It’s the top of the 9th, elimination game. You’re team is down 2 runs. You’ve got to do what you can. So you knock on the table twice, and toss back your 3rd, maybe 4th rally shot. Who’s counting? Suddenly with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9th, the ball gets launched in to right field. It’s tied.

Then in the 10th, the opposing team takes a 2 run lead. All is lost. Better up the rally shot pace if we’re going to get out of this one.

Bottom of the 9th. Two outs again, down 1 now. Toss back another one. Running low on booze. Things aren’t looking great. 2 strikes again, and…THERE IT IS!

Hold them in the 11th. Time for another shot. Someone mentions Game 7. Better knock on wood, twice. Suddenly, the ball is going back. Way back. It’s over.

That’s my contribution to the Cardinals 2011 Game 6 win. And you know what the thing is? It didn’t matter. Those shots didn’t make Freese hit either of those balls any farther. And the Rick Ankiel shirsey didn’t help Lance Berkman find the hole for that RBI single.

That’s why when the Cardinals take the field tonight in Boston, it’s not going to come down to people knocking on wood around St. Louis or how many rally shots you knock back. It’s going to come down to the 9 guys on the field.

You don’t think there was some guy in Texas shotgunning Alamo beer in the parking lot of his propane tank sales office because he was there when he heard Nolan Ryan was taking over as team CEO? Because there was. There was probably 5 or 10 of them, and you know what?

But here’s the thing, I’m not going to stop. Because we beat that guy. We offset his mojo enough to make that line drive by Freese get over Nelson Cruz’s glove. Good job St. Louis.

So you’ll find me Saturday, in Busch for Game 3, in our normal standing room only spot. I’ll have my playoff drinking glove on, one of a rotation of 3 Birds shirts, and I’ll be 4-5 beers deep while scoring and knocking on the Cardinals pencil I’ve used since Game 5. Because I’m a living Bud Light commercial, and I don’t care because it works, damn it.

Now get the rally shots ready, because the World Series starts tonight, and there’s some guy in Boston watching Good Will Hunting and blasting Good Vibrations on his boombox getting ready for it. What are you doing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eSN8Cwit_s

Seriously, we can’t get beat by someone listening to that. So grab an AB product and bust out your lucky drinking gloves. We’ve got to show Boston how we feel about their apples.

Birds.

(Yes, I did knock on wood after writing this article.)