Mr. Freeze Has Arrived: Cardinals' David Freese Joins Elite List to Force Game 7

Borat has his patented “Wawaweeewah”. The great Samuel L. Jackson maintains an array of unprintable four-letter words. Watching the events of the final three innings unfold in tonight’s World Series Game 6 between the Cardinals and Rangers, I need something more to truly capture the shock and awe coursing through me.

I am one hundred percent certain that I am too young to make this statement, but I’m going with it anyways: that was the best baseball game ever played.

Eleven innings, nineteen runs, twenty eight hits, five errors, fifteen pitchers, eleven ties or lead changes. The numbers go on and on. One could make a case that the five errors suggests the game was sloppy, but the average fan will tell you that errors add intrigue to what is often described as a boring sport. And one of tonight’s miscues bumped this story from compelling to Nobel Peace Prize worthy.

David Freese, your table is ready. The third baseman who once gave up on America’s pastime is now a shoe-in for Mayor of St. Louis and Governor of the great state of Missouri, all at once.

After committing one of the most embarrassing errors known to baseball that allowed the Rangers to take the lead in the fifth, Freese came back to write his name in the history books and possibly on one of those comically huge checks with lots of commas and zeroes.

In the ninth inning, with two outs and his team’s entire series on the line, the hit-less Freese stepped up and plugged a new lifeline into the Cardinals with a two-strike two-run triple.

To make every other man watching the game feel even worse about themselves, Freese injected more ice into his veins to open and abruptly close the eleventh with a lead-off walk-off home run to dead center.

Imagine the conversation he might have with his neighbor while picking up tomorrow morning’s paper from the end of the driveway:

"What did you do last night, Bob?"

"Oh, not much. I walked my dog, ate dinner with the family, and watched some great NBC Thursday TV. How about you, David?"

"Well, first I forced Game 6 of the World Series to extra innings by hitting a game-tying triple in the ninth inning. Then I sealed the deal with a walk-off home run two innings later. Game 7 is tonight. Pretty standard stuff..."

I feel dirty when I say I didn't actually start watching until the ninth inning. But the fact of the matter is that I got to witness three of the most heart-stopping half innings in baseball history and the birth of a star.

Most professional baseball players have already seen their opportunity for stardom come and go by the time they reach Freese’s twenty-eight years of age. But Freese is only in his third season in the majors, and has only topped out at 97 regular season games played this year.

Let's put Freese's performance into some perspective. First, Prince Albert Pujols himself essentially said his three-homer performance in the Cardinals' Game 3 win pales in comparison to what happened tonight.

Secondly, what kind of exclusive company does David Freese now keep? Bill Mazeroski, Carlton Fisk, Kirby Puckett, and Joe Carter (Hint: they all hit walk-off homers in Game 6 or 7 of the World Series).

Regardless of whether the Cardinals are the ones popping champagne tomorrow night Freese has clearly shown that he earned his nickname, Mr. Freeze. More importantly, he earned the right to make a whole boatload more than his current one year, four hundred thousand dollar contract.

Watching him chuck his batting helmet between his legs while heading for home plate and the ensuing post-game interview only heightened my quickly brewing man-crush on Freese (think Miller Lite’s most recent “unmanly” TV ad campaign).

When asked the most pointless, yet most oft-asked big-moment question in sports, “What are you feeling right now?” Freese looked and sounded like a man truly humbled by the experience. He had this to say: “I'm out of breath; I just got beat up by 30 guys... It's all about playing tomorrow.”

He even referenced Shredder of Ninja Turtles fame while attempting to explain his ripped shirt. Sorry, my knees just buckled.

Move over Brian Wilson, the Fall Classic has a new face.

(All statistics and information from ESPN