Lately, a realhouse of cards
The World Series tonight returns to St. Louis for the first time since . . .
Jason Varitek jumped into the arms of Keith Foulke.
Two years. It has been two years since the Red Sox' pigpile in the middle of the diamond at old Busch Stadium. Two years since Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore twirled and kissed on the infield grass while the Red Sox celebrated all around them. Two years since the Sox drowned in a sea of Mount Pleasant, 2003 Brut Imperial in the visitors' clubhouse. Two years since Manny RamÃrez was named World Series MVP.
It has been two years since the good people of St. Louis offered hospitality we never have seen in professional sports. In October 2004, ever-loyal Cardinals fans allowed Red Sox Nation to invade St. Louis without resistance. Rather than fight, they tipped their classic ballcaps and let Boston fans celebrate. There was no taunting from the polite Midwesterners and we forever will thank them for graciously allowing the Nation use of their house for Boston's victory party. It was the ultimate civic demonstration of class and sportsmanship.
In the late innings of Game 4, when defeated Cardinals fans started to leave, gatekeepers at Busch waved ticketless New Englanders into the stadium. This is one of the reasons there were so many Sox fans down by the third base dugout after accidental hero Doug Mientkiewicz put a padlock on the ball he caught for the final out.
Tony La Russa is still St. Louis's manager, but there are only six Cardinals players who were on the '04 World Series active roster when the Red Sox made history at Busch. Jim Edmonds, Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, So Taguchi, and Jeff Suppan are the only active 2006 Cardinals who live with the memory of the Sox dancing on their front lawn.
No doubt there are plenty of employees at the Adam's Mark Hotel who still remember hundreds of Red Sox fans gathering in the dark at the intersection of Pine and Fourth streets at 2:30 a.m. Oct. 28, 2004. The long-suffering Boston legions were crying and cheering as Sox players and their families checked out of the team hotel and made their way to buses that would take them to the airport for the flight home to the Hub.
That's what it was like the last time the World Series was played in St. Louis. The Red Sox dominated the entire Series -- never trailing during their four-game sweep -- and Red Sox Nation occupied the sleepy town by the giant arch spanning the Mississippi. If didn't matter if you went to Mike Shannon's steakhouse on Market Street or the incomparable Charlie Gitto's On the Hill (famous for toasted ravioli); the city was packed with Red Sox fans still hung over from the Yankees miracle and waiting for inevitable victory over the Cardinals.
It's odd because the Cardinals won a whopping 105 games in 2004 and would have been favorites in most any other Fall Classic, but everyone knew there was no stopping the Red Sox Express after the Yankees series. The Cardinals were mere props and they knew it. So did their fans.
Funny how that keeps happening. In 1985 the Cardinals lost the World Series in seven games against the Royals. St. Louis was robbed on a bogus call by umpire Don Denkinger and baseball America embraced baby-faced Royals righthander Bret Saberhagen. Two years later, the Cardinals were erased in a seven-game series against the Twins. This was America's introduction to Metrodome Mania and the Cardinals were no match for the Homer Hankies and weird science of the Twins' hideous ballyard. Minnesota won all four home games, and the World Series.
Now it is the Detroit Tigers who are all the rage. Once more, the Cardinals are mere foils standing in the way of a great story. Outside St. Louis, the Tigers are America's team of choice. The Tigers lost 119 games three years ago. They represent a city that has been reduced to a Third World country. They've got a plain-speakin', chain-smokin', old-school manager. Oh, and they stunned the $200 million payroll Yankees. Neutral fans everywhere want the Tigers.
So once again, La Russa and his guys are cardboard cutouts waiting to be knocked over. The Cardinals managed to win the first game of the 2006 World Series in fine fashion, but Genius Tony didn't put up much of a fight when it looked like Tigers lefthander Kenny Rogers might be doctoring the baseball in Game 2. It's quite possible that La Russa let his friendship with Tigers manager Jim Leyland get the better of him. You know where nice guys finish.
It's not like St. Louis is a town lacking baseball tradition. Once the western-most outpost in the big leagues, St. Louis has played host to more World Series games (52 -- 49 for the Cardinals, three for the Browns) than any city other than New York. The Cardinals (and the Philadelphia/Oakland Athletics) have won nine World Series, three more than any franchise other than the Yankees. The Cardinals drew 3.4 million fans to their new park this year.
The World Series returns to St. Louis tonight and if you follow the Red Sox, it sparks a wonderful memory. It has been two years since the lunar eclipse, the blood-red moon, and the celestial event -- more than a thousand miles to the southwest of Boston -- that forever changed the lives of those who live and die with the fortunes of the Red Sox.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. 
