The St. Louis Cardinals were feted by hundreds of thousands of fans, two days after their determined triumph over the Texas Rangers in the World Series.

Not even the prospect that Albert Pujols could be lost to free agency could dim fans’ enthusiasm, as those who turned out cheered the slugger as he and their teammates made their way down the parade route ending at Busch Stadium.

“Hey, why not?” Pujols smiled when asked if he’d like to stay in St. Louis and try for another Major League Baseball title next year.

Whatever uncertainties hover over next season, the Cardinals faithful were keen to celebrate their team’s unlikely run to the 2011 crown.

The Cardinals didn’t even book their playoff berth until the last day of the regular season. They beat the favored Phillies in the National League playoffs, and were twice down to their last strike in game six of the World Series against the Rangers — who would have taken the title with a victory in that contest.

“This 11th Cardinals world championship will always be remembered as one of baseball’s greatest achievements,” Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt jnr said, noting that his team had to win four elimination games in the post-season.

Added manager Tony La Russa: “What these guys did so many times facing elimination, it’s a lesson for all of us,” La Russa said. “They never quit.”

David Freese, the hometown boy who was named Most Valuable Player of the World Series, recalled his joy in 2007 at learning he had been traded to the Cardinals.

Freese said he was sitting in a fast-food restaurant when “I got the greatest phone call of my life, that I had been traded to the St. Louis Cardinals.”

Amid the music of high school marching bands and the cries of hot dog and peanut vendors, pickup trucks carrying the current players and Cardinals legends such as Lou Brock and Red Schoendienst received euphoric welcomes from the people they passed.

“I’ll never forget any of this,” said outfielder Allen Craig, who hit three homers in the World Series, said. “It’s been great.”

Read More: St. Louis Cardinals

One of the problems that comes with playing baseball deep into October—generally, I think, a Good Thing—is that when it comes time to hold the St. Louis Cardinals’ World Series Parade, it’s going to be held deep in October. This is, admittedly, something I’m willing to deal with. The good news is that Sunday promises some manageable parade weather: By 4 PM, as of Sunday morning, the Weather Channel types are expecting 63 degrees, some manageable wind, and just a 20% chance of rain. 

People ready to follow the World Series parade route without their Cardinals-logo ponchos should keep in mind, of course, that in August the Cardinals were given a less-than-one-percent chance of making the postseason, let alone winning one of the most absurd World Series in memory against a favored Texas Rangers team. Just something to think about. 

For more Cardinals parade information, including photos and hopefully some Mark Madsen-like dancing, follow along with SB Nation St. Louis, the only regional news site still working off its institutional World Series hangover. 

Texas fans might have felt excited when Game 7 of the World Series began and the Cardinals scratched Matt Holliday(notes) from the lineup. The Rangers also had injuries, including Josh Hamilton(notes) and Nelson Cruz(notes), but both those players played. The Rangers wanted to win their first World Series and made sure everyone was in the lineup. The Cardinals knew Holliday couldn’t go but that turned out not to be a disadvantage.

Holliday hurt himself diving back to third base on Game 6 as Mike Napoli(notes) picked him off. The injury he suffered was a right wrist sprain. It was severe enough to have put Holliday on the disabled list during the regular season. As it was, it just eliminated him from the World Series roster. St. Louis replaced him with rookie Adron Chambers(notes), an outfielder who played in both the NLDS and NLCS.

X-rays on his wrist were negative but the pain was enough to keep him out of action. The injury would have kept him out three weeks if it occurred during the regular season. It was also one of many ailments for Holliday in 2011, who missed time with an appendectomy as well as injuries to his hand, back and legs.

Holliday will have to wear a cast for the next few days, but over time, it will be fine.

With Holliday out, David Freese(notes) moved up in the lineup. Batting fifth in Game 7, Freese had a key double for two RBIs in the first inning. Freese, a local St. Louis player, won the MVP award for the World Series. He also won the MVP for the NLCS. He finished the postseason with a .397 average with eight doubles, a triple, five home runs and 21 RBI. Matt Holliday was not needed in the deciding game.

Plus, St. Louis got all the production they needed from Allen Craig(notes), who hit his fourth home run and drove in his eighth RBI. Compare that to Holliday, who was hitting .158 against Texas with no RBIs. Not to discount his worth to the team, but his absence might have been a positive for the Cardinals.

Source: stltoday.com

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

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By
Sportsmail Reporter

Last updated at 10:26 AM on 29th October 2011

St Louis Cardinals completed their magical comeback season by beating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in a deciding Game Seven to clinch the World Series.

After left-fielder Allen Craig caught David Murphy’s fly for the final out, the Cards rushed into the infield to celebrate a season in which they overcame a 10-1/2 game deficit in the last month to reach the playoffs and battled back twice in the postseason for their 11th Major League Baseball crown.

Confetti filled the chilly night air as the raucous, white-towel waving crowd at Busch Stadium roared in delight and fireworks lit the sky.   

‘There’s just one way to describe it – it’s unbelievable, amazing, incredible,’ Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said in a ceremony in the middle of the diamond. ‘It’s hard to imagine it actually happened.’

The World Series Most Valuable Player award went to hometown hero David Freese, whose two-run triple in the bottom of the ninth sent Game Six into extra innings before his 11th-inning home run won that game for the Cardinals to force the decider.

Freese, who also won MVP honours in the National League Championship Series against Milwaukee, drove in two runs on Friday and finished the Fall Classic with seven runs batted in.   

‘This is definitely a dream come true,’ the 28-year-old third baseman said after being awarded the trophy and a new sports car. ‘This is incredible.’

It was a wrenching defeat for the Rangers, who had twice been one strike away during Game Six of clinching their first title in 51 years of existence, and who had fallen last year to the San Francisco Giants in their first Fall Classic.

‘I just told my team they are champions,’ said Texas manager Ron Washington. ‘Someone had to win and someone had to lose and it was the Cardinals who won.   

‘It was in our grasp and we didn’t get it done. We fought hard but the Cardinals were too good. My hat’s off to the Cardinals, they cleanly beat us.’

The Cardinals rallied one last time in their season of heart-stopping comebacks by spotting the Rangers a 2-0 lead in the first inning before surging to victory.

After back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young in the first off St Louis starter Chris Carpenter, the Cards immediately tied the game in their half of the first on a two-run double by Game Six hero Freese.   

A solo home run by Craig in the third inning gave St Louis a 3-2 lead before Texas pitching unravelled in the fifth. St Louis tacked on two more runs in the fifth without a hit as the Texas bullpen wilted.

Scott Feldman, who had relieved starter Matt Harrison, issued a one-out walk to Craig and then hit Albert Pujols with a pitch. The runners moved up on Lance Berkman’s ground out and with first base open, Freese was intentionally walked.   

Yadier Molina walked on a full-count pitch just outside the strike zone to force in a run. Left-hander C.J. Wilson, the Game One and Game Five starter, was brought in to face Rafael Furcal and he hit the shortstop with a pitch to allow another run to score for a 5-2 St Louis lead. Molina drove in the last St Louis run with a seventh-inning single.   

Cardinals starter Carpenter, pitching on a short rest period, went six innings for the series-clinching win, giving up two runs on six hits while striking out five.

‘It’s awesome to get the World Series back in St Louis and get another ring,’ said Carpenter, who was also a member of the 2006 World Series-winning Cardinals team.   

Pujols, the three-times National League MVP who put on a record-setting offensive display in Game Three with three home runs, five hits and six runs batted in, was thrilled.

‘Two months ago we were supposed to be at home watching the World Series,’ said Pujols. ‘Now we are the world champions.’

 

 

They did it! The most improbable ending to one of the most amazing comebacks in baseball history has given the St. Louis Cardinals a World Series Championship.

Chris Carpenter, the ace pitcher for a club that was 10 1/2 games out of the National League Wildcard lead in late August, gave up only two runs in six innings in Game 7 of the World Series as the Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 6-2.

It was the third World Series championship for Manager Tony LaRussa, who has won two titles in the National League with St. Louis, and one in the American League with Oakland. ”This is what you dream about,” LaRussa said. There isn’t anybody on this team, too, that when you’re a young kid you don’t think about winning the World Series, and it’s always in Game 7. Truly a dream come true. It’s hard to imagine it actually happened.”

St. Louis third baseman and hometown hero David Freese, who ended one the biggest games in Cardinals history with a walkoff home run in Game 6, was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. He batted .348 with three doubles, a triple, a home run, seven RBI and four runs scored during the Fall Classic.

KTTS News asked Freese about going from being injured while being on a rehab assignment with the Springfield Cardinals last season, to being on top of the world now. “I think you’ve got to kind of take a step back and understand all the work you’ve put into it, and then you realize how many people are the reason why you’re here, starting with my folks” Freese said. “You know, I quit out of high school, and they were the only two people that supported that decision. If I listened to everybody else, I wouldn’t be here right now.” 

Freese was a key player in the finale. After Texas jumped out to a 2-0 1st inning lead on back to back RBI doubles by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young, it was Freese’s two run double to left center that allowed the Cardinals to tie the game 2-2 before the second inning ever started.

Former Springfield Cardinal Allen Craig homered in the 3rd inning, giving St. Louis a 3-2 lead, and the Redbirds never looked back.

The Cardinals increased the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the 5th without the benefit of a hit. They used three walks and two hit batters to begin to pull away from the Rangers.

Yadier Molina had an RBI single in the 7th to give the Cardinals a four run cushion, 6-2, and that’s all they needed. Arthur Rhodes, Octavio Dotel, Lance Lynn and Jason Motte shut down Texas’ mighty offense.

Matt Harrison, who gave up three runs on five hits in four innings for the Rangers, took the loss.

The contest marked what may have been the last game for slugger Albert Pujols in a Cardinal uniform. Pujols, who’s eligible to become a free agent at any time, was asked by outfielder Lance Berkman to “Come back. Let’s do this again.” And what did Pujols tell him? ”Just the same thing that I’m going to tell you,” Pujols said. “I was enjoying the moment. Look, I’m going to be prayerful about it. Whatever decision I make hopefully is the best decision I make for my family and the fans and everybody.”

On this night, at least, Pujols is a proud Cardinal who celebrated his second World Series title. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.