ST. LOUIS CARDINALS - 2011 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS

It all started when St. Louis, who shut out Houston after being 10 1/2 games back in the NL Central division to start off September, needed Philadelphia to defeat Atlanta on the last day of the regular season to enter the playoffs as a wild card team. And now, the St. Louis Cardinals, the team that wasn’t even supposed to be here, had won a most incredible World Series.

A day after twice being down to their last strike, the Cardinals became World Series champions by beating the Texas Rangers, 6-2 in Game 7, thanks to another key hit from hometown hero & MVP David Freese and six innings pitched by their ace Chris Carpenter, who was able to start on three-days rest, thanks to a rainout on Wednesday. Carpenter improved to 9-2 lifetime in the postseason.

Spirited by the "we will never die" comeback in Game 6 that resulted in a 10-9 win in 11 innings, the Cardinals captured their 11th World Series championship.

As for the Texas Rangers, they had not lost consecutive games since late August. These two defeats in St. Louis cost manager Ron Washington and the Rangers a chance to win their first title in the franchise’s 51-year history and became the first team to lose the Series two straight years since Atlanta in 1991-92.

The Cardinals won their first championship since 2006, and gave manager Tony La Russa his third World Series title. They got there by beating Philadelphia, the team that helped them get into the postseason, in the NLDS, capped by Carpenter outdueling Roy Halladay 1-0 in the deciding Game 5, and then topping Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series.

While MVP Freese enjoys his award, as well as his new 2012 Chevy Corvette, the rest of the baseball world have already labeled this year as one of the best World Series of all time.