Sweet Sixteen

Hell-o again, everybody.  Harry Caray here floating above Wrigley Field waiting for my old pal, Jack Buck.   Ah, here he comes now, and he’s singing a song.

“Oh what a Beautiful Ballgame, Oh what a beautiful day,
I have a wonderful feeling, everything’s going our way.”

Jack, you sound as chipper as a Red Bird singing in Spring.

Who wouldn’t be chipper after the Cardinals won their 16^th in row?

So true, Jack.  And at Wrigley Field at that.  I haven’t had this much fun since I fell into a vat of Budweiser at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis.  But I must admit that I barely recognized the Cubs this weekend.  Rizzo, Javie and Bryant run out of town—I guess they wanted too much honey—and ex-Red Bird Heyward taking a powder in the Cub house.  

Harry, it was definitely a different club wearing–and giving–the blues in Chicago; and quite a weekend, beginning with a doubleheader drubbing on Friday to celebrate our favorite fan’s native anniversary.   And it just kept getting better.

That it did Jack, what with ex-Cub Jon Lester making Chicago see red, as he kept St. Louis in the game for inevitable late innings heroics.  The seventh inning was like the Cubs aboard the Titanic with a frozen rudder, knowing in advance that an iceberg loomed dead ahead.

Indeed it was Harry.  Down 4-2 in the seventh, the Red Birds laced consecutive hits to take the lead, 5-4.  But in the bottom of the 8^th, the Cubs rallied with men on first and third with one out when the iceberg carved open the hull.  Goldschmidt fielded a grounder and threw home to nail a wayward Cub heading to the plate, and then two Cub runners playing who’s on second got caught hibernating leading to a 3-2-5-4-2-8-6 double play.   Inning over.

The game was still in doubt Jack, but the top half of the ninth proved that the Karma Cardinals remained in full flight.  A strikeout of a Cardinal hitter nonetheless led to a run when the pitch eluded the Cub catcher.  The sliding Bader scored from third, his front foot raising up over the fly-by tag, then coming back down to land squarely on the plate.  Replays proved we’d rather be lucky than good on that one.  DeJong followed with a two run homer. 

Fifteen in a row for a new club record breaking the Gas House Gang’s record set way back in 1935 !  

On Sunday, the Cubs led 2-1 in the 8^th, but a home run by Bader knotted the score.  In the 9^th, the Red Birds flew off with two runs without a ball leaving the infield grass.  A walk, a perfectly placed sacrifice was legged out for bunt single.  A second sacrifice put runners on second and third, with both eventually scoring via a wild pitch, and a second by a muffed comebacker to the mound that negated a play at the plate.

Holy Cow!  Before you could say Jack Sprat the Cubs are Flat, it was a four game sweep of the Cubs, and sixteen wins in row for the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Harry, join me in duet, for this little ditty as we sing Sweet 16 Victories in a row:

They’re really rockin’ in Southside
Down Comiskey way,
Deep in the Land of Lincoln
‘round Springfield way

Way down to St. Louie
And down in Victory Lane

All Cardinals gonna dance with
Sweet Victory Sixteen