Dodgers/Cardinals Notes
For the third time the Dodgers and Cardinals will play a series of games to determine the National League Pennant winner.
Their 2013 NLCS begins Friday night in St.Louis where on Wednesday, the Cards raised their “winner take all” series or “play in” game record to (15-6) beating the Pittsburgh Pirates (6-1).
The first time the two teams played for the pennant was in 1946 when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. The two teams had finished tied over the course of the 154 game regular season. A best of three playoff was played and the St. Louis Cardinals prevailed in two straight games.
The other previous clash for the N.L. pennant was in 1985, when the Cardinals won the NLCS in six games.
I still can not believe Dodgers’ manager Tom Lasorda allowed Cards’ slugger, Jack Clark to swing the bat and not walking him when L.A. at home, was clinging to a one run lead, and “St. Loo” had runners at second and third with two out.
The home run Clark hit just landed somewhere in outer space and Lasorda, despite that decision, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
My rooting for the Dodgers ended that day with that stupid decision to pitch to Clark. I “cut off my nose to spite my face,” and that is my tough luck.
Still, the decision confounds me and remains in my not so humble opinion, one of the worst managerial decisions in baseball history.
All three years of these Dodgers vs Cardinals series/playoffs for the pennant (1946, 1985 and 2013) have the same calendar.
The Dodgers are seven to five favorites in the upcoming series. Their current manager, Don Mattingly, who pitched ace Clayton Kershaw on three days rest vs Atlanta will not repeat that, at least for game one. Kershaw will start in game two.
Andy B Sports 