Chapter 21: We Can Do This Thing

Our final game in St. Louis could be our final game of the season and the Series, if we lost it.

Paul Warren usually wasn't much for speech-making, and we didn't really expect him hold forth before Game Six at any great length.

But he called for our attention in the clubhouse before the game and outlined the situation. Not that the situation needed much outlining. Win, or go away. That was about it, and we all knew it.

"These guys are good!" Paul began, borrowing, probably inadvertently, the slogan of the Professional Golfers' Association. "They're not just good. They're better than us."

I figured Paul had said that for its shock value. --Maybe we were supposed to all jump up and holler "No! No!"

But nobody hollered. Facts were facts.

"They're whipping us, and that shouldn't surprise anybody, because they've won 120 games this year..."

"One hundred twenty?" I thought. Oh -- yeah. --He's counting the post-season, right up until last night.

"I haven't looked it up," Paul continued, "but if they beat us again, it'll be 121 wins, and I'm pretty sure that nobody's ever won 121 games in one season before. I mean, we've only been doing this three-round playoff thing for a few years now. Not too many teams have really had the chance.

"But, Gentlemen, that's a whole lotta fucking baseball games! They're good -- no mistake!"

Well, none of that was news to any of us, but he still had our attention.

"They've almost never lost three games in a row, during this entire season," Paul said. "Never, in the playoffs. Hell, they swept the Padres, and then beat Atlanta, 4-2. In the whole regular season -- 162 games, they got beat three games in a row only two times! Imagine that! You could look it up, if you don't believe me."

Hell, I believed him. The Cardinals were scary!

"You guys know how many times -- regular season -- that we lost three in a row? I looked that up, too! Six times! Six! And two of those times, we went on to lose another one! Four in a row! We lost four in a row just as often as the Cardinals lost three!

"So, shit, we ought to lose to these guys! It's just simple justice, really. --Let the best team win -- right?

"But then I got to thinking about those two times, there, when the Cards dropped three straight. Who beat these cock-suckers, three games in a row, anyway?

"Well, baseball is a wonderful game, because, man, we keep real good records. Hell, I could probably find out how many left-handed redheaded bastard-sons of twice-married mothers pitched against the Cardinals during the year 1974.

"And Google -- That Google is fucking amazing! Baseball, Google -- two wonderful things! Made for each other.

"So I looked it up on Google, and, I'll be damned! It was Cincinnati, beat St. Louis this year -- it was right here in St. Louis, by the way -- two straight in May, and then the Cards dropped another one here, next day, to Milwaukee. At the time, Cincinnati was six games under .500, and at the end of the season, they were fifth in their Division, and 17 games under .500. Milwaukee? --Dead last!

Y'know, they got six teams in that Division. All the others -- both leagues, got five, or even just four, there, out in the AL West. What's up with that?

... Anyway, Milwaukee's in that six-team Division and that makes them the only sixth-place team in baseball!

"But they helped beat the Cardinals, three straight!

"OK, who else? The Dodgers. In August. They won three straight -- at home. A sweep! --Against the Cards. Dodgers aren't bad this year. Finished second to the Padres, out west. Six games over .500, they were. Won 84 games. Not near as many as us -- but not so bad.

"All right, so we got three clubs, only one of them over .500 for the season, all three of them, justifiably, could be called 'mediocre.' They sure as hell weren't as good as the Cardinals! But the Reds and the Brewers combined to beat the Cardinals, three straight!"