The Pecan Park Eagle

Compliments of Lance Carter, 10/24/11.

Compliments of a shot in the dark by Bill McCurdy, 10/27/11.

By this time Friday morning, the big news from the sports world is old news. The St. Louis Cardinals got off the deck twice from 2-run deficits in the 9th and 10th innings of Game Six last night, each time when they were one strike away from losing the whole World Series, and coming through with the big hit to tie the game and set things up for the game-winning home run blast to deep center field by David Freese, the lead-off man in the bottom of the 11th. With the 10-9 Cardinal win over the Rangers now in the books, we move with speedy anticipation to tonight’s Game Seven, knowing full well that it’s going to be hard to match Game Six for baseball greatness, no matter which team wins it all.

I only got to see innings nine through eleven because of an earlier commitment and loyalty to my alma mater, the University of Houston Cougars and a desire to see Case Keenum extend and settle some new records as a Division I NCAA quarterback, which he did just fine against Rice in spite of the wind and rain. Keenum’s nine touchdown passes pushed him into first place by four in that category while he also extended his records for total yardage and passing yardage by  bunch as well. On the night, Case Keenum rolled up   534 passing yards on 24 completions in 40 attempts with one interception, only his third of the season. WIth Keenum leaving the game in the 4th quarter, the Cougars only scored one TD for that period, but till ended up winning the game 73-28 without really trying to rub it in against the Game, but undermanned Rice Owls. The Owls simply could not defend the deep pass against UH’s speedy, sure-handed receivers and Keenum could not pass up that major chink in their defensive armor. He just hammered ’em.

Now, for the first time in school history, the UH Cougars are 8-0-0 with four games to play from their current number 17 ranking in the BCS poll. They are also the only school among eight remaining undefeated clubs that is not ranked among the top ten. Chalk that one up to part strength of schedule because few big name programs have the courage of UCLA to play UH; part the fact that UH resides in a non-BCS conference; and part due to the fact that UH lacks the empire status that makes it a little easier to get pollster support.

All right things n time, but in the meanwhile, it doesn’t matter to me what the UH haters say. This was the place that gave me my chance a long time ago, and, win or lose, the Cougars shall  hold my heart and get my support as long as I am able to bring it.

I got home in time to watch the rest of Game Six of the World Series from the bottom of the 9th through the walk off homer by Freese in the 11th. I was happy to see Lance Berkman handle the second of the Cards’ one-strike-away from total defeat situations with his two-out single in the 10th. Lance is now hitting .435 in the Series, the only man hitting over .400 on either club. Depending upon what happens in Game Seven, Berkman has to be in the running for Series MVP with Freese and Pujols because of his lights out three home run game. Prince Albert’s presence in the Cardinal lineup makes him the intimidating threat that helps his teammates get heroic opportunities they might otherwise never see.

At any rate, Thursday night was fun for me. I can’t imagine living anywhere away from America. I’m too much a junkie for the things that so many us think are fun. Chilling out on a mountain top – or spending each day on the beaches of some tropical isle where no one had ever heard of American baseball or football would not be my cup of tea for very long – especially during the World Series time.