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The San Francisco Giants defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 on Monday, completing an improbable comeback from down 3-1 in the the series. Cardinals fans have to feel some disappointment, as their team was just one game away from advancing to the World Series with a chance to repeat as champions.
The loss will certainly sting for some time, but baseball is a cycle and spring will bring a new season with new hopes again. Dan Moore of Cardinals blog Viva El Birdos wrote about the nature of baseball, and how its patterns will help him move past Monday's heartbreak:
Eventually I'll remember Pete Kozma's sloppy defense, but I won't remember each sloppy play; I'll remember Chris Carpenter not having it, but it'll be in the context of all the times he's had it. The baseball season is too long to remember too much—that, to me, is its design. You can't wrap your arms all the way around the good parts forever, and there's no room to detail all the slights and the wrongs and the bad parts unless you're Tony La Russa. It's what I love about it. There's always more coming, a deluge of numbers and moments and nights at Busch Stadium and gamethreads, for that matter, and each season requires you, eventually, to forget.
The Giants don't have to worry about forgetting just yet. They are still alive and have a chance to win their second World Series championship in three seasons. The series begins on Wednesday, with the Detroit Tigers visiting AT&T Park for Games 1 and 2. The Tigers are in their first World Series since 2006, and are looking for their first title since 1984.