Rangers vs. Cardinals Game 6: Tonight's Forecast? A Freeeeese!

David Freese—the hometown kid from St. Louis—just led the most amazing, furious, unbelievable comeback I’ve ever personally witnessed as the Cardinals somehow clawed their way to a Game 7 in the 2011 World Series.

The Rangers have all the power in the world, a shutdown closer and an exuberant, fantastic manager. None of that mattered Thursday night at Busch Stadium as the red birds out-slugged Texas 10-9 in 11 innings.

This is what we live for. This is why baseball will never die. THIS is why baseball is America’s pastime. For a couple hours, America’s complete attention and collective pulses were tuned in exclusively to Fox to watch one of the greatest games in the history of sports.

If there is anyone still out there who thinks baseball is boring, I would like to direct you to the nearest television for immediate highlights of what just transpired. Baseball is the ultimate game of strategy and intelligence. That’s why seemingly insignificant plays, like a walk or a bunt, end up being so massively important.

The Rangers know no evil like the deflating loss of momentum that just hit them like an Albert Pujols line drive to the chest. And the fact that they have less than 24 hours to re-inflate, re-prepare and take an all-or-nothing shot at a title is why we watch baseball. This is it. One game, to determine the champion of the world.

We saw tonight that baseball can pack in more drama, anticipation and heart-wrenching glory in one night than an entire season of any other sport. It comes down to one athlete, standing just over 60 feet away, chucking a ball with insane speed and spin on it at a batter, who is charged with the toughest feat in sports—hitting a baseball.

And when that skinny piece of wood is snapped through the strike zone, pushed by years and years of sweat, blisters and dirt on muscles that have practiced the same motion over and over and over again…well, that is absolute bliss.

Then, contact is made and that ball is sent right back from where it came. And at that moment, it’s worth every second spent in drills, in the batting cage, on the practice field. It’s worth every inning of every game in a long season spent dragging equipment across the country through rain and heat and wind.

Nobody knows that better than David Freese. And he proved he was up to the challenge tonight. Twice.

Down to his last strike, the Cardinals’ last strike. An entire city, perhaps an entire region on his shoulders, Freese kept his cool. He stroked a fastball to right field that just cleared the glove of Nelson Cruz and tied the game in the bottom of the ninth.

In the 11th, he came up again after another outrageous rally the inning before. This time, he cranked a pitch to straightaway center. It was a no-doubter that sent the crowd and the Cardinals’ dugout into absolute pandemonium. A walk-off home run in the World Series. In his hometown. What a moment.

Game 6 of the 2011 World Series was an instant classic. You had to see it to believe it. Time stopped in my living room as I watched those last five innings play out; forget dinner, forget the laundry and the dishes. The dogs can eat in the morning. There was nothing in the world that could tear me away from that couch.

And the greatest gift of all for the fans is that we get another one tomorrow night. One more game in this crazy season. One game to determine who is the champion of the greatest sport in the world.

Don’t forget to tune in.