The St. Louis Cardinals are an organization with a wonderful tradition of winning and have had the pleasure of seeing some of the game's greatest players wear their uniform. Each generation has seen its fair share of stars, from Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Red Schoendienst and Ozzie Smith to Mark McGwire, Albert Pujols , Yadier Molina , Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Adam Wainwright , Matt Holliday , Chris Carpenter, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt .
This weekend, the team will honor the 20th anniversary of one of their most iconic teams. While they're rebuilding in the present day, 2006 was a year to remember for the Cardinals, and that team delivered the organization's first World Series title since 1982. Stars such as Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Molina, Wainwright, Carpenter, and David Eckstein helped deliver an unforgettable postseason run for the fans in St. Louis.
On Friday, the organization will celebrate that team with 30 players from the roster returning to St. Louis.
What made the 2006 Cardinals so special is that they were an underdog. Unlike 2004 and 2005, when they won 100-plus games back-to-back years, the 2006 team actually struggled quite a bit down the stretch and finished with just 83 regular season wins.
Luckily, it was enough for them to win a very weak National League Central division, but entering the postseason, they weren't expected to do much. They faced the San Diego Padres in the first round with momentum working against them. But everything suddenly changed in the NLDS.
Out of nowhere, everything snapped into place, and the Cardinals won the first two games of the series on the road. After a loss in Game 3, they bounced back to clinch the series in Game 4.
Next was a date with the heavily favored New York Mets in the NLCS. New York won Game 1, but the Cardinals got some big performances the next night from Scott Spiezio and So Taguchi, two players that weren't household names but were fan favorites. Spiezio had a clutch hit to help the Cardinals pull even late in the game, and So Taguchi hit a home run off of Hall of Famer Billy Wagner. But the best was yet to come.
The series went the full seven games, and behind a gutsy performance from Jeff Suppan, who would later be named the series MVP, the Cardinals stayed within striking distance. When the ninth inning came, so too did the first of many legendary moments between the battery of Wainwright and Molina.
Molina put the Cardinals ahead with a two-run homer off of Aaron Heilman, which put the team three outs away from the World Series and silenced the New York crowd. But the Cardinals weren't out of the woods.
Wainwright loaded the bases with two outs, and had to face Cardinals' postseason nemesis and future Cardinal Carlos Beltran . With one strike left, Wainwright unleashed his signature curveball, freezing Beltran and securing a trip to the World Series and a date with the Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers, much like the Mets, were heavily favored. But that didn't stop the Cardinals. The Game 1 pitching matchup was skewed in favor of Detroit, who had Justin Verlander on the mound. The Cardinals countered with Anthony Reyes, who had just five regular season wins.
To the shock of the entire baseball world, Reyes pitched the game of his life and easily outclassed Verlander to give the Cardinals the early lead in the series.
The Cardinals led 2-1 in the series after a gem from Carpenter in Game 3, but fell into an early hole in Game 4. That was when Eckstein began to shine. He drove in the Cardinals' first run to spark the comeback and ended up with three more hits on the night, but none was bigger than his last one. A clutch RBI double put the Cardinals ahead 5-4, and Wainwright held the Tigers at bay.
Finally, the Cardinals were one win away from a title. Starting Game 5 was Jeff Weaver, who had been picked up off the scrap heap at the trade deadline after struggling with the Los Angeles Angels.
Weaver had turned things around after joining the Cardinals and had been a pillar for the rotation in the postseason, and like Reyes in Game 1, Weaver delivered a memorable performance, allowing just two runs over eight innings and striking out nine batters.
All that was left was for Wainwright to secure the final three outs. He had stepped into the closer's role in September when Jason Isringhausen got hurt and had been a revelation in the playoffs. After allowing a few runners to reach base, Wainwright settled down and struck out Brandon Inge, completing the Cardinals' improbable journey to their 10th World Series title.
Wainwright and Molina shared another iconic moment to kick off the celebration, and Eckstein was named the World Series MVP.
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