Love Game 5s.

Both teams with HFA in their league need it right away.

by sheer luck I managed to capture The Play...

Busch Stadium: 10/5/11, Cardinals vs Phillies

by sheer luck I managed to capture The Play...

I didn't see the squirrel in any of those....

but seriously, nice work. You must have a kickass lens on whatever it is you're using...

/squirrel added

I snagged a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS for 'only' 1400 and change back in January 2009 when the world economy was in shambles. The same lens now runs over 2 grand.

I feel like MLB.com is really starting to strain for their headline puns.

by sheer luck I managed to capture The Play...

That's some kick-ass photography. Nicely done.

Also, three Game 5s in two days.

The headline must be a pun, but I've slept on it and still can't figure it out. And why is there an apostrophe before "birds"?

The headline must be a pun, but I've slept on it and still can't figure it out. And why is there an apostrophe before "birds"?

There was a song in the 1970s by the "Southern rock" band Lynyrd Skynyrd called "Free Bird" that was a huge hit. It was a live version and at the outset the vocalist asks the crowd, "What song is it you wanna hear?" and they answer in unison, "FREE BIRD!!" So "Free Bird" has since become a sort of catch phrase, often used to facetiously make a song request. Apparently, its ubiquity as a catch phrase is waning...

The apostrophe is because the writer has contracted Redbirds to 'birds. I don't think the apostrophe is necessary.

Musial6, how the heck did you get shots of: 1) Utley breaking from first, 2) Utley rounding second as he decides to steam toward third; 3) then BACK to Pujols coming off the bag to take the throw before throwing to third, and then 4) the actual play at 3rd?????

And is it hard to keep a lens that long steady, or does the lens itself take care of all that?

Ah, I thought "Freese" was included to make a pun based on "Freeze". It didn't look quite like they were going for "Freezer burns", but it didn't look like anything else, and the apostrophe suggested that maybe they were trying to make it look like some word other than "bird".

The photography is the real story here.

Yes, lame headline, but, yes, photo sequence #25-28 is especially fantastic...hats off, Musial6. One of the most striking plays in recent memory.

That was an exciting play. Initially I thought Utley made a stupid decision, which would very unlike him, but on the replay it was clear that the play was quite close at third even with Pujols coming 2 steps of the bag and having the momentum to throw.

Musial6, that is one hell of a website you've got there. I've just sent a link to my longtime Cardinals fan friend here in Washington, and told him to pass it around to anyone else he knows in the DC Stan Musial Society chapter.

There is now a Wikipedia page for the Rally Squirrel...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_Squirrel

It has a generic grey squirrel picture, so something like pic 23 would really help tell the story.

Amazing luck in capturing The Play. I'd just returned to my seat, and had photographed several shots of Jackson throwing over to first. Finally I decided to stay on Utley/Pujols in anticipation of another pickoff throw, but Jackson went ahead and threw a pitch, so I got Utley leaving with the pitch instead...I stayed with Utley (ignoring the ball in play) and by chance picked up Furcal's throw as Utley rounds second. I then go back to Pujols for the play at first and get him coming off the bag - then was fortunate to get a nice shot of Utley dead meat at third.