27 October 2006

WORLD CHAMPIONS!

They've done it!

The World Champion St. Louis Cardinals have taken the Detroit Tigers in 5 games, and they won the crown at home.

What a year!
A new stadium, a nearly new team, a ton of injuries, a limping second half of the season, a near-miss on postseason play, and a world championship.

This will probably be one of those stories I teach my children when they are very young. They will ask why we have a whole room of Cardinal stuff. And I will tell them about my first house, my new community, and the season the Cards took it all.

That's such a strange feeling to me. I'm not dating, I'm not serious, and I'm certainly not planning on having children anytime soon. And yet, I'm aware that - in my life - this is a formative day. It will shape the story I tell my children in much the same way the big events of history have become part of my story. Granted, the 2006 world championship is nothing compared to, say, 9/11. But I will remember today. I will remember Hayden in her Pujols jersey at 7 years old, trying desperately to gain everyone's attention in the room. I will remember Hannah, at 11 years old, really wanting to understand the importance of a fly ball, an out, and that fateful swinging strike 3. I will remember a room of cheering people, none of whom were family, but who all shared a love for a World Series win from the boys in red. And we all picked up our phones and called our families.

That's Cardinal love.
And that's the story my kids will hear.

How do I just end today and crawl into bed?
Something significant to me happened today! I developed a different sense of "home" in that communal shout of victory. And only I noticed.

It's good to be home.
And it's good to be a fan!
Thanks, boys, for making today a day I will remember for the rest of my life.

2 comments:

Dave Scott said...

Congratulations!

I watched about half of Game 5, including the last several innings, and I wanted to call and congratulate you when it was all said and done. However, I knew that there were many, many people in the 3 million-large Cardinal Family you would be on the phone with last night.

So I'll just say congratulations here. Your team won in convincing fashion when all the "experts" (and all the dedicated baseball fans in my little world) were picking Detroit to steamroll them. And then your main man David "Richie Cunningham" Eckstein received MVP recognition for his efforts. I knew you couldn't be feeling any better than you must have felt once the final score was posted and the Cardinals championship assured.

Having witnessed first hand how much these Boys in Red mean to yourself, your mother, and others in your own Cardinal family, I am exceedingly happy for you all.

...now if only Peyton could lead my Boys in Blue to the Promised Land, 2006 would be a seminal year for us all.

Erin said...

If Peyton were to lead the boys in Blue to the Promised Land, wouldn't that be 2007?