by Tommy Gimler
For the sixth time since 2004, the St. Louis Cardinals are heading to the NLCS, due in large part to Adam Wainwright being the anti-Tony Romo and hurling a gutsy nine-inning gem last night that brought an end to Pittsburgh’s storybook season. But it was third baseman David Freese who once again got things rolling with a two-run bomb in the second inning that was all the offense the Redbirds would need.
Heading into the Cardinals’ NLCS matchup with the Dodgers, there’s no denying that Freese is a big-time, big-dick postseason player who still owns the all-time record for most total bases in a single postseason (50 in 2011). Despite hitting .188 through five postseason games this year, Freese still owns a .325 career batting average with 41 hits, 7 home runs, and 29 RBI in just 36 postseason games.
If at this point you still find yourself asking, “Who in the hell is David Freese,” you’re not alone.
From April to September, Freese is a slightly above-average third baseman who usually misses an extended period of time due to injury and every now and then adds a DUI to his resume. After hitting .293 with a career-high 20 home runs in 2012, Freese took a big step backward this season, hitting just .262 (12th among third baseman) with 9 home runs (27th, just as many as Cody Ransom). And this year, it seemed as though his regular season mediocrity had carried over to the postseason, as Freese had just two hits in his first 13 at-bats until the big two-run blast last night.
But this isn’t the first time baseball has seen somebody make their mark in the postseason after basically leaving a skid mark on their regular season. Here’s a short list of other guys who, like Freese, basically waited until October to become ballplayers:
Mark Lemke – Atlanta Braves
In the 1991 regular season, the Braves’ second baseman hit a very turdish .234 in 136 games. Lemke wasn’t even the full-time guy for the Braves, as he logged just 269 at-bats, probably because he sucked. But in 13 postseason games that year, Lemke hit .318 with three triples, two doubles, and an OBP of .400. And to show ’91 was no fluke, Lemke sucked ass the entire 1992 regular season, hitting just .227. But when the postseason rolled around, Lemke had 11 more hits. And finally in 1996, based on his resume, his .255 regular season batting average, while still dog shit, seemed rather impressive. And when the calendar hit October, Lemke once again heated up, finishing the postseason with 20 hits, 9 RBI, and a .308 average…
Jose Offerman – Boston Red Sox
Between 1996 and 1999, Jose Offerman was actually pretty good, hitting .303 and averaging 24 stolen bases a season. But outside of that, his regular season career was a bigger bust than After Earth. Listen, when people google your name and the first two videos that pop up are one of you attacking a minor league pitcher with a baseball bat and another of you punching an umpire in the Dominican Winter League, it says all you need to know about your play on the field. However, in ten postseason games for the Red Sox in 1999, Offerman hit .429 with an OBP of .520 and OPS of 1.091…
Lloyd McClendon – Pittsburgh Pirates
To sum up McClendon’s career regular season stats as dog shit is a bigger understatement than me saying I would love to make out with Kate Upton. I mean, everybody knows that I would eat pistachio ice cream out of her asshole, and I hate pistachios. In eight disappointing years with Cincinnati, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, McClendon hit just .244 and never played more than 92 games in a season. But in the 1992 NLCS against Atlanta, McClendon was hotter that Upton scissoring Mila Kunis on an altar, hitting .727 with an OBP of .750 and Melissa McCarthy-esque OPS of 1.932. It would prove to be not enough to advance the Pirates to the World Series, however, as Barry Bonds failed to throw out speedster Sid Bream at home plate. In Bonds’ defense, though, that was way before he started taking steroids…