Tonight, the Rams E-ticket ride was brought to an unceremonious end by the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick and Falcons made us look like a high school team.

Vick and his teammates looked like they were relaxed, almost like they were playing a sandlot game, making up plays on the fly as they thought of them. The Rams did not look so comfortable, and it was obvious in the first quarter that we couldn’t stop the Falcons, and we couldn’t keep up with their scoring.

In the end, it was a 47-17 disaster, and the Rams will come home quietly this weekend, and reflect on what could’ve been. There’s always next year, but after the challenges this year, I’ve gotta wonder if Mike Martz will be back next year. There’s been an awful lot of controversy over his coaching decisions, and his unusually complex game plan.

Once the Super Bowl has been held in a few weeks, and with no hockey on the horizon, my attention will turn to Nascar, with the Daytona 500 only a month away. Hard to believe it’s almost time for laps again!

Pieces of History

Last night was Game Four of the World Series, and the first World Series game I’d every attended. My Cardinals were in a tough spot, down 3-0 to the BoSox.

I’d been building up to this ever since Monday, when I first learned I was going to get tickets from Kelly. Going to the World Series has been a dream of mine since childhood — I can’t remember missing a World Series, and have suffered and laughed through the wins and losses over the last three decades or so.

Security was gonna be tough — the news was announcing that days in advance — with plenty of police, dump trucks full of sand surrounding the stadium so nothing larger than two feet wide could get through, concrete barricades, and a very thorough search of every bag and some people. Knowing this, and knowing that there was a bag size restriction (16″ x 16″ x 8″), I had to plan carefully what photo gear to take.

My Domke bag was just a skosh too long, so I was back to using my trusty Tamrac System 6 bag, into which I stuffed my 10D with battery grip, 100-400mm lens, 16-35mm lens, 1.4x teleconverter, cleaning cloth (in case of rain), four spare batteries, and 3.25Gb of compact flash. There was enough gear in there to choke a horse, but it all fit…. just. I had no idea exactly how these seats were with respect to the field, so I just made my best guesses. As it ends up, I did ok on gear selection.

Becky and I arrived just before 5pm, which was the official time for the gates to open. I expected to get searched pretty hard, especially given all the publicity to that effect. As it ends up, getting in was relatively easy, even with my big pack. I had some envy though — past us walked the pro photographers on their way in, suitcases full of gear in tow, and some nice cameras hanging from their necks. If anything ever pulls me away from my current job, a gig like that would be it! 🙂

We wandered around, got dinner, bought me a hat — I wanted a Cardinals World Series hat — and found our seats. I took some quick shots of the stadium, revelling in the glory of being their for batting practice for the World Series, and tried to take it all in.

We watched folks file in to the game, stood for the National Anthem, listened to the roar of a pair of F-18s flyover, and just like that the game had started. Truthfully, the nuts and bolts of the game are a bit of a blur — it’s like that sometimes when you finally check something off the “Things I’d like to do before I die” list. The Cards were in trouble from the first batter, when Johnny Damon corked one over the wall, and never really mounted much of a rally, despite a futile attempt at “smallball” to try to tie it up at one.

Suffice it to say that Boston just wanted it worse than we did. We were virtually shutout in the last two games (save for a Larry Walker home run in the 8th inning of Game 3), and the middle of the lineup — our power hitters — went one for thirty in the Series. This simply wasn’t the Cardinals team that we enjoyed all season. I suspect the Houston series used the last of the gas in the can, and there just wasn’t anything left for Boston, especially after their crushing victory in Game One.

Of course, the Boston faithful went wild at Busch, and that was fun to watch… and in a way, it was fun to be at a spot on the planet where history was being made. If we’d lose to anyone, I’m kinda glad it was the Sox. It’s nice for their curse to be over, and now we can get back to poking fun at the Cubs. 🙂

The Sox fans that we ran into along the way were courteous, friendly, and commented how our crowd is so different than New York. Players and fans alike say that St. Louis has the best baseball fans in the world, and I think we showed that this week. There wasn’t a lot of taunting on either side, no trash talking in the stands, just a humble respect for the long histories of each of these teams. That’s very cool.

Naturally, there’s a ton of blue folk in St. Louis this morning, as evidenced by the newscasters on the early morning news. Everyone’s just a step slower, very gracious in defeat, and pleased to have gotten to the World Series.

(By the way, used ticket stubs are going from $60-70 to over $400 on eBay this morning. Guess folks want to grab their piece of history. I have mine!)

So, we in Cardinals Nation will lick our wounds until April, when the campaign begins anew, probably with a ton of different players. That, though, is a conversation point for another time!

Why four? Because I am going to the fourth game of the World Series!

Kelly scored a pair of tickets for me for Wednesday night — I’m thrilled! The down side is that it is supposed to rain all three nights of World Series play in St. Louis. The good news? Our seats are under the upperdeck overhang, so no wetness!

That also means that the camera will stay dry, and out, and I should have amazing shots of the game…. whenever it is eventually played!

The Cards had a tough time at Fenway last night.

After being behind most of the early part of the game, and tied most of the last part, Julian Tavarez gave up a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to seal the deal for the BoSox. I guess the good news is that Tavarez didn’t explode and break more fingers on his hands!

So tonight, we go at it again, only this time facing Schilling. Who knows how that will come out — he had a great outing against the Yankees, despite his bloody ankle, and I have no reason to expect that he will do any less against us. It will be fun to watch!

They did it! The Cards are going to face Boston in the World Series!!!!!

So now, to buy tickets or not? I’ve wanted to go to the World Series since I was a kid, and I definitely have the mania and means to do it. But, will I spend better than $500 a seat to go?

Stay tuned and see!!!!

Well, the Cards pulled it off, and beat the Astros in 12 innings tonight! I — along with a great many fans in St. Louis, I’d bet — began to have my doubts late in the game when the Astros tied it up, but Jim Edmonds made us all believers again.

So now it’s time to focus on the ALCS. Will it be Boston or New York? I’m sure hoping for Boston, although many folks at work believe the Yankees would be easier to face in the World Series. Given the way their bats have been swinging, I’m not so convinced of that.

I’ll take either one though. Just give me a World Series in St. Louis!

Suffice it to say that neither of these teams did what I wanted yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, the Cards just couldn’t get the bats going against Roger Clemens and bullpen, falling 5-2 at the hands of the ‘Stros. And last night, The Yankees were a hitting machine. They just killed Boston, and looked mighty fearsome. The BoSox now have their back to the wall, and must win tonight.

I still believe it will come down to the Cards and the Yankees, but I think that series will be tougher for both sides than either realize. The hitting and pitching on both teams are strong. Dunno if that means 2-1 type games, or 12-10 type games, but either way, I’m sure it’ll be exciting!

Late night heroics from Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen gave the Cards another win last night, setting down the Astros 6-4. With that, the Cards head to Houston for tomorrow’s opener at “The Juicebox” leading the series 2-0.

This morning, I heard that a reporter from ESPN was referring to the NLCS as “the NIT”, implying that the NL teams were just here for the Yankees to run over in the World Series. What arrogance! IMHO, I believe the Yankees or the BoSox will have their hands full with the Cardinals in the Series, and should perhaps not be so occupied with getting sized for their rings just yet.

Tonight, the Cards put it to the Astros, and won the first game of the NLCS 10-7.

And, it was an impressive victory, with Pujols smacking another homer, and a whole bunch of base hits. This team really seems to be gelling, and it’s fun to watch them play. There’s almost a quiet expectation that they will make it to the World Series, and that they have a very good opportunity to win it.

I expect that the AL representative will be the Yankees. After beating Boston tonight, and going up 2-0 in the series, they are looking to make short work of Boston. The BoSox have been fighting gallantly, but I don’t think it’ll be enough — the Yankees just appear too strong.

So, how do you feel about a St. Louis-New York World Series?

Tonight, the Yankees are making short work of the BoSox at Yankee Stadium. I guess I’m not surprised, but I sure would like to see the BoSox make it to the Series this year.

Last night Houston decimated the Braves, and will face the Cards tomorrow night. As I was coming home from work last night, the game had just finished, and I was listening to the regular Atlanta broadcasters on WSB. I was pleased to hear that they all thought that Houston’s pitching rotation was suspect, and that the Cards would beat the Astros, moving on to the World Series.

I hope they’re right. I woulda much rather faced Atlanta than Houston!

World Series tickets go on sale here on Saturday, with 5000 seats for each of the three games. The usual venues — standing in line all night, internet and phone — are paths for tickets. I’ll try a couple and see what happens, although my best guess is that I won’t be likely to get tickets that way. Hopefully, the office will offer some tickets in Suite 70, as they have for the NLDS and NLCS. I will pounce on those, although I expect those tickets will go for close to $200 each. Quite a price, but I’ve dreamed about seeing a World Series game in person since I was a kid.

Even if I don’t have tickets, I can watch the games in HD on the Jumbotron! 🙂