Now that the first game of the 2011 World Series will be played tonight, who will I be rooting for?

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I tend to usually stick with the National League teams, but as much I adore Christine Coleman, who is lead writer for Aerys St. Louis Cardinals site:  Aaron Miles’ Fastball, I just cannot bring myself to root for the Cardinals.   Call it sour grapes or tell me I’m being all bah humbug…blah blah blah…I just can’t do it.

For starters, I can’t stand Tony LaRussa.  His smug attitude and constant whining are beyond grating.  And when the Phillies were playing the Cards in the NLDS, TBS insisted on interviewing La Russa during EVERY single game.  I found myself yelling at the television, “ENOUGH ALREADY!” Sorry I just don’t find him the least bit interesting.

Oh and that damn Rally Squirrel!  Another thing that was overblown to scary proportions.  And yes I admit, I initially fed right into the hype.  But the moment that squirrel became the Cards’ pseudo-mascot, the squirrel* was road kill in my eyes.

I can’t however say that I despise any of the Cardinals players. As much as I would like to find a reason to dislike them, other than eliminating the Phillies, none of them are unlikable (at least in my opinion). So basically the elimination was such a tough pill to swallow, that I would probably root against any team that had knocked the Phillies out.  It just happens that this time its the Cards.

So this National League girl is jumping ship and hopping on the American League train.  At least for the World Series I am.

And I’ll admit too, that I’m a Josh Hamilton fan.  Ever since I watched the HBO Real Sports episode that featured him and told the story of how he overcame his inner demons and got his life back together, I had a whole new respect for him.  And C.J. Wilson is cute!  Yes I’m a true sports fan but I do have fan girl moments, I won’t deny it.  But in all seriousness, I read a great article on him in Sports Illustrated magazine and found him to be intriguing. Sadly he hasn’t been pitching too well as of late, so hopefully for the Rangers’ sake he pitches the best he’s ever done.

I also have a couple of good friends, who live in Texas and this past weekend they just happened to be visiting New Jersey. We met for lunch and I congratulated them on their team’s second year in a row World Series appearance.  They are originally from NJ so they still like the Phillies and were hoping that the Rangers would be versing the Phils instead of the Cards.  Oh well, such is life.  There’s always next year!  *sigh*

To watch the HBO Real Sports episode with Josh Hamilton, click here.

To read the Sports Illustrated article on C.J. Wilson, click here.

*Disclaimer:  I absolutely love animals, including squirrels.  The usage of the word roadkill was just for dramatic purposes, I wish no harm to that furry little critter.

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