Are you Serious?

I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who enjoys her sleep.  I like getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, and when I get that many, I am a happy mom/wife/employee/neighbor/friend.  So on most nights, I go to bed at 10:00 so that I can wake up at 5:45 the next day and get an early start.  Last night was no exception, and because of that, I missed most of game 3 of the World Series.  Now you're probably thinking "If you claim to be such a big baseball fan, why didn't you stay up?" and the answer to that is that I knew I would have a busy day today so I wanted to get plenty of rest, and believe it or not, sleep is more important than baseball (but not by much).  Plus games 1 and 2 were honestly not that interesting, so I figured I wouldn't miss much.  Boy, was I wrong!

When I went to bed in the fourth inning, the St. Louis Cardinals were leading the Texas Rangers 5-3.  Cardinals' manager Tony LaRussa had just pulled starter Kyle Lohse and was replacing him with Fernando Salas.  Apparently after that, Albert Pujols (who had already had 2 base hits earlier in the game) hit three home runs, tying Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players ever to hit 3 home runs in one World Series game.  Albert had started the day without having had any hits in the first two games, and had been criticized for not speaking to the media after game 2.  In Albert's defense, baseball players are paid to play, not to talk to people.  But the media had a field day speculating what was wrong with Pujols, and since he will be a free agent after the World Series is over, there was all kinds of crazy talk about what was going to happen to this player who all of a sudden sucked.  I guess after last night he doesn't suck anymore!

So the Cardinals won game 3 by a score of 16-7, and they lead the Series 2 games to 1.  Now I'm still not sure which team I'm rooting for - I've been cheering for individual players from both teams - but I'm leaning towards the Rangers mainly because I like their manager.  Ron Washington is fiery and animated, just like I was yesterday morning while my son played goalie for his soccer team.  Tony LaRussa is just kind of there, unemotional and serious and just kind of blah.  Yes, he has a law degree and he's very intelligent and he knows how to manage a winning team (though I think he relies too heavily on his bullpen), but I would have a much better time hanging out with Ron Washington and chatting about baseball.  I've said before that I don't care for passive managers - I like the ones who get all riled up and show some emotion.  Not Bobby Knight/Billy Martin kind of emotion, but a little bit Lasorda and a little bit Pitino with some Parcells thrown in (See?  I can reference other sports too!).

So tonight it's anybody's game - Jackson vs. Holland, Pujols vs. Cruz, Washington vs. LaRussa.  I'm going to try and stay up a little bit later this time; hopefully I won't be disappointed and there will be lots of excitement worth the sleep deprivation.