Posted 10:10 PM by Matt
MORE GAME NOTES, 49ers 5 Cards 1

• I agree that Dan Haren's performance was mostly encouraging. The only discouraging elements were that he was up in the zone a lot (which he often got away with because he's got good velocity) and he gave up several line drives right at people and deep fly balls that our capable outfield could run down. We really need this kid to be a second half surprise, because what are the chances that Tomko, Stephenson, and Simontacchi are all gonna establish themselves as credible members of a MLB rotation?

• Jedmond's 4th inning misplay was the only defensive mistake I ever remember him making on a ball hit in front of him, despite the risks he takes going after such balls on an almost daily basis. That's pretty astonishing to me.

• Wilson Delgado is a zero. And now Chris Widger's back. C'mon. There aren't 2 people we can pick up out there for the ML minimum who can play adequate defense and bat over .150?

• For the first time, Bo Hart looked totally overmatched against a ML pitcher tonight. Then again, so did Albert Pujols.

• Al Hrabosky is a nitwit.

• Joe Buck talked about how sorely we miss Eli Marrero, but I don't buy it. Eli's okay, but until he shows he can make a lasting improvement on a very lackluster OBP, I'd just as soon see Orlando Palmeiro and Eduardo Perez get most of his playing time.

• Albert Pujols may be baseball's equivalent of Tim Duncan.

• Esteban Yan can run. Seriously.

Posted 9:10 PM by Brian
GAME NOTES, Giants 5 Cardinals 1

• This was one of those games you figured the Cards lost before the game started. With Danny Haren making his major-league debut vs. Jason Schmidt (in my opinion the NL's Cy Young so far), the game unfolded according to script.

How'd Haren do? Fine. After the first inning -- when Neifi Perez and Marquis Grissom hammered back-to-back doubles into the gap -- I thought he was in for a long night. But he settled down and gave a competent performance -- 2 earned runs in 6 innings, only one walk, and, as a bonus, he held Bonds hitless in 3 ABs.

• If I had to use one word to describe Haren, it's easygoing. He has a nice fluid motion, never seems ruffled, and gets by on finesse much more than his size (6'5", 220) would suggest. He looks so relaxed on the hill -- he's got that Orange County chic thing going, heavy-lidded, with Bill & Ted-era Keanu Reeves hair. You just know he's got an ankle tattoo, a beaded surfer necklace, and a bunch of Dave Matthews CDs somewhere.

• In contrast, Schmidt came out pitching like a cannon. His heater was just exploding out of his hand, and he made Bo Hart seem like an inspirationally scrappy ex-major leaguer. Schmidt's first inning reminded me that we haven't really faced a good quality starter in over two weeks. While feasting on the maggoty pitching staffs of the Brewers, Royals, and Reds, we probably forgot what good solid fastballs looked like.

• Wilson Delgado went 0-4 tonight to bring his average in at .176 (including 1 for his last 17). Wilson is now second in the majors in home runs, runs, rbis, and batting average among all players named Delgado.

• No real insight here, but Edmonds' misplay on Jose Cruz Jr.'s liner in the 4th inning just killed us. Well, maybe it didn't kill us -- we probably wouldn't have touched Schmidt tonight anyway -- but if Jedmonds catches that ball (which had a degree of difficulty of about 2), the Cards get a sure-fire DP, maybe even a TP, and the game stays 1-0 into the middle innings. Instead Jed took his eye off the ball, the ball sailed past him, and, well, that was your ballgame.

• During Bo Hart's at bat in the 6th, Joe Buck called him "ultra-selective at the plate." Bo doesn't seem ultra-selective to me, so I checked it out. In 56 plate appearances this year, Hart has seen 209 pitches. That works out to 3.7 pitches per AB, which is about precisely average.

• How much did tonight's game remind you of Game 2 of the 2002 NLCS, when Schmidt held us underwater for 8 innings, won 4-1, and the Giants left town up 2-0? The only difference is that this Giants club is more congenial than the '02 version. The 2002 Giants had, in my opinion, more assholes on their roster than any team in baseball history (perhaps excluding the 1890s Baltimore Orioles). Consider the bumper crop of anuses: Lofton, Kent, Santiago, Bonds, Livan Hernandez, Dusty Baker kinda, Reggie Sanders sorta, maybe even J.T. Snow (I know someone who went to high school with him and says he was King Cock -- he might be cool now, but I'm trying to build a case here; besides, if you're a jerk in high school sometimes that counts against you forever). Sure, there were plenty of nice guys on that team too (Dunston, Aurilia, Nen, et al), but I defy you to find another team with more assholes. The 1978 Bronx Zoo Yankees? No way. The 1986 Mets? Close, but no. Seriously, you can't do it.

• Speaking of the San Francisco Giants, you never hear about them as one of baseball's star-crossed teams. Maybe they're not as literarily poignant as the Red Sox, or as charmingly rumpled as the Cubs, or as sad-sackish as the White Sox and Indians, but they give each of those franchises a run for the money. I mean, they haven't won a World Series in their entire 45-year history.

• The Cardinals finished June 16-11. For all our agonizing losses over the past few weeks, that's not too shabby.

Posted 8:35 AM by Brian
HAREN WATCH Redbird Nation can stop making notes about each of Danny Haren's minor league starts, as he's now in the bigs and going tonight against the Gints. I don't really like Haren being thrown into the fire like this -- by all accounts the 22-year-old isn't quite ready to move up; plus, now his free-agent clock will start ticking about a year earlier than expected. But realistically I don't know who else the Cardinals could throw in there after Calero's injury. Yet another byproduct of Jocketty's shallow talent base...

As for Morris, at least the Cardinals organization is giving a name (a tender elbow) to his troubles. I remain slightly skeptical that he'll improve just by missing one start (after all, just a week ago the Cardinals insisted that Matty's problems were not at all injury-related). But the elbow diagnosis does chime with what Will Carroll observed about Morris' delivery. After last Wednesday's start he wrote, "Matt Morris is having obvious problems with his shoulder. His motion is far from smooth and... he had serious problems keeping the ball low."

We need Morris healthy to make any kind of run into October, so I say baby him as much as possible right now. We still got two weeks of baseball before the All-Star break, and I wouldn't want us to ride Morris so hard in June that we lose him for September and beyond. Of course, we can always blindly hope that all of Morris' problems stem from interleague play -- he has a 10.18 ERA in his four starts against AL teams, 2.69 against NL teams.

Posted 11:53 PM by Brian
GIGANTIC You can bet that sportswriters will have a field day with Barry Bonds' recent comments about Bert Pujols. When asked if Pujols is the next Bonds, he replied, "He's not. He doesn't run. He has no position. He plays first base, third base. Pujols, to me, reminds me of Bobby Bonilla, but better. Bobby Bonilla played different positions, first base, right field. All the (great) players you're talking about had a position."

Well, I disagree with that last part (there are great players who played all over the diamond -- Pete Rose, Harmon Killebrew, and Dick Allen among them). And I halfway disagree with the opinion that Pujols "doesn't run" -- he doesn't steal bases and he doesn't have a ton of range in the field, but he's actually a fanastic baserunner. But otherwise it's the type of statement that sounds uncool but really isn't. Pujols needs to put up huge numbers for about 10 or 15 more years before he can be considered the next Barry Bonds.

Nevertheless, I'm sure Bonds' words will be blown out of proportion, because everything he says is blown out of proportion. And I'm sure Bonds will be intepreted as a real bad guy, because he's always interpreted as a real bad guy. I myself think Bonds gets something of a bum rap. Sure he can be surly, and a shit-disturber, and I can't stand when he stands at home plate admiring his doubles off the wall, but stictly in terms of demeanor I'd take him anyday over Jose Guillen or Kenny Lofton or, for that matter, Jeff Kent.

ALL'S WELL As any math geek knows, the world tends to organize itself along a bell curve -- a cluster of things around average, fewer and fewer things as you depart from the mean. But lately a number of social and economic phenomena seem to follow a different arc, low in the center and high on either side. Call it the well curve.

Take geopolitics -- we see both a rise in huge multinational federations (NAFTA, the EU) and tiny secessionist movements and small independent states. Or consumer culture -- screens small enough for cell phones and large enough for home theaters. Now check out the distribution of runs by the Cardinals since June 1st:

0-2 runs...5 times
3-4...........5
5-7...........0
8-9...........8
10+..........7

Okay, it's not a perfect well -- more like a well whose lip tilts to the left. But still, that's pretty wild. The Cards as a team average 5.97 runs per game, but they haven't scored 5, 6, or 7 runs once in the last four weeks. They're centrifugal, rather than centripetal.

Is this a fluke or is there some meaning to it? I would think that a team that relies heavily on one or two superstars (think the 2001 Giants) might fall prey to this feast-or-famine principle. The Cardinals' overall talent is immense, but not widely distributed, which may make us less likely to withstand off-nights from our top players. Just a thought...

EMAIL FROM MY MOM after Saturday night's game, when Jim Edmonds pegged Michael Tucker trying to score in the 7th inning: "Yesterday, Frank Cusumano (the KSDK sportscaster now that Mike Bush has left that position) said that when Jedmonds is hot, nobody other than Moses is more powerful w/ a stick. I liked the comparison but I’m wondering how Moses compares w/ the arm. That out at home plate was more than awesome. Moses, move over."

Posted 4:18 PM by Alec
JUNE Check out who's coming in 9th on the list of NL OPS leaders in June:

1. J Edmonds 1.298
2. A Pujols 1.244
3. J Lopez 1.213
4. B Bonds 1.206
5. M Ensberg 1.147
6. J Guillen 1.071
7. L Gonzalez 1.055
8. L Berkman 1.045
9. T Martinez 1.044
10. R Hidalgo 1.036

Where's the love?

Posted 8:20 AM by Brian
KIKO OUT Best wishes to Kiko Calero, who blew out his knee on Saturday and will miss the rest of the season. Calero was far and away the surest reliever out of our pen this year (excepting Ohme and Izzy, who haven't really gotten their licks in yet), so his loss raises even more questions about our ability to finish ballgames.

But, really, the injury is more unfair to Calero himself than it is to the Cardinals. As La Russa lamented, "Here's a guy that worked his butt off to finally get to the big leagues and he becomes an important member of the staff. Dog gone it, where's the justice?"

Indeed. And for anyone who argues that ballplayers are overpaid, try to remember Kiko Calero, who may well never return to pitching (he probably will, but he might not), who may well have few secondary skills, whose fleeting major league salary may well represent all the compensation he will receive for a job he did quite well.

Posted 9:35 AM by Brian
FROM WILL CARROLL over at Baseball Prospectus:

"St. Louis needs a new stadium. For the so-called 'Best Baseball City in America' -- the PA announcer’s words, not mine -- that they’re the last with an 1970s Ashtray-style ballpark is kind of sad. Cheering for Bo Hart like he just cured cancer and found Saddam Hussein is kind of sad too, but unlike me, people like those little gritty guys without much talent. I once got flamed seriously on my local radio gig for saying I’d want my son to grow up and be like Barry Bonds. Silly me for wanting a child of mine to try to be the best."

Re: the snide comment about our hometown fans: See post from yesterday.
Re: the snide comment about Bo Hart: Let's follow Will's thinking (and forget for a moment the contorted logic at the end there, where he assumes that a guy like Bo Hart isn't trying to be the best). "[U]nlike me," writes Will, "people like those little gritty guys without much talent." In other words, to him, grit means nothing without talent. I happen to know Will's a heck of a good guy, but doesn't he sound here like every asshole dad and every asshole teacher who fetishizes results over effort?

FROM BASEBALL PRIMER "Rumors persist that J.D. Drew will soon be traded. There are two reasons to believe these rumors might have a grain of truth: the Cardinals and their semi-official mouthpiece and co-owner, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, have never seemed to like Drew very much; and Drew is one of the only players with any actual trade value who is actually expendable. Despite the clamoring of Cardinals fans that Vina is now expendable, it’s very unlikely anyone would want him, even when he’s healthy. Tino Martinez and $7-million clubhouse leadership are unlikely to draw any interest. And Pujols, Renteria and Rolen are untouchable."

I don't know where these whispers are coming from -- the last concrete rumor, which had J.D. going to the White Sox, turned out to be totally unfounded. And, after needlessly letting Drew twist in the wind for years, the Cards' brass seems to be committing to him more and more these days. Suffice it to say we'd be idiotic to cast off Drew. Given his talent and his modest price tag, I consider him a commodity nearly as valuable as our pantheon of Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Morris, Renteria.

ROYALS TRIVIA #1 Last night Carlos Beltran stole another base, which increased his season totals to 19 steals, 1 caught stealing. For his career he's stolen 128 bases against only 17 CS (including years of 13-0 and 31-1), which gives him a success rate of 88%, the best of all time.

ROYALS TRIVIA #2 George Brett, one of my favorite opposing players, was the first player selected in the 2nd round of the 1971 free agent draft. The player selected immediately before him was Mike Schmidt. I just love quirks of history like that: the two best third-sackers of all time were taken back-to-back in the same draft.

Posted 11:51 PM by Matt
GAME NOTES, Royals 6 Cardinals 3

• I wonder if a sore ankle was J.D. Drew's excuse for his giving such a lazy and uncommitted chase to Guiel's first inning line drive. It went beyond his losing it in the sun -- he looked totally immobile on that play, which is uncharacteristic of him, even though he generally handles balls that allow him to move side to side much better than those hit behind him.

• Mike Difelice swinging on 3-0 in the 2nd inning? A good, honest look in the mirror should prevent him from ever doing that again. Thank God he no longer plays for us. At this time next year, I hope to be thanking God that Joe Girardi no longer plays for us.

• Garrett Stephenson is a master at getting behind in the count. He's also pretty damn good at turning a lead into a tie or deficit within a half-inning of returning to the hill. That said, he pitched a pretty damn good game tonight, and our 7th inning breakdown could have been a lot worse if he hadn't made so many good pitches.

• Jedmonds' and Rolen's 4th-inning Yardbirds were both bullets, and absolutely gorgeous.

• On his 4th inning error on Ken Harvey's grounder, in which he may have had a shot at the guy going home, Edgar made that classic mistake of taking his eye off the ball. It was pretty surprising to see him do that.

• What a play by Guiel to rob Bo Hart of extra bases and an RBI in the 5th. And that was after Randa took a double away from Bo in the first inning on a diving play. Hart hit the ball hard 3 out of 4 at bats, but came up empty. Considered along with his crucial error in that horrific 7th, maybe the honeymoon's over. It'll be interesting to see how he comes out tomorrow night.

• Every Cardinal fan should celebrate the fact that it's such a freakish rarity to see Albert Pujols only hit the ball hard once in 4 at bats.

• I think maybe Darrell May just hit rewind on my TiVo and then replayed his performance from last Saturday.

• I think it's the first time this year that I've seen the Cardinals make 3 disastrous defensive plays in one inning – the 7th – on Perez's, Stephenson's, and Hart's misplays. All were concentration mistakes. Mike Shannon (I never get the chance to listen to him on the radio any more, so it was priceless for me to hear him on the Royals' telecast) said, "The Cardinals haven't acclimated themselves to this ballpark" and also mentioned that a bunch of guys "decided to take a relaxing drive up" from St. Louis today rather than take the plane last night. He seemed pretty disapproving without saying so pointedly, and the disapproval fits. Several of our guys tonight looked like they were riding shotgun all day, slowly but surely getting baked.

• Mike Schmidt, Robin Roberts, and Mike Shannon all agree that Scott Rolen is the greatest defensive 3rd baseman of all time.

• I have to see more, but I think Bo Hart's arm may suck. He had a relay throw home tonight that he could have bike messengered faster.

• I can never quite decide whether Steve Kline is really bad or just kind of bad. I think he's just kind of bad generally, but really bad a lot.

Posted 8:18 AM by Brian
THE BEST The Birdinales travel to Kansas City this weekend, and if you haven’t heard, a KC sportswriter named Joe Posnanski recently needled St. Louisans for proclaiming themselves the Best Baseball Fans in America. Surprisingly enough, professional dolt Jeff Gordon handled Posnanski pretty well in his Post-Dispatch column yesterday, but we figured Redbird Nation should weigh in as well.

Posnanski’s piece essentially boils down to two main observations:

Posnanski

1. Cardinal fans are only 5th in attendance this year, which “doesn’t make them the best.”
2. Busch Stadium contains the same kind of inane behavior as any other ballpark, with a healthy share of ticket scalpers, drunkards, know-nothings, and late-inning skedaddlers; ergo, “baseball’s best” are actually more like “baseball’s usual.”

Let’s answer Posnanski’s points one at a time. As for attendance, it’s true – St. Louis draws the fifth-most fans in baseball. Last year we were sixth. The year before, seventh.

But is it really fair to compare St. Louis, with a metro area of 2.6 million people, with New York and Los Angeles, which attract fans from populations of 21.2 million and 16.4 million? Given our relatively tiny market size, St. Louis does spectacularly well in attendance. Here are the top per-game figures, averaged out over the last three years, among cities with fewer than 3 million people.

1. St. Louis 37,385
2. Colorado 33,588
3. Cleveland 30,670
4. San Diego 26,986
5. Milwaukee 25,758

(For the record, Kansas City is second last, just ahead of Tampa Bay.)

Or look at it this way – here are the top-drawing cities with their corresponding market size (cities with more than one team are adjusted accordingly):

1. New York Yankees…1st
2. San Francisco……… 19th
3. Seattle………….....……8th
4. Los Angeles……….…3rd
5. St. Louis……..……26th
6. Anaheim……....………5th
7. Chicago Cubs……… 9th
8. Arizona……………… 23rd
9. Boston…………..…… 4th
10. New York Mets…… 2nd

What’s that song they sang on Sesame Street – "one of these things is not like the other…"? The only comparable cities to St. Louis are San Fran, a city of 7 million people, and Phoenix, which still has a larger market and fewer fans than we do.

Still not convinced? Then let’s put it yet another way (and let me know if we’re going too fast for you, Joe): if New Yorkers went to baseball games as frequently as St. Louisans, last year they’d have drawn 12,261,609 fans in Yankee Stadium. Actually, that’s not really fair, as the House that Ruth Built holds only 57,545, so figure instead that they’d max out at 4,661,145 fans, which would, of course, be the highest attendance figure of all time, in any sport.

At one point Posnanski notes sarcastically "the Cardinals are actually fifth in attendance this year… unless my math is off, that doesn’t make them the best." I’d say, Joe, that your math sucks, and that, in terms of available resources, our attendance is undoubtedly the best.

Let’s move on to Point 2, that Cardinals fans are as boorish and ignorant as fans all over the nation. Now, this is a tough argument to counter, not least because Posnanski’s reasoning is so poorly written that half the time I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about it. (I’m not kidding. Rather than embarrass the guy by pointing out some of his more disfigured sentences, I’ll simply assume that his copy editor had been recently hit by a bus.) But the other reason it’s hard to argue against Posnanski is that, well, he’s right – there are plenty of obnoxious, idiotic fans at Busch. Some come to scalp tickets, some come because it’s fashionable, some come to get farmer’s tans and get sloshed.

Now, let’s put aside the obvious (that no self-respecting baseball town would be without its bleacher bums and squealing teenage girls), and discuss the cheap journalistic trick Posnanski uses to make his point. He judges Cardinal fans not by their best, or even their typical fans, but instead by their lowest common denominators, their dregs. In other words, he submits us to a test that we’re rigged to fail.

Posnanski willfully overlooks examples of stellar fandom that sit right under his nose. He shrugs off the fact that the Cardinals have topped 3 million fans for more straight years than any team in baseball (you could look it up). He ignores the fact that three recent superstars (McGwire, Edmonds, and Rolen) chose to re-sign with the Cardinals at below-market rate, specifically because they appreciated the loyal, friendly atmosphere generated by our fans. He pooh-poohs the outpouring of Cardinal fans up in Fenway two weeks ago, which the local broadcaster deemed the best turnout for a visiting team he’d ever seen, including the Yankees. He dismisses the fact that Cardinal fans welcome not only newcomers (like when they gave Bo Hart a standing O in his second home game ever), but enemies as well (like this past April, when they gave a standing O to the Mets’ Mo Vaughn for a particularly majestic tater). And Posnanski really bends over backwards not to mention that the Cardinals consistently draw twice as many fans as his own Royals do. Yes, Joe, twice as many.

Here’s what I consider more reasonable comparisons for the Cardinals and their fans. The Yankees might have a larger nationwide fan base (after all, they’re the most visible team, and they sell more merchandise than anyone). The Dodgers might have higher attendance figures over the last 25 years. The Braves might have more TV viewers (the ratings for a typical Braves game on TBS are actually higher than ESPN’s games of the week, which makes them the de facto home team of countless fans ). The Red Sox devotees might be more zealous and bloodthirsty. The Phillies’ fans might get more vocal when their team loses. The Mariners' fans might turn out in bigger numbers, at least for the moment.

But I honestly think that Cardinal fans might have the best combination of all these attributes – loyal, numerous, knowledgeable, passionate. What do I base this on? Not much – a few conversations with other fans, some things I’ve read, anecdotal comparisons I make while watching games on TV, or when visiting other ballparks around the league. Maybe I’m blinded by self-regard, which, if you think about it, is exactly Joe Posnanski’s accusation about us Cardinal enthusiasts. Then again, you’d have to take a lot of pride in your hometown to call yourself America’s Best Fans, even if it’s a lot of self-congratulatory bunk. I mean, let’s face it, the only thing anyone in KC ever claims is that they’ve got the best fans in all of Kansas City.

Posted 9:20 PM by Brian
GAME NOTES Cardbirds 11, Redlegs 7

Tonight's game was so much like last night that there's not a whole lot of new stuff to add. A few points:

• Back on May 31st, Redbird Nation suggested that several of our top performers had maxed out and were bound to drop, or at least level off. We wrote: "Sooner or later, goes the rallying cry, we're going to turn things around. But who on our team is going to turn things around? Almost everyone is playing as well, if not better, than you'd expect. Pujols isn't going to improve on his .359/.420/.689 AVG/OBP/SLG." At the moment (after a four-hit barrage tonight) Bert sits at a Splendid Splinterish.394/.455/.718, and he doesn't seem to have any intention of flaming out anytime soon. His batting average is the same as Tony Gwynn's in '94, which also happens to be the highest BA in the last 62 years. Of course, Tony finished the year at .394 and Pujols ain't even halfway there. But it's still a pretty cool comp. Al Pujols: Tony Gwynn with a better eye and more pop.

• I thought both Bob Boone and La Russa turned this game into a spring training game too soon. Boone treated Jimmy Anderson like a Thanksgiving ham, leaving him out on the table until the Cardinals had picked every last shred of meat from his carcass. He finally left the game after 5 innings, 107 pitches, 11 earned runs and 15 hits. I thought Boone should have yanked him in the 2nd. Granted, the Reds have a tired bullpen (and with Gabe White on the shelf, they're short an arm), but that's no reason to concede the ballgame. The Reds did, after all score 7 runs and could have gotten closer if their manager hadn't let the game get out of hand. Not that I'm complaining or anything...

• Similarly, I thought La Russa stuck with Woody too long. Like Matty Mo last night, it was clear that Woody didn't bring his A game tonight -- his pitch count ran high, he couldn't put away batters with two strikes, and he ended the evening with 7 earned runs and 10 hits against only 6 complete innings. Why did La Russa stick with him so long? It was like running with scissors. The Reds actually brought the tying run to the plate in the 7th, this after carrying a 7-run lead into the later frames. Inexcusable, in my opinion.

• Josh Shulz has a wonderful post that assesses the long-term prospects of lightning-in-a-bottle Bodhi Hart (that's his real name, btw). Josh is skeptical without being the slightest bit downerish, which is the appropriate attitude to have about Hartmania, I think. So far, the guy Bo most reminds me of is Terry Pendleton. Remember when he came up in '84? He opened his career with a 7-game hitting streak and hit .482 (27 for 56) his first two weeks in the bigs (including 5 three-hit games). Pendleton was, like Hart, a so-so minor leaguer expected to stick around about as long as a punctured balloon. Then again, Terry P was 23 when he came up, whereas Bo Hart hasn't seen age 23 for several summers now...

• When Tino Martinez fails (about four times a night or so), there's no Cardinal I rail at more. But when he succeeds, like he did tonight, there's no Cardinal who fills me with more bemusement and gratitude. His good games are like little gifts, and his 3 bombs this series were like gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

• Speaking of gifts, we should get something nice to send to the D'backs and Brewers. Both teams handled our main division rivals this week to allow us to breathe the mountain-fresh air of first place for the first time in several weeks.

Posted 3:18 PM by Flynn
St. Freddie (with help from the Archangel Jedmonds)

While in St. Louis over the past weekend, I ran into some old friends who related the following story to me:

My friend’s sister-in-law worked with a young woman who tragically lost her voice to throat cancer five years ago. The cancer left her unable to speak without an electro larynx. Despite this, she was able to hold down a job and, like most twenty-first century office employees, she set up some decorations in her cube to help her through the day. There were pictures of family and friends but most of the stuff was Cardinals paraphernalia, especially photos and stories of her favorite player: Fernando Vina.

This spring a few St. Louis doctors offered the young woman a chance to speak again. There had been a new surgical development in Germany that involved using other parts of the body to help restore the larynx and make speaking a possibility again for people like her. The procedure was so new, though, that it had never been done in the United States. She was willing to give it a try, though.

In the weeks prior to the surgery, the young woman’s friends looked for ways to help her out and found one in an unlikely place. A good friend of the soon-to be-patient was in a local watering hole one night and recognized one James Edmonds doing his best to keep a low profile and have a beverage. Not wanting to bother the Gold Glover but too smart to let an opportunity like this pass her by, the woman asked Jimmy the best way to get in touch with Vina. Jedmonds obliged, giving her specific instructions.

The next day this good friend wrote to Fernando, telling him of her friend’s impending surgery. She was shocked a few days later when Fernando himself called her up to find out how he could help. After a few more calls Fernando paid a visit to the young lady in the hospital who was, by this time, recovering from her surgery. He brought some autographed items and spent a while visiting with her and wishing her the best. Vina also promised a follow up phone call. I am happy to report that Freddy delivered on that promise and added “Just let me know if I can do any more to help out.”

So, when our keystone sacker comes back and we renew the criticism of his uppercut swing and morbidly low OBP (which, as those with a deep emotional investment in the Birds on the Bat we rightly should), we should also keep in mind that non-publicized actions like this make him a pretty good guy. There are other players who have done similar things, I am sure, but I can verify that this story is the truth and I, for one, have a new perspective on #4. And #15, for he could have easily been no help to the woman who asked him for help in contacting Fernando.

We should all be so lucky to have a friend like the young woman who approached Edmonds. And, we should recognize that with all the attention paid to misbehavior on chartered flights, steroids, basebrawling, and the Pro Athlete Police Blotter which is updated seemingly several times a day, there are still plenty of good guys in the world of sports.

Posted 10:07 AM by Mark
2B According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Cardinals and Padres have been having trade talks concerning journeyman 2B Mark Loretta. Loretta is hitting .299 this season with a .366 OBP. The paper adds that Padres P Kevin Jarvis is also on the block.

Posted 9:28 AM by Brian
DON'T GET EXCITED Rick Ankiel is, I think, bound to end up one of those sad American folk legends, like Stagger Lee or Tom Joad. But damnit, it's hard not to get fired up by his pitching line in AA last night: 7 innings, 2 hits, no runs, 12 punch-outs, only 3 walks. That line looks an awful lot like the ones he was posting as a smiling rookie for the Cards in 2000. Let's hope it lasts for at least a little while longer...

Posted 2:12 AM by Brian
In the month of June the Birdnals have averaged 9.2 runs in their 13 wins, but only 2.7 runs in their 9 losses. In each of their last 12 wins they've scored at least 8 runs. In other words, we've fallen into a nice, predictable, readable pattern -- when we score runs, we win; when we don't, we lose. Slugfests: good. Pitching duels: bad. So if the Cardinals are deadlocked in some low-scoring nail-biter after about 6 innings, you are hereby advised to switch the channel over to the Rockford Files. Last night's win was no exception -- as soon as we ambushed Paul Wilson in the early going, you could have filed the game into the happy bin.

But we did break one pattern last night. Look at these games against the Redlegs this year:

5/5 Reds jump on top 3-0 in the first, eventually win 5-4
5/6 Reds jump on top 3-0 in the first (on Austin Kearns' three-run jack), eventually win 6-5
5/13 Reds jump on top 5-0 in the first (two-run shots by Kearns & Dunn), eventually win 7-2
6/25 Reds jump on top 3-0 in the first (Junior's three-run jack), eventually lose 9-6

It was nice to see the Birds show some Hart and get back in the game. (Whoa, thank god for spellcheck -- I accidentally misspelled "heart.")

Surely some grad student out there is writing a doctoral dissertation on what the hell is wrong with Matt Morris. Sure, he picked up the win tonight, but he gave up 5 earned runs in six innings, which usually deserves a loss (okay, not always, but we're 6-7 this year when we allow 5 runs).

There are several ways to measure Morris' recent decline, but one handy way is to look at his game scores (which are defined here). In Matt's first 11 starts, his average game score was 63.9, good enough for second among NL pitchers. Since then his scores have been about as robust as erectile dysfunction: 56, 47, 22, 30, 35, 40. That's more than a statistical blip or an off-day. That's a bona fide trend.

So the question on everyone's lips -- what's the problem? Depends who you ask. Some say he's fatigued, others say he's mechanically wobbly. Some say he's mildly injured, other say he's merely unlucky. Some say he's psychologically preoccupied, others say he's simply facing stronger competition. (Morris himself claims his mechanics are off, describing himself as "spinning off" pitches with a resulting loss of arm speed. ) But I'll throw out a new theory for you. Is it possible -- and again, I'm just throwing this out there -- but is it possible that Matt Morris is, well... stupid?

Now, this isn't 100% conjecture. Almost, but not 100%. I've heard from someone close to the Cardinal organization (sorry for the shadowy, Deep Throat-like accusations, but I gotta protect my sources) that Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan are consistently dismayed by Morris' pitch selection and thought process on the mound. Indeed, Morris seems stubbornly reliant on his fastball, as he himself admitted after last night's game: "I tried to establish the heater today but I got into situations I needed to throw the curveball. I've got to stop being so hard-headed about what I want to establish. They pay the other side, too. And those guys are pretty good hitters... It's a matter of thinking a little better and executing pitches."

But Morris has had this problem for years, and the lesson doesn't seem to be taking hold. Just last week Redbird Nation pointed out Morris' problems putting hitters away after he gets ahead 0-2. A crafty pitcher will carve a guy up in the situation, keeping the hitter off-balance, changing location and speed. But it takes smarts to keep the other guy guessing, and with Morris, you may wonder if he's getting out-thought by his opponents. Is he, like Nuke LaLoosh, "a million dollar arm with a five-cent brain"?

I'm not sold. First of all, if Morris is such a numbskull, how has been able to pitch so well in the past? I mean, this is a guy who came into the season with a 3.18 lifetime ERA, who won 64% of his games, who went toe-to-toe with Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in the last two NLDS (and no one would call those guys stupid). I have no idea how Morris would do on an SAT test (actually I bet he'd suck at reading comprehension), but you have to have at least some degree of mound smarts to pitch effectively in the bigs. (Although, as Billy Beane suggested about Lenny Dykstra in Moneyball, you have to have a little stupid in you too -- that's what allows ballplayers to shrug off their latest failures and look ahead.)

But still, I throw the question out there (after all, this is the web, and it's our duty to spread rumors now and again). While I wouldn't go so far as to call Matty Mo an idiot, I am curious about whether or not he's been able to maximize his potential on the mound. If it's a matter of simple brain deficiency, all we gotta do it hook him up to a transcranial magnetic stimulation device and we're all set. We'll win the division by 10 games (which, if you've looked at the standings lately, means we'll win somewhere around 86 games).

Posted 10:39 PM by Mark
SCRAMBLE MODE From ESPN.com's Jayson Stark:

The Cardinals are out there looking for starting pitchers, but have no money to spend. They scouted Ismael Valdes in Texas last weekend, but Valdes blew up in a 10-hit, eight-run nightmare. So the Cards continue to look, but they have limited chips to deal. Scouts checking out their farm system have found a bunch of six-year free agents at Double-A and Triple-A, but few real prospects.

"They're in scramble mode down there," says one scout. "They have (right-hander) Dan Haren in Triple-A, and he's got a good arm. But he's not ready for the big leagues. Their system is so bare, you'd think they'd want to hold onto the prospects they've got, because if you keep trading them and get hit with injuries, it comes back to bite you. And they're finding that out now."

The Cardinals did hit the jackpot with one-time 33rd-round pick Bo Hart, who came up after injuries to Miguel Cairo and Fernando Vina to become the first player to get 12 hits in his first five big-league games since Mike Lansing did it 10 years ago. But a scout who has covered the Cardinals' system says Hart is "just another guy for me. He's just a little grinder."

Posted 11:23 AM by Brian
FROM BASEBALL MUSINGS David Pinto weighs in with a preview of tonight's matchup:

"One pitcher who has been on the scrap heap for years starting to pitch well again. One pitcher, the star of his team, in a slump. I'm talking about Paul Wilson and Matt Morris. Wilson over his last five starts is 3-1 with a 2.94 ERA. In 33 2/3 innings, he's K'd 26 and walked 8. Meanwhile, Matt Morris has an 8.28 ERA over his last five starts. It's not clear why. He's giving up a lot of hits. And he's getting hit at the worst time. Before May 29th, opponents were hitting just .196 against Morris with runners in scoring position. Since then, they are hitting .312."

Posted 8:12 AM by Mark
QUESTIONS FOR TONY

1) Why is Joe Girardi on our team? The guy isn't just an automatic out, he's an automatic two outs. With a runner on first and less than two outs, he will ground into a double play. Last night he made 6 outs in 4 at bats. And it's not like this is an aberration for Girardi -- he hit .226 last season. Plus he suffered a major back injury early this season -- that can't help when you're 38 years old trying to continue your career as a professional athlete. If he's so valuable in the clubhouse, make him a bench coach. LaRussa putting Girardi on the field for his leadership abilities is like Joe Torre asking Don Zimmer to run out there and play a little second base.

2) Why was Cal Eldred hitting for himself in the 8th inning of a tied game? Yes, he got a hit, but that's like winning the lottery. Why play the lottery in the 8th inning with all those rested hitters on our bench? It conjures up the painful image of Matt Morris hitting for himself in the 9th inning of the NLCS last year.

3) Why did Jeff Fassero walk the lead-off hitter in the 14th? Our strategy all game was to pitch around Adam Dunn (we walked him all three plate appearances, 12 balls, 2 strikes on 3-0 counts). I know the guy is 7 feet tall and is capable of hitting the ball five miles, but he's also hitting .205. And intentionally putting the lead-off hitter on in extra innings is beyond stupid. That's what leads to big innings, especially with the meat of their order coming up. Sure enough, Dunn scored the go-ahead run.

4) Why bring in Yan with the bases loaded? Level-headed Simontacchi is in the bullpen, rested and ready. And Yan has control problems (along with many, many other problems). As Yan trotted onto the field, Joe Buck and Al Hrabosky immediately started making jokes about whether Yan would throw the ball to the back stop on the first pitch or the fourth. Lo and behold, he gets ahead of Kelly Stinnett 0-2. Throw him some stuff outside, make him swing at crap, right? 0-2 pitch: Yan lays a fat-assed fastball right over the heart of the plate. Stinnett can't believe his eyes. He's so excited to get such a gift he swings early and almost pulls it foul. But it's not foul. 2 runs score. Game over.

In all of these situations LaRussa is playing against the odds. He does that a lot. It's a nice little set-up he's got: If he's correct, he looks like a genius (with a little help from George Will). If wrong, he looks like a manager who makes bold moves that don't always pay off. Truth is, the Cardnut would be better off with a robot managing us. Seriously. I'll take the odds every time.

Posted 11:12 PM by Brian
REDS 7, CARDINALS 4 I have nothing to add...

Posted 1:09 PM by Flynn
WALLBANGERS The '93 Phillies were awe-inspiring, of course, but all great hoosier teams must pay homage to the holy beermaking trinity of Gorman Thomas, Mike Caldwell, and Pete Vuckovich. This troika was beatified by the great Bill James in his summary description of them..."quite a collection of men, all sporting mass murderer hair and third world teeth."

Posted 11:37 AM by Alec
KRUK YOU I consider it my duty to point out that the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies already fielded an All-Hoosier team.

Posted 8:19 AM by Flynn
Hooze Yer Daddy?

A few honorable mentions for the hourgeois from one who grew up a lot closer to them than Mark……

Adam Dunn – ever see or read an interview with this guy? ‘Nuff said.

Randy Johnson – forget the logo-on-the-hat controversy for the Hall of Fame plaque with him. Just show the back of his head and the greatest mullet ever seen on a diamond.

Billy Wagner – grew up in and out of trouble with the law in Virginia. Tiny guy you just know would always be getting into fights playing Wiffle Ball by Hessler’s Pub in South County.

Kerry Lightenberg – burns o’plenty.

Kerry Wood – any moustache that you can only sort of see qualifies its wearer as a Grade A hooze.

Keeping an Eye on the Enemy: Cubs talent pool grows….

"I don't know exactly what that means, but it sounds impressive" –Cubs GM Hendry.

Posted 12:00 AM by Mark
2003 ALL-HOOSIER TEAM
When I was going to college on the East Coast, I was introduced to a term for guys who slick back their hair, wear lots of gold jewelry, occasionally will sport a pair of suspenders, love Billy Joel and Bon Jovi, and are generally Italian-American in appearance. The term is "guido," and while it's really snide in a lot of ways, it also captures a specific stretch of macho American culture.

But where I’m from, St. Louis, we didn't have "guidos." We had "hoosiers."

Now, to most people, a hoosier is someone from Indiana. But to St. Louisans it means something very different. See, a hoosier (someone who is hooze) is a man or woman with a certain kind of low-brow taste. Think of Sammy Hagar or Tom Arnold or Kurt Warner: a little bit trashy, a little bit country, all ugly. Some tell-tale signs of hoosiers: Oakley sunglasses, two or more Jimmy Buffett CDs, bi-level hair cuts (also known as "mullets," but I will not make a mullet joke, even though I just kinda did), having extra-long sideburns, having no sideburns at all, a neon beer sign hanging in your house, any shirt without sleeves -- you get the idea.

I'll be honest: I have some hooze in me (I once wore a gold hoop in one ear and drove a Mustang). And I’m not ashamed of it. Let me say it loud and say it proud: there’s nothing wrong with being hooze. In fact, it’s a style of dress and behavior that’s uniquely American. What jazz is to music, hooze couture is to fashion. Denim shorts are Middle America’s John Coltrane.

So it is with a combination of derision and pride that I name the All-Hoosier team for America’s Pastime.



C: Mike Piazza. Mikey Pants is a little too fond of his facial hair. And those Prell comericals starring his flowing locks aren't doing him any favors either. Sure, he's a good guy, and a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but that doesn't mean he's not a total hooze.





1B: Jim Thome. This was tough, because Thome is a country boy, which means he isn't really expected to have fine taste. But he's been rich long enough to know better. Hooze-o-riffic. Runner-up: Jeff Bagewell and his breast-implanted ex-wife.




2B: Jeff Kent. Mega-hooze. The sunglasses, the moustache, the motorcycle chicanery. You just know he hangs his keys on a ZZ Top key chain.






SS: Nomar Garciaparra. A controversial choice. He's engaged to Mia Hamm, who seems kempt and clean and stylish. But, sorry, he's got some hooze blood in him. How do I know? Because once I saw him wearing a vest over a collarless dress shirt with no jacket.





3B: Fernando Tatis. Can non-Caucasians be hooze? Sure. Tatis has shown an astonishing lack of good taste over the years: his blonde-streaked head hair, his finely manicured facial hair, his stone-washed OPS.



OF: Matt Stairs. The guy looks like he should be working the door of a bar, telling drunk fat asses it's 2 am and the place is closing. Hoosier.





OF: JD Drew. The bracelet he's wearing should give you a hint: WWJD? Christian hooze.






OF: Larry Walker. Canadian. Have you ever been to Canada? It's impossible to be Canadian and not be hooze. The thing is, they don’t get the free pass that comes with being American. An entire nationality, ruined. Tragic, just tragic.







P: Wade Miller. Looks hooze, but also looks mean. Sorry to pick you, dude. Please don't cut me with your butterfly knife.






Closer: Rod Beck. Welcome back to the show, Beckers! You utter hooze.

Posted 12:37 PM by Flynn
Birdwatching 2003 – Home Nest

Like an unwitting sailor following a siren’s song I found myself gravitating towards the faint sounds of “The Second Verse”* on Saturday night as I returned to my hometown and my personal Mecca, Busch Stadium. As the crowd whipped itself into Bo Hart-mania I settled in and enjoyed the 8-1 stomping of the Royales with Cheese.

* Those who have been to Cardinal games over the last quarter centure have undoubtedly heard the song that Ernie Hayes plays between the Star Spangled Banner and the first pitch. A few years ago my cousin met Ernie at some organ-o-rama and asked him about that song. It is an original composition by Ernie and he considers it “The Second Verse” of the national anthem.

Some notes:

Joaquin Andujar looked to be in great shape as he took the mound for the ceremonial first pitch. He didn’t get as big a hand from Cardinal fans as he deserved, though. I suspect that most had trouble believing it was actually him. At any number of “Cardinal great” reunions, including last year’s 20th Anniversary of the ’82 Champs, One Tough Dominican has always been a no-show, citing “visa problems.” I will always remember Andujar’s comments in the champagne soaked and boisterous clubhouse after the Birds won the ’85 Pennant. In reference to the dramatic Game 5 homer by Ozzie “That little midget hit the ball as far as he can. I tell that midget he’s no home run hitter but he’s a tough little midget.” More good Andujar stuff right here.

The Royals came into existence in 1969. How long do you think it took for the Kansas City Star to exhaust headlines like “Royal Embarrassment,” “Royal Flush,” “Royal etc…”? Then, how long for the other AL cities to do the same? I said two months…

When Pujols gets a big hit at Busch (which is quite often, thankfully) the sound system pumps out the opening bass lick to the Fat Albert Theme Song. Hey, Hey, Hey! Fantastic.

The on-field ushers wear batting helmets. What, exactly, are they guarding against? Looking good?

Kansas City is to St. Louis as St. Louis is to Chicago. Discuss.

Quote of the weekend: Mike Shannon, after Bo Hart got his third hit on Friday night "Man that guy is a machine! He and Albert are going to have to become members of the Machinist's Union!"

#1 Development at the Stadium since my last visit – you can get Bud and Bud Light from the same vendor now. Apparently AB finally got that one past the Security Council.

And finally, my favorite piece of information overheard in the men’s room – “Some lady is suing the Cardinals because her girl got sick after a game and she claims it was from Fredbrid putting his beak on her head when that same beak had been touching all kinds of other heads.”

Please, let me be there when Fredbird takes the stand. He’s been there before.

Posted 10:55 AM by Alec
DK57 ESPN's Sunday Conversation for Jun 22, 2003 was an interview with Darryl Kile's family, marking the one-year anniversary of his death. As I played with my son this morning, I listened to Kannon Kile tell ESPN that he still talks to his dad, and tells him that he loves him. When asked if Darryl ever talks back, Kannon said it's hard for him to hear, but sometimes he hears him in his heart. What does he say? I love you too, Kannon. If that doesn't make your eyes well up you're made of stronger stuff than I am.

Posted 6:01 PM by Brian
ROYALS 5, CARDINALS 2

Not much good to say about this game, although two quotes struck me.

Garrett Stephenson: "I was pitching good today, I don't care what anybody says. If anybody writes anything bad it's all because of the runs and not because of how I pitched, because I pitched awesome..."

Actually, G. Steve didn't pitch THAT poorly. He didn't walk anybody, which is a step forward for a guy averaging about 4.5 walks per nine innings. And most of the hits he gave up came during one rough patch in the 5th.

But Stephenson didn't pitch well, either, which makes his defensiveness all the more hilarious. This isn't the first time he's done this, either. I don't have the quotes in front of me, but several times over the past couple years Stephenson will follow a lousy outing with a righteous justification of his own awesomeness. What a buffoon.

The other quote is from the game-winning pitcher, Jeremy Affeldt: "They battled me and I battled them back and we had a fun time out there. It was an honorable victory for me.''

How noble is that! He sounds like a vanquishing samurai who bows and thanks his humbled opponent for allowing him to hone his skills. If I thought of baseball games the same way Affeldt does -- as a hearty encounter between worthy contestants -- then I might just feel a lot better about losing to the Royals, and about life in general.

Posted 7:52 PM by Brian
CARDINALS 8, ROYALS 1

Friday night's game was such a downer that we've taken a page from such masterworks as Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and 14,000 Things to Be Happy About and we're presenting ONLY things to make you feel warm and fuzzy. Nothing negative, nothing depressing, just 12 Things to Make You Feel Real Good:

1. Bo Hart His first 12 major league at-bats: 7 hits. 2 doubles, 2 triples. Busts his ass out of the box on every play. Standing ovation from the crowd before his AB in the 9th. Budding folk hero. AND his dad was at the game tonight with a camcorder.

2. Called strikeouts Woody had 6 of them tonight. The called strikeout is the 2nd most humiliating way to make an out (right after a foul pop-out to the catcher -- you just gotta stand there, helplessly, and wait til you're out).

3. Mike Matheny The guy's actually been getting xbhits lately -- a homer tonight, triple last night, a couple two-baggers and a four-bagger a few nights ago. His slugging percentage is now .380, the highest of his career.

4. The Red Sox bullpen For reminding us that, no matter how bad our pen gets, there's always a lower circle of hell. Did you see that Sox-Philly game today? The Beaneaters gave up a two-out homer in the bottom of the 12th to lose the lead, then a two-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the 13th. Brrzzghgh. (That was the sound of me shuddering.)

5. Woody Williams' stamina Two starts ago he ran out of gas in the 7th inning. One start ago he ran out of gas in the 6th. Would he collapse in the 5th inning tonight? Nope. He pitched a sturdy 8 innings, giving up only one lonely run.

6. Detente Dusty Baker named Tony La Russa a coach for this July's All-Star Game. There's a history of bad blood between these two guys, but in the spirit of refusing to sweat the small stuff, Baker asked him to join the big kid's table.

7. Albert Pujols For the usual.

8. Dontrelle Willis He's now won 6 straight starts for the Marlins and tonight lowered his ERA to 2.38. Why should we be happy for him? Because he's who the Cubs traded last year to get Matt Clement and Antonio "the Octopus" Alfonseca. Can you imagine a Chubs rotation of Prior, Wood, Zambrano, and Willis? I literally cannot.

9. 30 Wins That's how many games we've won in Woody Williams' starts since we acquired him in 2001. We've lost only 13 times.

10. Rick Ankiel He pitched for AA Tennesse on Friday night and walked only 2 guys in 5 innings. Sure, most of us have lost faith in Ankiel, but this was far and away his most disciplined game of the year.

11. The NL Central Standings After several weeks of trying, we finally chased down the Cubs tonight.

12. Joaquin Andujar He threw out the first pitch before tonight's game, and it's always heart-warming to think of One Tough Dominican (the other night Shannon called him "One Sweet Dominican"). Happiest Joaquin memory: Remember how Andujar used to take wild, murderous, helicopter swings every time he stepped to the plate? It was as if he was trying to hit a grand slam every at bat, even if no one was on base. Well on May 15, 1984, he came up with the bases loaded against the Braves, looked at the Cardinals dugout, gestured to the rightfield stands, then hit a grand slam into that very spot. Youneverknow.

Posted 9:56 AM by Brian
THE FINLEY SAGA, EPISODE IX According to the Houston Chronicle, the Astros thought they were close to signing Chuck Finley, but Finley has decided he doesn't want to continue his career. So, the paper reports that Pat Hentgen and Steve Trachsel are among the pitchers the team may be interested in trading for.

Posted 11:34 PM by Mark
LOSERS I don't think it's a major headline at this point to say that Jeff Fassero has no business in a major league uniform. Only a jacknut who thinks old age and experience automatically translate into an ability to get outs would keep him in one (much less pay him $1,250,000). Yet there he is, trotting out of our bullpen, night after night, giving up run after run. Unfortunately, he's not the exception in our pen. He's the rule.

Jeff Fassero

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I feel a journalistic duty to inform the Nation about a reliever we let get away: Al Levine. Well, 'let get away' isn't accurate -- we dumped him after a cruddy couple of weeks in spring training (but we were still on the hook for $600,000). Makes sense, right? Let a guy go because of a bad spring? What's that you say? Jeff Fassero's spring was almost as bad as Levine's (7.00 ERA for Fassero, 7.20 for Levine)? Well, see, Fassero is older and has more miles on him. Therefore he's a keeper.

So what's Al up to now? He got grabbed up by the Devil Rays, where he's posted the following numbers so far this season:

35.0 IP 7 BB 20 K 1.54 ERA

A few of the guys we kept around?

Fassero 26.1 IP 12 BB 16 K 6.49 ERA
Hermanson 29.2 IP 14 BB 12 K 5.46 ERA
Eldred 27.0 IP 13 BB 26 K 5.67 ERA

And then there's the guy we sought out:

Yan 12.1 IP 6 BB 5 K 8.76 ERA

Walter Jocketty, you there? Might be time to go grab Levine back and eat a little crow.

(While you're enjoying your delicious crow, please dump Tino.)

Posted 9:16 PM by Matt
GAME NOTES, Silver Dollar Cityers 10, Cards 4

• Morris didn't pitch terribly, but I think something is pretty clearly wrong with him, be it fatigue or that shoulder. His fastball hovered in the 85-92 range, when it typically runs from 92-95.

• I don't know why Calero isn't getting another start, considering how well he pitched in Milwaukee and that both Morris and Woody can use an extra day off for a round or two.

• Not only did Pujols go 0 for 5, but he didn't have a single good at bat. He's earned a few bad nights, though, I'd say.

• Matheny entered the game hitting .272 with a .330 OBP. And it's June 20. Nice.

• If Tino wasn't one of the slowest people on Earth, Bo Hart would have had himself a 2 out RBI on his 2nd inning double. Hart also hit the ball hard in every at bat but his last. Way to go, Bo.

• Fassero did some of his best comedy tonight. His bunt attempt in the 6th was the absolute worst I've ever seen, and that's not hyperbole. He also looked like a sorry shell of an old man when he lumbered over to get Tucker's swinging bunt down the first base line in the 7th and collided with him and lost the ball. And then there were all those home runs. As a MLB player, he's roughly as worthwhile as the Vietnam War.

• Esteban Yan might just work out as a setup man. TBD.

• Drew's finally starting to draw more BB this year, which is the one advantage the 2001 Drew had over the 2003 Drew.

Posted 8:42 AM by Flynn
BULLIES So the Pujolsinals took three of four from Milwaukee. That’s great, we’ll take three of four on the road any time right? Well, no. Not when the opponent is an AAAA Level bunch of misfit toys like the Brew Crew. The Red Unit should have swept the Sausage Kings. In fact, the games against teams like the Brewers are vitally important. Why?

Mike Shannon has never been shy about imploring his birdos to “beat up” on certain teams each year. “You’ve just got to pound on these teams” the Moonman has said many a time. Well, turns out he’s absolutely correct.

If you look at the 2000 through 2002 Cardinal teams, they posted three impressive victory totals: 95, 93, and 97 wins respectively. In those years they finished the season 28, 26, and 32 games over .500. Impressive, yes. But look closer at how they did it. The Cardinals, like most division winners, feasted on the lesser organizations. In 2000 they had fun with the Cubs (10-3,) the Padres (9-0,) and the Phillies (7-2.) Their record with these teams was 21 games over. So, their record against the other 12 teams in the league was a pedestrian 7 games over.

Same with 2001 when the McGwire Send-Off Tour was 14-3 against Pittsburgh, and 5-1 against the Mets and Padres. 19 games over on those three clubs and only 7 over against the rest of the league.

In 2002 the Cards had losing or even records against 6 teams but again had their way with designated bitches Pittsburgh, Houston, Chicago, Kansas City and San Diego, going a combined 26 games over against those sacks of dung.

The best illustration of this theory is the 2000 World Champion Yankees. They finished 13 games over .500 which, probably, won’t cut it in this year’s NL Central, but you never know. Anyway, the Bombers pasted the Rangers 10-2 and the Royals 8-2 in games that year. That’s 14 games over on just two teams. So, without those teams the Yanks are a sub-.500 team and don’t get to the playoffs where every break possible goes their way.

In sum, I’ll take the 2-4 trips to Fenway and the Bronx or a 2-4 season record against the Braves or Giants as long as Tony’s boys remember who’s boss when the Padres, Brewers, Mets, and other doormats come calling.

Posted 5:44 PM by Brian
HART TRANSPLANT Once again the Cardinals played like the Cardinals (or the Platonic ideal of the Cardinals, anyway), the Brewers played like the Brewers, and all is right with the world.

The big story was Bo Hart, a journeyman minor leaguer who finally made it to the Promised Land of Miller Park and responded with a rally-sparking double, a two-run triple (capped by a headfirst slide), and, for good measure, a handy little base on balls.

Now, it's customary to say something snide here -- some too-cool-for-school put-down about Bo Hart's flaccid minor league track record, or something about Tony La Russa taking down Joe McEwing's cleats from his office wall and fitting them on Bo Hart like they were glass slippers. How easy it would be to downplay Hart's achievement: "it was just one game," you might say, or "it won't last," or "two hits off Ruben Quevedo should be adjusted for inflation."

But you'd have to be a robot and/or Don H. Rumsfeld not to feel all warm and toasty for the kid. Sure, it's just one game, but to Bo Hart right now, that's everything. That's one game he can tell his grandkids about, one game where he knew he could play with the big boys, one game that he can fall asleep to over and over for the rest of his life.

Remember that scene in Bull Durham, where Crash is telling his teammates about his cup of coffee up in the bigs? "Yeah, I was in the show," he muses. "I was in the show for 21 days once -- the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains."

Here's hoping Bo Hart digs into some of that tonight.

JEDMONDS missed his second game in a row after going hip-first into the right-centerfield wall in Miller Park on Tuesday night. It was a fantastic catch -- he went leaping into the air, prevented extra bases, and, naturally, earned kudos from the hometown announcers, who praised him as "a team-first guy" and a "gamer."

It was also moronic. The Cards were winning 12-3 at the time. It was the bottom of the ninth, no one on, one out. Would it really have made any difference if Edmonds had pulled up on that fly ball and played it off the wall? Well, the difference is this: he'd feel like a puss for about 15 seconds, then he'd go into the dugout after a 12-4 win, sleep easy, then haul his 19 homers and considerable OPS into the lineup the next few days. That's what it means to be "team-first gamer" kinda guy.

Staying in shape and avoiding injury is a skill, every bit as much as good baserunning and a good batting eye. There are a whole host of a players -- from Pete Reiser on up through Darin Erstad -- who didn't learn this, who thought they were playing some other sport (called, say, football), and paid the price. Let's not let it happen again, Jimmy.

[note: Will Carroll tells us that Jedmonds has a mere bruise and it's nothing to worry about.]

AND OH YEAH... The Cardinals are 1 game out of first.

Posted 12:42 AM by Matt
TINO THE ROOK Tino Martinez got hit in the back intentionally Tuesday night, went nuts on the field and in the dugout, and reportedly grumbled after the game about Cardinals' pitchers not retaliating. The Brewers' Scott Podsednik got hit intentionally Wednesday night and said, "I wasn't expecting it. But after (Eldred) nailed me in the back, I knew it was intentional. That's the way it goes. That's baseball."

Who's the veteran and who's the rookie?

Posted 10:10 PM by Brian
PHAT ALBERT Tallulah Bankhead once said, "There have been only two geniuses in the world -- Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare." Since following baseball, I have seen only four Cardinals reach the elite level of day-in-day-out Shakespearean greatness: John Tudor down the stretch in '85, Jack Clark in the first half of '87, Mark McGwire in '98 and '99, and now, Albert Pujols.

The numbers are staggering, and I'm sure you're familiar with most of them (like tonight's 4-for-5 hitfest). But I'll add one more set of numbers -- my selected list of player salaries for the 2003 season:

Darren Dreifort, $12.4 million
Albert Belle, $12.4 million
Bobby Higginson, $11.9 million
Jeffrey Hammonds, $8.2 million
Rick Reed, $8 million
Damian Easley, $6.9 million
Fernando Tatis, $6 million
Bob Wickman, $6 million
Albert Pujols, $900,000

Posted 8:05 PM by Matt
SORRY, MIGUEL I must apologize to Miguel Cairo for calling him shit the other day. He is mostly shit, but he bounced back very well from his atrociousness Monday, and got some key hits on Tuesday and Wednesday. And as crappy as Cairo is, Wilson Delgado is much worse offensively, I'm afraid. Defensively, I think Delgado's better. We'll see.

The salient point to make about Delgado, though, is that he looks like he's having less fun out there than any player who's ever worn the uniform. Seriously. I defy you to get a good look at his face when he doesn't seem at least slightly sad and angry about being on field.

Posted 7:48 PM by Mark
NERD ALERT For stat heads: tonight Glendon Rusch threw 62 pitches in one inning (actually, he threw a bunch of them in the 2nd inning, but recorded no outs, so technically he only pitched one inning). I looked all over the place to find the record for most pitches thrown in an inning, but couldn't find anything.

My assistant Brian, however, found this factoid: In 1944, Boston Braves pitcher Red Barrett threw only 58 pitches in a 2-0 complete game win over the Reds. Tonight Rusch threw 4 more pitches in one miserable inning than Barrett did in an entire game. The next lowest known total for a complete game is 67.

Another stat Brian dug up: Tim Wakefield pitched a 10 inning complete game in 1993 where he threw a whopping 172 pitches.

Posted 7:40 PM by Brian
MIGUEL CAIRO broke a bone in his hand on a pitch thrown by Dan Kolb. No timetable on his return, but we do know this: the Cards now turn to their third-string secondbaseman. That man is Wilson Delgado.

[My bet is that 73-year old Bill Selby stumbles into the Birdnut infield. Ugh. Well, he did hit three 2-run homers yesterday for Memphis. -- Mark]

Posted 7:14 PM by Brian
FANTASTICAL The great Dr. Z, Paul Zimmerman, writes about football, but his issues with fantasy football apply just as well to fantasy baseball:

"Why don't I like it? For the same reason I don't like thoroughbred racing. Because I'm afraid of it. I'm afraid that if I ever became interested in either of these things, and got the charts working and sat down and doped everything out in scientific fashion, I'd be able to conquer these topics -- you know, the kind of things suckers are always saying. And the time all this would take would be stupefying; I mean, it would take over a good portion of my life."

Posted 3:06 PM by Flynn
Happy 64th Birthday Louis Clark Brock

Lest we forget…

1964 World Series .300, 5 RBI, 2 R, 1 HR, 0 SB
1967 World Series .414, 3 RBI, 8 R, 1 HR, 7 SB
1968 World Series .464, 5 RBI, 6 R, 2 HR, 7 SB
Total (21 games) .391, 13 RBI, 16 R, 4 HR, 14 SB

• In 1962 the Chicago Tribune sports section featured an article proclaiming Brock “the least talented outfielder in the major leagues…why they Cubs continue to allow him to hurt the team is a mystery…”

• History shows that the Brock-Broglio trade was viewed at the time as a coup for the Cubs

• One of only 4 men to homer into dead center at the Polo Grounds (Luke Easter, Joe Adcock, Hank Aaron)

• Stole 21 bases at age 40

• Great story of a Brock-Koufax showdown can be read here. I will recommend it to Valerio de los Santos and Constantino Martinez after last night’s buffoonery.

• Featured running on classic Sports Illustrated cover from the mid ‘70s: “Speed Kills”

• Proclaimed Don Gullet (current Reds pitching coach) the hardest pitcher to get a jump on. Reason – Gullet never ever threw over to first. His whole career Brock was worried that “maybe this would be the one” since he had never seen Gullet’s pick-off move.

• Got 3000th hit literally “off” Dennis Lamp after a brush back pitch (Mike Shannon’s call: “So typical of the man, Jack! So typical of Lou Brock!”)

• On “Lou Brock Day” at Busch in 1979 teammates presented him with a burgundy ’79 Monte Carlo; ownership gave him a boat named “Lou, Lou, Lou”

• Wife Jackie delivered the most rambling, confusing, confrontational, and loudest invocation of all time at Ozzie Smith’s Hall of Fame ceremony last summer

• Is apparently very nice to FedEx drivers.

• The mere mention of his name sends true Cub fans into twitches and convulsions.

• Endorsed 1975’s “105-Lou” shoes by Keds. This correspondent truly believed they made him run faster.

• Famously endorsed Brock-a-pop and the oft imitated Brock-a-brella

Happy Birthday to a thief.

Posted 10:03 AM by Brian
REDBIRD NATION HAS TURNED INTO A BUNCH OF WHINERS The Cardinals lose on Monday night and we bitch and moan to no end. We win handily last night, good performances all around (even from guys like Cairo and Delgado and Stephenson), and how do we respond: dead silence. As if a win against the Brewers is no win at all. Real cool, guys.

So let's look ahead to tonight's game: Simontacchi vs. Rusch. Glendon Rusch is one of those junkballing, speed-shifting, arm-angle-changing guys who makes our team look goofy now and again. But we roughed him up real good in our second game of the season -- 7 runs and 11 hits in 5 innings. Rusch was so scarred by the experience that he's gone on to be the worst pitcher in the National League.

The bottom 10 NL starters, ranked by Baseball Prospectus' Support Neutral Won-Loss Record (which measures a pitcher's record given league average support from the offense and the bullpen):

1. GLENDON RUSCH
2. Ryan Dempster
3. John Riedling
4. Jimmy Anderson
5. Pedro Astacio
6. Wayne Franklin
7. Kirk Saarloos
8. Clay Condrey
9. John Patterson
10. JASON SIMONTACCHI

So stock up on canned goods, board up the windows in Miller Park, drive the children far out of town, because a hurricane is about to hit Milwaukee.

Posted 1:17 PM by Brian
FIVE ARTICLES you might want to read. One by my fiancee Rob Neyer, who sizes up Bert Pujols against the best young hitters of all time. And some more Albertica here, here, and here. The last article includes a glowing accolade from Gammons that concludes, "To compare Soriano and Pujols is laughable."

When you're done wallowing in Pujolsland, check out this fond tribute to Darryl Kile in USA Today. Flynn Kile talks about her late husband at length: "The last thing I remember him talking about... he said 'Look at me. I'm just some dopey kid that somehow figured out how to throw a curveball. I've got the perfect wife. I've got the perfect family. Now I'm going to have a terrific house.' That was the last in-person conversation we had."

Posted 12:30 PM by Mark
BEHIND THE RED CURTAIN A longtime friend worked for years as an usher at Busch Stadium, during the heyday of Torreball in the early 90's. Redbird Nation recently asked him to share some of his memories from that golden age (and sorry, but we couldn't reprint the actionable stuff). Enjoy:



“A sampling of the wonder of Busch Stadium in its waning days of Astroturf-ness and multi-purpose glory --

Pedro Guerrero having gold-tipped shoelaces delivered just before game time; Cris Carpenter punting footballs in the outfield (he was a punter for U. of Georgia); Bryn Smith out of uniform sitting in the stands with Geddy Lee of Rush; Lee Smith’s wife – I swear to God she was as big as him and was always hollering at him about something; Jose Oquendo carrying large pink soft-sided baby bags every night while his wife pushed his twins, Carolyn and Marilyn, in a stroller with a stuffed Cardinal on top; Lee Smith on Sunday mornings, being driven around in a golf cart with a China plate of bacon on his lap… Picture that again: Lee Smith, in baseball pants and a T-shirt, riding shotgun on a golf cart through the bowels of Busch at 11:00 AM on a Sunday with a mound of bacon on a plate in his lap. No drink, no eggs, no biscuit, just bacon. Lee Smith – Castor, Louisiana (he lived on a farm with 54 cars).

John Tudor – my favorite player of all time. When we would sit outside the “ushers locker room” we would see all the players walking to their cars. They walked right in front of us and almost all of them acknowledged us with a wave or something. Tudor always cruised by in the manner of a high school nerd rushing down the hallway, avoiding eye contact with the jocks, on his way to the sanctuary of the library, where he could relax. Nothing aloof at all about the guy. He would grin nervously at us, but he certainly wasn’t comfortable basking in the stares of the usherfolk. Johnny T. also distinguished himself with his “anti-playa” wardrobe. Lots of non-designer jeans (no belt) and polo shirts (not even real Polo, but that dumb little Fox or whatever it was JC Penney sold.) Compared to the other players, he looked like a guy wearing Eddie Bauer in a Miami nightclub.

Friendliest players - #1 by far (so friendly they retired his number) – Ozzie Smith. It’s true, the guy had a chip on his shoulder and maybe it was all BS, but he always slowed down and asked “Everybody going out tonight?” or “Did you have a good break?” He would also remember if somebody was out for pregnancy or something. The guy truly was nice to the lowly usher staff.

Also friendly – Dan Quisenberry (’88-’89) – would walk past us with a friend and have fake conversations where he would say, really loud, “Yeah, my spitter was fucking awesome tonight!” He would also high-five you unexpectedly if you happened to be in the concourse during a game when he was going down to the pen.

Terry Pendleton - loved to give the peace sign and the fist pump.

Pagnozzi - he’d buy you a beer at what was Alligator Alley on 7th Street, but wouldn’t talk to you really. Just providing the alcohol, dude…

Oquendo - waved and smiled and let the girls play with his babies but didn’t say much.

Willie McGee -“Hey man, thanks. OK.” – He always said that, no matter what anybody said.

Rich Batchelor - he was the guy acquired when they traded Lee Smith to the Yankees. He was pretty much the same age as all the ushers and seemed like he felt more at home with them than the players – he actually hung out with the trash guys for the six weeks he was with the team.

Torre – he is exactly like you think he is: a guy who is nice but you don’t want to piss off.

Todd Zeile – laid-back Todd. “Hey dude, thanks….” Hot wife. (Hard for me and my group of friends to really like him due to his lack of performance. Our nickname for him – “Mr. Warning Track”)

Jerks:

Mark Clark – big dumb country boy who acted like he was Roger Clemens (that is, an asshole) when, in fact, he was 5th-starter Mark Clark.

Bernard Gilkey – probably worn out from having everybody he ever looked at in high school asking him for tickets and money, but still, you could be civil to the groveling ushers…

Gregg Jefferies – never ever spoke to the ushers working on the field, not even to acknowledge their praise

Mark “Bones” Donahue – never heard of him? That’s because he wasn’t really a player but the bullpen catcher, which is, I think, the greatest job in the world. Why is he a jerk? Because he lost sight of the fact that he was the bullpen catcher and his head got too big for his mask. After 7 years with the team the Cards cut him once word got out that he was representing himself as an actual player at bars and clubs. Seems the real players don’t like that…

For no real reason…Best cusser on the team: Red Schoendienst, by a landslide. He was also “Master of All Things Fungo.”

Posted 10:05 PM by Matt
MORE GAME NOTES, Brewers 9, Half-Great/Half-Shit 4

• One of the Brewers' announcers introduced Pujols as "the man who may be the greatest playing the game of baseball right now." He's probably right. Barry Bonds could put in a claim. I don't know who else.

• Calero's numbers as a reliever are very respectable, and they surprised me as I looked at them before the game -- I guess it's because he's given up some untimely homers.

• I've seen Eduardo Perez take pitches to the body for his team a couple times this season, and I appreciate it, especially since he's been slumping.

• In the 1st, Wayne Franklin appeared very afraid to throw J.D. Drew anything over the plate. In the 3rd, Drew showed why.

• How do you explain what Mike Matheny manages to do against the Brewers?

• Among all the other things Pujols does exceptionally, he's an excellent baserunner. I've seen him be overaggressive a couple times, but the times he's picked up bases by being smart and aggressive far outweigh those. He got around the bases very quickly on Edgar's 5th inning double. The Brewers had a crappy relay, but he got a great jump and they would have had trouble getting him at home regardless.

• J.D. Drew covers more ground than any RF in the game right now.

• The Cards' fans have shown up in force everywhere on this road trip. Makes me proud to be a St. Louisan.

• Calero stayed ahead in the count on almost everybody tonight, and his slider is terrific. Team that with his low-90s fastball, which has some formidable movement, and you see why the Brewers' hitters couldn't figure him out. Because his stuff is so good, nothing seemed flukish about his performance tonight (although I'd feel better if he developed a nice change to accompany the slider and fastball). I had visions of him being for us this year what Simontacchi was to us last year, and that hope is still intact, but our relievers and Cairo reminded me that you can't have half a great team and half a shitty team and expect to win a championship (and probably not your division) in MLB. We have the best nucleus in the game, offensively and defensively. But it hardly matters, because Jocketty and La Russa have surrounded Drew, Pujols, Jedmonds, Rolen, Renteria, Morris, and Woody with clowns like Cairo, Fassero, Eldred, Hermanson, Kline, Tomko, Robinson, Taguchi, and Girardi. We've spent so many years watching other teams, with less dedicated fans, win championships. It's not fair that they fill our bullpen and bench (and to La Russa, nearly every bench player is a part-timer) with this shit. The owners have done their job by shelling out for our big name guys, but Jocketty has failed miserably by not acquiring a professional supporting cast, and La Russa continues to fail miserably with strategic sins and simply by not knowing when, why, and how much to play these guys. I don't think every Redbird Nation writer would agree with this, but I think we'd be best off putting this nucleus into the hands of a new regime. How many more years are the owners gonna cast a blind eye to Jocketty's leaving us with some area of glaring weakness, or to La Russa making costly, mind-boggling blunders both in the regular season and in the playoffs? I'm scared by the prospects who might succeed them, but it's all about winning championships and we're consummate also-rans. I'd rather throw dice than run in place.

• Whew. Now that's off my chest...

• I've been hard on K-Rob lately, but he came up with what could have been a clutch hit before Cairo deflated us. By the way, when's the last time a Cardinal had as crucially poor a game as Cairo did tonight? He committed both the back-breakingly lousy defensive gaffe of the game and the back-breakingly lousy hit of the game. Eldred was atrocious, but at least he didn't hit.

• I'll be watching and rooting like hell for us tomorrow.

Posted 8:56 PM by Brian
GAME NOTES, Brewers 9, Cards 4

• The Cards just endured a grueling road trip to the unfriendly confines of Fenway and Yankee Stadium. Surely they'd relax and have a little fun at the expense of the Brü Crü, right? Think again...

• We got a miracle performance from Kiko Calero, who dispatched the Brewers lineup with 9 K's and 1 run in 5 innings of work. We had to win with a start like that, right? Nope...

• Mike Matheny -- yes, Mike Matheny -- played pinball in Miller Park, cranking out 4 hits, a double to each side of the field, a no-doubt homer to left. You know you've got the W when Math goes nuts, right? Not so fast...

• We had a fairly comfy 4-2 lead going into the 7th inning. The Brewers have scored only 19 runs in all the seventh innings for the whole year (a span of 67 games). With Osik, Clayton, and Kieschnick due up, the 7th was a cakewalk, right? Well, not exactly...

• Osik hits a fluke homer and the next two guys reach on lite singles. EY Young is up bunting against Eldred. Cal lays it in there, right? He couldn't possibly walk a guy looking to bunt, right? And he'd never ever do it on four pitches, right? Right? [Silence...]

• All right, so the Cardinals get themselves in deep trouble. Bases loaded for the Brewers, no one out, Kline summoned from the bullpen. You figure we'll sacrifice the run for the double play, try to keep the game under control, right? Wait wait, you're telling me La Russa brings the infield in? You're telling me he risked everything to try to prevent one run from scoring -- with plenty of time left in the game? And then Posednik skipped a picture-perfect double-play grounder to Cairo, but he was playing too far in, so the ball gobbled him up? Which opened the floodgates and let 6 more runners score in the inning? This couldn't possibly happen, right? Our manager can't be that suicidal, right? Umm....

• But we at least made a valiant comeback, right? When we loaded the bases with no one out in the 8th, we managed to push a couple runs across, keep things tight, right? No chance -- Cairo bounced into a 1-2-3 double play. Game over.

The Cardinals are now 22-12 at home, a woeful 13-21 on the road. To give you an idea how ominous things are getting, just yesterday I made a backup plan and picked a team to root for in October, in case the Cardinals didn't make the playoffs. Go Mariners.

Posted 4:58 PM by Brian
LISTEN TO THIS SHIT Will Leitch of Black Table writes this report re: the Yankee Stadium crowd:

"Went to all three games this weekend. High/lowlight was during Saturday’s rain delay. I was roaming around the park, just trying to stay dry, and I drifted into a box section in right field, overlooking the bleachers. A bunch of Cardinals fans were sitting there, watching the bleacher bums being morons (they were sliding headfirst along the bleachers and cheering each other on). The bleacher folks noticed a bunch of Cardinals fans watching then, turned and started cheering “DAR-YL. KI-LE!” over and over.

Very classy."

Now, I know you can't judge a town's fans by its lowest common denominators, but as a thought experiment, try to imagine it's 1979 and some Yanks fans come to visit Busch Stadium. Some bleacher fans start chanting at them -- "THUR-MON MUN-SON" -- over and over. It just wouldn't happen.

AND MORE HUGS FROM SOX FANS A good guy named Jason Fournier from BinaryToybox.com shares his experiences from the Sox-Cards series: "...the Cardinals fans I saw and spoke to were polite and I was polite back. I spoke to two guys in their twenties who were seat-hopping towards the end of the game. We talked about their need for a rally monkey and the lack of dependable ones in Boston (this is going to be the year, rally monkies be damned!). We then moved on to some good-natured teasing about the Rams, and when the game ended we shook hands and wished each other safe trips home. On the subway I saw other Cardinal fans wearing jersey's and hats. I didn't notice anyone giving them a hard time."

Looks like the Asshole Fans of the Century Award has been taken away from Boston and given to New York. Those damn Yankees win everything.

Posted 10:26 AM by Brian
FORT APACHE THE BRONX Alex Belth has this first-hand account from last Friday's game:

"Clemens had his 300th win. Rocket came back out on the field, and got the royal treatment from the fans. All of the Cardinals fans I saw were standing clapping.

"Unfortunately, the game ended on a sour note for me. Pedestrian traffic is a nightmare for a New Yorker, and between all of the out-of-towners and suburban Yankee fans, it was an ugly scene. Too many drunks, too close together. Of course, we filed out hearing the usual chants: "Cardinals suck, Cardinals suck." Now I know that even when the Sox are in town, most of these seemingly mean-spirited taunts are meant in good fun. But I just can't get with it. Why chant that somebody sucks? Why not say, "We're great!" instead? Anyhow, it's par for the course, and groups of drunken Yankee fans jumped all over any wearing Cardinals gear. The lowest was, "Cardinals take it up the ass, do-dah, do-dah." It's bad enough that this kind of thing goes, on but when you can't escape these mooks, there is an edge, a mob-like intensity to the scene which makes for a particularly uncomfortable experience.

"Not only that, I was personally embarrased to be a Yankee fan. And this is how we act when the Yanks win. Can you imagine if we had lost? (I can only imagine how ugly it got by Sunday afternoon.) I was also ashamed as a New Yorker, but you know what? Although there are plenty of obnoxious Yankee fans from New York, most of the morons are distinctly suburban---dudes from Long Island, Jersey and Westchester.

"I felt so badly about it, that when I finally made it to the subway, I apologized to the first St. Louis fan I could find. The kid I spoke with didn't seem to think the abuse was all that bad, or at least nothing that wasn't expected, so perhaps I'm just sensitive to that kind of thing. Still, Yankee fans could learn a thing or three from Cardinals fans about class and respect, that's for sure.

One of Alex's readers wrote in with this counter-example:

"We were sitting amongst a bunch of Cardinals fans who had first gone to Boston and then came here. We were talking about the difference between a Boston and New York crowd, and I took pride in being informed that "Red Sox fans were easily the biggest assholes ever." These were all people in thier late forties and fifties, with families, and obvious baseball fans and they said everyone they spoke to in Fenway was rude. They also couldn't get over the fact that there were at a Boston vs. St Louis game, and all anyone chanted was "Yankees suck!" In comparison they were impressed with how nice everyone at the stadium (NY that is) was to them. And they felt the tribute we gave Roger was one of the greatest things they had ever seen. "

Posted 10:03 AM by Brian
AND IF YOU DIDN'T GET ENOUGH CLEMENS-MANIA John Shiffert, who writes a great e-newsletter called 19 to 21, has this observation: The feat of reaching 300 wins and 4000 strikeouts in the same game is mindboggling... [I]magine a hitter reaching 3000 hits and 600 home runs in the same game. The rarity of both of those feats compares quite well with Clemens' Daily Double. There are now 21 members of the 300 Win Club, and 25 members of the 3000 Hit Club. Similarly, the 4000K Club's three members are nicely balanced by the 600 Homer Club's four members.

Posted 5:34 PM by Matt
KILLING WOODY I've grown so exhausted by Tony La Russa's idiocies over the years that I try hard not to overcomplain. Whenever I post game notes, I usually have 2 or 3 negative statements about La Russa for every positive one, but I don't want to sound like one of those drunken blowhards whose baseball knowledge is so shallow all they can do is criticize the manager. I also recognize that the ways in which a manager can help or hurt his team is more limited than many fans and analysts suggest. However, La Russa's overuse of Woody Williams this year -- a crime he's been guilty of many times over the years with other guys -- could do signifigant damage to our chances this season.

La Russa's had Woody pitch over 120 pitches 4 times in his last six starts: on 5/16 vs. the Cubs: 122; 5/21 vs. Houston -- his next start -- 124; 5/31 vs. Pittsburgh: 122; 6/10 vs. Boston: 122. In 7 of his last 8 starts, La Russa's had him throw over 112. Today, he threw 112 pitches, which I think every person in the stadium except La Russa could see was about 12 too many. Did he look like Woody Williams past the 5th against Boston or in the 6th today? Clearly, he's fatigued, and it's yet another way in which having a numbskull in our dugout really hurts us.

Posted 4:29 PM by The Judge
Judge's Notes from the week of June 8-14

Sunday
• If the boys at Redbird Nation are really like the Wu-Tang, I'm clearly the Ol' Dirty Bastard (aka Big Baby Jesus) because of my addictions to crack cocaine and hookers

Monday
• Not re-signing Chuck Finley was preposterous; one of the worst decisions Jocketty made. Every day it gets worse.
• Today's blog had one too many mentions of Casey Fossum, and three too few mentions of John Fulgham.

Tuesday
• Brian writes about the collective futility of the Cubs, Chisox, and Bosox. Somehow I've always assumed that the White Sox are due because it just feels right if it's only the Cubs and Red Sox dwelling in purgatory. I hope they never win, ever, for all eternity.
• I've lately been considering getting a tatto of Tim Raines in his '80 away Expos uniform on my neck. He was 1-for-20 that year before his rookie breakout in '81. My top ten favorite non-Cardinals of my lifetime:
1. Rock Raines
2. Brian Kingman
3. Johnny Kruk
4. Doug Glanville
5. Brian Downing
6. Rick Reuschel
7. Mark Grace
8. Dave Concepcion
9. Lenny Randle
10. Joey Belle
Please note that these are non-Birdinals, however, and I would sooner pull Gary Buckels out of a burning building than all of these guys' families put together.
• Clemens v. Pedro? Asshole v. Baby. Keep 'em; I'll take Greg Williams.
• My buddy T.J. told me one time that the Red Sox fans were clearly the most knowledgeable in all of baseball. I honestly felt sorry for him.

Wednesday
• Did Jeff Kent really not know that those guys had thrown a no-hitter. That's downright Jedmondsian.
• Message to the Cubbies fans: no matter how many former presidents or current incompetent baseball commissioners coddle the guy, I will always know that Sammy Sosa is a liar and a cheat, and in your heart of hearts, you'll know it too.

Thursday
• Manny Ramirez is a total bad-ass. He makes me feel like less than a man. I've heard thoroughly unsubstantiated rumors that he likes the chronic, to boot. Attaboy, Manny. Keep up the good work.
• When Brian compared Bret Tomko to Donovan Osborne, I decided to make my Birdinal "All-Time Disappointment Team", but I realized that with a couple of notable exceptions (Jimmy Lindeman & Geronimo "Lazylegs" Pena), the biggest Bird disappointments have mostly been pitchers: Osborne, Omar Olivares, Rene Arocha, Mike Perez, Cris Carpenter I, Alan Benes, Chad Hutchinson, Dick Ankiel...
• I had grave doubts about whether or not Fenway Park supported our troops in the Middle East, but that American flag mown into the lawn erased them instantly.
• Mark, that Hulk movie looks rad to me too. He does look, like my friend J.P. suggested, a bit like a colorform, but I think Ang Lee's gonna deliver the goods.
• That David Drew sure is a handsome man when he's hitting the ball well. Between him and Manny Ramirez I may have to think about switching teams.

Friday
• Whenever I need an example of how great Cardbird fans are, I'm reminded of the time my dad went to eat lunch and overheard a group of about eight women who worked in his office having an animated discussion. He soon discovered that they were all talking about the previous night's Cardinal game. It was May.
• Please get Urbina, please.
• Mark was right when he said Bert Pujjy should have watched Old School. Sometimes I fear that guy is a little too intense. Perhaps he has that drive to be great that Kobe or Tiger or MJ have, but the difference is that those guys knew they were the best, whereas Pujjy seems to need to prove it to himself as well. If that guy can learn to own his own greatness he may turn into a halfway decent hitter.
• Memo to Brian: if you love Rob Neyer so much, why don't you marry him?
• I love that that Will Carroll guy reads this website. You think he can score me any of that sweet-ass Baseball Prospectus merchandise?
• That was a cute anecdote from the Bosox fan about fans leaving because Ramiro Mendoza was brought in, but it's a little suspect. My guess is that the fans there just aren't as great as they think.
• Brian, I'm not sure who Norman Feld is, but the gorgeous gentleman who played Sergeant Towser in Mike Nichols' Catch-22 and, of course, the inimitable Mr. Roper on Three's Company is named Norman Fell.
• Why didn't we pick up Juan Acevedo as soon as he was released? He can't be worse than our tag-team of Jeff Fassero, Esteban Yan, and that loser guy from Gilmore Girls.
• You really think Whitey's gonna be the next Yankees manager because he sent a Post-It note to Steinbrenner? I don't buy it.
• I totally agree with what was said about the Simo Man. I really like the guy, but isn't there someone floating around out there that we can give a shot? How about that Jason Ryan guy in AAA? I have no idea who he is, but his numbers aren't bad.

Saturday
• Did Crudale steal LaRussa's wife or something? What gives?
• I wish like hell that Ryan O'Neal had played Michael Corleone. Vito? Soupy Sales.
• Until I realized that there was a typo in the blog that listed Morris's home town as Morristown rather than Middletown, I actually thought I had witnessed a bonafide coincidence.
• I hate the damn Yankees, but the Birds have got two things on them: 1) we're up 4-to-3 in World Series matchups, and 2) we have absolutely no affiliation to the American Nazi Party.
• I wanted to think up a joke about Bret Tomko here, but I couldn't even do that. That's how lousy he is. I feel bad for him, but I think I'd rather have Oquendo out there. And if it weren't for Duane Walker, he probably would be (can any of our loyal RN readers catch the refernence?)

So, all in all I'd say that this website is kicking along pretty good. Not quite Tudortacular, but at least Miltthompsonriffic.

Posted 3:48 PM by Brian
LOGJAM The Astros just fell to the Red Sox in the 14th. They got swept, we got swept, the Cubs dropped 2 of 3 from the Jays. Things are tight in the NL Central -- 4 teams within three games of each other.

Posted 1:40 PM by Brian
NOW I KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE to be a Washington Senators fan. Remember that line from The Godfather? "A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." The Yankees are those lawyers with briefcases. They win cleanly, methodically, leaving no fingerprints or bloodstains behind.

If the Cardinals had won today, they would have pulled even on this East Coast swing, which would have disappointed no one (especially with the "breather" week that Mark mentioned against Milwaukee and Kansas City). But today's 2-1 pitching duel going into the six unravelled in a hurry. Woody Williams pitched perhaps his worst inning in a Cardinal uniform: walk, walk, double, single, double, ground out, walk, yanked from the game. That made six walks on the day for Woody, which matched a career high. He had six walks in the entire month of April.

What's with our control issues lately? Our staff has issued 38 free passes on the road trip. Yes, I know, the Red Sox and Yankees are patient teams, but still -- six-plus walks a game? That's vile, man.

The Cardinals are still on solid ground -- as of this writing we're only 2 games out of first. But all the gurgling, rumbling, underlying indicators suggest that the floor could cave in: our starters are overworked, they're losing velocity and control and focus, our bullpen is about as stable as a 2nd-grade science project, and injuries have crippled our veterans, putting more pressure on our sub-sub-mediocrities to succeed.

The beginning of July features six games against West-leading San Fran and a series against Central-leading Chicago. If we can't patch things together by the end of June, then we could be in a real hole in a real hurry.

Posted 1:16 PM by Mark
SWEPT The most disconcerting thing about this weekend's embarrassment in the Bronx is the performance of our starting pitchers. If you include Tomko's performance Saturday as that of a starter (which, to be honest, might not be fair to Tomko), our starters gave up 23 runs this series; our bullpen gave up 0. That doesn't mean our bullpen has turned it around; rather, it points out how fragile we are when our two aces falter.

My wife/baby's mama/in-house Cubs fan looked at the Cardbird/Yanks score Saturday and mumbled, "Man, the Cardinals suck." All I could utter in return was, "Tino hit two dingers." I left out that the two raised his grand total for the season to an impotent 6.

Luckily, we now get the smooth-tasting malted hops of the Brew Crew for four games. Time to beat up on the little kids.

Posted 12:58 AM by Brian
A FEW DAYS AGO we suggested that Will Carroll, the injury guru over at Baseball Prospectus, might be less-than-objective when it comes to his analysis of the Cardinals because he is, in fact, a Cubbies fan. Will writes in:

I'll admit to being a Cubs fan ... the 12 step programs didn't take... but I really try to be objective about all teams, especially the Cardinals and Astros. Izzy was throwing really well [Thursday] night, but not 95/96. I'd say 93 is pretty darn good anyway and didn't mean for that to come off as a negative.

Thanks, Will. Cub fan or no, Will was one of the few sportswriters in the country to praise La Russa for letting Pujols play through his damaged elbow, and if there's an anti-Cards bias running through his veins, it sure doesn't seem to bleed into his writing.

Posted 11:40 PM by Brian
SADDEST NOTE OF THE DAY Morris, a native of Morristown, N.Y., fulfilled a lifelong dream by starting before a sellout crowd of 55,174 that included a suite filled with 30 friends and relatives.

Posted 12:48 PM by Brian
MATTY MO'S PROBLEMS CONTINUE... This was a worrisome start for Morris, as he was roughed up in his last outing and he was held back a day because of problems with his shoulder muscle. So far, so bad: 2 outs and 3 earned runs before the rains came.

Matty was one strike from getting out of the first -- he got ahead of Godzilla Matsui 0-2 -- but he lost him to a bases-clearing double. This is purely anecdotal, but Morris seems to blow more 0-2 counts than any pitcher I've ever seen. I know the Cardinals get frustrated with his pitch selection -- he seems to want to blaze his fastball past hitters rather than trust his curve -- and I wonder if these 0-2 failings (a natural ability to throw strikes but a natural inability to work the count) are part of that frustation.

Posted 12:34 PM by Brian
NEW YORK'S FINEST An exchange from today's KMOX broadcast:

Shannon: They have great security here in New York, don't they? There must be more security guards here than fans.

Hagin: I had to do postgame here in the early '80s, and to get down to the clubhouse I had to follow the trail of blood. That's how they made sure fans didn't come back onto the field.

Posted 12:05 PM by Brian
VERY CURIOUS, GEORGE I'm sure there's not a man, woman, or child in the tri-state NY-NJ-CT area (except maybe Anna Wintour) who hasn't caught wind of this report yet, but for the rest of us --

According to the Newark Star Ledger, "George Steinbrenner recently told some associates he's seriously considering firing Joe Torre because of the Yankees' uneven play and for what the owner claimed to view as belligerent behavior on the part of his manager.

"According to multiple Yankees executives, Steinbrenner told confidants that Torre has been refusing to return his phone calls or participate in organizational strategy sessions for weeks and that he suspects Torre is intentionally creating the opposite impression -- that it is Steinbrenner who is ignoring and excluding him -- as a way of making him look bad publicly.

"Steinbrenner believes Torre is behaving this way so the owner will fire him and he can collect the more than $7 million remaining on his contract, which expires after next season. That possibility is complicating Steinbrenner's decision-making. Steinbrenner told at least one associate that he would prefer that Torre resign and forfeit the money, but that he doesn't believe it will happen soon enough for his desires."

Posted 11:07 AM by Brian
CHOCKABLOCK So I finished reading Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups. It's a fun read, stuffed full of factoids, stray thoughts, and argument-starters. It's sorta like browsing through a sports section of USA Today that covers the entire 20th century.

I love hearing about baseball trades that almost happened, the same way I love casting choices that weren't -- Ryan O'Neal as Michael Corleone, Tom Selleck (and Nick Nolte) as Indiana Jones, and Harrison Ford in the Tom Hanks role in Big. Neyer includes several non-trades in his book. In 1997, for example, the Tigers had a deal in place to acquire Bernie Williams in exchange for pitchers Mike Drumright and Roberto Duran (allegedly Boss Steinbrenner nixed the move at the last moment). And in 1982, the Rangers agreed to send Jim Sundberg to the Dodgers for Dave Stewart, Burt Hooton, and Orel Hershiser (!). But Sundberg had a no-trade clause in his contract, and he exercised it.

There are a zillion such tidbits in the book. If you do read it, however, I'd advise (as Neyer does in the forward) reading it out of order, picking it up now and again and leafing through it. I read it straight through, which can get a little taxing, as there's no narrative to speak of. Nonetheless, Neyer again proves himself as one of the most interesting baseball writers out there.

Posted 9:05 AM by Brian
HAREN WATCH For the first time in several games, Danny Haren failed to log a quality start, giving up 3 runs in only 5 innings last night at Memphis. But he struck out 8 and walked only 1, and K/BB ratio, as you know, is as good an indicator of talent going forward as anything.

Speaking of arms on the farm, Mike Crudale has a 1.13 ERA in Memphis, and more K's than innings pitched. Up with the big club he had an ERA of 1.00. Last year (in 52 2/3 IP) he had a 1.88 ERA. True, he's struggled with his control a bit (a ghastly 8 walks in 9 innings with the Cardinals this year), but still -- hasn't he proven himself enough to earn another shot? Why are we dicking around with the triple-headed hydra (Fassero, Hermanson, and Yan the Man) when we got Crudale ready to go? I think I know the answer: Crudale's not a "proven veteran," which means he's not an aging La Russabot who cut his teeth in the early 90s.

Posted 11:16 PM by Matt
MORE GAME NOTES, Yankees 5 Cardinals 2

• I really wanted a win tonight. I don't like Roger Clemens. I don't like George Steinbrenner. I don't like the Yankees. I'm as disappointed as I've been after any loss this season.

• Commentators like to talk about how Pujols doesn't get cheated or take bad swings, and they're usually right, but Clemens made him look pretty bad with his 1st inning K.

• Soriano's body hangs all the way over onto the outside corner of the plate. I bet Bob Gibson chucks his beer at the television set when he sees him get away with that.

• Kerry Robinson totally misplayed Posada's 1st inning double, forfeiting any shot to get Jeter at the plate. What did he do yesterday to earn a start today? Why is he on our team? He's a blatant, glaring offensive zero, and not even a defensive asset (anybody notice how he overran Damon's pop out last night, and almost cost us the game?). I don't understand how Tony La Russa puts that guy in the starting line-up one night, much less two.

• God bless Jedmonds. After Clemens was emboldened by striking out the side in the 1st, Jedmonds drove his 1-0 fastball back up his ass (which raised his average to .319, .020 up from what it was just a few games ago). When he's hot, he's real hot.

• My goodness, Cameron Diaz looks terrific on the cover of Entertainment Weekly this week. The tag team effect of the Yankees beating us tonight and her not being my wife is really kicking my ass right now.

• You figure Clemens was gonna get his 4000th K tonight, but having it come against Edgar, who had a chance to advance Rolen to 3rd with one out, really hurt.

• I've heard defensive experts talk about Jeter's lack of range at SS, and a pretty clear example of it was on Edgar's 4th inning single up the middle -- it wasn't very sharply hit, but he didn't even get in a step before he dove and completely missed it.

• Simontacchi strings together some nice innings and is capable of throwing a solid game every once in awhile. And I really, really like the guy. But I'm afraid his 6.65 ERA is a pretty accurate reflection of his true capabilities. A contending team like the Cardinals just can't afford that. I've seen enough. I don't know if it's Haren who replaces him, or somebody else, but Simontacchi's gotta go. I'd be glad to eat my words, but I don't think it's gonna happen.

• Great idea for Drew to bunt for a hit in front of Pujols with 2 outs off Hammond in the 7th. It was also the last good thing to happen for the Cardinals...

• Go get 'em, Matty Mo. Our pride is in your hands.

Posted 7:38 PM by Brian
GAME NOTES Pinstripes 5, Birds 2

• Congrats to the Rocket on his 300th win. He deserved the win tonight, just like he deserved the hundreds before this one. You certainly don't need all the fingers on your hands to list the pitchers who are greater than he is, and tonight's game -- with Clemens blistering the corners, then dropping in that splitter low and away -- gave you a glimpse why. It's quite possible that we won't see a better pitcher in our lifetimes.

• It took me about 3 minutes into the game to grow weary of Yankees fans. Well, that's not fair -- I guess it took me that long to grow weary of one Yankees fan, a Mel Brooks-Norman Feld-looking dude behind the visitors dugout, dressed head to toe in Yankees regalia, who stood and bellowed and waved his arms with every Clemens strikeout. There's a handy way to distinguish likable fans from annoying fans. Likable fans celebrate when their team wins; annoying fans gloat. This guy was gloating on every pitch, as if he himself were striking out Cairo and Drew and Pujols.

• Clemens was an absolute monster early on: strikeout swinging, strikeout swinging, strikeout swinging, (then, oops, a home run and a double), then strikeout swinging, strikeout swinging, strikeout swinging. A small part of me was thinking, is this bastard gonna strike out twenty again? Pretty impressive considering the Cards are the hardest team to whiff in the National League.

• For most of the game the Simo Man held his own against the most recognizable lineup in baseball. (I suppose the Yanks have had the most recognizable lineup for the greater part of the 20th century and beyond.) In fact, he did pretty well against the "name" players. Soriano, Jeter, Giambi, and Posada went 2-14 off him, with 1 walk and 1 double. If you'd told me ahead of time that Simontacchi would have tamed that foursome, I'd have figured that was enough for the win. But it was the crappy Yanks (Sierra, Mondesi, Rivera) who stung him: 5 for 11, 1 walk, 2 dongs.

• The longballs were an unfortunate byproduct of Simontacchi's approach. For most of the season Simo has pitched as if he was frosting a wedding cake -- daintily, gingerly. But tonight he came at hitters, which wasn't such a terrible idea. It did keep him away from the big inning -- but unfortunately it also meant he got rocked whenever his pitches caught too much of the plate. He's now given up 19 homers on the year, and that, my friends, is disgraceful.

• The announcers pointed out that Jason and Jeremy Giambi combined for 61 home runs last year, besting the DiMaggios for most homers in the same year for a brother tandem. Isn't the record actually held by Barry Bonds (73) and Bobby Bonds Jr. (0) in 2001? (sorry, that was lame.)

• It was nice to see Tino tough through the game on a bad leg. I didn't know whether to feel sorry for him (because the ghost of Fitter, Happier Tino must be haunting Yankee Stadium) or feel good for him (because he finally got to come home, where nowadays a strikeout actually helps his buddies on the other side).

• The game tonight was a fitting intro to big-time Yankeedom -- the pageantry, the milestones, the luminaries in the stands (like Martha Stewart). It was all, well... boring, especially after our biblical showdown Thursday night. Let's be honest, Clemens-Simontacchi just can't chub you up the way Clemens-Morris would have, and seeing the Yankees fulfill Clemens' inevitable destiny reminded me of Joe E. Lewis' line that "rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel." I guess nowadays rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Microsoft. And where's the fun in that?

Posted 1:33 PM by Brian
FROM PIGSKIN SCRIBE PETER KING Make of this what you will: This may qualify as a you-heard-it-here first, or it may qualify as the ramblings of a man who does not cover baseball. But don't be surprised if Whitey Herzog is the next manager of the Yankees. I can tell you Herzog would take the job in a heartbeat. I can also tell you he sent George Steinbrenner a wire last week congratulating him for the Yankees taking his grandson, Oklahoma State first baseman John Urick, in the 22nd round of the amateur draft.

Posted 1:13 PM by Brian
FROM ESPN.COM The Past Masters Matchup of the Week: St. Louis at N.Y. Yankees, obviously named because these teams represent the most World Championships in their respective leagues. Naturally, they were bound to run into each other along the way and did in 1926, 1928, 1942, 1943 and 1964 with St. Louis winning the odd-numbered matchups. A sixth matchup has been in the offing four times in the past seven years, but the Cardinals have not been able to wend their way through the playoffs to get there.

Posted 12:12 PM by Mark
PUBLIC RELATIONS I generally admire the Yankees organization -- their drill sergeant-like focus on class and character set the gold standard for professional sports. But they did something last week that seems classless to me.

Juan Acevedo last season saved 28 games for the Detroit Tigers, fireballing his way to a 2.65 ERA with absolutely no team defense behind him. I wasn't the only one impressed -- the Yankees grabbed him up in the offseason and made him their main set-up man coming out of the pen.

But last week against the Cubs, Acevedo threw a bad pitch. And that pitch cost Roger Clemens his 300th win. On national TV.

The Fox cameras bore into Acevedo's hangdog face as he sat in the dugout like the power-drill into that chick's skull in the movie Body Double. Acevedo looked downright suicidal -- he knew he screwed up (even though two of those runs belonged to Clemens).

The reasons Clemens left the game might never be truly known. Both Torre and Clemens now claim that Clemens begged out due to his upper-respiratory infection. Whatever the case, Clemens had put two guys on base. And Torre called in Acevedo. Acevedo comes in -- first pitch three run homer. Clemens' win flies out into the drunk seats. Three days later Acevedo is unceremoniously cut from the team.

Here's my question: if Acevedo is so bad that the Yanks need to expell him from their clubhouse, why did Torre bring him in to the game in that high-stakes, high-pressure situation? Yes, Acevedo's ERA this season is an embarrassing 7.71. But Torre had faith in Acevedo or he wouldn't have brought him in. And then one mistake later Ace was the asshole of the century.

Thing is, I just don't buy that the Yanks organization is so baseball dumb that they'd judge a player by one lousy pitch. Especially a pitcher they coveted just a few months before. Especially when they have such bullpen problems. I mean, were they considering cutting him before that pitch? If so, why in the world would Torre bring him in?

It smells like a PR move. And a cruel one. And the Yanks brass is tarnished because of it. In my eyes, anyway.

That being said, I wouldn't mind if the Cardnut gave ol' Ace another look. We're not too proud to take Yankee trash.

Posted 10:53 AM by Brian
FROM THE INCOMPARABLE ALEX BELTH of Bronx Banter: The rain is finally coming down here in New York, and if they get the game in tonight, it could be a long, sloppy affair... I don't know whether [Tino] will play or not, but I assume if he can walk, LaRussa will let him DH, so he can get his cheers. I will certainly give him a big hand when he's introduced, and then I'll root for Roger to strike him out each time he comes to bat. Even if Clemens doesn't get his 300th victory tonight, he should notch strikeout # 4,000... I wonder who will hurt the Yankees more? Drew or Edmonds. (Answer: Albert.)

Posted 10:35 AM by Brian
YET ANOTHER FINLEY UPDATE According to the Boston Herald, the Redsox are interested in Chuck Finley, even though he "has little interest in pitching on the East Coast."

Posted 10:20 AM by Brian
FIELD REPORT from a Sox fan:

I was at Fenway last night and I've got to admit - you Cards fans really turn it out. Usually, we don't get that kind of opposition unless the Yankees are in town. And they were all so darn supportive and hearty and Midwestern. I told a couple of them, "You know, you guys are such... Americans." They just looked at me like I was an idiot.

Heartbreaking loss, but what a game.

Oh, and I was upset to see people leaving early too, but the explanation is two words: Ramiro Mendoza. A guy I work with came with his kid and once Mendoza left the bullpen, he grabbed his kid and headed out. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "It's Mendoza. I'm not putting my kid through this." Seriously.

Have I changed my tune about interleague play? All I know is that this past three-game series was the most fun I've had watching baseball all year. (Of course, those games were really only fun in retrospect.)

Posted 10:15 AM by Brian
THE ONLY REASON TO VOTE BUSH The Baseball Crank, a plucky blogger with a lively site, reports that the Yankees haven't won a World Series with a Republican in the White House since 1958. In fact the Yankees won their first pennant in 1921, and since then:

Democratic Administrations: 40 seasons, 19-3 in the World Series
Republican Administrations: 42 seasons, 7-9 in the World Series

ANOTHER COOL YANQUI FACT Bob Hope, who was born on May 29, 1903, recently turned 100 years old. That means that the the Yankees have won 8,917 games during his lifetime, and only 15 before he was born.

Posted 10:01 AM by Brian
DID YOU KNOW that if Roger Clemens wins tonight's game it'll be his 300th win in the major leagues? Hadn't heard anything about that. I'd rather do without the whole circus, and I sure as hell don't want to see ads on ESPN where if you act now and order a subscription to Sports Illustrated they'll throw in a commemorative video of the Rocket striking out Wilson Delgado to win his Historic, Teary-Eyed 300th. Then again, Steve Carlton won his 300th against the Cardinals back in '83, and I think it's safe to say no one remembers that game.

WILL CARROLL at Baseball Prospectus still seems unimpressed with Isringhausen's recovery. He writes, "As for reports that Izzy was throwing 96 in his rehab starts, they must have been using the Jesse Foppert gun." I trust the hell out of Will, but Izzy sure looked like he was throwing bullets last night.

[The great Daily Redbird writes in response: Keep this in mind when you read Will Carroll. He is the best at what he does, but he is also a Cubs fan. Rarely does he ever have a positive thing to say or prediction to make regarding the Birdos. Point taken.]

ROB NEYER really lays into Bud Selig over at ESPN.com. It's a fantastic column -- well, actually his writing and his passion are fantastic, but the subject matter will make you sort of ill. Money quote: We're often told that Commissioner Bud loves baseball, and I believe that he does. Unfortunately, his love or baseball ranks somewhere behind 1) his love of profit, 2) his desire to leave a legacy as an activist commissioner, 3) his love of his fellow owners. Plus, he's delusional.

ANOTHER GREAT ARTICLE Sorry to keep throwing these links at you, but there's a really entertaining interview over at Slate with sabermetrician/prophet Bill James. James, like Pauline Kael on movies or Dan Savage on relationships or George Orwell in his essays, just sees things better than everyone else. He cuts through so much bullshit, and he's so uncowed by convention, that reading him gives you the power of sight as well.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL runs my favorite headline from this morning's papers: Sox Run Out of Rallies, Succumb. Jesus. I feel almost guilty about that.

BLOGGER has been boofed up lately, which is why we haven't been able to upload pictures for the last day or so. We're working on getting it fixed...

Posted 8:25 AM by Mark
BERT PUDGIE From the Boston Globe, via The Cardinals' Birdhouse:

Three hours before facing Pedro Martinez, 16 players in the St. Louis clubhouse circled around a big-screen TV, howling at the movie ''Old School."

But 20 yards away, one man sat in isolation. Albert Pujols, eyes focused on a TV no bigger than a lunchbox, sat on a folding chair and watched film of Martinez pitching against the Texas Rangers.

Wait, rewind that. What pitch did Martinez just throw? Pujols watched it again. And again. And again, until, after a half-hour, he was finally satisfied. The hardest-working player in the major leagues walked away without saying a word.

[Note: Pujols faced Pedro once in that game and struck out. He should've watched the movie.]

Posted 7:21 AM by Mark
TRADE RUMOR The Post-Dispatch is reporting that the Cardnut is one of three suitors for the services of Ugueth Urbina. The good news is that we're in the running. The bad news is that the other two suitors are the Giants and Yankees. Both teams have far greater spending flexibility than the Cards, and the Giants, a World Series-caliber team, are arguably more desperate, as they lost their closer for the season a month or so back. And, as everybody knows, you do not want to go up against the Yankees in a bidding war.

To me, acquiring Urbina would be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, we desperately need bullpen help, and Urbina can still bring heat. But on the other hand, if he's on the mound when we win the World Series, I'll have to name my next child Ugueth.

Posted 1:04 AM by Matt
GAME NOTES, Rednut 8 Red Sox 7

• How was Garrett Stephenson so effective tonight? I'm puzzled by it. Really. He walked six guys and only seemed in command his last couple innings. Some of his pitches were just beautiful, though, like his 2-2 breaking ball to K Trot Nixon in the first, and his whole series of pitches to K Manny Ramirez to end the 3rd (I thought Ramirez would be making Stephenson look foolish, but it went the other way that time). And Johnny Damon certainly bailed him out in the 4th by swinging at ball 4 with the bases loaded, only to pop out. Terrific bottom line for Stephenson, though, at a time when we really needed it.

• Speaking of Damon, you wouldn't think that a guy with a .315 OBP would be leading off for a team with stat-conscious management. He may be a liability to them right now.

• Wakefield's knuckleball looks like it weighs about 10 lbs., but several of our hitters did a decent job of staying back on it tonight. I was glad he didn't go deep into the game (which I guess he rarely does), because I feared it may affect us against Clemens tomorrow.

• Gorgeous, perfect bunt by Orlando Palmeiro for a hit and advancement of Cairo to 3rd in the 3rd inning. A Red Sox announcer complained because his foot was out of the batter's box when he made contact -- and he was right, technically he should have been out -- but that's rarely called.

• When the third base umpire ruled Giambi checked his swing while the home plate umpire punched him out for another Stephenson K in the 4th, I saw something I'd never seen before. The third base umpire screwed up, responding to Matheny's quest for an appeal rather than the home plate ump, but I probably would have ruled that Giambi held up, too. As Brian pointed out several weeks ago on this site, though, contrary to popular belief, the actual rule on checked swings has nothing to do with crossing the plane of the plate or anything else, it's just a 100% discretionary call by the ump.

• Todd Walker's wife, Katie, is hot.

• We did a good job running on Wakefield. I guess you'd be crazy not to.

• What a fantastic play by Renteria to get the 2nd out in the 6th on Giambi's ground shot up the middle. Between Giambi's double play, disputed strike out, and robbing by Edgar, he couldn't catch a break tonight -- like it doesn't suck enough already to be Jeremy Giambi, Jason's half ass.

• For one brief, shining moment after he K'd Rolen in the 8th, Timlin may have entertained the idea that the Phillies got the better end of the Rolen for Smith and Timlin deal last year.

• I think we got a break on the ump calling Bill Mueller's would-be double off Izzy foul in the 8th.

• Kerry Robinson looked mostly helpless at the plate tonight, regardless of who was pitching. Joe Nunnally, anyone?

• A couple months ago, I said if J.D. Drew could find a way to return to his 2001 firepower, we would possess the best offense in baseball. He has, and I'll stand by it.

• My TiVo cut off the action at the 3hr 30min mark, but I assumed that Fassero probably blew the lead and maybe drew a loss. I couldn't believe it when I checked the score on-line and the game was still in progress. I saw Esteban Yan offer the Red Sox the game as if it were a delicious steak he'd spent all day preparing, and I witnessed them reject it. Sad for the Red Sox, great for the Cardinals, good for Major League Baseball, and wonderful for the country. One of the most memorable regular season games in years.

• By the way, Izzy looked pretty damn good.

Posted 12:46 AM by Brian
GAME NOTES Cardinals 8.00001, Red Sox 7.99999

Tonight's game may have been the most intense regular-season game I've ever seen. At least the most intense that didn't have playoff implications. The plot twists! It began as one of the best games of the year. Then became one of the worst games of the year. Then it was most certainly the best game of the year. Then most certainly the worst game of the year. Then the best game of the decade. Then nearly the worst game of the decade... before we finally put it away. Here's some of what happened:

• Redbird Nation showed up to Fenway in force. The Sox announcers said that tonight's game had "the largest contingent of visiting fans we've ever seen" -- and, they were quick to add, this includes games against the Yankees.

• Our lineup doesn't do well against flutterballers -- a lot of our guys prefer going toe-to-toe against those long flamethrower types, not dumpy twirlers like Wakefield. So it was no surprise that so man of our hitters -- especially Matheny, K-Rob, and Rolen -- looked so lost against him.

• What is surprising is that Stephenson not only kept pace with Wakefield, he clearly outpitched him. If you just looked at any three- or four-pitch sequence during the game, you'd think Wakefield was working on a masterpiece and Stephenson was Bret Tomko's even geekier older brother. It was an ugly shutout -- 6 walks, behind in the count all night long. Ugly. Each inning was like one of those egg-on-a-spoon relay races -- tentative, wobbly, with G. Steve about to drop everything at any moment. But somehow he kept the goose-egg intact.

• Why is La Russa so terrified of Manny Ramirez? Make no mistake -- everyone should be a little terrified of Manny. He's got the 7th highest slugging percentage of all time, for God's sake, even higher than Barry Bonds. But five walks tonight? Nine walks in the series? Didn't matter what the situation was -- if it was early in the game, if there were runners on, if there were good hitters coming up -- La Russa instructed his hurlers to give him a free pass. I guess you could argue that the strategy worked, as none of the walks truly burned us. But I happen to think the walks invited disaster and put our pitchers behind the eight ball much more than was necessary.

• The Sox broadcast featured an interview with an author who has published books on both the Cardinals and the Red Sox. He contends that these two teams have the best, most loyal, most widespread fan base in all of baseball. That's not exactly a novel idea, but what did intrigue me is his reasoning -- he feels that the Cards and Sox have more female fans than any other team. That actually rings true... It astonishes me how often I meet girls and women who are rabid (and knowledgeable) Cardinals fans.

• Odd that it was Stephenson, and not Wakefield, who pitched more like the knuckleballer tonight. For the first few innings he had no idea where the ball was going when it left his hand. But he found a rhythm, tamed his pitches, and really settled into a groove. Just a great, gutsy game. (Ever notice how you only hear the adjective 'gutsy' in relation to sports?)

• Our first effective use of the stolen base all year. Cairo's swipe set up our go-ahead run in the 3rd, and the running game gave us great opportunities to score in the 6th, 8th, and 12th. Good calls by La Russa. Gutsy even.

• There were reportedly a few Cardinal/Red Sox brawls around Fenway during the series. That's wild. Czar Bud made interleague play strictly regional for several years, but the "fracases" (as the Sox announcers called 'em) are solid evidence that cross-country rivalries can heat up as much as any Cards-Cubs contest. (Which reminds me of quote by Tom Pagnozzi: "I'm really looking forward to a Boston-Yankees series. It's kind of a Cardinals-Cubs type of series, but with bloodshed. Wrigley and the Cardinals was more of a beer-drinking series. This is war." Indeed, tonight's game felt like war.)

• Now we know why La Russa didn't bring Izzy isn't last night's blowout (which presumably could have gotten him some work in a stress-free environment). He wanted to use him in a game that actually meant something, and he can't pitch two days in a row. Good call. Izzy gave up two hits, but only one was hit hard and he did get a double-play ball. What's more, his fastball had some hop to it -- at one point he dialed it up to 96 on the radar. Also: Isringhausen got a huge ovation from the Cardinals fans when he entered the game. What followed made his right arm seem that much more urgent.

• You just knew 3 runs wasn't going to be enough. Not against this lineup, in this park, with our bullpen. But no one expected what happened from the ninth inning on. It was like we all fell down the rabbit hole. And it all started with a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth...

• Now, I don't really know how a pitcher ever walks the leadoff guy in the last inning when his team is up by more than a run. But that's exactly what Eldred did. He got to 3-2 on Jeremy Giambi and still couldn't hit the plate. Why why why wouldn't you challenge the guy? Just lay it in there! Not only is Giambi only 1 for his last 25 and the bottom of the order follows him, the worst that could happen -- the absolute worst-case scenario -- is that Giambi corks a solo homer. Big deal. That makes it 3-1. But if you walk the guy, it's essentially the same thing. Sure, you still have the possible force play, but in every other respect a leadoff walk is no different than a leadoff homer. They've still gotta score two more runs anyway, so it doesn't matter how that first guy comes around. Esteban Yan made the exact same error with the exact same three-run lead in the bottom of the 13th. It mystifies me that major league pitchers can't throw strikes when they absolutely need to. Although referring to anyone out of our bullpen as a major leaguer is awfully generous.

• So Nomar -- who became one of my favorite players in this series -- did everything he could to be the hero tonight. His performance reminded me of Ryne Sandberg's in 1984 off Bruce Sutter, when Ryno hit game-tying homers in both the ninth and tenth innings and sent the Cubs to a 12-11 win. In fact, this whole game reminded me of the Sandberg game. That one was surreal -- see-saw battle, national TV, McGee hitting for the cycle, Sandberg going nuts... Apparently these kinda games occur about once every 20 years.

• Can you believe how many Sox fans filed out of the stadium before the ninth inning? Even the local announcers mentioned it, and there were a healthy number of empty seats in extra innings. They missed a classic, although maybe it was good for them they left. I've heard a lot this week about how Sox fans live and die with their hometown team, but I've never ever seen Cardinal fans leave such a tight game. I don't care how wet it was up there, that just doesn't happen in St. Louis.

• Kerry Robertson is worthless. I know, I know -- he singled and actually scored the winning run. And he's a local boy who grew up rooting for the Cards. But he simply looks overmatched by big-league pitching. If the Mendoza Line is .200, the Robertson Line must be somewhere around .167. (And I don't feel bad saying that, because I'm still pissed at him for bitching about his demotion to Memphis a couple months back.) And damn if K-Rob didn't almost drop the last out of the game. Now that would have caused everyone to just give up. You know, on life.

[Matt just emailed me this note: Al Hrabosky said he talked to Kerry Robinson just after he returned to the Cardinals and he had no idea where that story about him being pissed off about being sent to Memphis came from. In fact, he said he was happy to go down because he didn't have any timing at the plate and he wanted to get it back down there so he could come back up and do better. Don't know if it's true, but that's what he told Hrabosky.]

• On the happier side of things: how bout Jim Edmonds? Or, for that matter, how bout Drew, and Renteria, and Stephenson, and Kline? Really, we had to win the game over and over just to win it once, and those guys came up extra large.

• I recently moved in with my girlfriend, which has been great, but after tonight's game I seriously think she's worried that something's wrong with me. But I doubt I'm the only one in Redbird Nation who got through this game by relying on a series of prayers, curses, screams, pacings, tics, mantras, nail-bitings, hair-pullings, superstitious contortions, and nervous breakdowns. Right?

Posted 8:41 PM by Mark
Cardinals 8, Red Sox 7

Baseball at its very worst and very best. What an epic game. The stuff poetry is made of.

Triptych of Awesomeness: 9 for 14, 5 Runs, 6 RBIs, 3 HR, 3 SB

More to come...

Posted 9:34 AM by Mark
MORE GAME NOTES Red Sox 256, Cards 1

• Clearly, the Cardbird strategy against Pedro was to take pitches to elevate his pitch count and knock him out of the game. The first 6 batters took the first pitch and managed to work Pedro deep into the count. Pedro caught on and threw a first pitch strike right down the middle to the 7 hitter, Eddie Perez. Perez isn't a dummy -- he was on to Pedro and stroked it into left-center for a base hit. Next batter, Joe Girardi, had every reason to take some pitches: 1) Pedro just got burned throwing a first pitch strike; 2) Joe hadn't had an major league at-bat in about 9 months; 3) the goal, after all, was to elevate Pedro's pitch count. But ol' Joe took a hack at the first pitch, grounding out weakly and ending the inning. What does he get in return? A massive tax cut from George W. Bush.

• Is there no infielder better than Wilson Delgado in our entire minor league system? Maybe someone with a little bit of a future in baseball, someone worth an investment? No free agents? No one in the beer leagues? How about this guy?

• Nomar's nervous Nellie routine before every pitch is a tad bit annoying, yes, but he really doesn't hold up the game any. But what he does do is step into the box while still shuffling his feet. Why don't pitchers speed up their delivery and fire one in before Nomar's feet are set? He's in the box, it would be a legal pitch, but he wouldn't be ready for it. The answer, of course, is Rule #1 in the old ball players rule book which states, "Thou shalt not screw over another player." Unless you're Roger Clemens and the other player has a bunch of hits in a row against you -- then it's chin music time. (By the way, Rule #2 states, "When a professional baseball commentator after your playing career ends, emphasize the importance of 'hustle' and 'intangibles' so that weaker players with lousy stats will still seem valuable.")

• That waving American flag mowed into the lawn in the Fenway outfield kicks ass. What's really cool is that aliens are no longer limiting their artistry to crop circles -- now they're decorarting our baseball diamonds too.

• I can read lips, and Dave Duncan want out to the mound and actually said to Tomko, "Dude, you suck shit."

• Am I the only kid on earth who thinks The Hulk movie looks awesome?

• The Indians promoted OF Coco Crisp from AAA the other day, making him their leadoff hitter for now and, ideally, years to come. His numbers at AAA Buffalo are pretty spiffy: .360 AVG, 26 BBs, 20 SBs. By the way, he was the "player to be named" in the Chuck Finley deal. So he was a future-Cardinal until a year ago. When Miguel Cairo goes 0-4 tonight, tomorrow, and for the forseeable future, remember Coco's name.

• Brett Tomko is the most handsome pitching machine since the Jugs 101.

Posted 9:01 AM by Brian
GAME NOTES Red Sox 13, Birdnals 1

This one turned into a spring training game about midway through the second inning, so there's not much strategy to pick apart here. We simply got steamrolled. Nevertheless, a few observations:

• Pedro no longer has that white-hot high-90s heat I saw him throw a couple years ago, but it hardly makes a difference. He still has a lively fastball and his placement is impeccable. Plus he sets up the fastball with some wicked offspeed stuff. He threw a curveball to Rolen that had about as much action as Cinemax at two in the morning. It was an absolute batting-practice fastball for about 65 feet 6 inches, then it nosedived into the dirt. Just impossibly beautiful and nasty. Pedro once said, "the key to pitching is not throwing strikes. It's throwing balls that look like strikes." This pitch was the tidiest illustration of that point.

• Ah, Bret Tomko. Sigh. The numbers are ugly enough: 12 of 18 batters reached against him, and teed off for a .625 batting average. But it's the stuff behind the numbers that's even uglier. I'm talking about his daily psychodrama -- he feels bad about himself, he's too timid, he's too aggressive, he's thinking too much, he's thinking too little, he's worried about lack of run support, he's worried about too much run support -- Enough already. I keep expecting him to pop in two like a little Matryoshka doll and have a smaller Donovan Osborne crawl out of his midsection.

• But let's not pin everything on Tomko's flat curveball. This Red Sox team can hit, and they've made mincemeat of bigger men than Tomko. There's not really a hole in their lineup. The key is to get them into a game of RangerBall -- a slugfest that turns into a battle of the bullpens, as on Monday night. But if you let them get a big lead and their pitchers can settle down and come at hitters? Forget it, you're dead.

• The Cardinals' defense was sloppy as hell, of course -- missed cut-offs, bad angles to close in on balls, poor positioning. You gotta figure that much of that was due to guys playing out of position. Drew was in center for the first time all year (although truthfully he played fine), Giardi was behind the plate for the first time, and the El Birdo troika of Delgado/Palmeiro/Perez looked very rigid. With Edmonds banged up, Tino on the mend, and Vina laid up for awhile, this may not be the last game with so much bad footwork.

• What's more, Fenway is a kooky park. A lot of other places have tried to replicate this kookiness (e.g., the modified Duffy's Cliff in Enron/Minute Maid Field), but no one can beat the original. The lack of foul space, the odd angles, the outfield walls that come up on you like a Mack truck -- it's liable to make you look silly if you don't know it well, as Drew did on Monday when he did a Louganis into the stands. It's no wonder that the Sox have won more home games than anyone in the American League.

• Watching baseball with the DH is like watching the weather in Southern California. With the DH, I keep getting lost in the lineup because there's no real difference between a 9th hitter, a leadoff hitter, or a middle-of-the-order guy. Same with weather in LA -- it's all one long undifferentiated stretch of sunshine. Without the seasonal wheel, the wintry National League pitcher's slot, you sorta forget you're going anywhere.

• So the game ended 13-1. Anytime I see that score (which is rare, of course) I think of Game 6 of the '82 World Series. Where are you, Johnny Stuper? (Actually I know where you are -- you're the head coach of Yale.)

• We've now given up 44 runs in the last 5 games and yet, improbably, we've won 7 of our last 9. We're winning games, but I feel like something's gotta give, like a guy getting happily drunk but doing irreparable damage to his internal organs. The latest bit of wear and tear on Morris' shoulder is a case in point.

Posted 9:52 PM by Brian
THREE TIDBITS that struck me about the Astros' no-hitter against the Yankees tonight (besides the obvious fact of six pitchers combining to throw it):
1. The Yankees had gone 6,980 games -- the longest streak in major league history -- without being no-hit. That streak comprises more games than the Astros have played in their entire history. It's also more than all the games played by these franchises as well: the Angels, D'backs, Rockies, Marlins, Royals, Brewers, Expos, Mets, Padres, Mariners, Devil Rays, Rangers, and Blue Jays.
2. By the time the Astros returned to their clubhouse, the Yankees had left a bottle of champagne in front of the locker of all six pitchers. Said Billy Wagner, "That's how the Yankees are, they're pretty classy."
3. According to Wagner, Jeff Kent didn't know a no-hitter was in the works until after the game was over.

Posted 6:30 PM by Brian
IT'S OFFICIAL The local myth that Albert Pujols is underrated is now as widespread as the local myth that Harry Carey got fired from KMOX for sleeping with Augie Busch's wife. (The difference is that the Carey myth is true.) Last week this sentiment was voiced by Joe Buck and echoed by Mike Shannon and Wayne Hagin. Yesterday Bryan Burwell chimed in with the observation that "the baseball public fails to understand or appreciate [Pujols'] stunning greatness." Burwell's evidence? (1) Pujols ranks 4th among NL outfielders in the All-Star balloting. (2) See (1). That's it. Nevermind that the three men Pujols trails (Bonds, Sosa, Sheffield) have been bonafide megastars for years and years. For Burwell, this is overwhelming proof of the fans' ignorance. As we pointed out in a post last week, Pujols is hardly underrated, as great as he is. I suppose, though, that Pujols would have to land on the cover of Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, and Granta in the same week for Burwell to drop his inferiority complex.

DIZZY IZZY From injury guru/professional medhead Will Carroll: "I remain unconvinced that Izzy is anything more than an injury time bomb, waiting to explode inside an unsuspecting bullpen."

CARS AND SCARS Edward Cossette over at Bambino's Curse has a moving account of his life as a both a Red Sox fan and, oddly, a car-lover. It will actually make you feel better about someone taking joy in tonight's blowout.

MORE FROM THE EAST COAST Kevin writes in regarding our jabs at Red Sox fans: "Not everyone can be as cheery as Cards fans. I've never seen a larger group of Jeffersonian idealists in my life. My first experience in Busch Stadium (a great baseball experience), and the home team fans blatantly cheered when one of the Cardinals hit into a fielder's choice. I couldn't believe it. I understand backing the home team, but this guy didn't do anything. There was a runner on first with no outs and they cheered when the batter made it a runner on first with one out. I didn't get it at the time and I still don't get it."

IN WITH JOE, OUT WITH SO As you've probably already heard, the Cards called up Girardi after his rehab stint and sent down So Taguchi. Taguchi's numbers with the big club: .333 AVG/.500 OBP/.667 SLG. Okay, so he had only 4 plate appearances... As for Giardi, Lee Sinins has him ranked 5th on the all-time list for worst career Runs Created Below Average by a catcher. And those legs aren't getting any younger.

A YANKS FAN IN FENWAY writes in to Redbird Nation about last night's game: "My favorite Sox fan madness: The man behind me, with his family and 4 year old son, the kids' first time at Fenway, screaming 'Throw at his head!' when Tino came up for the first time (once a Yankee always a Yankee). They mold Red Sox Nation early and warp those young minds...[also] the boos for Ramiro Mendoza (he is pretty terrible) and the widely held belief among Red Sox Nation that he is still on the Boss' payroll, more machinations of the "Evil Empire."

BILL CLINTON spoke yesterday with Sammy Sosa about his recent troubles and told him to "hang in there." We should take this time to remember that Clinton is the worst president in history, not for his progressive economic and social policies, but because he grew up a Cardinals fan in Arkansas but switched to the Cubbies side when he married his wife. That was right around the time he donated his scrotum to the Smithsonian.

FROM THE DAILY REDBIRD: "If Edmonds played half his games in Boston, he'd hit 80 doubles." True, true...

LA RETARD? Matt writes in to Redbird Nation about last night's strategy: "Regarding the bases loaded LaRussa strategy: I agree that it was not 'brilliant,' as Bernie labels it, but I disagree it was the wrong move. Nomar is 3 for 3 with a double, single and triple. Manny is 2 for 4 with a double and HR. Now, Ortiz is 3 for 4 at this point (double, single, single), but he's a lefty. Kline's BAA is .167 against lefties and .238 against righties (his WHIP is an even more drastic 0.96 to 1.59). I like these odds more than Manny's .323 BA to Ortiz's .366 OBP. All that said, the risk is much greater, as you pointed out. It was a ballsy move, luckily it worked."

Posted 3:12 PM by Brian
TONIGHT'S BEANTOWN FORECAST Thundershowers until midnight. Looks like the vaunted Pedro/Tomko matchup that has set the baseball world abuzz may have to wait another day.

Posted 11:52 PM by Brian
GAME NOTES, Cardinals 9, BoSox 7

I'm writing these notes from the back of an ambulance. The paramedics still got the paddles on me. My second heart attack in three days. I'll see if I can eke these out:

• The game had a playoff atmosphere from the get-go. Say what you will about Sox Nation (and we will), no one gets more riled up for their team. Before the game the NESN (New England Sports Network) announcers intro'd the Cardinal fielders by saying "Gold Glovuhs all ovah the place. Serious leathah out there." You gotta love that.

• A tale of two organizations: the Red Sox, owned by John Henry, run by Theo Epstein, and advised by Bill James, are so on-base conscious that they actually list OBP on the basic NESN statline, right there with AVG and RBI. Contrast that with the Cardinals, who are so on-base oblivious they lead off Miguel Cairo, who has 5 walks and an OBP below .300.

• There's only one thing more astounding than the Red Sox's 84-year title drought, and that's that there are two franchises (the Cubs and White Sox) that have gone longer without a world championship. Collectively these teams have gone home disappointed for 263 straight years.

• Edgar Renteria's no-look pass in the second inning to force the runner at second was damn near Larry Bird-like.

• Nice to see Tino face off against Byung-Hyun again, reviving memories of Tino's blast off him in the 2001 Series. NESN's stat guy, by the way, reported that Tino did not hit his big homer off of Kim. They oughtta fire that guy. That's the only glory Tino has left in this world.

• Both Manny Ramirez and Jedmonds hit doubles off the wall that could have been triples had they not stood at home plate and admired their blasts. Why does this ever happen? If I was managing a team and my player got caught looking at a double off the wall, I'd yank him from the game. (Unless it was Manny Ramirez or Jim Edmonds, in which case I might slap them on the butt and say, "Nice double, champ.")

• After 4 innings I thought the game was over. Seriously, it felt like a 2-0 blowout. We couldn't get anything going, Woody wasn't Woody, and the Sox seemed poised to bust it open. And then the tide turned. The key play for me was Cairo's squib single with two outs in the 5th, the one Todd Walker overthrew to first. After all the line drives that kept landing in Red Sox gloves, it was this flukey little cue shot that gave J.D. Drew just enough daylight to batter his team into the lead.

• Someone at a Blue Jays blogsite recently asked if the Cardinals had the best uniforms in baseball. They looked better than ever tonight, against the backdrop of Fenway and the fiery orange Citgo sign. Here are my picks for the 5 best uniforms in baseball:
1. Cardinals (biased, I know, but damn, they look sharp)
2. Dodgers (perfect Sunrise-in-America embodiment of city and climate)
3. Braves (the tomahawk chop sucks, but the tomahawk itself rules, racist or not)
4. Yankees (pinstripes = Death Star)
5. Red Sox (history)
... and the 5 worst
5. (tie) Angels/Rangers (zzzzzzzzzz)
4. Mets (blue and orange?)
3. Blue Jays (who gave the jay a maple leaf tattoo?)
2. Expos (same uniform Gabe Kaplan wore for Battle of the Network Stars)
1. Devil Rays (puke green + purple and yellow neon + dead manta ray = Terry Shumpert)

• Tonight Mike Shannon called Albert Pujols "the most intense player I've ever seen." At first I thought, more intense than Bob Gibson? More than Clemens? Or Pete Rose (who once said, "I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to keep playing baseball")? And then Shannon elaborated that Pujols has an unquenchable drive to prove his own greatness, much like, I suppose, MJ or Kobe or Tiger Woods. I've never heard anyone talk about Pujols this way, but Shannon knows these players about as well as anyone. It's sort of an astonishing comment.

• Tino strained a hamstring in the seventh, which raises concerns that... oh no, wait. No it doesn't.

• Broadcasters love to praise Cairo for his epic 8- or 9-pitch at-bats. I guess he wears down pitchers now and again, but seriously, the only reason he has those drawn-out ABs is because he hacks at everything, including about 4 or 5 pitches out of the strike zone.

• Now that I've been mean to Cairo twice tonight, I will tell you that, according to Rob Neyer, he's the greatest secondbaseman in Devil Ray history.

• I agree with Miklasz -- TLR should have pulled Woody sooner, right after Nomar's triple (which came on Woodrow's 121st pitch, after he got Nomar in an 0-2 hole and it was clear he didn't have the juice to punch him out). And I say that without 20/20 hindsight -- at the time I muttered at the screen to take him out. I mean, I can't totally blame La Russa. Trusting our bullpen with a lead is like letting a hemophiliac child into a cutlery store. But we had the latitude and the lead to make the move.

• Where I disagree with Miklasz is when he characterizes the intentional walk to Manny Ramirez -- which loaded the bases with two outs to bring Ortiz to the plate -- as "brilliant." It paid off this one time, but it flies in the face of logic. Not only do you leave Kline with no wiggle room, you also increase the Red Sox's odds of scoring a run (essentially shifting the .323 chance of Manny getting a base hit to the .366 chance of Ortiz reaching base at all). And the downside is far more damaging -- a single scores 2 runs rather than 1. It was the wrong move, unless you base every decision on its (isolated) outcome.

• I do, however, agree with the decision to bring in Eldred to pitch the ninth. Izzy's still a wild card -- he's pitched, what, two innings of AA ball over the last 8 months? Let him settle back into his role in a safer environment.

• We've scored 8 or more runs in 6 of our last 7 games. The Cardinals can still top the NL Central if we (a) win the close ones; and (b) outslug the mistakes of our pitching staff. The last week or so we've done both. Let's hope it's a trend and not an accident.

Posted 10:31 PM by Brian
SOX NATION REACTS If you want to read a blog masterpiece, go over here and check out my friend Brian's heated journey into the mind of the Boston fan. It's required reading. For a differing view, here's my pal Brendan chiming in from the epicenter of Soxland:

So this is one of the byproducts of interleague play? I've got to put up with Cardinal fans telling me that I'm not nice enough? Well, you're not in Missouri anymore, where towheaded Aryan children gleefully dance under giant arches and a man and a cow can taste the love that dare not speak it's name [ed. note: apparently Brendan is under the misconception that all those Irish- and Italian- and African-Americans in St. Louis are Aryans, or else he hasn't spent much time here, although evidently he has seen some man-on-beast porn films about the area]. But the Cards are coming to Fenway this week, so you ladies better toughen up because I'm going to be in the centerfield bleachers on Thursday and my lungs are made of leather.

To me, the one big Pedro/Roger comparison you missed that makes the difference for me is the attitude of the other players in the league toward them. While Roger has reached the point in his career where he is venerable and respected, do you really get the impression that a lot of his fellow players or even his teammates are pulling for him? The best thing that people say about him is that "he's a competitor" which I read as "he's an asshole." Pedro, on the other hand, is one of the most loved guys in the locker room.

And whenever you pull a quote from Pedro or anyone else in the Boston sports scene, one thing to keep in mind is that Boston sportswriters are just about the biggest pieces of shit to ever walk down Landsdowne Street. If Pedro (or anyone else on the Sox, for that matter ) comes off like a dick, I think it's a combination of his tendency to speak his mind no matter what, and the reporter probably baiting him, irritating him, getting him at the moment when he's most likely to give a juicy quote. Bob Ryan, Dan Shaughnessy, et al - absolute scum of the earth...

Back to Pedro and Roger - I don't really hate Roger for the same reasons that Bill Simmons does. I don't feel betrayed. I just think, besides Barry Bonds, he's the biggest alpha male asshole in modern sports. People are cheering him now because they want to see history, not because they particularly care about the guy making it. And he grabbed my friend's girlfriend's ass at a bar. He's just a dick.

Posted 1:57 AM by Brian
CLEMENS VS. PEDRO When I was a teenager I fell in love with New England. Well, not the actual New England – I’d never been there before – but the romantic New England of Tip O’Neill and Henry James and Sam Malone. Naturally I became a Red Sox fan, idolized Yaz and Fisk and Freddy Lynn, read Ted Williams’ Science of Hitting about 20 times, rooted my lungs out when the Sox took on the bastard Mets in ‘86, and couldn’t wait to see the team up close, in the hallowed hub of Fenway Park.

And then I actually went to college, in the actual New England, and met some actual Red Sox fans. And that was pretty much the end of my romance.

Red Sox fans are probably the most obnoxious sports fans this side of Liverpool. Oh sure, there are some likable Sox boosters – you can even read some of them here and here. But most Red Sox fans share a weird mix of haughtiness and self-hatred that you normally only find in Hollywood actresses, far-left Democrats, and newly recovering alcoholics.

It must kill the soul of a city, just a little, to go 84 years without winning a World Series. And I suppose one way to cope is to embrace your problems, to make a fetish of your failings and your heartaches and your sorrows. And if you’re a diehard Sox fan, you can add a razored edge to the bullwhip you flog yourself with, and you can lash out with anger and bitterness against anyone who claims to have it half as bad as you.

Don’t know what I mean? Let me give you a case study. We’re all familiar with the weepy Danny Boy routines over Billy Buck and Bucky Dent, so let’s take a more recent example of the Sox fan’s self-pity: Roger Clemens.

There are really four complaints about the Rocket that keep Sox fans awake at night. To spell them out:

1. “He only shows up when he wants to.” Much like a husband bitching about his old lady adding a few pounds, Red Sox fans are still outraged that Clemens arrived at spring training a bit overweight in the mid-90’s. They claim he let himself go to seed, that he stopped caring, or, as former Sox GM Dan Duquette said, that “he basically took the last four years off here." It’s a curious sentiment when you look at what Clemens actually did in his last year in Boston – 5th in the league in innings pitched, 3rd in complete games, 1st in strikeouts, with an ERA a full run and a half below the league average. Nevertheless, that’s the gripe coming out of Beantown, that Clemens gave up on the Sox.

2. “He’s a headhunter.” Clemens has always been an intense guy, and Bostonians loved him for it when he pitched for the home team. But his misadventures with Mike Piazza – a head-hunting beanball during the 2000 season, then a rage-addled bat-tossing incident during the World Series – convinced many Sox fans that Clemens had crossed the line and become a caged animal poking himself with sticks before gametime.

3. “He’s disloyal.” As Bill Simmons wrote about Clemens in a recent column, “the cap on his Hall of Fame statue should simply feature a dollar sign.” Beantowners see Clemens as the ultimate gun-for-hire, loyal to no team, no town, no fans, nobody. But the ne plus ultra of betrayals came when Clemens forced a trade to the hated Yankees and became the biggest asshole to wear the NY logo since the coach played by Vic Morrow in Bad News Bears.

4. “He’s an ingrate.” This wound runs deeper than any of the others. As Simmons writes, the Rocket made a grievous error by not extending a more deeply felt thank you to the fans of Boston upon his departure to Toronto. For Simmons, a 45-second tribute that ends with the line “You guys are truly special” would have done the trick. But instead Clemens' farewell to the city that had just refused to re-sign him was just too perfunctory, too much about his new team and not enough about his old one. Simmons sums up the gut-punch thusly: “Worst thing an athlete ever did to me. I haven't liked sports quite as much since… No athlete ever let me down quite like Roger Clemens did.” Translation: Please like me.

But by some cosmic luck, the Red Sox were able to replace the greatest pitcher of one generation with the greatest pitcher from the next generation, Pedro Martinez. And if you listen to Sox fans, they’ll tell you that Pedro is the anti-Clemens, the ballplayer’s ballplayer, the selfless Neo who will break the Matrix-like Curse of the Bambino.

But I would make a case that nearly every criticism levied against Roger applies about as well to Pedro. Consider the parallels:

1. “He only shows up when he wants to.” I guess you could argue that Pedro is AWOL just as much as Clemens – after all, Pedro has missed about 28 starts since joining the Sox, Clemens only 8 during that same period of time. But those missed games have more to do with genetics than gumption, as Pedro would never willingly miss a start… Or would he? With a week left in the 2002 season, Pedro told the world that he had pitched his last game of the year, which just so happened to coincide with his 20th win. When Red Sox management balked at Pedro’s malingering, Pedro said of interim GM Mike Port, "If he wants to take my check, he can take it. When I came here, I was a millionaire, and it's not going to make me any richer by forcing me to pitch.” Class.

2. “He’s a headhunter.” In a 1999 contest against the Indians, Einar Diaz doubled twice against Pedro, then hit the dirt when Pedro threw a fastball right at his head. Pedro was suspended for 5 games, but showed little remorse: “Do you want to ask me if I'd do it again,” he said. “The answer is absolutely yes. I would do it again and I would not regret it.'' Last year Pedro was criticized by Blue Jays manager Buck Martinez for entering the Jays' clubhouse to fraternize. Buck Martinez was wrong in that case, but that still didn’t warrant this overreaction by Pedro: "If you come into my clubhouse, I will shoot you." Not that he’s got a chip on his shoulder or anything.

Any resemblance?

3. “He’s disloyal.” When Pedro entered the last year of his contract in Montreal, he had two wishes – to be traded (a) “to a team that’s going to be in contention,” and (b) “to a team that’s going to be able to afford me.” The message was clear: be prepared to shell out the bucks. Luckily Pedro stayed fiercely loyal to Red Sox Nation, at least until he entered his next walk year. And once again Pedro suggested that the team be prepared to spend some serious cash, or else. “If they wait until I'm close to being a free agent,” he said, “then offers could come from other teams, offers that maybe I couldn't refuse." What teams would those be? Well, for starters, he dangled out the possibility of joining the rival Yankees, just like his boy Clemens. And he made the threat in September of last year, before the season had even ended. "You want to take that gamble if you were the owner of this team?'' he said. "I don't think so.'' A real team-first kinda guy.

4. “He’s an ingrate.” Part of Pedro’s charm, and also part of his spikiness, is the no-big-whup attitude he has about his own greatness. After striking out 300 batters for the Sox in ‘99, he was asked if he was proud of his achievement. "I did it in the National League, so to do it again isn't anything new.” But there is one thing that Pedro evidently gets very worked up over, and that’s awards. Well, actually he doesn’t get too exercised when he wins awards. When he landed the Cy Young in 2000 he claimed "I don't look at the results. I don't even know my numbers. I'm very pleased, proud and grateful.” But when he doesn't win an award, he remembers every writer who slighted him, just like Teddy Ballgame did. He blames his second-place finish in the 1999 AL MVP race on a conspiracy of enemies: "They should have had it on Outside the Lines: Why Pedro Got Robbed.” He then suggested he was the victim of anti-Latino prejudice (which is why he finished second in the ’99 vote, just behind blueblood Ivan Rodriguez and just ahead of the #3, 4, and 5 guys Roberto Alomar, Manny Ramirez, and Rafael Palmeiro). He then put words in Peter Gammons’ mouth and blamed him for derailing his bid to win the ’02 Cy Young. “We need a fresh face,” said Pedro-as-Gammons, “a guy that plays guitar, is cute, a white Caucasian. We don't want the Latin [expletive] to be in front of the TV all the time. They campaigned against me for the Cy Young.” Nevermind that Pedro’s comments are as ungracious to the eventual winner, Barry Zito, as they are to his own teammate, the very Caucasoid Derek Lowe. He’s still Boston’s man.

I guess the Red Sox worldview will always contain good guys and bad guys, devils and angels, chosen and unchosen. Last year’s hero becomes this year’s asshole, just as this year’s hero will surely become next year’s whipping boy. It’s a nice set-up they got in Boston, a way to ensure a constant supply of bitching, moaning, and broken hearts.

Posted 2:47 PM by Brian
MORE (AND LESS) PEDRO Yes, Pedro will come off the DL to face the Cards on Wednesday, but evidently he's only pitching for about 3 innings, at which point he'll be replaced by John Burkett. We're actually catching the Sox at a good time. They're in first place, but Wakefield is day to day with a badly bruised ankle, Casey Fossum is on the shelf, Derek Lowe just pitched yesterday on three day's rest, and even their pitching coach has taken a leave of absence for chemo treatment. That leaves Byung-Hyun on Tuesday, Pedro Lite on Wednesday, and either Wakefield or Person or Rupe or Arroyo or some other clown on Thursday.

Posted 9:05 AM by Brian
According to the Houston Chronicle, the Astros have considered signing Chuck Finley.

Posted 9:04 AM by Brian
CARDS FACE PEDRO on Wednesday.

Posted 8:09 PM by Brian
BIRDS GO TO ELEVEN We at Redbird Nation like to think of ourselves as the Wu-Tang Clan of baseball blogs -- a loose collective of freewheeling, revolutionary, kung-fu-style MCs. But white.

Well now we're extending our community even further, as we invite you, the reader, to compose your own Redbird Nation blogpost. We'll give you a little roadmap (after all, it took me four years as a double major in Redbirdology and Nation Building at Stanford to acquire my skillz), but you'll get the hang of it. So without further ado, let's walk together through this blog.



Choose the best intro for this afternoon's Cards/Orioles contest:

a) Today's game was a good old-fashioned slugfest, or what Mike Shannon would call "a barn burner."
b) Today's game was an 11-10 pitching duel. I found myself, after Matos flew out to lead off the 8th, thinking "okay, only 5 more outs to go," like this was some kind of gut-wrenching no-hitter that I didn't want to jinx. The game couldn't go fast enough -- each out, each strike was precious, and when the 27th out finally landed in Tino Martinez's glove, I wanted the team to pile on Cal Eldred.
b) Remember that scene in Glory, where the frontline troops are mowed down in a haze of blood and bullets, and more reinforcements are sent in to get mowed down, and the losses start piling up in a war of attrition, and whoever had more arms would win? That was today's baseball game.
c) Remember that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where the Black Knight keeps fighting ("it's just a flesh wound!") even though his limbs are getting hacked off by King Arthur. Now imagine the Black Knight is fighting the Black Knight, and both are hacking off each other's limbs. That was today's baseball game.

Okay, that's a good start. Now let's choose a Goat of the Game:

a) Matt Morris. Like Bret Tomko the other night, he was a total ingrate, unable to accept the gift of a big early lead. Mo has been good enough this year to earn himself a lousy outing, but why'd it have to come against the Browns? And why'd he have to turn a lazy Sunday afternoon into a Friday night street fight?
b) Travis Driskill. The poor guy did get seven outs, but he also gave up seven hits. And 5 runs.
c) Rick Bauer. First pitch to Rolen: grand slam. After that he lowered his game ERA from infinity to 13.50.
d) Esteban Yan (see Mark's post below)

We're halfway there and you're doing great (although that Glory metaphor was a little strained). Let's now pick a Hero of the Game:

a) Jason Simontacchi. The Simo Man retired the O's 1-2-3 in the sixth, when we desperately needed to keep the game close, then he led off the bottom half of the inning with a rally-sparking double. Who'd have thought, after getting bailed out by his teammates all year, that he'd come in and rescue Matty Mo today?
b) The Middle of the Cardinals Batting Order. Jedmonds and Rolen: 7 for 9, six runs, seven ribs, 3 homers. Holy crud.
c) The Middle of the Orioles Batting Order. Gibbons, Batista, Cruz: 10 for 15, six runs, nine ribs, 2 homers. Gulp.
d) Cal Eldred. R-O-L-A-I-D-S. 17 pitches, 14 strikes. You can tell that this guy, who spent a few years at the Phil Garner Institute of Arm-Shredding and Failed Potential, desperately wants, for the first time in his career, to be in the spotlight, to be the Man. In that respect he's the anti-Donovan Osborne, and I'm starting to love him for it.

So what should the Cardinals do next?

a) Make Simontacchi a middle reliever. As for our fifth starter, hand the ball over to... hmmm... Hermanson? Nerio Rodriguez? (Woops, flew to Japan.) Finley?
b) Trade Yan to Texas for Rick Asadoorian.
c) Worry about wear and tear on Morris. This is the third straight start where Morris has looked either shaky or worse. His ERA has risen almost a full run over that time, and his pitchload (the 4th most in the league) indicates that he may be tired. And he doesn't get any stress-relief this week, especially if he has to go into Yankee Stadium and deal with the circus of trying to block Clemens' bid for 300.
d) Relax. We've just won 5 of our last 6 and finished the homestand a respectable 8-5. Everyone should sleep easy on the flight to Boston.

Congratulations. You are now officially a member of the Nation.

Posted 2:10 PM by Mark
YAN I think it's now safe to say that Estaban Yan is a total, utter disaster. The man has actually gotten worse since coming under Dave Duncan's tutelage -- his ERA for the Cardnut was 7.94 before today's embarrassment. Here are his games since coming over to the Lou:

- 5/27 gives up 2 ER in 1 IP, turning a surmountable one-run Astros lead into a 3 run Cards loss; Cards lose 7-4.
- 5/30 allows only 1 hit in 1 IP.
- 6/1 gives up a homerun to Craig Wilson in the 9th, allowing the Pirates to close the gap to one run before Fassero comes in a bails him out.
- 6/3 gives up 1 ER in 1 IP.
- 6/5 one perfect inning.
- 6/6 gives up 1 ER on 3 hits in 1 IP, allowing the Orioles to creep back into the game.
- 6/8 gives up 3 ER in 1/3 of an IP, all but erasing a 4 run Cards lead in the 7th. Once again, Fassero has to come in to bail him out.

The guy's a total loser. Can we please have Mike Crudale back?

Posted 11:59 PM by Brian
O's 8, Cards 1 Well, um... let's see... Silver linings? Okay. Here you go: Orlando Palmeiro got a pinch hit. That's pretty good, isn't it? And, hey, how 'but the top of the third, huh? Stephenson set 'em down, one two three. Bam!

All right, this game sucked, but we were due for an off day after going undefeated the rest of the week. Of course it's aggravating to give up a thousand extra-base hits to the Orioles (just as we had done last night -- didn't we have money to pay for advance scouts against this lineup?). And Sidney Ponson simply outclassed Stephenson. He pitched like Woody Williams for most of the game (at one point retiring 21 of 22 hitters), after pitching like Woody Boyd in the first inning.

The turning point seemed to come early in the game, when the Cards fell in a 2-0 hole but stormed back with singles by Cairo and Drew and a double in the left-center gap by Pujols. Cairo scored, but Drew was thrown out easily at home. Why in the world was Oquendo sending Drew with no one out, the ball in left field, and Edmonds, Rolen, and Renteria due up?

Oh well. To make matters worse, the Cards fell back into third place as the Cubs, Astros, and Reds all had late-inning rallies to win. Have you noticed how many runs the Astros have been scoring in the 8th inning? I think they might be the best 8th inning team of all time. And the best ninth inning team of all time is surely the Reds. I wish we had some of their comebackosity today.

Posted 12:58 PM by Brian
CLEMENS WATCH So Joe Torre takes Clemens out of the game while he's still sharp and his bullpen blows his chance to win #300. That means Clemens' next try will come next Friday, against your St. Louis Cardinals.

Posted 10:11 AM by Brian
REDBIRD NATION CORRECTIONS DEPT. On Thursday I mentioned that the Cards hadn't scored 32 runs in a 3-game series since April of '98. Well, one of our readers from the Redbird nation-state of New Orleans mentions that the Cardinals actually scored 32 runs in a 3-game series against the Mets, way back in the memorable April of 2003. (Stupidly, I only checked games before this season.) Yet more evidence that this team can score -- we're on pace for 917 runs, which is the second highest total in Cards' history (and the most since 1930).

Posted 9:45 AM by Brian
40 RUNS IN 4 GAMES The Cardinals are now riding a 4 game winning streak against the Orioles' franchise, dating back to 1944. (We won the last 3 games of the '44 Series against the Browns.)

It was a fine win, because for awhile it looked like we had every intention of losing it. Bret Tomko pitched to his reputation, as a guy who always pitches just well enough to lose. Last night's game was particularly aggravating in light of a comment by Bret after a hard-luck 2-1 loss to the Cubs on 5/17 -- he said the lack of run support was the "story of his career," a pouty and none-too-subtle way of blaming his teammates. Well, the Cardinals are scoring 4.7 runs per game in his 10 starts this year, which is about exactly average for the league as a whole (although, admittedly, about a full run below the season-average for the Cards). And last night we gave Tomko a comfy 5-0 lead and he got tagged by the likes of Deivi Cruz and Geronimo Gil.

Luckily we have a bionic person on our team to help us out in such situations. What can I say about Pujols that hasn't been said already? He hasn't recorded an out for 10 straight plate appearances. The last time he got out (excluding a sac fly a couple nights ago) was when he struck out last Wednesday. Jesus. And his overall numbers look like something out of an Arena League played in Coors Field.

Also, the Cardinals finally caught the Cubs. Unfortunately there's another team ahead of us in the standings, the familiar Astros. Both the Cards and Stros are riding 5-game winning streaks, and both streaks are founded on runs, runs, and runs. In fact, our last few games against the AL East have been oddly parallel to the Astros'. On Tuesday they scored 11 runs on 14 hits; so did we. On Wednesday they scored 6 runs on 11 hits; we scored 8 on 11. On Thursday they scored 11 runs on 14 hits; we scored 13 on 15. Last night they scored 11 on 11. We scored 8 on 11. The total for the past week: Astros -- 39 runs on 50 hits; Cardinals -- 40 runs on 51 hits. Do you get the feeling that these two teams might separate themselves from the pack once again?

Posted 9:26 AM by Mark
JOSH SCHULZ of the fine Go Cardinals weblog writes vividly this week about seeing Bud Smith's 2000 no-hitter live and in person. He even took a snap of the scoreboard to remember the moment:



The other day on this site, Brian mentioned Buddy's no-no as prehaps the last time a Cardbird has been as dominant as Woodrow was the other night. But I think there's something even more amazing going on. Watching Pujols single-handedly dismantle the Orioles last night got me thinking: we're in a special time in Redbird Nation right now. Woody Williams, Matt Morris, and Pujols are absolutely dominating the league. I can't remember the last time the Cardbirds had three dudes so untouchable this far into the season. McGwire never had a twosome behind him doing so much damage; Edmonds has never been able to maintain his amazingness for more than a month or so without slumping; Morris and Kile had some kick ass few weeks, but nothing like this. You'd probably have to go back to the Tudor-McGee-Coleman years to dig up such a titanic threesome.

For now, we have our very own triumvirate of awesomeness. It probably won't last -- Morris will stick his head up his ass for a few outings, Woodrow will strain his brittle back, Pujols' arm will fall off. But until then, let's roll.

Posted 12:39 PM by Brian
FINLEY WATCH Free agent Chuck Finley was offered a chance to return to the Angels as a reliever, but he turned them down. According to the LA Times, the Mariners are now among the possibilities for Finley.

Posted 8:29 AM by Brian
HITTER-PITCHERS Last night's game got me wondering about great hitting/pitching performances. A few candidates for the finest displays of all time:

May 13, 1942: Pitcher Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves slams three successive home runs to beat the Chicago Cubs, 6–5, the only major league pitcher ever to accomplish this.

August 4, 1953: Yankees hurler Vic Raschi sets the record for RBI by a pitcher with seven while shutting out Detroit 15-0. His teammates fill his locker with bats after the game.

June 21, 1964: On Father's Day at Shea Stadium, the Phillies' Jim Bunning fans 10 and pitches the first regular-season perfect game since 1922. He also drives in two of his team's six runs.

July 3, 1966: Pitcher Tony Cloninger hits two grand slams as the Braves rout the Giants at Candlestick Park 17–3. His nine RBIs are a major-league record for pitchers.

June 23, 1971: Phillie pitcher Rick Wise no-hits the Reds 4–0 and bangs two home runs in the game.

April 22, 1981: Dodgers rookie Fernando Valenzuela tosses his 3rd shutout in four starts, strikes out 11, and drives in the game's only run with a single in a 1–0 win over Houston.

October 16, 1988: Orel Hershiser gives up three hits and hits three himself to beat Oakland 6–0 and win Game 2 of the 1988 World Series.

June 2, 2002: Phillies pitcher Robert Person beats the Expos 18-3 by slugging two home runs and driving in seven in the contest.

June 5, 2003: Woody Williams one-hits the Blue Jays over 8 innings and drives in 4 runs, including a bases-loaded triple to break open the game.

Posted 9:39 PM by Brian
POOR PUJOLS After Albert's single in the fourth inning -- his second of three hits on the night -- Mike Shannon said "he's not even close to getting the recognition he deserves. Not even close." Wayne Hagin agreed with him. So did Joe Buck, who said last night on TV that our upcoming road trip will finally introduce Pujols to New Yorkers and Bostonians who have ignored him. And just last week Ian Browne of MLB.com wrote "for many years, Edgar Martinez had the dubious honor of being the most underrated hitter in the game. That honor probably belongs to Pujols now."

That's utterly ridiculous.

Pujols has had all kinds of recognition, from all over the place. His first year in the league he won the Rookie of the Year Award, unanimously. He also finished 4th in the MVP voting. The next year he came back and finished second in the MVP race, handily. He's currently 4th among NL outfielders in the All-Star balloting, ahead of guys like Sheffield, Griffey, and Chipper Jones, who have been around a lot longer, with far more career accomplishments than Pujols. He's already played in 13 high-profile, nationally televised postseason games, such as the game where he hit a famous home run off of Randy Johnson. And anyone who plays fantasy baseball -- that includes, of course, hundreds of thousands of hardcore fans in New York and Boston -- knows how good Pujols is. ESPN fantasy baseball has him ranked as the 9th best player in baseball. MLB.com has him ranked 4th.

And this is underrated? What does he have to do to be overrated, win a Nobel Prize? Pujols has received plenty of honors and recognition, from just about anyone you care about. And he deserves all the adulation. There's no reason to adopt an inferiority complex about it.

Posted 7:41 PM by Brian
KING WOODROW Wow. This was our happiest, most satisfying game of the year. We complete a sweep with sustained brilliance at the plate and in the field, and the hero on both sides was Woody Williams. Can you remember a more dominant single-game performance by a Cardinal? Bud Smith's no-hitter? Maybe Mark Whiten's 12-rib night? Just an unbelievable game (excluding, of course, the mustache Dustin Hermanson painted on the Mona Lisa at the end). A few notes:

• What's with the triple barrage? Last night it was Tino and Mike Math, tonight it was... Woody Williams? Strange because just the other day Brad Penny of the Marlins hit a bases-loaded triple and I wondered when was the last time a pitcher did that. There is one bases-loaded triple I remember the most -- Tommy Glavine, Game 7 of the '96 NLCS, made it 6-0 vs. the Cards in the first, which essentially ended the game.

• I wonder if the alien ballpark had something to do with the Jays' lousy fielding in this series. They constantly seemed to be out of position, or turning the wrong way, or misjudging their relation to the walls and to each other. Some of that may be bad advance scouting; some of it may be the fact that their players have never played here; and some of it may have been plain ol' lousy defense.

• Another possible factor: the Blue Jays seemed to have given up after Tosca got tossed in the second. Not to take anything away from Woody, but after that call went against them (correctly) and after their manager made a buffoon out of himself on the field, the team seemed to crawl into a hole. Again, I don't want to downplay Woody's gem -- he still pitched masterfully, and his triple was on a good low and outside pitch with two strikes -- but with the way the Jays fumbled around the field and went like lambs back to the bench gave the impression that they had conceded this game even before it officially got out of hand. (How out of hand? Even So-So Taguchi cracked a two-run double!)

• As best I can tell, our 32 runs are the most we've scored in a three-game series since April 1998, when we also scored 32 at Coors. The last time we scored more runs than that in a three-game series? 34 runs against the Braves in August of 1978. The winning pitchers were Forsch, Silvio Martinez, and John Denny.

• Woody's ERA is now below two, at 1.99. And he has the most wins in the NL. And he improved to 20-1 at night since joining the Cardinals. That's downright Tudoriffic.

Posted 2:32 PM by Brian
FROM THE NEWSWIRE The boost a slugger gets from a corked bat is highly overrated. In fact, experts on the physics of baseball say such bats reduce a hitter's power.

"You have a slightly lighter bat and you're going to hit the ball a little less far," said retired Yale professor Robert Adair, the author of The Physics of Baseball. Adair contends a corked bat actually may reduce by about 3 feet what would have been a 375-foot drive from a conventional wooden bat. While corked bats can increase bat speed and improve timing, he believes the benefits are minimal.

"This is not something that radically changes the game," Adair said Wednesday. "There's probably more superstition involved. You may hit the fastball a little more often. It's so marginal."

Posted 1:02 PM by Brian
REMEMBER WHEN the Cards were supposedly closing in on some kind of Vina for Armando Benitez trade? At the time it looked like a bad swap -- at the end of April Benitez was languishing with a 6.97 ERA. Since then he's posted a 1.71 ERA with 20 K's in 21 innings and 11 straight saves.

Posted 12:58 PM by Brian
CORKGATE CONTINUES
Forgive me for picking over this Sosa thing like it was the Incident at Grassy Knoll (last night ESPN dedicated a two-hour special to the scandal), but this stuff keeps getting interestinger and interestinger. After reading David Pinto's posts over at Baseball Musings, I have some new reasons to doubt Sammy's innoncence:

1. Yes, Sammy's collection of bats were x-rayed by MLB, but baseball security didn't reach the Cubs' clubhouse to confiscate them until several innings after Sosa was ejected in the first inning. Clearly some illegal bats could have been spirited away in the interim.

2. As we pointed out, a corked bat has less mass than regulation bats, and therefore decreases the distance of any balls hit. However, the decrease is only about 3 feet for every 400, and superior bat speed increases the chances that a ball is hit squarely. So it's not necessarily correct to say that these two forces cancel out each other.

3. It's certainly possible that Sosa was corking one bat at a time, so that if he got caught he'd have an excuse.

4. Sosa has never given an explanation for how his BP bats got mixed in with his game bats. He's also never explained how he couldn't discern the weight difference between his BP bat and his game bat. No teammates have told us they were aware of Sammy's corked BP bats. And Sammy has never told anyone whether he corked his own bat(s), whether someone did it for him, and whether such a person knew the reasons why he was corking Sosa's bat(s).

My Tainted Meter -- that is, the number of fair-and-square homers we have to deduct from Sosa's lifetime total -- has just risen from zero to eleven.

Posted 9:46 AM by Brian
KEN THE MAN Last night Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 475th home run, which ties him with Stan Musial on the all-time list. Junior and Stan now have several things in common:


* Both are lefthanded hitters
* Both have 475 lifetime homers
* Both were born on November 21st
* Both were born in Donora, Pennsylvania

Can you imagine you're Ken Griffey Jr., you're from a tiny steel town of about 10,000 people, you're a certified Hall of Famer, but you're not even the best baseball player from your hometown? I find that one of the more astonishing coincidences in baseball history.

Posted 9:29 AM by Brian
THE BAT There's a rumor floating around that a shard of Sosa's broken, cork-filled bat is selling on eBay for $25,000, which would surely make it the most sought-after sliver of wood since the Holy Cross of Christ.
Turns out the only thing selling on eBay is a normal bat that Sosa used in 2002, which some asshole is trumpeting as the smoking gun that may end Sosa's reputation and career: "This bat," he writes, "may have been doctored with and if so this may change baseball's history. Only the winning bidder will hold the key to changing history..." The current bid is $7,500.

I've had a bit of a change of heart about this whole Sosa thing. I still think Sosa's alibi doesn't add up, but the fact that he had 76 other bats in his possession, and none of them were corked, seems like a pretty compelling case in his favor. Plus, as both Rob Neyer and Joe Sheehan point out, Sosa must have broken his bat hundreds of times in the past and none of those times did his bats reveal any cork. What's more, physicists will tell you that corking a bat doesn't help a hitter anyway -- whatever you gain in bat speed is negated by the loss of bat mass. I know that flies in the face of anecdotal evidence (like Norm Cash claiming he hit .361 in '61 on the strength of a corked bat), but I'll trust Stephen Hawking and Co. for now.

The question everyone has been asking is this: how many of Sosa's 505 homers were tainted? Until we hear otherwise, I'll assume the answer is zero. [I'll assume the answer is 505. -- Mark]

Posted 11:49 PM by Brian
GAME NOTES Cards 8, Jays 5
Our first three-game winning streak in exactly a month. Here's what happened...

• In the third inning Vernon Wells turned a single into a double by flagrantly daring Pujols to throw with his injured wing. Remember when it was supposed to take three weeks for Pujols' sprained elbow to fully heal? That was seven weeks ago.

• Simontacchi had a funny AB in the third, when he grounded to the left side and shattered his bat. The crowded whooped it up for the obvious reasons. Will Sammy Sosa forever after "own" every shattered bat reference, just as Gaylord Perry owns the spitter? Will announcers ever say "Simontacchi Sosa'd his bat in half?"

• Later in the inning, after we had valiantly regained the lead, Tino stepped to the plate with a runner in scoring position, and the crowd started chanting, first quietly, then loudly, "Tino... Tino... Tino..." It was almost stirring after all Tino has been through in St. Louis, sorta like Bill Murray leading the chant in Meatballs, "It just doesn't matter... It just doesn't matter..." And sure enough, Constantino thanked the fans with a run-scoring single... Sometimes I wish I didn't have such a headful of stathead knowledge. Rationally I know that Tino's single had nothing to do with the fans, but a part of me would like to believe that a little bit of Busch Stadium goodwill fell on Tino like pixie dust. I remember once when I was younger Keith Hernandez broke a slump with a game-winning hit, and he told Jack Buck on the postgame show that he was inspired by a fan who yelled to him on the on-deck circle, "Show 'em what you're made of, Keith!" Every time Mex came up in a big situation after that, I'd yell to him from our seats, "Show 'em what you're made of!" -- it almost never worked.

• The Mad Hungarian gives us this Chris Carpenter update: Carpenter threw 12 pitches yesterday in extended spring training, but he's still about a week away from serious throwing. Factor in about 3 weeks of rehab work after that and we should see him in a month. Maybe a spot start or two before the All-Star Break. I've been saying a decade of the rosary every day in hopes that Carpenter duplicates Andy Benes' 2002 second half or Woody Williams' 2001 second half.

• I was at Dodger Stadium the night that Fernando Tatis hit two grand slams in one inning. My brother Patrick was in Yankee Stadium the day that Randy Velarde turned an unassisted triple play. And tonight my Mom and Dad and sister were at Busch when Tino Martinez and Mike Matheny hit back-to-back triples. After Matheny's three-bagger the umpiring crew handed the ball over to representatives of Major League Baseball, who had the thing immediately sent to Cooperstown.

• Entering the 6th inning, Tino Martinez had 19 triples in 6,809 lifetime plate appearances. Mike Matheny had 6 triples in exactly 2900 plate appearances. Tino, then, has about a 1 and 358 chance of hitting a triple, while Math has a 1 and 483 chance of hitting one. The odds of both guys hitting triples in back to back at-bats works out to about 1 in 173,211. The odds of this happening are almost exactly the same as your chances of getting eaten by flesh-eating bacteria.

• A look ahead to our rotation in Yankee Stadium: Morris, Tomko, Williams. Bring it on, bitches.

• Good to see La Russa bringing Eldred in in the 8th for a two-inning save. Over the years La Russa has been so boxed into the Procrustrean definition of "closer" that he'd never touch his ace before the 9th. Perhaps the one decent side benefit of our patchwork bullpen is that it's forcing La Russa to rely less on push-button bullpen formulae.

• Incidentally, tonight was Eldred's finest performance in a Cardinal uniform. Six batters, six outs, got ahead of everyone, good low-90's fastball, good mix of pitches.

• I took a break from writing these notes to watch Dog Day Afternoon. Pacino. Cazale. Damn.

• The Cardinals have won 7 of Simontacchi's 11 starts, which is good for a .636 winning percentage, which works out to over 100 wins over the course of the season, which means we must score a shitload of runs in Simontacchi starts, 'cause you know he ain't winning many pitchers' duels. Tonight's 8-5 game was a typical Simontacchi start -- lotta runs, we had more of them.

Posted 10:14 PM by Mark
RUMORS FROM HADLEY-ON-SPORTS:

As we projected on KTRS (The Big 550) Monday evening, the Cardinals sent down Mike Crudale (on Tuesday). The Cardinals still consider Crudale a legit long-term factor. He failed to take care of business reporting to camp out of shape and remains in a catch-up mode.

When Izzy returns, expect Kiko Calero to return to Memphis. He may still be groomed as a starting pitcher.

If and when the Cardinals begin dealing again, remember the names Jeff Fassero and/or Steve Kline. Considering that if and when the bullpen settles, these players ultimately serve the same purpose. Considering both need regular action to remain sharp, it logical to assume the Cards will deal one.

The Cardinals will carry three catchers on the roster. They won't lose Chris Widger. There is a chance Mike Matheny could be dealt. Word has his time in St. Louis limited with Yadier Molina on the horizon (there has been talk he could grab the starting position next season).

Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty is looking to bolster the bench (with Miguel Cairo seeing regular action) with a versatile infielder possessing a strong glove and some speed.

Wilson Delgado has no future in the organization.

For those wanting for a leadoff hitter, I have confirmed with six sources that aside from Roberto Alomar, there isn't a legit "leadoff type hitter" on the trading block at this point. Hence, for the time being the leadoff hitter will have to come from within for the foreseeable future.

Posted 5:20 PM by Mark
FROM THE JUNKYARD...

Cards acquire Selby from Indians
By The Associated Press
06/04/2003

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Cleveland Indians infielder Bill Selby was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday for catcher Clint Chauncey of Class-A Peoria of the Midwest League.

Selby hit .103 with five RBIs in 26 games for Cleveland this season. Cleveland designated the 32-year-old infielder for assignment on May 30.

Chauncey, 22, hit .294 in 15 games at Peoria.

Posted 10:57 PM by Brian
SHATTERED It seems once a year baseball serves up one big juicy controversy, some circus that the media can feed off of for weeks to come. Last year it was Ken Caminiti admitting he won the MVP award on steroids. The year before that it was Danny Almonte and the Little League age scandal. Before that it was John Rocker; before that it was Big Mac and androstenedione; and on and on and on all the way back to the Black Sox Scandal.

This year, of course, the circus comes to Sammy Sosa. As a Cardinals fan a guilty part of you may rejoice at the corked bat revelation. For starters, it takes Sosa's devastating (if crooked) bat out of the lineup for a week plus (I've heard the minimum suspension for bat and ball tampering is 10 games -- that's what it was for Billy Hatcher, Joe Niekro, Brian Moehler, et al -- but Al Belle was suspended only 7 games for his corked bat, so who knows). And in a larger sense it's ultimate vindication. McGwire not only won the home run derbies of '98 and '99, he also wins the PR derby now and forever. Sure, Big Mac's blasts always left behind some residual steroid gossip, but he was never caught as definitively, as red-handedly, as Sosa. Take all of Sosa's homers, subtract all the ones you think were aided by steroids, then subtract all the ones he hit with a corked bat, and what are you left with? 400? 200? Zero? Frankly I have no idea, but I have good reason to suspect it's less than 505.

And that's a shame. I really used to hate Sosa. During the summer of '98 I grew weary of his swagger, the way he'd blow kisses in the dugout and hop around after his homers, and I was never one of these guys who misted up over his friendly rivalry with McGwire. I wanted Sosa to lose, goddamnit, not bear-hug Big Mac after he broke the record. But I really grew to like the guy over the last few years, at least as much as I can like any Cub. I liked the way he sprinted out to right field, I liked the way he adjusted and became patient at the plate, and I liked how his awesome displays of power became, after a time, simply undeniable. You learn to respect the pantheon of greats, and Sosa is clearly one of them.

But all I could think of tonight was that full-of-shit Sosa from '98. At his press conference tonight Sosa apologized, but it was one of those "I'm sorry, but..." routines. He said, yes, he used the wrong bat, but... he only meant to use it in batting practice. Just happened to grab it during game time. Innocent mistake. Yeah, right. There's no better way to get your timing down in BP than to use a bat several ounces lighter than the one you intend to use in games. And of course Sosa, who must have swung the same bat tens of thousands of times in regulation games, couldn't tell when he stepped into the box with a lighter bat. And naturally the one and only time he did happen to use the wrong bat, it just so happened to shatter. Terrible luck Sammy has, for which he deeply apologizes.

Maybe we'll have to wait until Sosa's career is over -- as we had to with Gaylord Perry, Norm Cash, Amos Otis, and the 1951 Giants -- to find out just how much he was cheating. But in the meantime this is a bad, bad thing for baseball. It's become fashionable nowadays to downplay and/or excuse the misdeeds of baseball's biggest con artists. People absolve Shoeless Joe Jackson because, they say, he was just a dumb hayseed who didn't know any better, or because his owner was a skinflint who wouldn't pay him a fair wage. (Both true, but the overwhelming weight of the evidence shows that Joe Jackson knew he was throwing a World Series, and did a good job of carrying it out.) People are eager to let Pete Rose off the hook too -- after all, they say, he didn't bet against his own teams, or he's got a gambling addiction, or he's served his time.

But what these people fail to realize is that Jackson's crimes and Rose's crimes weren't necessarily against themselves or their own teams; they were against baseball. Anytime someone is caught gambling or cheating, we suspect an exponential number of uncaughted gamblers and cheaters. Any time someone tampers with their bats or their bodies to get ahead, it makes us doubt, however slightly, the next strikeout or running catch or home run. Was it earned? Was it real?

It might seem like a small thing now, an innocent broken-bat grounder from Sammy Sosa, but trust me, this will become the sports issue over the next ten years or so. You can read some truly scary shit out there about bioengineering and human growth hormones and synthetic muscle enhancement, and it's all just around the corner. Players will be able to alter their bodies, and the outcomes of the games they play in, like never before, and they'll be able to hide it better than ever. We'll all be wondering what's fair, what's real, and we'll be longing for the day when the only casualty of all this doubt was Sammy Sosa.

Posted 9:30 PM by Brian
SOLID WIN Yesterday Walt Jocketty talked about the reasons behind his team's mediocre play: "Injuries and the bullpen have contributed," he said. "But we certainly should have the talent and the ability to play through some of this." In other words, the Cardinals should be good enough to outslug their mistakes.

That's exactly what we did tonight. It was a nail-biter for the first six and a half innings, mostly because of nagging mistakes: Escobar couldn't find the plate in the 5th and the Cards' looked to break the game wide open, but Pujols helped him out by lunging at a 2-0 sinker and grounded out; an inning later, Edmonds broke in on a ball hit over his head and couldn't recover in time to retire the eventual tying run. Two outs later Matt Morris got ahead of Hudson 0-2 by carving him up on curveballs; but he had to challenge Hudson with a fastball and Hudson hammered it to left for a game-tying single. The next inning Renteria flaked on a groundball and let the leadoff reach on an error.

What was different about tonight's game is that none of these gaffes came back to haunt us. We simply outslugged our mistakes. The heart of our order was particularly devastating -- a combined 12-23 with 9 runs and 8 rbi's. Even Tino, feeling wistful about playing his old AL East foes, teed off with a couple of hard line drives.

This is exactly the kind of win the Cardinals have been looking for, one where the story was our bats, and not our bullpen or our brain-freezes.

Posted 5:53 PM by Brian
BREAKING NEWS Redbird Nation was half-kidding last week when we accused the Cubs of cheating. But tonight in Chicago the Cubs had a run removed after the umpire suspected the bat used to drive it in was illegal. The bat, which belonged to Sammy Sosa, apparently exploded and the umps found cork inside. Sammy Sosa has been ejected from the game.

I don't want to convict a guy before the evidence is in, but my first thought was, I'm sure, the same as a lot of fans': "This taints everything Sosa has ever done.

Posted 2:46 PM by Brian
INTERLEAGUE PLAY is here. I never much cared for interleague play, partly because the Cardinals are always stuck playing some AL Central no-gudnik, partly because I like the idea of keeping the leagues somewhat separate and distinct. (That's the same reason I oppose attempts to abolish the DH -- I like the set up as is, one league with pitchers digging in against pitchers, the other with Edgar Martinez and the gout-ravaged heirs of Steve Balboni.)

Interleague play also, I think, dimishes the mystique of the World Series. I once knew a guy who grew up in rural Indiana in the early 70's, and he was into souping up muscle cars and drag-racing them on the backroads late at night, on the weekends. He designed a special turbo boost for his car and whupped everyone in his town. And after he beat everyone in his whole town, he moved on and whupped everyone in the entire county. And when he was done with the county, he whupped the entire eastern half of Indiana. And after he became the king of eastern Indiana, there was only one guy out there who could knock him off his drag-racing throne -- the king of the western half of Indiana. So these two guys decided to meet one night and race. One time. Whoever won would become the drag-racing king of Indiana. Whoever lost would have to surrender the throne and the deed to his car. So they raced. My friend used his special turbo boost, won the race, and had a buddy drive the other guy's car back home.

I mention this because I think that's what the playoffs should be like. You think that race would have been as dramatic if my friend had raced the king of western Indiana a couple times before their big showdown? Hell no. Would a World Series with the Yankees be more exciting if they were trying to avenge their loss in 1964, or if they were trying to avenge their loss in mid-June? I think you know the answer.

HOWEVER... If we're going to have interleague play, you may as well make the most of it. And I have to admit, I've been more excited about this year's matchups than ever before. No more AL Central Rust Belt losers. This year we got the big boys. The Yankees. The Red Sox. The Blue Jays (22-8 over the last month). Even -- don't laugh -- the Orioles, who have scored a surprising number of runs, damn near as many as we have.

Of course, there are some downsides. We don't get to play Tampa Bay, but the Cubs, Astos, Reds, and Pirates do. And the marquee matchups against Boston and New York are on the road, while the low-marquee O's and Jays are at Busch. Couldn't we have gotten just one of those epic teams on our home turf?

Oh well. I'll take Carlos Delgado this week, and the ex-St. Louis Browns over the weekend. Go Matty Mo. Win one for the Senior Circuit.

Posted 8:54 PM by Brian

HOORAY

Not only did the Cardinals win for the first time in a few days, but Redbird Nation has a new template, and new and improved capabilities. Enjoy.

Posted 5:01 PM by Matt
MORE ON JOCKETTY'S FREE AGENT SIGNINGS I agree with nearly everything that Brian writes below on the topic, but I would actually put the Taguchi and Tino signings at #1 and #2 worst, respectively. Jackson and Radinsky were terrible signings, but at least you have the injury excuse.

Signing Taguchi for $1 million a year for 3 years was an unconscionable act of GM laziness and stupidity. If I remember correctly, I think Jocketty hadn't even seen Taguchi play -- he just took a scout's word for it. But while trusting a scout (whom I hope has been fired) to make a $3 million decision on his own seems careless, I at least understand that as an excuse. What's absolutely inexplicable was Jocketty not looking up (or, if he did, not being able to understand) Taguchi's stats in Japan. Taguchi's numbers in Japan were mediocre, so why in the world would he not suck in MLB? This decision is truly exasperating, and irritates the hell out of me any time Jocketty says we don't have a million bucks to, say, sign Chuck Finley.

With Tino, all Jocketty had to do was study his numbers in detail to see that he was a very overrated player. Everybody else seemed to know -- I don't remember Tino getting many other offers, and reports of his less-than-impressive bat speed were well-publicized.

Tino's signing reminds me of the most glaring weakness of the Jocketty-La Russa team -- neither guy seems to be able to evaluate offensive strength with any depth whatsoever (and sometimes they don't care about a guy's offense at all, as La Russa admits about his catchers). That's why we almost always have a crappy bench and at least 2 glaring offensive liabilities in the line-up. In fact, I think there's a lot of evidence that they don't pay any attention at all to OBP, only BA, which is pretty laughable when you look at the kind of things that some of our competitors (like Billy Beane) are doing.

I also see that Izzy is included neither in the 5 best nor worst signings, which I agree with Brian -- it's still too early to tell. But it's questionable whether spending that $27 million (or something like that) even on Izzy at his best would be smarter than spreading that money out to address all bullpen needs.

Posted 4:15 PM by Matt
GAME NOTES, Rednut 5 Pirates 4

• Great at bat by Renteria in the 2nd inning to draw a walk after getting behind in the count and then fouling off 3 3-2 pitches.

• In the same inning, La Russa had Tomko bunt with Widger on 1st and Tino on 3rd with one out -- not a squeeze, just to get Widger down to second. I think that's a very bad call. I'd have to examine the percentages more closely to argue the point more strongly, but my instinct tells me that the chances of scoring runs are better with Tomko, who's hitting .300, swinging the bat (or trying a squeeze) with runners on 1st and 3rd and one out than they are with Cairo hitting with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 out. I guess the primary thinking behind it was to avoid a double play, but conceding the second out there is a pretty high price to pay for it.

• I'm starting to lose confidence in Tomko. He looked real good in the first 2 innings and then decided to throw BP in the 3rd. The next couple months are make or break for his career outlook, I think -- he may be a loser. And it's going to be very hard for the Cardinals to win the division again if he doesn't win to his potential, which he's never done. I still do have some hope, though.

• The scariest thing about Drew's decline last year was his stunning lack of power down the stretch. All of the sudden a guy who'd hit 500+ ft. homers was getting all of pitches and hitting only warning track fly balls. That's why it's particularly inspiring to see him return to the 500+ bombs, as well as those like he hit in the 3rd inning today and earlier this week -- flick of the wrist shots to the opposite field. When he's healthy, he's one of the top hitters in the National League. He's getting healthy. Real healthy.

• Fogg's called 3rd strike on Drew in the 5th was clearly high.

• Renteria is 8 for 9 in stolen base attempts. Awesome.

• How does a team walk Chris Widger twice and only lose by one run?

• Bad break for Eddie Perez, who had his line drive snagged by Jack Wilson, who doubled off Renteria at 2nd, in the 6th.

• Renteria's HUGE, tie-breaking, bases-loaded single between Ramirez and Wilson in the 7th definitely had eyes.

• Awesome play by Scotty Rolen to jump up and catch Reggie Sanders hot shot to end the game. It looked much better in the replay than live, too. Scotty also drew an important walk to allow Renteria's game-winning single, and doubled, making this a very successful Scott Rolen Bobblehead Day. Now the pressure's off him for the rest of the season.

Posted 2:10 AM by Brian
FROM THE HARTFORD COURANT A Cincinnati man named David Horton faces nearly 20 years in prison, and it's all because of the Kiss Cam at Great American Ball Park. He was caught on camera kissing his girlfriend May 7 as part of the nightly random scan of couples smooching. Also in the crowd was Horton's parole officer, who along with a police officer placed him under arrest. Horton was on parole after serving two years for stabbing two men.

Posted 1:35 AM by Brian
BEANE BALL So the other night I finished Moneyball, Michael Lewis' book about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's.

I have to admit, I didn't really want to like this book. The Cult of Beane is getting a little tiring -- I mean, Beane's the best GM in the game, maybe the best GM since Branch Rickey, but his cocky triumphalism is only marginally less annoying than the cocky triumphalism of some of his biggest admirers (like, oh, say, Chris Kahrl). Besides, Michael Lewis dresses too much like Tom Wolfe, and his wife (Tabitha Soren) is the only person in MTV history to out-earnest Kurt Loder. So, yeah, the contrarian in me was sorta rooting against him.

But I must admit, Moneyball is one of the best baseball books ever published. I've always thought someone -- preferably someone with a strong business background -- should write a detailed analysis and behind-the-scenes look at the life of a baseball general manager. The GM is probably the most important man in any organization, but very few people know what a GM actually does -- how he picks a staff, how he develops and implements a philosophy (or doesn't), how he weighs the interests of the owners upstairs against his players downstairs. Aside from internal memoes buried away in metal file cabinets, there's almost no record of a GM's work (as an experiment, do a Google search of Walt Jocketty -- you'll find almost nothing on the man). But Michael Lewis has finally given us that book. Just from a voyeuristic point of view, as a peak into the art of the backroom deal, it's fascinating.

But it's much more than that. It is, in fact, one of the few sports books that also works as a piece of literature. Not only is Lewis a fine writer with a gift for giving heft to even the most esoteric abstractions, he also serves up Billy Beane as a compellingly novelistic hero. There's Beane the Hemingway-esque ex-jock ex-golden boy; Beane the Gatsby-esque can-do charmer longing for a second chance; and Beane the Kerouac-ian maverick surrounding himself with misfits and cast-offs like Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg.

As you can see, this is an All-American story. Hell, if you want to extend the metaphors even further (and goddamnit, I'm going to try), you could say that this is the American story, with the Oakland A's re-enacting the birth of the Republic. Here, the baseball establishment plays the role of the European aristocracy, sniffing at that young colonial upstart Beane out in the hinterlands, with his weird American ideas about objectivity and rationality and the unalterable, unredeemable state of man...

Okay, maybe I'm full of crap. The point is I liked the book. You should read it.

Posted 12:34 AM by Brian
REDBIRD NATION MAILBAG From a loyal reader:

I liked your post regarding Jocketty's trades and the success the Cards have had because of them. Given the organization's incredibly futile farm system the Birds would be nowhere without Jocketty's ability to "sell" high and "buy" low. However, I think similar research should be done to evaluate Jocketty's FA signings. There have been far fewer significant FA signings than significant trades, but nonetheless they should be examined, especially since a $21 mil sore thumb sticks out at first base, and the only hopes (without trade) for the bullpen's recovery rest on the sore shoulder of an oft-injured body. Just wondering about your thoughts on this. -- M.R.

You're right, M.R., Jocketty's free-agent signings are less prominent than his trades. Although several of his trades can be seen as modified free agent signings. The McGwire deal is a case in point: the A's had already decided they couldn't afford Big Mac's salary on the free market, so they were essentially trading only two months' worth of Mark McGwire and the Cardinals, who had no real use for a mere two months of McGwire, were betting that they could sign a long-term deal with him after '97. If anything, Jocketty was trading for the rights to a favorable negotiating stance with McGwire. It was still a good deal, even in that light.

Nevertheless, here's a list of Jocketty's best and worst free agent signings (we should note that Walt's tenure as Cards' GM began in October 1994, and not, as this website claimed a few days ago, in 1996):

The Five Best

1. Kent Bottenfield, 1/6/98, 1 yr, $700,000. Jocketty put up less than a million dollars to get Bottenfield to get 18 wins in '99 to get Jim Edmonds in 2000. Warren Buffett couldn't have played it any more nicely.

2. Andy Benes, 12/23/95, 2 yrs, $8.2 million. Benes was coming off a down year with Seattle and thought to be washed-up at age 28. Walt paid a moderately high price for him, but he anchored our staff with 18 wins in '96 and gave us our first postseason appearance in almost ten years.

3. Delino DeShields, 11/20/96, 2 yrs, $4.6 million. The Cards got DeShields for a bargain after a lousy year with the Dodgers. He responded with a couple of excellent years offensively -- good average, good gap power, good eye, a ton of stolen bases (his 55 thefts in '97 are the most by a Cardinal since Vince Coleman). He couldn't field for shit, but still, a fine pickup.

4. Tom Henke, 12/12/94, 1 yr, $2.3 million. So what if the Cardinals finished 22.5 games out of first in '95? Henke kept us out of last place, and his swan song included a 1.82 ERA, 36 saves, and a terrific impersonation of Clark Kent.

5. Mark Petkovsek, 11/18/94, 1 yr, $114,000. In one of Walt's first deals, he picked up the pronunciation-chewing Petkovsek for slightly above the league minimum. He gave the Cardinals workhorse innings out of the pen, and finished 11-2 during our fine '96 season.

The Five Worst

1. Danny Jackson, 12/12/94, 3 yrs, $10.8. Ouch. Three injury-plagued seasons, a 5.78 cume ERA, plus constant memories of this same dude kicking our ass in the '85 World Series.

2. Scott Radinsky, 11/23/98, 2 yrs, $5.5 million. Despite 3 straight years with an ERA in the 2's, $5.5 is way too much for a middle reliever, especially back then. In return Rad gave the Cards 27 (bad) innings.

3. Tino Martinez, 12/18/01, 3 yrs, $21 million. Yet to drive in his 100th run as a Cardinal...

4. Andy Benes Part Two, 1/7/00, 3 yrs, $15.9 million. God love old AB -- he went out like a trouper, revived by the ghost of Darryl Kile for the stretch run last year (and now he's co-hosting a baseball show for kids with Mr. Fred Bird). But boy those 16 million Benjamins hurt when Andy was mucking around for 2 1/2 years.

5. (tie) Eric Davis, 11/19/98, 2 yrs, $8 million. E.D. could still hit (and who can forget the diving play he made to preserve Jose Jiminez's no-hitter?). But at age 37, he just couldn't stay healthy, and $8 mil is a lot to pay for less than 500 ABs in two years; and

(tie) So Taguchi, 1/9/02, 3 yrs, $3 million. On the downside, we lost $3 million; on the upside, he's the best batboy the Cardinals ever had.

Notice anything about that list? The Cardinals have had only one decent free agent signing in the past 5 years. Granted, we aren't much in the free agent game per se (unless, as I mentioned above, you count Rolen and McGwire and Edmonds as free agent pickups) -- the only regulars we've signed on Jocketty's watch are Henke, Danny Jackson, Gary "Skinny" Gaetti, Ron Gant, Andy Benes, DeShields, Kent Mercker, Bottenfield, Eric Davis, Mike Matheny, Tino Martinez, and Jason "Isry" Isringhausen. That's a pretty mixed bag. Not really any Derek Bell- or Mark Davis-sized debacles in there, but not too many guys to write home about either.