2011 World Series: David Freese Shines as Cardinals Beat Rangers
So yeah, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series last night and OTR thought that we should mention it. Yep, world champs, they beat the Texas Rangers. Kinda funny we say that since no other countries were competing for this "world title." But, anyway, David Freese played his ass off.
Freese's post-season was nothing short of spectacular. In fact, he actually managed to set a sort-of-important record. His 21 RBI's in the playoffs were the most that anyone has ever hit in major-league history.
"Freese sets a new postseason record with 21 RBIs. That two-run double snaps a tie at 19 with several others, including Spiezio. #worldseries," tweets St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Derrick Goold.
His two-run double in Friday night's Game 7 also snapped a tie with Sandy Alomar, Jr. and David Ortiz. His 50 total bases are also a Major League Baseball record that should be noted.
We mitigate this all-time record with a few facts. There is the opportunity to play more post-season games now more than ever after the advent of the Wild Card series. It used to be that you won your league and then played in the World Series. Now, you've got the NLDS, NLCS and then the World Series. So aggregate numbers are easier to come by.
Not taking anything away from Freese, he was phenomenal. But, this record really only matters for the last 17 or so years. It was implemented in 1994, so the 100+ years of baseball that didn't have the wild card were at a serious disadvantage.
But, we'll save that debate for another day. The bottom line is that Freese played his ass off and now he's a World Series champion.
Congratulations to the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals. You are now free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.
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