2011 World Series: Game 6

Posted on October 28, 2011

Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates after David Freese hits an 11th inning walk-off home run to win Game Six of the 2011 World Series against the Texas Rangers at Busch Stadium on Thursday, October 27, 2011 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cardinals defeated the Rangers 10-9. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

 

Holy shit. That was a good one. Epic. All-time. One for the ages. Best ever. Last night’s Game 6 of the 2011 World Series in St. Louis between the Cardinals and Rangers will go down in baseball lore as one of the most dramatic games in history. The Cardinals 10-9, 11 inning heart-stopper evened the Series at three games apiece and forced tonight’s Game 7. I could not be happier.

Entering last night’s game I did not want this fun-filled Series to end. We have not had a seventh game since 2002 when the Angels beat the Giants, and I desperately wanted to photograph a Game 7 this year. I was not ready to go home. I was rooting for the Cardinals, down 3 games to 2 entering the game, to win last night. Thanks to last night’s Cardinals heroics I got my wish.

I was shooting for a sweet outside third base position at ground level and spent much of my time looking for the emotion on the players faces as this game went back and forth early. Both teams were sloppy- especially the Cardinals. By the time we got to the bottom of the 9th inning with the Rangers up 7-5 I really thought the Rangers would be celebrating their first World Series championship on the field within moments. Two on. Two out. David Freese the batter. Neftali Feliz on the mound. TWO STRIKES! I was focusing my camera on Rangers catcher Mike Napoli. I figured he would be the MVP and I wanted to get him jumping in the air and celebrating.

When Freese hit his deep drive to right I stayed on Napoli, and only found out his ball went over right fielder Nelson Cruz’s head for a game-tying triple when I heard the crowd. The Cards were back from the dead- and we had a ballgame! I also had to pee, so I was hoping the game would end soon! Earlier I had purchased hot chocolate for myself and two guys from MLB Productions. It was really good, but the $10 APIECE price tag, combined with the needing a bathroom shortly thereafter made me look back at that decision as a bad move.

As we went into extra innings I was still rooting for the Cardinals because I wanted walk-off drama. I wanted good jube. I wanted pictures. This would not happen so easily. The Rangers put a two spot on the board in the top of the 10th when Josh Hamilton went deep, but when veteran, journeyman, awful lefty reliever Darren Oliver took the mound to try and nail down the save in the bottom of the 10th I just laughed. First of all no one wanted a picture of the Oliver leading the Rangers jube pictures on the mound. Secondly, I knew because he sucked there would not be any Rangers jube in the 10th- there was no way he would nail it down.

Of course- the Cards tied it up and sent the game into the 11th. Miraculously the Rangers did not score in their half of the inning, and when the bottom of the 11th started there was no way the Cards could lose. The Rangers had exhausted their bullpen and had Mark Lowe on the mound. I am sorry, but he is not very good. Freese was leading off, and the hometown kid who tied it in the 9th was destined to win it in the 11th. I just knew he would go deep.

I have blown so many good pictures over the years by either over-thinking or being brain-dead. This time I tried really hard not to choke. I kept telling myself, “Shoot the swing and then go to the Cards dugout.” Just like I imagined, Freese swung, and of course I was on that. Then I immediately went to the Cards dugout (see above) and got the team coming out celebrating. The scene at the plate was kind of a nightmare with television folks from FOX blocking us. My buffer on my Canon Mark IV was also full from shooting RAW+JPEG. However, things eventually cleared for a few brief moments and I was able to get a few frames that I liked that helped tell the story of this insane ballgame.

When I was done shooting I got onto the field to make my way back to the photo work room behind home plate. As I walked by the inside third base photo well Sports Illustrated photographer Al Tielemans and I locked eyes. We were liked crazed lunatics and we looked at each other and laughed and screamed. We are both baseball guys and knew we had seen something special. It was quite a moment.

When I got down into the tunnel near the photo room I was still floating on air. I saw my boss at MLB Photos Rich Pilling. Rich is retiring at the end of the year, and this Series- his 34th, will be his last. I did not want the Series to end, and neither did Rich. We wanted one more game and we got our wish. I gave Rich a big bear hug. I have never seen him so happy.