It's not in the Cards to give up

ST. LOUIS

As fate had it, I spoke with Bud Selig on the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 1, and I recall him telling me -- from his Milwaukee office -- that he had the Cardinals-Brewers broadcast on in the background.

The baseball commissioner noted that the Cardinals were on the verge of sweeping a three-game set from the Brewers at Miller Park, and I harrumphed. After all, I was calling Selig to discuss the standings and the possibility of a dreadfully boring September. A September Slumber, I called it.

As it turned out, Tony La Russa had visited Selig earlier that week. And when the commissioner politely congratulated the Cardinals' manager on a great year -- passive-aggressive speak for "Too bad things didn't turn out better for you" -- La Russa didn't go along with the chatter.

"We're not done," the future Hall of Famer told the game's CEO.

That spirit, elevated in Thursday night's breathtaking World Series Game 6, will live on, especially after Friday night's 6-2 victory in Game 7. La Russa and the Cardinals have offered a road map to teams on the periphery of the pennant race and then on the verge of elimination:

Nothing is impossible, as long as you don't think you're done.

"There was a comment made [Thursday] in our dugout by one of our veterans: 'This historic run is not going to end today,' " La Russa said Friday before the game. "It's a hell of a comment. It was by a guy that people listen to, and it ended up being true."

The introduction of the wild card has forever changed baseball's landscape, and the second wild card -- we'll get it either next year or 2013 -- will alter the equation once again.

The whole idea is to try to take ownership of September from the start of football season, build up momentum and ride that into the October playoffs. It worked brilliantly this year, thanks to the remarkable comebacks of the Cardinals (over the Braves) and the Rays (over the Red Sox) to win the wild cards.

The Rays lost to Texas in the American League Division Series, and sadly, they just don't have the fan base to enhance the October vibe. Over in the NL, however, the Cardinals built on their September surge with a playoff run for the ages, and they did it in a phenomenal baseball town with tremendous fans.

No one is looking at this World Series and opining that it's watered down because it's populated by a team that didn't win its division. The Cardinals are clearly a championship-caliber team. And even a second wild-card club would be good enough, too.

The Game 6 comeback -- down two runs in both the ninth and 10th innings, down to their last strike in both frames -- figures to be replayed in perpetuity.

"You're going to have to go real hard to have a better sixth game than that, ever," La Russa said. "I think that's going to make its mark as far as the sixth game of the World Series . . . I think it'll stand alone as a sixth game, but that's not what we came here for."

No, the Cardinals made it clear that they greatly prefer the gold to the silver. They didn't give up in late August when even the commissioner figured they were done, and they didn't surrender Thursday night when the Rangers were prepared to pop champagne.

Other teams will watch and learn. The sport will benefit as a whole. The next time Selig visits with a manager who appears out of a race before Labor Day, the commissioner will know better than to offer condolences masquerading as congratulations.