It was Aug. 8 last year. The Cardinals were playing the Braves at Busch Stadium, and they had put in seven scoreless innings. Despite being down by only two runs, things were looking grim.
The lack of runs could in no way be attributed to a lack of effort by shortstop David Eckstein. He had done everything that a lead-off man should do. He had gotten on base. A lot. He walked twice. He stole second base. He slid into third on a passed ball by the Braves catcher. He hit a double. He stood on base, often in scoring position, and waited, waited, waited for somebody behind him to do something. Anything. Which they didn't.
Then came the bottom of the ninth, and Davy found himself in an odd place. No longer the lead-off man, he was finally in a position to do something big, since doing something little and then counting on the rest of the team was getting him nowhere.
It is my belief that David Eckstein, all 170cm of him, stood in the batter's box with the bases loaded and only one out and thought, "Finally." And he busted a home run over the left field wall. Walk-off grand slam, Cardinals win.
In St. Louis, they know to never overlook Eckstein. What he lacks in height, he makes up for with pure ? I'm not even sure of the word for it. Heart? Gumption? Incredible will? It's the thing that makes him sprint for first base when he gets walked, when virtually every other player in the game just jogs. It's the thing that stretches him that crucial extra meter when he's diving for a ground ball. And it's the thing that had him pounding out hit after hit in Game 4 of the World Series, including the eventual game-winning RBI double.
In a game that could have easily gone either way, the difference proved to lie in two places -- Tiger mishaps and the St. Louis shortstop who never quits.
In many ways, he is emblematic of this Cardinals team. No one expected him to fill the very large shoes of All-Star shortstop Edgar Renteria, just as no one expected these Cardinals to be playing for the championship. But he did, and they are. Unlikely, unexpected and completely underestimated, they are there -- still in the game and full of faith.
And it's not over yet.
The Philadelphia 76ers, fueled by 36 points from Tyrese Maxey and a triple-double from Joel Embiid, on Thursday beat the Houston Rockets 128-122 in an NBA overtime thriller. Cameroonian big man Embiid scored 32 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and handed out 10 assists, posting the ninth triple-double of his career to help the Sixers end the Rockets’ three-game winning streak. Rockets star Kevin Durant scored 36 points and Amen Thompson added 17, but Thompson was scoreless in the fourth quarter. Even so, the Rockets led by nine midway through the final frame, Maxey tying it at 115-115 with 40.1 seconds left. Durant missed a
Tobias Harris on Monday scored 25 points as the Detroit Pistons held off the Boston Celtics to score a 104-103 victory in their top-of-the-table Eastern Conference showdown. Harris was one of four Detroit players to finish in double figures, with Jalen Duren adding 18 points and point guard Cade Cunningham scoring 16 points with 14 assists. The win sees Detroit extend their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to 31-10, 5.5 games ahead of second-placed Boston, who fell to 26-16 with the defeat. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics scoring with 32 points and almost snatched victory in the
The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday said that he will probably be out for an extended period after hurting his right calf again after a similar injury caused him to miss eight games earlier this season. Antetokounmpo had his right calf wrapped in the first half of their 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets. He did not appear comfortable the rest of the night and left for good with 34 seconds remaining. “At the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he expected to undergo an MRI
The chaotic scenes which tarnished Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final will forever overshadow a tournament that had until that point been a great success for hosts Morocco, on and off the pitch. Everything appeared set up for Walid Regragui’s Morocco side to cement their status as Africa’s preeminent footballing force as the continent’s top-ranked team made it to the final against Senegal in Rabat. Home advantage unquestionably brought extra pressure on the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists, but it also perhaps played into their hands for the controversial penalty award at the end of normal time in the
RSS