Look, we get it. If Kolten Wong's career had ended after the 2013 World Series, his legacy would have been simple ... That's the guy who got picked off in Game 4.
And you know what? Fair enough. On baseball's biggest stage, with a power hitter at the plate and two outs in the ninth inning, Wong committed one of the grandest sins possible. When he was tagged out, the Red Sox evened the Serious and would take Games 5 and 6, too.
But as I'm sure someone mentioned at the time, the Cardinals nearly lost that game already. With a two-run lead and needing just one more out, the Red Sox' historically based chance of winning was 96 percent. Granted, you might adjust that number to account for Carlos Beltran's (then) tremendous hitting talents ... but you might just as logically adjust the other direction for Koji Uehara's tremendous pitching talents. Uehara had given up just five homers all year and wasn't likely to give up another. Or much of anything else.
So yeah, it was a mistake and it was a mental mistake, for which we've little patience. Again, fair enough.
But now let's look at this season.
Without Kolten Wong, the Cardinals probably don't win the National League Central.
In Game 3 of their Division Series, Wong hit a tie-breaking homer in the seventh inning. Before the home run, the Cardinals had a 69-percent chance of winning; after, it was 89 percent.
In Game 2 of their League Championship Series, Wong hit a walk-off homer in the ninth inning. Which pushed the Cardinals' win expectancy from 62.5 percent to 110 percent.
I don't mean to suggest we should ever forget the pickoff. Rather, I will suggest that Kolten Wong, like most big-time baseball players, wasn't scarred forever by his momentary misstep.
