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Health & Fitness

It's in the Cards

2011 was magical. Will 11 in '11 carry over to 12 in '12?

I'm alive. No I didn't fall off the face of the earth. I have been prepping to graduate. Forms, scholarships and trying to find work take a lot of time. Enough about me, onto the Cards. 

Last year was all about the 11s:

  • Pursuit of the 11th title in 2011 or 11 in '11.
  • Almost 11 back with a month to play.
  • Eleven games to win at the start of the playoffs.
  • Freese's homer in the 11th inning of game 6.

It wasn't luck, or skill that the Cardinals won last year, it was a mix of magic, fate and majesty. Of drama, heart attacks and tears. At the start of the new season, as we look back at the previous season, we see that 2011 may have been more magical than we first thought.

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The season looked dismal in August. The dream of 11 in '11 was all but extinct. We didn't know it, but Puppeteer (LaRussa), The King (Pujols) and the Mastermind (Duncan) would be gone at the end of the year.

The trade that Mozeliak made did not seem to be paying off, and if it hadn't, he may have been thrown to the wolves. On Aug. 25, something clicked and the team got hot. We all know the story, so I will not go into much detail here.

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They made the playoffs on the last day of the seaso, in dramatic fashion (although the Braves caused most of the dramatics). Then it was on to the Phillies, who were the BEST team throughout the season. The Cardinals were expected to lose, and were supposed to have used up all their magic just making the Wild Card. The Phillies were dispatched in five games (side note, Carpenter is an Animal).

Then came the Brewers. The Cardinals cleaned up that mess in 6 games. 

Finally the World Series came, and it seemed to magnify the Cardinals' magic. Games 1, 3, 6 and 7 were pure magic. You could feel it in the air. Heck, the whole series had an aurora about it, that said, "Hey, this is special." The Rangers were admittedly a better team on paper, but paper rips easily. 

The true magic of the 2011 team was their resiliency. First, Wainwright goes down. Then a plethera of injuries to key players. Carpenter had one of his worst seasons as a Cardinal. Yet they overcame all of that. They meshed and gelled together into an unstoppable force, that the three best teams in baseball last year could not stop. 

Now the true fun begins, as we get to watch a new cast of players in 2012, capped off with the additions of Carlos Beltran and new manager Mike Matheny. Can the Cardinals carry over the magic from 11 in '11, to 12 in '12? Only time will tell.

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