Rangers win the pennant (again!)

"What, we get another crack at this World Serious thing-y?"

Who would have thunk it? Once again I was in baseball limbo, furiously hitting refresh on my iPod touch (thanks, Steve Jobs, RIP, bruvver) at work.  Down one nil, then two nil, then up three two, then, after a mad rush of customers, and refilling the beer cooler, up nine runs to two.  Wha? Did that really happen?

And then I started to get really nervous, because, now I could taste it, back-to-back American League pennants.  That kind of stuff just does not happen to the Rangers.  I thought immediately of Alex Gibney's fantastic 30 For 30, Catching Hell doc about scapegoats and the Bartman incident, and how the truly bizarre, weird, crushing stuff always happens in Game Six.

The wife thought I was insane to be worried.  And to be honest, I did not really feel comfortable until Cruz hit his sixth home run of the series.  We were home by this point and I watched it unfold on the teevee from the bottom of the fifth until the confetti and I Like Texas ("love to drink that Shiner-Bock beer") by Pat Green showed up.

(And, what a wife? She drove a v nervous [basically I am insane, and unbearable re the Rangers] boie home from work, having procured a fab Chow pizza for me for dinner, "They scored nine runs in the third, what are you worried about?" Everything, love, everything.)

I love the Tigers, and I am so glad the Rangers will not have to go back to Comerica until next year.  Or see Miguel Cabrera until Spring 2012.  Or Justin Verlander.  Jim Leyland is a true class act, and a first ballot Hall of Fame manager, who was eloquent and graceful in defeat, a real gentleman.

And the series, though not going the full seven, was just a great series, much better than the Rangers pennant clinching series against the Yankees in 2010.  Extra innings twice, a postponement, rain delays, balls bouncing off of bases, smoking hot bullpens mowing batters down, twenty home runs (thirteen by the losing club, six by Cruz), starting pitching on both clubs looking for answers (after a v pitching dominant regular season this year), a walk-off Grand Slam, and on and on.

And how about this bad-ass NOLA resident doing the Funky Chicken?

I am still in pleasant, ludicrous shock, and I love it.

Mwah, ...