Is there a numerologist in the house? Six is the number so good at stirring up World Series magic, and the game that has midwifed so many memories. Move over Carlton Fisk, Joe Carter, Don Denkinger; time to throw another classic on the pile.
By the time the Texas Rangers had blown their fifth lead late Thursday, you knew this night would belong in the Game 6 pantheon. By the time the St. Louis Cardinals had twice saved their season after being down to their last strike, and then won in the 11th with a centerfield shot by hometown kid David Freese, you knew it met all the requirements.
And it is a high bar, Game 6. If a World Series gets that far, pay attention. Good chance something memorable is about to happen, and not always the most pleasant.
Bill Buckner's error? Game 6.
Carter's World Series-winning homer as he did the hop, step and jump around the bases in Toronto? Fisk's 12th inning shot off the Fenway Park foul pole, as he waved it fair with all his might? Denkinger's blown call at first base that opened the door for the Kansas City Royals against St. Louis? All game 6's.
Kirby Puckett's 11th inning walk-off homer to keep Minnesota alive against Atlanta was Game 6. So were Reggie Jackson's three home runs. And Josh Beckett finishing off the Yankees 2-0 in Yankee Stadium at the age of 23.
The last World Series to go seven games before now was 2002. The San Francisco Giants blew a 5-0 lead in the eighth inning in Game 6.
"We've always come back from tough losses," Giants manager Dusty Baker said that night. "We've been doing it over and over and over."
Gee, he sounded just like Texas' Ron Washington Thursday night.
San Francisco lost Game 7, by the way.
Yes, numero seis is numero uno when it comes to World Series drama. And that even seeps to the lower rounds. Steve Bartman? Game 6.
One of the best parts about most of these game 6's is they created a Game 7. And the losers of such epics invariably have to get over their hangover in a hurry.
The Cardinals were the team left telling jokes Thursday night.
"It's the greatest," Lance Berkman said of his feeling after his down-to-the-last-strike single tied it for the Cardinals in the 10th inning. "Plus, you've built a little bank account of being able to come through, so that if I don't come through tomorrow, I can be like, 'Well, I came through in Game 6, what do you want from me?'"
After all this emotional back and forth, what's Game 7 feel like? Joe Torre managed in one of the most unforgettable seven-game World Series ever; the 2001 Yankees-Arizona battle when New York twice won on walk-off hits, and the Diamondbacks answered with a ninth-inning rally off Mariano Rivera.
About Game 7:
"I think you're so numb by that point," Torre said. "But there's been so much tension in the other six games that it's sort of a relief knowing that at the end of the day, we're going to find out.
"I know when you're leading three games to two, you want (Game 6) to be the last game. And if it isn't, it's a big letdown."
Speaking of the Rangers.
"When you're an underdog, every game's the last game."
Speaking of the Cardinals.
During a break between innings in the nervous Game 7 in Arizona, Torre went into the clubhouse — and there was George Steinbrenner, as he often was during tight games.
"He'd say, 'What do you think?' I'd usually say, 'We'll be all right.' But that night I wasn't sure," Torre remembered. "I said, 'I don't know that I can tell you.'
"Because we couldn't hit."
The Diamondbacks beat Rivera 3-2 in the ninth.
St. Louis and Texas had a chance for such a last act Friday because of all the dramatics that came the night before. You wondered what they'd have left.
As Berkman noted, "It's not fun going up there with the season on the line."
Fun watching it, though. Game 6 fills the World Series gallery with masterpieces. There's another new one on the wall.
