St. Louis, MO

It likely won't make the sting of a Game 7 loss any easier to bear, but Texas Rangers catcher Mike Napoli had one of the best World Series' in recent memory.

The Texas Rangers were one strike away from a championship twice in Game 6 and that's how close Napoli was to being the series MVP.

It was not to be as the Rangers lost the World Series for the second straight season, but it certainly was not fault of Napoli.

Napoli etched his name in the baseball history books alongside some of the legends of the game with his performance against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Napoli hit .350 with a pair of homers and 10 RBI against the Cardinals. The only other player to have four multi-RBI games in a World Series is Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, who did it in a seven-game loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960.

Mantle (12) and fellow Yankees great Bobby Richardson (11) - the MVP of the '60 World Series - are the only players with more RBI in a single World Series.

"I want to be a complete player," Napoli said after Game 5. "I'm not just here trying to be an offensive player. My job is to get pitchers through innings, give them a quality start, try to get us a win. I'm trying hard on the defensive side. That's my main goal. And then when I come up to hit, I go to hit."

Hit he did, but Napoli also showed he is a complete player, making clucth plays on defense to go along with his performance at the plate.

Napoli threw out two runners at second base in Game 5, and picked off Matt Holliday at third with the bases loaded in the sixth inning of Game 6.

Not bad for a player who was traded from the Los Angeles Angels to the Toronto Blue Jays in the offseason and then flipped by Toronto to Texas for reliever Frank Francisco.

When spring training rolled around, Napoli looked like he would be the third catcher and part-time first baseman for the Rangers but he showed he could handle pitchers, play defense and hit.

He was the backup catcher before spring training ended and kept earning more and more playing time. Napoli then batted .429 with eight homers and 16 RBI in September and stayed just as hot in the postseason.

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