Sporting News

The past couple weeks have been big for Missouri sports. Although I am not a huge sports fan, I do like to follow my hometown teams. First up, the Cardinals won the World Series. Love them or hate them, almost any baseball or sports fan in general can appreciate the Cardinals' road to winning the World Series. In the last month of the regular season, the Cardinals were 10.5 games behind the wild-card leading Atlanta Braves and somehow managed to erase that deficit to steal the NL Wild-Card from the Braves. After making the playoffs, the Cardinals had to power past the Philadelphia Phillies in a best of five showdown and outwin the Milwaukee Brewers in a scary best of seven series. Next up: the Texas Rangers in the World Series. On paper, anyone would have bet on the Rangers to defeat the Cardinals in the World Series. And what a World Series it was. The Rangers and the Cardinals provided some of the best baseball in recent history. In game 3, Cardinals' first baseman Albert Pujols played one of the best games of his career. He had five RBI producing hits and three home runs. And then there was game 6. Wow! If you haven't seen it, I recommend searching your DVR for a replay. Although heartbreaking for the Texas Rangers, Game 6 was amazing! Not once, but twice, the Rangers were one strike away from winning the World Series and the Cardinals fired back. As one SI writer wrote, "If you're deep in the heart of Texas, Busch Stadium just became your own personal Halloween house of horrors." Finally, hometown boy and former high school classmate of Luke's and mine, David Freese, hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to win the game. It was amazing!

The day after the Cardinals' improbably World Series win, Mizzou defeated Texas A&M. In what is now a rebuilding year for Missouri football, it was great to see them beat a ranked team on the road. To end the weekend, the St. Louis Rams won their first game of the season.

Finally, Mizzou just announced their move from the Big 12 to the SEC. I'm so used to Mizzou being in the Big 12 that I am not quite sure how I feel about the move. Although the money in the SEC will be great for the University, I worry that my beloved Tigers might never make it to another football bowl game. Winning games against teams like Alabama and LSU just seems so improbable. Only time will tell if the move to the SEC is a good one for Mizzou. We will miss our friends at Kansas, K State, Iowa State, Texas, Oklahoma, etc. Thanks for the memories!