When I was putting the finishing touches to this second volume of Cardinal baseball IQ during the first week of the 2011 MLB season, it seemed like this would be a “lost” season for the Redbirds.  Their pitching ace, Adam Wainwright had already undergone a season-ending elbow operation, and their franchise player, Albert Pujols clearly seemed distracted by the largely unsuccessful contract negotiations that left his future with the Cardinals in doubt.  As Pujols stumbled out of the gate, the only thing he consistently did offensively was leading the league in grounding into double plays.

Strangely enough, as the season progressed through May and into June, the Redbirds somehow managed to win more often than not, despite the continued offensive struggles from its star player, and despite a bullpen that blew more saves than any other team in either league.  Just when Pujols started to get hot with the bat around the middle of June, the team’s chances for post season play seemed to fade away for good when King Albert suffered a broken arm that would put him on the shelf for nearly a month.  By the time his arm healed enough to get his bat back into the lineup, the team was beginning to fall well behind a hot rival Milwaukee in the Central Division, and Atlanta seemed to be a shoe-in for the NL Wild Card spot.

When the front office shipped the talented Colby Rasmus to Toronto for some much needed pitching help towards the end of July, the team continued to struggle through most of August; by the 25th of August, the Cards were a distant 10 1/2 games behind the Braves in the Wild Card chase.  However, in the most incredible comeback in ML history, St Louis caught a slumping Atlanta team on the next to the last day of the season, clinching its post season berth in game 162, with a Chris Carpenter two-hit shutout of the Astros, coupled with the completion of Philadelphia’s three game sweep of the Braves in Atlanta.  This impossible conclusion to the regular season set the stage to what would be an amazing post season run, culminating in a thrilling Seven Game World Series triumph over the heavily favored Texas Rangers.  Twice, in Game Six, the Cards were one strike away from elimination, before David Freese’s 11th inning walk-off home run finally gave them another impossible victory.  It seemed that Game Seven was a foregone conclusion; the Rangers never had a chance.  We didn’t know it at the time, but the Cardinals’ 6-2 victory in Game Seven would be Tony La Russa’s farewell to his brilliant Hall of Fame managerial career.  It was a perfect ending for La Russa and his amazing never-say-die Redbirds; and it was a perfect ending to the perfectly flawed and wonderfully glorious 2011 World Championship season for our Cardinals.

Certainly, there is enough newly created trivia in this past season to fill volumes of new books; in the meantime, savor the Cardinal tradition of excellence in this latest challenge of your fan IQ.  I think you’ll enjoy this, almost as much as you enjoyed the conclusion to this wild and wacky 2011 campaign.  Good luck, and have fun, Cards fans!

St. Louis Cardinals IQ: The Ultimate Test of True Fandom (History & Trivia) (Volume 2)