You maybe heard this already: The St. Louis Cardinals are the champions of the National League for the first time since 2006. They beat the Milwaukee Brewers yesterday, and around town it was apparently a big deal.
This is the kind of win for which any analysis seems beside the point. We could talk about how outstanding David Freese was, because he really was outstanding; as good as he was all series, the ball he hit to chase Shaun Marcum in the first inning was only the fourth home run he's pulled in his career—the other 15 were all to dead center or the opposite field. This season he was maybe the best opposite-field hitter in baseball; if he's able to pull the ball consistently, or at least hold off pitchers long enough that they miss outside, we might finally see the power he promised in the minor leagues.
Or we could talk about how Albert Pujols hit his 10th NLCS home run and put together his best postseason performance since he went 14-28 against the Astros in 2004—about how in the postseason, after a season that was distinctly less Pujolsian than usual, he's looked like the best player in baseball again.
Or we could talk about where this win puts the Cardinals—that the Game 6 win gives their overstressed bullpen an extra day to recuperate and leaves Chris Carpenter available to start Game 1 of the World Series, a job that went to Anthony Reyes and Woody Williams following stressful NLCS finales in series past.
Matt Holliday's recovery, Jason Motte's perfection, the bullpen's impossible durability despite pitching more than half the team's innings over those six games, even Tony La Russa's astounding success rate in his highest-profile series in years—we could talk about all of those things. But this morning, you're not going to want to.
The Cardinals are the champions of the National League for the first time since 2006. People may have heard that already, but the morning after they're going to want to hear it again. Tell them all about it.
