JUPITER, Fla. -- A year or so ago, while working on a book about the St. Louis Cardinals, I pulled out a DVD copy of Game 7 of the 2004 National League Championship Series and a stopwatch.

Since seeing the moment live in person, I often wondered exactly how long center fielder Jim Edmonds had from contact to catch when he raced down Brad Ausmus' certain double in the left-center gap. It took a half dozen ... a dozen ... maybe more ... watches of the same catch to measure the exact time.

Eventually, I came up with 3 1/2 seconds.

Later, I approached Edmonds, who was then with another team, about the catch and the homer (and, also, that whole game ball thing in '06), and his answers formed the backbone for this "chapter":

Had Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds not made the daring catch in Game 7, his dramatic home run in Game 6 would have been lost to the yellowing snapshots and one-night grandstands of Octobers past.

Less than 24 hours after he forced a final and deciding game in the 2004 National League Championship Series with a 12th-inning, walk-off home run, Edmonds was furiously sprinting, lunging, leaping, extending for a line drive smoked by Brad Ausmus that threatened to blow open Game 7. As his cleats ripped through the Busch Stadium centerfield and his legs burned, Edmonds had one thought echoing through his skull: This was the catch that would determine the game, the series ... the season.

"I remember the moment. I remember the situation. It was a pivotal point in the game. The only other thing I can remember was what I was thinking," Edmonds says. "I do remember when the ball was in the air, I do remember thinking that if you don't catch this ball this is going to be it. I was running and running and that was going through my head. ‘This is probably the game right here if I don't make this play.'"

Though it began as a mismatch - the 105-win Cardinals had won the National League Central with a 13-game gap on Houston - the 2004 NLCS became a classic. Every one of the seven games had at least one lead change. The visiting team scored in the first inning in six of the seven games, yet the home team won every game. The series was a showcase of burgeoning stars, pitting Houston's Carlos Beltran against the eventual series MVP, the Cardinals' Albert Pujols. It started in the first inning of the first game of the series when Beltran cranked a two-run home run for a quick 2-0 lead and, in the bottom of the inning, Pujols answered with a two-run home run to knot the game, 2-2. Three of the seven games were decided in the last at-bat of the winning team. All seven were decided by three runs or fewer. When Jeff Kent's ninth-inning, three-run, game-winning home run provided the only runs of Game 5 the series returned to St. Louis with the Astros having scored one more run total than the Cardinals, 24-23. On Oct. 21, 2004, the Cardinals turned to their stalwart starter, Matt Morris, to pitch them back into the series. Houston had to cobble together a start, and when Morris left the game, the Cardinals led, 4-3. Four innings later, Jeff Bagwell's RBI single in the ninth tied it and gave Houston the chance to win the pennant in extra innings.

As the game grew longer, the innings tenser and the crowd louder, the atmosphere had a tang of electricity.

It was tailor-made for Edmonds.

The Cardinals landed the dazzling center fielder from the Anaheim Angels in a spring training deal before the 2000 season. The trade became the first flicker of one of the most prosperous eras for the Cardinals. Edmonds drove in 100 runs in three of eight seasons in St. Louis, averaged 30 homers a season and won six consecutive Gold Gloves. He came to the Cardinals with the "Hollywood" label and a showboat reputation to match. His circus catches were stock footage for any B-roll on defensive gems. And his flair for the dramatic only underscored the nickname he was reluctant to embrace.

Throwing despite his busted hand, Tavarez pitched two scoreless innings in relief that night to carry the game to Edmonds' at-bat in the 12th. Houston reliever Dan Miceli faced the heart of the Cardinals' order - the "MV3" of Pujols, Scott Rolen and Edmonds. Pujols walked on four pitches. Rolen popped up to the catcher in foul territory. Edmonds took the stage.

He heard nothing.

"When you're in the moment, things just seem to disappear in your head," Edmonds says. "I can't remember even hearing the crowd. I don't remember the swing of the bat. I've seen the video and the pictures. It seems like that is how I remember it. I figured somebody was going to win the game eventually."

With his signature upper-cut swing, Edmonds launched Miceli's second pitch to him deep and gone into the chilly night for a 6-4 victory. Edmonds' clutched his fists and double-pumped as he watched the ball reach the right-field stands. Days before he ended the 3-hour, 54-minute, riveting game, Edmonds had told reporters that "it's the postseason ... when people do superhuman things." But the impact of his heroics would have faded if not for his catch the next night.

For Game 7, Houston turned to seven-time Cy Young Award-winner Roger Clemens. Opposite Clemens was Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan, dueling Clemens for the fifth time that season. He did not in any of the previous four. The Astros' Craig Biggio led off the game with a home run, and in the second inning Houston threatened to bully Suppan into surrendering the pennant. Kent walked and Jose Vizcaino singled. With one out and Clemens on deck, catcher Brad Ausmus had a chance to bust the game open. Suppan fell behind and fed Ausmus a fastball that he ripped to the left-center gap.
Cardinals announcer Mike Shannon likes to joke that his teammate Curt Flood had such success in center because he played it starting with his back against the wall. Edmonds, Shannon kids, plays center by starting at second base. Ausmus' scorched liner seemed destined to land in left-center and skip to the wall, clearing the bases for a 3-0 lead. From shallow center, Edmonds didn't appear to have a chance.

But he had a great jump.

He had even better closing speed.

His dive had instinctual timing.

And he snared the ball.

Outfitted with a microphone for the game, Houston coach John Tamargo said as Ausmus returned to the dugout: "How in the world did he make that play?" From shallow center, Edmonds had to break quickly to his right and back into the gap after Ausmus made contact. Edmonds made the catch running and lunging with his back to home plate. He had all of 3 ½ seconds from contact to catch.

"It pretty much changed the game," Ausmus said.

In the sixth inning, Pujols tied the game with a double off Clemens and one pitch later Rolen delivered the pennant with a two-run home run off Clemens. Those hits provided the deciding runs, but it was Edmonds' dramatics, two nights running, that delivered the first pennant in 17 years.

"It could have been anybody," he said. "I'm glad it was me."

The above is taken from the book 100 Things Cardinals Fans Should Know or Do Before They Die, which you can see here at Amazon.com.

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