Greatest World Series Game Ever?

3-2 change up over the plate goes bye-bye

Homegrown David Freese floats into STL history

Umpire Gary Cederstrom sees Freese score winning run


WARNING: ENTERING CARDINAL COUNTRY

Where were you on Friday October 28,2011?

If you say at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri for Game Six of the World Series you are one of the lucky 47,325 fans in attendance that unforgettable night. I'm sure over time millions of people will lay claim that they were there, such is the everlasting magical drama of that evening... if you're a Cardinal fan. If you're a Texas Ranger fan welcome to your worst recurring nightmare.

4 hours and 33 minutes. 11 innings. 28 hits. 19 runs. 5 errors. 6 times the Cardinals came from behind to tie or lead. 15 pitchers used. 27 position players used. 23 runners left on base. 12 walks. 14 strikeouts. Heroic at bats. Fielding gems and stinkers. And then a franchise first walk-off home run to win the game.

Game 6. To borrow from Charles Dickens, 'it was the best of games...it was the worst of games.' The Rangers blew a World Series record five leads for one game. Twice the Rangers were within one strike of a World Series championship ring and failed to get the job done. Homers in extra innings by Josh Hamilton and David Freese had never been done in a World Series game. Freese had a pop-up bounce off his head. Holliday injured his right hand diving into third base on a pick-off play. Hamilton's hernia plagued him throughout the Series. All the while, the two field skippers Ron Washington and Tony LaRussa countered and bluffed each other throughout. This game had more twists and turns than Frodo Baggins power-walk to Mount Doom. It was more fun and troubling to watch than a Charley Sheen tiger blood interview.

Anyway, Game 6 ended definitively with one swing of the bat. David Freese's bat and his shredded jersey now rest in a glass case in Cooperstown. And the memories of that evening will rest within our domes for the rest of our lives. As for the Rangers, Nolan Ryan and their fans, how do you get over THAT?

Bob Costas, sportscaster extraordinaire and baseball historian, called Game 6, "one of the greatest games ever played in the history of baseball."

However you may answer the rhetorical question, was Game Six the greatest WS baseball game ever, it is without question or debate a treasure to the library at ESPN Classics forever.

Go Cards in 2012.