World Series champs refused to give up

With no NBA team in town and an NFL club mired in last place in the standings, St. Louis sports fans can once again hang their hats on their storied Cardinals baseball franchise. The Cardinals proved themselves in the 2011 post-season to be a resilient group that became quite comfortable playing with their backs to the wall. They finished off the Texas Rangers 6-2 in game seven of the World Series on Friday at home, having fought back from 3-2 down in the series. "This is definitely a dream come true," said World Series MVP David Freese, who grew up a Cardinals fan. "This whole ride. This team deserves it. This organization is top-notch and we have the best fans in baseball." The Cardinals' two improbable runs to World Series titles in the past six years have given the franchise 11 championships. Only the iconic New York Yankees have more Major League Baseball titles with 27. As tens of thousands of fans stood outside Busch Stadium watching Friday's decisive game on a giant video screen or portable satellite hook-ups, stadium officials decided to open the main gates in the ninth inning, allowing non-ticketed fans to stream into the stadium and join in the celebration.  "The numbers don't matter, the records don't matter, the money you make doesn't matter. What matters is to raise that trophy and to be able to bring that smile to the city of St. Louis," said Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, who can become a free agent now that the season is over. St. Louis has not had an NBA team since 1968, when owner Ben Kerner sold the Hawks to two Georgia businessmen who moved the club to Atlanta. The NFL St. Louis Rams, meanwhile, are off to an 0-6 start, giving them the worst record in the league. Ice hockey team the NHL Blues have been in some thrilling post-seasons but have never won the  Stanley Cup in their 44 years of existence. Many baseball experts wrote the Cardinals off in February when their 20-game winning pitcher Adam Wainwright underwent reconstructive elbow surgery. They also looked out of it on August 25 when they trailed the Atlanta Braves by 10 1/2 games for the National League wild card. But Atlanta's stunning collapse, combined with St. Louis' late-season charge, had the Cardinals feeling confident and loose heading into the post-season. "I still can't believe we actually did this," said Freese. "I keep thinking about mid-August, the mood of this team and the disappointment of what was going down." The Cardinals become just the fifth wild card team to win the World Series, and the first in seven years. They join the 1997 Marlins, 2002 Angels, 2003 Marlins and 2004 Red Sox as wild-card winners. At one point in the season, even the league commissioner Bud Selig had written off the Cardinals. St. Louis manager Tony La Russa remembers seeing Selig in August and the commissioner talking to him like the Cardinals' season was winding down. "If you watch the history of baseball, teams come back, and sometimes they could have come back but they give in or give up." La Russa said. "And I knew the character on our team, the coaches knew the character. "We just challenged them to not give up. We started winning some games so we can regain some respect, and then it got better and they just grabbed that play every game like it's the last game and relentless until the end." The biggest task for management over the next few months is to try and re-sign Pujols, who can test the free agent market. Pujols did not want to talk about his future plans immediately after Friday's win. He had a night for the ages in game three, matching two revered World Series single-game records for most home runs (three) and most hits (five). "Right now I am just enjoying the moment," he said. "I was sitting at first base with three outs left and just thinking through all the things that we went through this year as a group, just how special this group of guys that we have are. "To be able to do that and bring another championship title to the city of St. Louis, it's just amazing." La Russa, who won his 68th career post-season game in game three of the World Series to surpass Bobby Cox for second most play-off wins by a manager, said he hopes the club can re-sign Pujols. "He's a great player. They're going to try like heck to make it work," La Russa said. "We never talked about it. The season is over, now it's time to start talking about it. "The organization is going to try to keep him here, and Albert wants to stay here."