Tough act to follow

That was quite a game -- a little bit of everything, including improbably good pitching from Oliver Perez (who, as we kept being reminded, had the worst season ERA of any game-seven starter ever), a game-winning home run from the Cards' lightest-hitting regular during the season, an edge-of-your-seat finish where that last pitch could have ended the game either way, and of course The Catch.

A Hollywood scriptwriter, of course, would have arranged things slightly differently. In the bottom of the 6th (the half-inning following the one in which Endy Chavez robbed Scott Rolen), when Chavez came to bat with two out and the bases loaded -- an at-bat made possible by an egregious and unusual error by Rolen -- he would have run the count full and fouled off six or seven pitches before doing one of two things: (1) gotten a hit that put the Mets ahead for good, or (2) hit a bullet down the third-base line, and been robbed of a double by a spectacular play by Rolen.

But, this being real life, he hit a routine pop fly to center on the first pitch.

I can't help wondering if, after that game, the World Series will feel sort of anticlimactic, as it did (despite the satisfactory result) in 2004.

Now I have to shift gears and start rooting against the Cardinals again.