He Coulda Been a Dirt Dog

Congratulations to the (soon to be) World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and let the David Eckstein worship begin. Last night's Game 4 actually provided the first bit of excitement, drama, and compelling baseball that the postseason has seen. That may be going a bit too far, but let's put it this way. If Chris Farley were sitting on the set of his fake talk show (and also if he were still alive- stay with me here) and was interviewing Joe Buck or Tim McCarver or Albert Pujols, he'd be all nervous, saying something like..."remember that time in the 2006 World Series...when that thing happened...that was awesome!"

He wouldn't say that. Mostly because he's dead. But also because not much awesome happened during the Series until the eighth inning of Game 4. With the game tied, 4-4 and a guy on second, David Eckstein hit a ball into medium-depth left field. Because he's David flippin Eckstein, 5-7, 165 pound shortstop (make that SHORTstop), Craig Monroe was shading him a bit in, expecting a texas leaguer. He misjudged this little fella's pop. Running flat out and leaping, Monroe just missed catching the ball, and the go-ahead run scored (or maybe you might have seen the highlights). Sure, the Tigers played lousy defense in general last night, but that one play- that one hit- turned this series from a possible 2-2 tie to a rather definitive 3-1 Cardinals advantage.

David Eckstein, you might recall, was also on the World Champion 2002 Angels. He's the guy Barry Bonds cites as his favorite player. I would say that he's a guy just like you and me, except frankly, I'm bigger than he is. And I don't get to say that very often. Every time he throws to first from his spot at short, it looks like he's going to tear his arm out, and you're always surprised the ball gets there without bouncing five or six times. But he has, as all the papers and websites will be happy to tell you this morning, a heart of a champion. Or the heart of a lion. Or whatever else might defeat a Tiger (and, appropriately enough, a Giant, like he did in 2002).

The kicker for Red Sox fans, of course, is that we drafted him. He was our 19th round pick back in 1997. He came up through our system before Dan Duquette gave up on him, and probably Nomar's presence in Boston made him expendable. The question I have is: can we find some way to blame this on Theo? Come on Red Sox nation- you can come up with something! I have faith in you. Let the negativity f-l-o-w...