So you wanna be a sportswriter? Sure, it's fun. You see great games and meet great people. But sometimes you're in a pickle a ton of East Coast scribes like this corner find themselves in: A suitcase packed, two sets of hotels, two sets of airline reservations, nowhere to go until at least 11 p.m. tonight. And maybe later.
For that, we have the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants to blame -- and to congratulate. The last two World Series winners stage Game Seven of the NLCS tonight in AT&T Park and it's because neither of them will go down this postseason.
This will be the Cardinals' third straight winner-take-all showdown on the road (the wild-card game in Atlanta and Game 5 of the NLDS in Washington) and they've won the first two. Even more incredibly, this is the Giants' sixth win-or-go-home game this month (three in Cincinnati in the NLDS and now three in this series).
Who has the edge? A tough call. You'd think it would be with the Giants, with Matt Cain on the mound and momentum in hand. But they're just 2-3 at home in the postseason -- and 0-5 overall all-time in Game Sevens. The Cardinals, meanwhile, have won six straight winner-take-alls in the postseason to tie the MLB record they set from 1926-67 (their last loss was in the 2001 NLDS to Arizona).
I'll pick another miracle finish for the Cardinals, minus perhaps a goofy infield fly call. Make your pick below.
---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington
