On Saturday night the Boston Red Sox face the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. I'll be strongly rooting for the Cardinals, and my reasons why are outlined below.
- Larry Walker - The Maple Ridge, BC native is the best hitter this country has ever produced and he's never won a World Series. I'd like him to.
- Nintendo - Back in the good 'ol 8 bit Nintendo days, one of my favourite video games was their baseball game. This game used real teams and player names and tried to give the player the same attributes in the game that they had in real life. I often played as the St. Louis Cardinals because of their blazing speed. Players like Vince Coleman, Will McGee, Tom Herr and Ozzie Smith could run out a ground ball if my brother at all hesitated with the throw to first. I haven't been able to hate this team since.
- Hate On - I've always hated the Boston Red Sox. It wasn't so much the team, although players like Dwight Evans, Tony Armas and Jim Rice always managed to tick me off, but it was the fact they were in the American League East Division. I'll never forget 1990 and our collapse at the hands of this Red Sox team. Any team that would periodically give my Blue Jays grief during pennant races got into my bad books from which they'll never escape. I always root against the Red Sox. I have to.
- History Repeats - When Ted Williams led the Red Sox to the 1946 World Series following Boston's first AL pennant since 1918, the Cardinals beat them in Game 7. When Carl Yastrzemski's Red Sox made it back in 1967, the Cardinals defeated them again in seven games. History tends to repeat and I suspect the Cardinals will once again prevail in this historic match up.
I'll be watching Saturday night and hoping for Walker to lead the charge.
