After all the work, all the time spent since we kicked this off after the All-Star Break, the end of the Greatest Cardinal Moment Tournament is finally getting close. (Given the few folks that have voted on non-Twitter polls, you probably haven’t noticed, but hey, I appreciate those that have!) As always, let’s take a quick look at the bracket:
The finals are still being set on a couple of regions, but we are good here and let’s get to it. (Also note, this is the possibly the last post on here about these brackets. We have something special set up for the Final Four that will be Twitter-focused–go where the folks are–and I don’t know if we’ll post about them here or not. Maybe, who knows!)
#1 Bob Gibson strikes out 17 in World Series Game 1 (1968)
vs.
#2 Chris Carpenter shuts out Philadelphia in NLDS Game 5 (2011)
The road here: Gibson took care of the Cincy brawl, Albert Pujols‘s moonshot, and Jim Edmonds‘s diving catch; Carpenter fended off Ozzie Smith‘s backflip, Pete Alexander‘s famous strikeout, and Matt Carpenter‘s NLCS at bat.
The clips:
The matchup: It’s fitting that, as a big proponent of pitching, I get these two masters of the craft. Even though we’ve had low vote totals, I still want to give plenty of respect to the fact that Gibson is still here. I thought that with our short-term memories being the biggest thing, he’d have lost a while back, especially to Albert’s homer. He’s still kicking, though, which may mean that there’s nothing going to take him down in this bracket.
That said, NLDS Game 5 is still the epitome of a pitching performance to me. Carpenter walked a tightrope the whole game, with his only run coming before he even took the mound. Any pitch could have sent the Cards home for the winter, but it didn’t. It’s probably not too surprising that this team finished their run and won it all, unlike 1968. There’s no wrong pick here, but Carp’s still my man.