Johnson will return in 2012 [updated]

Associated Press photo

Davey Johnson has lofty expectations for the Nationals next season.

Updated at 1:40 p.m.

Davey Johnson knew for sure he wanted to return to manage the Nationals during the final weeks of September, as his club surged toward its best record in six years. And now that he knows he'll officially be back next spring, the veteran skipper isn't afraid to let the public know what he believes this team can accomplish in 2012.

"Winning the pennant. Winning the division. Winning the National League," Johnson said Monday morning after the club formally announced his 2012 option has been picked up. "I couldn't have said that last spring. I didn't think the talent was ready. But after being there and seeing the progress that some of the young players made, I think we definitely can contend. And I would be sorely disappointed if we didn't do just that."

Strong words from Johnson, who will be the majors' oldest manager next season at 69, but not out of character for someone who has always expected big things from his teams.

The owner of a .588 career winning percentage (and one World Series ring) over parts of 15 seasons with the Mets, Reds, Orioles, Dodgers and Nationals, Johnson has rarely managed a team that didn't enter a
Read more

Which free agents should the Nats re-sign?

US Presswire photo

Livan Hernandez is free to sign with another team beginning Thursday.

Baseball wastes no time transitioning from the postseason to the offseason. Nearly 150 players filed for free agency yesterday, a mere formality that allows those players to begin negotiating with all clubs on Thursday.

Unlike the NFL, the NBA and NHL, there typically isn't a mad rush of signings the moment free agency begins. Truth be told, the market really won't start heating up until the days leading into the Dec. 5-8 winter meetings in Dallas.

So there's time for teams to contemplate which, if any, of their departing free agents they might want to attempt to re-sign. And there's time for those players to gauge how much interest there is from other clubs before deciding whether to return to their 2011 homes.

The Nationals do face some interesting decisions among their eight players who became free agents yesterday: right-handers Chien-Ming

A fitting end to an improbable season

US Presswire photo

The Cardinals won their 11th (and most surprising) World Series title last night.

There have been improbable World Series champions over the years. The 1960 Pirates, who were outscored by the Yankees 55-27 yet somehow won the whole thing on Bill Mazeroski's Game 7 blast. The 1969 Miracle Mets, who took down a supposedly superior Orioles squad. The 1988 Dodgers, who weren't supposed to be able to compete with the A's until a gimpy Kirk Gibson made history.

The 2011 Cardinals, though, may have topped them all on the improbability scale. It's not only the fact they made up 10 1/2 games in the NL wild-card standings over the season's five weeks. Go back to spring training when they learned co-ace Adam Wainwright needed Tommy John surgery and would miss the season. Everyone wrote them off right then and there.

Then flash-forward to the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday night, with St. Louis one strike away from being eliminated by the Rangers in a World Series that might have wound up being known best for Tony La Russa's Game 5 bullpen phone screw-up than anything else.

Who's going to remember the bullpen phone saga now, or for the rest of eternity, after the Cardinals stormed back to win Game 6 in epic fashion and then finished off Texas last night in Game 7? St. Louis

World Series Game 7: Rangers at Cardinals

US Presswire photo

Busch Stadium hosts the final game of the 2011 season tonight.

And so, it has all come down to this. A baseball season that has featured so many twists and turns and dramatic moments will be decided in the 36th Game 7 in World Series history. A good number of those previous Game 7's are some of the most famous in baseball lore. The Senators' 12-inning win in 1924 for their lone championship. Bill Mazeroski's ninth-inning homer in 1960. Jack Morris throwing 10 scoreless innings for the Twins in 1991. Luis Gonzalez's game-winning blooper off Mariano Rivera in 2001.

Some important facts to keep in mind: The home team is 19-16 overall but has won the last eight Game 7's. The last road team to win one of these? The 1979 Pirates in Baltimore. Also, pitching usually reigns supreme. In the last five Game 7's, the winning team has scored no more than four runs.

And some key things to know about tonight's game: Chris Carpenter will start on three days' rest for St. Louis. Matt Harrison will start for Texas on five days' rest. Both starters will be on short leashes, but you wouldn't think Derek Holland is available for the Rangers after pitching out of the bullpen last night. Matt Holliday is off the Cardinals' roster with a wrist injury, so Allen Craig is in the lineup in left field. Also, struggling Rafael Furcal has been dropped to seventh, with Ryan Theriot leading off for Tony La Russa. Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli are both banged up but playing for the Rangers.

Who's going to win? Common sense says you can't pick against the home team, and certainly the Cardinals have all the momentum (not to mention their ace on the mound). That said, there's something about this Rangers team that leads me to believe they aren't sunk quite yet. My head says St. Louis; my gut says Texas.

No matter what, this promises to be something special. It's the first World Series Game 7 since 2002, and it's coming at the end of one of the greatest postseasons we've ever seen. If you're a baseball fan, savor every moment of this. I sure know I will...

107th WORLD SERIES - GAME 7
TEXAS RANGERS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 8:05 p.m.
TV: Fox
Radio: WTEM (980 AM), WWXT (92.7 FM), WWXX (94.3 FM), XM 89
Weather: Clear, 51 degrees, Wind 5 mph out to CF

STARTING LINEUPS
RANGERS
2B Ian Kinsler
SS Elvis Andrus
CF Josh Hamilton
1B Michael Young

An iconic night, one more to go

US Presswire photo

David Freese provided a World Series moment for the ages last night.

This, this right here, is what makes baseball the greatest game ever invented.

No other sport could produce what we witnessed last night in St. Louis. The anticipation. The tension. The elation. The anguish. The back-and-forth swings of emotion that left us all glued to our TV until well past midnight.

The sense of history that allowed us to understand the significance of this Game 6 in comparison to the handful of other great ones we've seen before (1975, 1986, 1991). And an awareness of the personal touch that allowed us to fully appreciate Joe Buck's call of David Freese's 11th-inning home run, an homage to his father's identical call of Kirby Puckett's comparable game winner in Minnesota 20 years ago.

Seriously, if you couldn't relish all that at 12:38 a.m. as Mark Lowe's pitch connected off Freese's bat and sailed into the night ... well, I'm