world championship series,” “world’s series” — before eventually becoming standardized in name as the “World Series.”
http://www.snopes.com/business/names/worldseries.asp