A fluke it was not

Brian Gunn gives a good analysis at The Hardball Times:

After all, the Cardinals were nobody’s idea of a great team. They won but 83 games in the regular season. They had three losing streaks of seven or more games. They had a worse record than the Pirates—the Pirates!—after the All-Star break. And they barely outlasted a so-so Astros team to limp across the finish line in the worst division in baseball. In fact, I know more than one Cardinals fan who was openly rooting for their team to lose the division so that it would expose a few roster flaws and encourage more aggressive rebuilding from the team brass.

…And yet the St. Louis Cardinals are the champions of the world.

Again: how did this happen?

I've heard some complaining on sports radio here in Seattle and on ESPN (unhappy that the Yankees and Red Sox weren't playing, no doubt) about the Series. Gunn notes:

Instead, the Series was kind of a dud. Not for me personally—I’m a huge Cardinals fan, so I had the time of my life—but objectively speaking, it wasn’t exactly a repeat of ’86 or ’75 or ’91. There was incredibly sloppy play, the depressing controversy surrounding Kenny Rogers' sticky hands, two teams who were perceived as mediocrities, dismal ratings, a rainout, mental errors galore, and it was all over in five games. After Game 4, Jim Rome declared it the worst World Series ever. Come to think of it, maybe most people were glad it was over in five games.

Worst Series ever? Please. I (and many other people) would be relieved if Jim Rome was over soon.

The talking heads on ESPN seemed incapable of understanding the reappearance of the MV3 lineup that had been missing much of the season and the addition-by-subtraction of a pitching staff without this season's disappointments of Isringhousen, Mulder, Ponson and Marquis. They overwhelmingly picked the Padres, Mets and finally the Tigers in turn to dispatch the Redbirds (perhaps allowing for Carpenter to win a game in each series). After the NLDS, they should have realized something was different.

Whatever. Let them cry about their Red Sox, Yankees and Mets. I'm going to go ahead and enjoy this one; it might have to last 24 years, you know.