Everything about October is my favorite, and for the last three years, I’ve had some of the most Octobery Octobers you can imagine.
Pumpkin patches, apple orchards, bonfires, football games – you name a stereotypical October activity, and I probably did that … multiple times, complete with leggings and an oversized sweatshirt.
I lived in shades of mustard, burnt orange, maroon and brown and baked batch after batch of pumpkin cookies.
And you know what all that was? A cry for help.
I’ve come to realize that no amount of candy corn, blanket scarves, corn mazes or scary movies can heal a broken, baseball-less heart.
Ghosts of Octobers Past
Pumpkin is my favorite fall scent, and Mike Shannon is my favorite fall sound. Luckily, Cardinals fans have been spoiled with plenty of postseason baseball for Shannon to call.
In my lifetime, the Cardinals have made 13 trips to the postseason (not counting 2019), 10 to the National League Championship Series and four to the World Series.
I went to my first postseason game in 2002 with my dad. The Cardinals played the Giants in the NLCS. They lost, but my fandom shot to the next level. After seeing a postseason game firsthand, I wanted nothing more than to get there again and win the next time.
Postseason baseball is all the big moments.
It’s Jeff Suppan besting Roger Clemens in Game 7 of the 2004 NLCS with the help of a Jim Edmonds diving catch.
It’s Edmonds’ walk-off homer the night before.
It’s Adam Wainwright striking out Carlos Beltran in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS to send the Cardinals to the World Series.
It’s being at Busch Stadium with my family in 2006, when the Cardinals won the World Series for the first time in my lifetime.
It’s watching Game 6 of the 2011 World Series with a bunch of Cubs fans.
But it’s also the little things.
It’s stopping on a country road to celebrate a home run in my Mitsubishi Eclipse as I raced home from high school to watch a game.
It’s wearing a Cardinals shirt almost every single day in October during my senior year of high school in 2006.
It’s pouting around a fire after hearing a gut-wrenching Cardinals’ loss at my family’s yearly bonfire in the woods – one of my favorite days of the year under normal circumstances.
It’s crying on my college apartment balcony an hour or so after Game 6 because I still couldn’t believe the Cardinals won.
I want that back.
The Cardinals missed the playoffs the last three seasons, and in their most recent appearance, they lost to the Cubs in the NLDS. It’s time.
Road to the Postseason
On Sunday, the Cardinals locked up the National League Central title with a 9-0 win over the Cubs in St. Louis. They had clinched a playoff berth in Chicago the weekend prior with a four-game sweep against the same foe.
Sound stress-free? It wasn’t.
Much like the entire season, the series in Chicago was a wild ride.
In the first game, the Cardinals gave up a 4-1 lead in the ninth, only to kill the Cubs rally with a Matt Carpenter homer in the 10th.
That home run set the stage for three more dramatic one-run wins, each in come-from-behind fashion. The final win secured at least a wild card spot and knocked the Cubs out of the division race.
Later that week, the Cardinals, riding a six-game winning streak, found themselves in a 19-inning marathon in Arizona after scoring one run in the first and giving up one run in the ninth.
A frustrated me was glued to the TV for the nearly seven-hour affair that ended after the clock struck 3:30 CT on a Wednesday morning.
The early-morning loss in the desert sent the Redbirds on a four-game losing skid. The second-place Brewers wouldn’t go away, and the magic number was still three going into the final weekend.
That weekend, the Rockies swept the Brewers. (Thank you, Colorado.) And the Cardinals salvaged a game after dropping the first two to the Cubs, winning 9-0 on Sunday to clinch the division title.
October Baseball
It’s October, and postseason baseball is in the air on this NLDS eve as I burn a pumpkin candle with “Nightmare on Elm Street” playing in the background.
I don’t intend to miss out on the pumpkin patches, bonfires or haunted houses.
But tomorrow, the Cardinals play baseball. And that’s my favorite kind of October.