Well, there's a surprise from DC last night, with contrasting e-headlines from selected articles in the respective cities' papers:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "MIRACLE MEN: Relentless Cardinals advance to NLCS by stunning Nationals"
Washington Post: "2012 MLB playoffs: Washington Nationals fall one strike short against St. Louis Cardinals in NLDS Game 5"
The current occupant of 1600 PA Ave. can use a lot of that comeback magic in the next 2 debates, don't you think? But back to baseball, or something like that......
First, to give credit properly as to the sources of each headline:
From STL: Joe Strauss, P-D
From DC: Adam Kilgore, WaPo
I didn't watch the game, only extremely minute portions, as I was at an event last night where the TV monitors were all tuned to the game. Just before the event began, I saw the 4 to 0 score with the Nationals. Not a good beginning. Later, in the evening, I saw 6 to 0 (.....), and down the line 6 to 1, and 6 to 3, so at least the Cardinals were crawling back as the night went on. The last time that I saw the monitors, it was 7 to 5, around 10:30-ish, just before I was about to go home. I didn't get home until after 11 PM or so, but the bars on the bike ride home seemed awfully quiet. So I went to sleep assuming that the Cardinals had lost.
How wrong I was. It took opening FB this morning and seeing crazy happy posts from the Cardinals fanatics among FB friends to learn what happened. After going "huh?", self immediately hit the P-D and WaPo sports e-pages to get articles for this SNLC. So loser I for missing the best part of the game, such as:
One line from Kilgore's article, quoting Nationals 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmermann, is appropriate now:
"This game has taught us all a lot. And one of the things it's taught us is to never take anything for granted."
Yup, folks, as in:
* Don't take it for granted that enough Americans will see through the Mittster's habitual lies. This is America, where facts don't matter, among Republicans and too many "undecided" or "independent" voters.
* Don't take it for granted that President Obama will come back and clobber Romney in the next 2 debates. The President knows that he has to do this, but does he really understand deep down? The public taking down of Romney needs to happen, soon and completely, but don't assume that it will.
And if this sounds too concern-trolly for some on DK, remember that ultimately, after the first Obama-Romney debate, the concern trollers who got ridiculed were correct, not the DK Pollyannas who made the Rec list trying to spin a win that didn't exist out of that 1st debate. Yes, it's convenient that Romney's limitless debate lies provided nice video material for Obama ad fodder. But it's better to hit back immediately and not a week later (or better, both immediately and a week later). Per Strauss' article, note this line:
"This was a series that asked the Cardinals for quick resolution then nearly punished their procrastination."
OTOH, there is this point from Strauss' article, which I'll admit that I don't always abide by:
"The Cardinals won by refusing to panic, refusing to relent."
After the 1st 3 innings of the game, it was looking as though Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright would be the goat of the game, as
P-D writer Derrick Goold noted
here. By the end, of course, the unlucky goat turned out to be the Nationals' Drew Storen, as noted by the
WaPo's Mike Wise
here:
"[Nationals 1st baseman] Adam LaRoche had said how crushed the Nationals were that it had happened to Storen – the most genuine, likable kid in the entire organization.
'Most disappointing thing is I let these guys down,' Storen said when he was relayed LaRoche's words.
It's often said, Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. No, really, in this case, losing a chance to go to the National League Championship Series that Storen had on his fingertips on five different, two-strike, two-out counts in the ninth could not have happened to a nicer guy.
Which made it all the more devastating."
This isn't a gloat on Drew Storen. I've been in my share of situations where I blew it towards the end (not that I claim to be a particularly nice guy, except in the "finish last" sense). I've felt horrible when I've blown it in such matters. So I can glean a small sense of what Storen must be feeling now, and how long it'll take for the wound to cauterize, if not actually get over it.
This season, at the risk of a jinx, shortstop Pete Kozma seems to be this season's David Freese, as in the one "miracle kid" of the team who always seems to come through at crucial moments. On the Cardinals' website, you can see the puns in action, like:
"Koz and effect: Rally puts Cards in NLCS"
"Wizard of Koz: Late magic lifts Cards to NLCS"
Granted that apparently there's no such thing as a "good" pun, at least they're trying, so points for a bit of literary wit.
So the Cardinals move on to San Francisco, with the NL Championship series starting tomorrow. The first STL game is next Wednesday, where there will be at least 2 games played locally. How will it end? How will the next Presidential debates go? The outcome for the former is not nearly as important as the latter, of course. I don't know. We'll see.
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week. If anyone reading this happens to be a Nationals fan, sorry, folks......