BOSTON -- Some guys, they work overtime to diminish the October spotlight and reduce the grand stage to just another game.
Adam Wainwright, primed to start Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night for the St. Louis Cardinals, does not. And good for him.
"I don't want to make it like an ordinary game," Wainwright said on the eve of the Fall Classic opener here. "I want this to mean even more than regular games."
Good start. And then Wainwright got even better.
"What I've found throughout my playoff career so far is that I respond really well when the adrenaline really kicks in. I love that," Wainwright continued. "The crowd gets louder. I get more fired up.
"I can't tell you how cool it is to pitch in front of great crowds like we're going to have tomorrow here in Boston, and like we're going to have in St. Louis with that crisp, cool air, that Octobery kind of air, where you know it's playoff baseball."
Octobery? Beautiful.
"This is my favorite time of year, for many reasons," he said. "There's NFL football on TV, there's college football on TV, there's hunting season, there's playoff baseball.
"It does not get much better than that."
So pour yourself a mug of apple cider, pull on your favorite sweater and pull up a chair. We've got a World Series to play.