Posted 12:20 PM by Brian
CARDINAL KILLER Who blew today's game for the Cardinals? Was it Julian Tavarez, who, for the second time this series, gave up a game-losing run in the bottom of the ninth? Was it Reggie Sanders, who made a critical error in the bottom of the 8th that allowed Tony Alvarez to score the go-ahead run? Was it Matt Morris, who, despite not allowing a homer, gave up 5 runs in 8 innings to the Pirates? Was it Tony La Russa, who was so certain Morris would throw a goose egg in the 8th (he didn't) that he threw away the top of the inning by letting Morris make the second out? Was it So Taguchi, who came up with runners on second and third, no one out in the 7th and struck out (and looked laughable doing it)? Was it Edgar Renteria, who came up with the bases juiced in the top of the ninth and doused the inning by grounding into a 6-4-3?

I guess all those guys blew the game to some extent, but if you want the real killer of this game, look no further than the walking cyanide tablet, John Mabry. Mabry had not only his worst game of the year, not only the worst game by a Cardinal this year, I venture to say that he had the single worst game by any position player in baseball this year. Don't believe me? Check out his day:

Top of 1st: Mabry comes to the plate with the bases loaded -- and whiffs on four pitches to end the inning. (That made 8 runners left on base, no runs scored, in the first innings of this three-game series.)

Bottom of 1st: Mabry makes a spectacular sprawling stop of Jason Bay's shot down the line with two outs, his one bright moment of the afternoon. Problem is, he muffs the throw to Pujols, Bay is safe, the inning continues, and Bay ends up scoring the 2nd of 3 runs that inning.

Bottom of 2nd: One out, no one on, pitcher Kip Wells hits a dribble toward Mabry at third. Mabry lets the ball go under his glove for a generous "infield hit." Wells ends up scoring run #4.

Top of 3rd: Runners at first and third, no one out, chance for a big inning. Mabry grounds into a DP. The run scores, but it allows the Pirates to maintain the lead.

Top of 5th: With runners on first and second and one out, Renteria hits a tailor-made double-play ball back to the mound, but Wells' poor throw (and Wilson's poor scoop) loads the bases for -- who else? -- John Mabry. With two gift miscues on the same play from the Pirates, the Cards have a chance to blow the game wide open. First pitch to Mabes: 4-6-3 double play. Inning over.

Top of 7th: Bases loaded yet again, only one out. Game tied, easy runs all over the field. Mabry doesn't even make it to Ball 1, strikes out on 5 pitches. Kills the inning.

Top of the 9th: Game tied, two outs, go-ahead run sitting out on third. At that point I thought there was about an 80/20 chance Mabry would get a hit. He just had to. He'd be like the poor orphan girl in some old melodrama who experiences a life of pain and misery only to be saved in the final reel. Nope. Mabry grounds out instead, the last hitter of the game for the Birds.

If you're scoring at home, Mabry came up with 12 runners on the bases and advanced only one of them, and that was on a double play. He came up 5 times with runners on third and 4 times with runners on second and had no RBI's. He came up three times with the bases loaded and struck out twice and grounded into a double play.

Can we call a "do over"?

Posted 12:13 AM by Brian
THE BEST LAID PLANS I've been spoiled by success. The Cardinals had been playing so well lately that a speed bump in Pittsburgh seemed almost inconceivable Monday morning -- especially when you consider that the Cards have the best road record in the National League, the Bucs have the worst home record, and heading into this series the Cardinals had won 14 of their last 16 in PNC Park (much like the cuckoo bird, who moves into the nest of a rival species, murders all the hatchlings, then mimics the attributes of its host in order to be fed by the unwitting mother).

But those plans have already gone awry. The Cardinals repeated their performance from last night -- each inning you'd half-expect them to bust it open, and each inning they'd go down with barely a whimper -- and they've already dropped their first series in five weeks. What's more, they're in danger of getting swept for the first time since way back on April 14th. A few notes:

• A couple weeks ago after losing to Jung Bong and the Reds, Albert Pujols admitted that the Cards struggle against pitchers they haven't seen before. (That means you might be able to defeat the mighty Redbirds!) Tonight the perpetrator was lefthander Sean Burnett, who pitched well against Roger Clemens last week but took the loss. But before that he'd lost 5 straight starts in AAA and sported an ugly 5.36 minor league ERA. He has no giddyup on his fastball whatsoever, and frankly we have no business losing to a guy like that. Then again, it's his first major league win and I bet he talked to his parents on the phone after the game then went out and had a couple free drinks with his new buddies and I should probably be happy for the guy.

• The Cardinals miss Jim Edmonds. If you believe BP's Marginal Lineup Value ratings, the difference between Edmonds and Taguchi in the lineup is about one run every other game. That's enormous, especially in tight games like last night and tonight.

• On the plus side, it's good to see Edgar Renteria getting his smoove on. With two three-hit games out of his last three, he's raised his average to .287, thirty points higher than it was two and a half weeks ago.

• The Pirates scored their first run of the game on a double-play ball off the bat of Tike Redman that should have ended the inning, except Tony Womack delivered a weak relay throw over to first. Womack's arm is so bad that I got to wondering if it was showing up in the statistics.

So what I did is I determined the number of runners on first for the opposition this year (H + BB + HBP - 2B - 3B - HR - SH - WP - BK - PB), which came to 622 (I don't have data on reached on errors, so those weren't included). Assuming runners on first are distributed fairly evenly regardless of who's playing second, I estimated how many runners were on first for each second baseman. Womack, for example, has played 493.1 (or 72%) of the team's 683.2 innings at second, which means an estimated 449 runners have been on first while Womack is in the field. T-Dub has turned 42 DP's this year, or 9.4% of the time the double play is in order.

How does that compare to other Cardinals second basemen? Just fine, actually. The other 2004 second sackers have turned 17 DPs in 173 chances, or 9.8%, about the same as Womack. Last year the Cardinals second basemen had a DP rate of only 6.8%. And Fernando Vina, one of the best you'll find on the pivot, was at only 8.4%.

Conclusion: if Womack's arm is hurting his ability to turn two, it hasn't shown up in the numbers.

• Last year Jose Mesa got all kinds of grief from Phillies phans for his 6.52 ERA as closer, but he still managed to save 24 of 28 games. This year he's a perfect 18 for 18.

Posted 12:00 AM by Brian
SPORTS ON CELLULOID In honor of their 25-year anniversary, ESPN recently compiled a list of the greatest sports movies of the last quarter century. I'm gonna use that as an excuse to issue my own list of the 10 greatest sports movies of all time. (I know, I know, this is supposed to be strictly a baseball blog, but the fact is there aren't 10 good baseball movies, much less 10 best baseball movies, so I'm including all sports.)

Couple caveats: One, I haven't seen every sports movie ever made (e.g., I've never gotten around to seeing Major League), so I can't claim this list is definitive. Two, this list changes all the time depending on my mood, the day, etc., so I won't fight to the death over it (although I might fight you to a coma).

Oh, and one more caveat: I don’t count poker as a sport, otherwise Robert Altman’s California Split would come in first or second. Onto my picks...

1. Bull Durham (1988): One of the most “American” movies of all time, in that it’s a perfect melting pot of sports, sex, irony, and cockeyed dreamers. I’d put it up there with The Lady Eve, Annie Hall, and Tootsie among the best romantic comedies ever made.

2. The Bad News Bears (1976): Today you’d never get away with some of the stuff they had in this movie (the kids celebrate at the end by chugging beer!), but for all it’s slovenliness it’s oddly moving.

3. Breaking Away (1979): I’ve never been as exultant in a movie theater as I was seeing this one at age 9; it has a simple but flawless script by Steve Tesich, who died much too young.

4. Raging Bull (1980): I think it’s marred a bit by Scorsese’s idealization of a lout, but the best parts are so raw and pulsating that they make up for it. (Although I had to dock it a few points for ushering in the trend where actors mutilate themselves in the name of “acting.”)

5. The Freshman (1925): My favorite silent comedy that doesn’t star Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, it has a number of classic Harold Lloyd sequences that later became the basis for (I kid you not) The Waterboy.

6. Cobb (1994): Tommy Lee Jones gives one of the most titanic (and forgotten) performances of all time; I would rank it higher were it not for Robert Wuhl hamming it up and getting wiped off the screen at every turn.

7. Jerry Maguire (1996): Forget about “Show me the money,” “You complete me,” and “You had me at hello.” There’s a good, shaggy movie lurking underneath all the hype.

8. Slap Shot (1977): Like Richard Pryor Live in Concert or Rip Torn on Larry Sanders, this film makes profanity seem almost profound.

9. Rocky (1976): I can still remember watching this on video with my uncle as a kid and seeing him, at the end of the movie, leap up off the couch shouting and clapping, “He went 15! That’s all that matters! He went 15!”

10. When We Were Kings (1996): A great subject with a great cast of characters. Are the stars of this movie Ali and Foreman or Norman Mailer and George Plimpton?

Honorable Mentions: Caddyshack (for Ted Knight alone), White Men Can’t Jump (great playground banter), Hoosiers (for Hackman’s performance), Miracle (for Kurt Russell, who actually one-ups Hackman), and Pumping Iron (which could be re-titled The Making of a Governor)

Worst Sports Movies of All Time: Field of Dreams (a New Age group therapy session masquerading as a baseball movie), and Space Jam (quite honestly the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life)

Let the arguments begin...

Posted 11:31 PM by Brian
LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY Did you know that St. Louis and Pittsburgh have the oldest rivalry in all of baseball? Jim Baker pointed that out recently, although he added a few qualifications:

[The Cardinals and Pirates are] the oldest, ongoing, direct rivalry in baseball. I define "direct" as one in which both teams are in the same league and the same division.

The rivalry between Steeltown and the Lou began, then, in 1882. But personally I think he fiddles with too many variables to make his case, especially since the Cardinals (although they were actually called the Browns back then) did not join the National League until 1892.

Real cowhide buffs should consider a rivalry as one that takes place without interruption between two cities in the same league. With those criteria, the oldest rivalry is between the Cubs and Pirates, 118 years.

Posted 11:12 PM by Brian
THE BEASTS FROM THE CENTRAL Tom Tippett illustrates just how dominant the NL Central has been this season -- as a group, they're five games ahead of any other division in baseball. (That includes the vaunted AL East even with the recent surge by the D-Rays.) How good has the former Comedy Central been? Says Tom,

If not for Pittsburgh's 2-10 record in inter-league play, all six teams would be above .500 in extra-division contests. In fact, all six are above .500 in games against other NL teams.

If you're a 'Stros fan, there's good news in all this:

[T]he Astros have played 48 games within their division (25-23) and only 27 against outsiders (14-13). That's the least balanced schedule in the game to this point. Perhaps a steady diet of games against non-divisional foes is just what Houston needs to make a move.

I have a better idea. The Astros should just stop playing genuinely good teams. Against teams with a winning percentage over .550, the Astros are 11-17. And if you lower the bar to .525, they're still only 19-28. Perhaps Rob Neyer wasn't exaggerating when he opined that Carlos Beltran could get traded again this season if the Astros don't start winning.

Posted 10:55 PM by Brian
IN THE BIG INNING Larry Stone has a fun little article in the Seattle Times about "The Book" -- that legendary bible of baseball strategy that includes heaping amounts of supposedly time-tested conventional wisdom. As Stone writes,

You will not find the book (or, more accurately, The Book) on Amazon, no matter how adroitly you manipulate their search engine. Even the most massive Barnes and Noble outlet doesn't stock this tome, revered though it may be. The curators of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown have done their due diligence, and it simply doesn't exist.

Although in actuality it wouldn't be that hard to assemble. In fact, here's a start -- my rough draft for The Book, or the set of knowledge that's more or less taken for granted in coaching and managerial circles these days:

Use a fast singles hitter who gets on base to lead off. Put a good bat handler second. Try to put your hitter with the best batting average in the third spot. Put your biggest home run hitter in the cleanup spot. If in the NL, put your worst-hitting position player in the 8th spot; if in the AL, the 9th spot. If you pitcher has to hit, bat him ninth. Make sure you protect your best hitter by having one of your other best hitters hit behind him in the lineup.

With runners on first or second and less than two outs, always bunt with the pitcher at the plate. Always bunt in the late innings if you're tied or down by a run, less than two outs, runner(s) on first or second. While fielding, never try for the lead runner on a sacrifice attempt unless you’re absolutely certain you can get him out.

Do not attempt a stolen base unless you’re ahead in the count. Conversely, never pitchout with two balls on the hitter. Never get thrown out on the bases with your best hitter at the plate or due up. Never allow the third out to be made at third base. With two outs, err on the side of sending the runner home rather than holding him at third.

Don’t use the hit and run with two outs. Don’t use the hit and run with a strikeout hitter at the plate. Don’t use the hit and run if your best home run hitter is at the plate. Do use the hit and run to avoid the double play. Do use the hit and run with a batter who can hit the ball through the vacated second base side of the diamond.

Issue an intentional walk with first base open, runners on second and/or third, late innings, and a worse hitter on deck than at the plate. In the same situation in the early innings, issue an “intentional unintentional walk,” i.e., nibble at the strike zone, don’t give the hitter anything good to hit.

Bring the infield in with a runner on third, less than two outs, late innings, tight game. Concede the run for the double play if runners are on first and third and you’re ahead by more than one run. Guard the lines – i.e., concede the single to try to avoid the extra-base hit – with the lead late in the game. Outfielders should play deep with the tying or winning run on first late in the game, especially with two outs. Cutoff a throw from the outfield if the outfielder’s arm is weak or if it’s a high-scoring game and you can keep the trail runner from advancing.

Keep your starter in the game through 5 innings, unless he’s really getting rocked. When making a pitching change, try to use a lefty to face a lefty and a righty to face a righty. When using a pinch hitter, try to use a righty to face a lefty and a lefty to face a righty. Bring in a sinkerball pitcher if you want the double play.

Use your ace reliever in the ninth inning with a lead of four or fewer runs; avoid using him to get more than three outs. If the pitcher’s slot is due the next inning, and you want to bring in a new pitcher for longer than the current half inning, make a double switch to move the pitcher’s spot out of the way. Give your starting pitchers four days of rest, except in the playoffs, when three will do.

Pinch hit later rather than earlier. Use a defensive sub for a poor fielder in the late innings of a close game, particularly if your team has the lead. Always leave one sub on the bench if the game may go into extra innings. If a slow runner constitutes the tying or winning run in the late innings, use a speedy pinch runner.

Take a pitch on 3-0. Take a pitch on 2-0 if you need baserunners. Waste a pitch if your pitcher is ahead 0-2. Play for the tie at home and a win on the road.

That's all I have for now. Feel free to add or amend the Book as you see fit.

Posted 11:33 PM by Brian
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Tonight was probably our most ridiculous loss of the year. In fact, I'm having a hard time figuring out the most ridiculous aspect of the game. Here are the candidates:

A. The fact that the Cardinals wasted nearly all of their scoring opportunities -- bases loaded, one out in the first, didn't score; runners stranded on first and second in the second; first and third, one out in the sixth and didn't score -- while the Pirates had only three runners get as far as second base and two of them scored.

B. The fact that Jeff Suppan was seven outs from a no-hitter and ended up losing the game.

C. The fact that the Pirates got their first hit on a double that John Mabry was too slow to catch (Sanders would have had it easily) and then the next batter tied the game on an 0-2 pitch.

D. The fact that the Cardinals managed only 1 run in 8 innings off of Kris Benson, who entered the game with a 5.11 ERA.

E. The fact that Jack Wilson made a horrible baserunning gaffe in the bottom of the ninth and got rewarded for it with some Little League defense by the Cardinals (including a rare throwing error by Pujols, and a rarer mishandle by Scott Rolen, his second muff of the game).

All in all it seemed like a game that neither team wanted to win, but the Cardinals didn't want to win just a little more.

Posted 11:32 PM by Brian
STEVE KLINE PLAYS DR. PHIL Bernie Miklasz has an interesting take on Fingergate, the episode in which Steve Kline flipped an obscene gesture toward La Russa last week -- he thinks it was actually helpful (not to mention healthy) for the Cards. I'll let him explain:

[I]t's better to vent in public than not at all. The worst a team can do is allow problems to fester and metastasize without taking grievances to the manager. In my opinion, that neglect played a role in the demise of the 2003 Cardinals. As the summer went on, unhappy players stewed over La Russa's micromanaging style, and it was one of the reasons the Cardinals gave such a half-hearted effort in a bitter September. By the time Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen and Tino Martinez privately aired their concerns to La Russa in the final days of the season, it was much too late.

What Kline did wasn't pretty, but much like a drunk driver who taps his fender on a tree, it may have been a good, victimless call for help.

Posted 11:31 PM by Brian
THE X CHROMOSOME Part of the reason the Cubs have such a broad fan base is that it's literally composed of a lot of broads. According to a new study, "46 percent of women in Chicago are major-league baseball fans and 44 percent of major-league baseball fans in Chicago are women."

I think a similar phenomenon exists in St. Louis. Last summer when the Cardinals played the Red Sox, the NESN broadcast featured an interview with an author who had published books on both the Cards and the Red Sox. He contended that those two teams have the best, most loyal, most widespread fan base in all of baseball, primarily because, in his opinion, they have more female fans than anyone else. Which reminds me of something my brother the Judge wrote at the time:

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.

They were probably talking about how well Jim Edmonds fills out a pair of stretchy pants. (Sorry, ladies, that was a lame joke...)

Posted 11:30 PM by Brian
BEST OF THE BEST This is a pretty ridiculous list -- the 10 best sports teams in all creation. But I did take a shine to #10.

Posted 11:29 PM by Brian
TEMP WANTED The Cardinals have plenty of outfielders who can mash righties -- Edmonds, Mabry, Lankford, Sanders, even So Taguchi. But hitting lefties is a different story. Edmonds has been his usual superb self, and Mabry has done well in limited duty, but beyond that? Check out these on-base percentages vs. southpaws from our cast of OFers:

Cedeno, .267
Taguchi, .267
Sanders, .266
Lankford, .259
Luna, .237
Anderson, .211

It's no surprise, then, that the Cardinals are rumored to be searching for a righthanded bat to play outfield and give those guys above a break.

Christian Ruzich believes he's found a good candidate for the job -- Pirates castoff Ruben Mateo. Mateo was recently designated for assignment by the Bucs, and the Cards can have him just by plucking him off the waiver wire (provided no other NL team wants him; they all get a shot at him before the Cardinals).

Mateo might be worth a look. He sports a lifetime .287/.346/.466 line against LHP, and he's hit three homers off lefties this year in only 20 at bats. He's also crushed AAA pitching the last couple years (Louisville in 2003, Nashville in 2004), but no one has ever given him more than 219 plate appearances in the bigs. Granted, whenever someone has given him a shot, he's been too much a free swinger (only 46 walks in 829 PAs), but it's not like our other options in the outfield are teeming with patience (has anyone else noticed Reggie Sanders' ghastly 65/12 K/BB ratio?).

If Mateo doesn't work, you think the Cards could pry Jason Lane away from the Astros? I doubt it -- he'll probably be Houston's starting rightfielder next year, and he plays for a division rival -- but he mutilates lefties and last I heard he was out of job.

Posted 11:23 PM by Brian
DOGS, FRISBEES, AND JIM EDMONDS A new study reveals that dogs catch frisbees by using the same strategy that an outfielder uses to catch fly balls. What does that mean? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's a description:

Basically, an outfielder selects a running path that allows him or her to keep the image of the moving ball on the same part of the retina. In effect, from the fielder's point of view, the ball appears to move in a straight line and at a constant speed relative to home plate and the background scenery. To get the desired result for a ball hit off to one side, for example, the fielder would run along a curved path to cancel out the curvature of the ball's trajectory.

Got it?

Posted 5:32 PM by Brian
THE GERALD FORDS OF BASEBALL What was the worst thing about the Cardinals' weekend in Kansas City? Well, let's see... The team left 12 runners on base in Saturday night's game. That's not good. Oh, and in that same game Rolen walked with runners on first and second, ruining another chance to pad his RBI total. Immensely frustrating. And how about Jason Marquis' pitch count in today's game? 111 in five innings? Just miserable.

The fact is, only the most doomsdayish would find much wrong with the Cardinals these days. They've been winning big, they've been winning small. They've won with good pitching and bad. They've relied on timely hitting (as on Friday), crafty pitching and penwork (as on Saturday), and a barrage of singles (as on Sunday). They've now won or tied 10 straight series, running their record to 46-29. That equals the best mark through 75 games of any Cardinals team in my lifetime. In fact, it's our best win total at this point in the season since 1944, when the Redbirds started 53-22. (The '67, '68, and '87 teams also started 46-29, and each team made the World Series.)

As Dan over at Get Up, Baby! pointed out recently, winning is often less interesting than losing, particularly for a baseblogger. How much more fun it is to pick over the latest faux pas, the downward trends, and the all-too-human failings of our favorite teams. Dysfunction sells, and if you don't believe me, ask yourself whether you'd rather read the autobiography of Bill Clinton or the autobiography of, say, Gerald Ford.

I wouldn't go so far as to call the Cardinals the Gerald Fords of baseball (I mean, Ford couldn't even beat Carter in the postseason), but they're good sturdy dependable people nonetheless. I certainly can't complain.

Posted 4:15 PM by Brian
THE PASSION OF DON DENKINGER I'm not one of those people who claims that Don Denkinger is the reason we lost the 1985 World Series. But he was certainly one of the reasons, and there's no doubt that his gaffe in Game 6, when he called Jorge Orta safe leading off the bottom of the ninth, was among the worst calls in sports history.

Denkinger rarely talks about his blunder (understandably), so when he sat down with ESPNews's Michael Kim to discuss the matter before this weekend's Cards-Royals matchup, I took notes. Here's what I learned:

1. Denkinger's name is pronounced with a hard G at the end, like the G in "good times" rather than, say, "gypped." (Ironically enough.)

2. Asked if he was amazed that people are still talking about his call 19 years after the fact, Denkinger replied, "I'm totally amazed. I can't believe people are still bringing it up."

I find that hard to swallow. Back in '85 Denkinger received death threats, hundreds of pieces of hate mail, and required round-the-clock police and FBI protection; surely he's not surprised that people are merely talking about it these days.

3. But here's that does amaze me: just how bad Denkinger got the play wrong. ESPNews showed two replays of the blown call, and Orta is a good two feet away from the bag when the ball lands in Worrell's glove. Nowadays you never see umps goof things up that badly.

4. So how did it happen? Denkinger offered an explanation. It seems that he was expecting Cards' 1B Jack Clark to flip the ball to Worrell, who would then catch the ball and race Orta to the bag. In such cases the ump need only look at the base and see whose foot lands first. But in this case Clark had trouble getting the ball out of his glove and tossed the ball to first after Worrell was at the bag.

By that time Denkinger was already out of position -- he was too close to the developing play, zeroed in on first base, expecting a footrace. If he was back further, he could have seen both the ball go into Worrell's glove and Orta's foot hit the bag; but he was so close that he couldn't judge it on looks alone without swiveling his head.

Plan B, in such cases, is to listen and hear what lands first: the foot or the ball. But the crowd was so loud (the Royals' playoff hopes were on the line, for God's sake) that Denkinger couldn't hear a thing. He ended up having to look at the ball hit Worrell's glove, then the position of Orta's foot (sequentially rather than simultaneously), which is basically the same as guessing. And Denkinger guessed wrong.

By the way, I would guess that you don't see such blunders at first nowadays in part because of this call. Umps must be taught nowadays to stay back further to avoid the type of mistake the Denkinger made, which, in retrospect, was more an error in positioning than an error in judgment.

5. Jack Clark certainly wasn't responsible for Denkinger's bad call, but by failing to release the ball quickly he made the play much closer than it should have been. When you combine that with Clark's mistake on the batter after Orta (he and Darryl Porter let Steve Balboni's foul popup fall between them), it's a wonder Clark is not considered a bigger World Series goat. Baseball had to wait a year before the goat horns were fitted for another first baseman who made a fielding blunder in Game 6 of the Series.

6. When did Denkinger first find out he blew the call? "I didn't know it," he says, "until I walked into the dressing room after the game was over and Peter Uebberoth, the commissioner, was standing there and I asked him, 'did I get the play right?' and he said no."

You'd have to be some kind of monster not to empathize with the sick stomach-knot that Denkinger must have felt at that moment. I mean, it's not like he was trying to screw up the play. Denkinger was a major-league ump for 30 years, officiating both the Bucky Dent Game and the Jack Morris Game. But in that one instant in Kansas City, his legacy was basically ruined forever.

7. But I lost some of my newfound empathy for Denkinger when he described his altercation with Whitey Herzog in Game 7. (He stopped short of saying he rang up Herzog for calling him a cocksucker, although that's what he told Maxim magazine a few years ago.) As he explained to ESPNews:

"Herzog said, 'you know, if you'da gotten the play right last night, we wouldn't have had to be here.' We don't talk about those things, you know, this is a different day, so of course, I had a comment, I said, 'if you were hitting at all you wouldn't have had to be here either.'"

A moment earlier Denkinger was boasting about how he's above the game, how he doesn't even notice the scoreboard or who's winning and losing:

"I couldn't even tell you the score when Tudor left the game [in Game 7], because we don't keep track of those things... I couldn't even tell you what the score was when I had the blowup with Joaquin Andujar."

But somehow, this above-reproach umpire, who never pays attention to the scoreboard, who claims that "we don't talk about" what happened yesterday, knows all about the Cardinals' hitting troubles leading up to Game 7? And then uses them to goad Herzog? And then brags about it 19 years later on TV? What a cocksucker.

Posted 3:43 PM by Brian
A MISTAKE ABOUT THE MISTAKE HITTER There are a lot of folks out there who think that sabermetrics is sucking the lifeblood out of baseball. I for one happen to think that statistical analysis enhances the game's appeal, but you'd be hard pressed to claim that the old fogeys don't have a point now and again.

Consider how many colorful characters have been slain by statheads. Clutch hitters: gone. (Clutch hits exist, of course, but no study I've seen shows that players consistently perform better or worse with the game on the line.) What about the Quadruple-A hitter, that peculiar species that rips up the minors but mysteriously tanks in the bigs? Statisticians will tell you that there's no such creature, and they have the data to back it up. I mean, sure, there are some guys who go south after solid minor league careers, but they're no more common than guys who go south after solid major league careers. And how about the hitter who elevates his game because he's got such great protection in the lineup? Again, that old shibboleth is largely a myth.

Now there's a new character who we may have to retire: the notorious "Mistake Hitter." If you define a mistake hitter as someone who feasts on bad pitching -- and I've always thought of Reggie Sanders as the best modern-day exemplar -- then you'll have a hard time locating evidence for him via statistics. Cliff Rostow's sensibile, wide-ranging study, published recently over at Baseball Prospectus, concludes:

We weren't able to find even a little bit of evidence that supports the idea of mistake hitting. Like clutch hitting, mistake hitting in professional baseball appears to be a myth. A good hitter is a good hitter no matter who his competition is.

And with that we must come up with other, more plausible explanations for the successful career of Suitcase Sanders.

Posted 6:10 AM by Brian
FIVE REASONS WHY THE BELTRAN DEAL IS GOOD FOR HOUSTON The official trade is this: the Astros get Carlos Beltran; the A's get Octavio Dotel; and the Royals get prospects Mark Teahen and Mike Wood from the A's and John Buck from the Astros. Here's why it helps the 'Stros:

1. Beltran helps the Astros score runs. Beltran is putting up a .278/.367/.534 line, which pretty much matches his established level, so you can more or less expect him to do that the rest of the year. The guy he replaces, Jason Lane, is hitting only .238/.319/.417, which is worse than you'd expect given his minor league numbers, but given the hernia he suffered at the end of last year they don't seem too deflated.

Baseball Prospectus has a stat called MLVr, which is the Marginal Lineup Value Rate -- it's the number or runs per game a player adds compared to an average guy. Beltran's MLVr this year is .148, meaning he adds 13.32 runs over the course of 90 games, or the # the Astros have remaining. Lane, with a MLVr of .007, adds only 0.6. That's 12.7 additional runs for the rest of the season with Beltran, or about one extra win. (I'd have thought CB would add more than that; maybe his bat isn't as big as I thought. The Astros' lineup certainly seems scarier with him, I know that.)

2. Beltran helps the Astros take away runs. Beltran is a superb center fielder, and a definite upgrade over Biggio in center. I don't know how to quantify it, but he should help things in the triples haven of Minute Maid (esp. with flyball specialist Wade Miller on the mound). I guess Beege moves to right -- haven't really seen his arm much, but as I recall it's a bit weak. Still, it seems like an overall upgrade.

3. The Astros can afford to lose Dotel. On tonight's broadcast Hrabosky pooh-poohed the deal, claiming that "the bullpen is already the Astros' Achilles heel" and that losing Dotel would be a fatal blow. Huh? Who has a better bullpen in the NL than Houston this year? Los Angeles, sure; probably San Diego; but that's it. Brad Lidge (13.9 K/9 IN, 2.61 ERA) is a fully capable closer, and the Astros still have decent arms in Bullinger, Gallo, and Miceli. Losing Dotel is a blow, but not an insurmountable one.

4. The Astros can afford Beltran. Carlos Beltran is owed $9 million this year, or about $5.1 million pro-rated over the remainder of the season. The Astros just unloaded Richard Hidalgo, which allegedly saves them about $3 million. The loss of Dotel also takes about $1.55 million off the books. Add it all up and Beltran should cost the Astros about $550,000 this year. Very affordable.

5. The timing is right. The Astros are an old team. Bagwell, Kent, Biggio, Vizcaino, Ausmus, and Clemens are all on the wrong side of 35. If they're going to do anything at all, they'd better do it quick. The Clemens signing -- a historic, one-shot deal at a reduced rate -- was a nice shot of adrenaline, but the effects wear off quickly, and GM Gerry Hunsicker was right to pounce on Beltran. The Astros still have a legit shot this year -- they're only 2 games out of the wild card slot, and they've got a very healthy RS/RA total. I expect Beltran to be worth an extra win or two this year, which doesn't sound like much, but it may be enough to get the 'Stros into the playoffs, where anything can happen.

And the NL Central, already baseball's toughest division, just got tougher...

Posted 7:47 PM by Flynn
ODDS AND ENDS

• Chip Caray makes us glad the Cubs passed on Joe Buck and chose him once again:

#1 – “The Cardinals have scored first in the previous two games. It would be nice for the Cubs to get a nice big bulge early in this game.”

#2 – “The Cubs have the best defense in the league. They’ve made the fewest errors” – one second later a ball gets by Ramirez to his left that Rolen gets to easily. See, though, no error!

• Which free agent Matt do you want the Cardinals to go after in the off season – Morris or Clement? Hmmmmm...

• Apparently Roger Cedeno has time traveled back to his useless April self. On the good side, maybe he can bring Lankford with him…

• Can any of our astute readers come up with a better Rule 5 player for the Birds than Hector Luna?

• No Room Service: The Cardinals are in their most “comfortable” stretch of the season. To wit: They ended a series in Arlington on June 13. They came home that night and will probably not fly to KC until tomorrow morning. That’s 12 nights in their own beds. Then, after the Pittsburgh series, they will be back in their own sacks the night of June 30 and won’t have to spend another night in a hotel until July 14th or 15th, depending on their travel plans. (Our All Stars of course get a couple of nights in Houston to perhaps defraud a corporation or two...) That’s 26 or 27 out of a possible 32 nights that they can wear their favorite jammies and not worry about Kliner coming in to steamroller them.

• Thanks to my cousin Mike Reilly for throwing this one out there: The Cardinals currently have the league RBI leader and a guy challenging for the Home Run lead – and they are not the same guy. Has a season ever ended with one team having the leaders in each category, but they are not the same guy? Well, going back to 1917, it’s happened five times:

Year HR Champ, RBI Champ, Team
1917 Dave Robertson, Heine Zimmerman, Giants
1932 Chuck Klein, Don Hurst, Phillies
1942 Mel Ott, Johnny Mize, Giants
1975 Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, Phillies
1997 Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga, Rockies

Posted 7:43 PM by Flynn
A Drama in 60 Seconds

The Scene: My living room.

The Cast:
Flynn – Cardinal nutjob living in Chicago
Melissa – Flynn’s Chicago-born and bred wife (Cubs fan)

Time: Top of the 2nd, tonight’s game, a deep fly ball is flying over Jim Edmonds’ head…

Flynn: Whoa! Edmonds is trying to fake out the runner!

Melissa: What?

Flynn: Look! Sosa’s totally fooled!

Edmonds fields the carom, guns it in to Luna, who smartly takes the relay instead of noodle-arm Womack.

Melissa: Why are they running on Edmonds! He always throws Cubs out! What are they doing??????

Luna guns down the caveman at the plate, order is restored.

Melissa: Why is Wendell Kim so dumb? Does he still think that’s Lankford out in center? Man, I could coach third better than him.

Flynn (grabbing a phone and sarcastically speaking into it): Hello, Dusty? You need to get Melissa out there right now.

Melissa: Ha Ha. Seriously, what’s wrong with Kim?

Flynn (expecting to hear his lovely wife utter her endearing nickname and imagining how cute it would be to have it on the back of a jersey): So, if you were the coach, what would it say on the back of your uniform?

Melissa: Smarter Than Wendell Kim.

(That is not my lovely wife’s endearing nickname.)

Posted 1:02 PM by Brian
BARN BURNER The Tampa Bay Devil Rays just beat the Toronto Blue Jays 19-13. To the best of my knowledge, it's the first game in modern baseball history with that exact final score. There have been four 19-12 games (the most recent in 1999) and one 19-14 game (in 1930), but no 19-13 games until today. More importantly, the D-Rays are finally, for the first time in franchise history, interesting.

POSTSCRIPT: If you discount games in which teams score 20 or more runs, there is now only one final score that has never been achieved in any game: 19-18. Every other score is covered.

Posted 8:58 AM by Brian
BELTRAN GETS FITTED FOR AN ASTRONAUT SUIT From this morning's Houston Chronicle:

The Astros were within an eyelash of... a three-team trade that would have sent closer Octavio Dotel and minor-league catcher John Buck to the Kansas City Royals for Carlos Beltran. The Royals then would have sent Dotel to the Oakland A's for prospects. Before the Astros could even celebrate, before they could even begin to assess Beltran's impact on their team, they learned the A's had backed out.

But I suspect we haven't heard the last of this. Continues the Chronicle:

Astros owner Drayton McLane urged his people to go back to the Royals and see if the deal could be salvaged... General manager Gerry Hunsicker essentially told the Royals to name their price. Had the Royals asked for top prospects Chris Burke and Buck, they probably could have gotten them. That's how convinced the Astros are that Beltran would be a perfect fit. They envision a lineup that has, say, Craig Biggio and Lance Berkman in front of Beltran and Jeff Kent and Jeff Bagwell behind him.

According to the article, Hunsicker, who has seen the benefits of landing a big-name fish in Roger Clemens, are ready to pull the trigger on Beltran even if they have little to no chance or re-signing him for next year.

Posted 8:49 AM by Brian
GALLING GLOVEWORK John Gall had better be up early this morning shagging flyballs. Gall, who hit a pair of homers in Monday's game in Memphis, now has 19 jacks on the year. He's also hitting .326. A perfect fit for our bench, which suffers from a lack of righty power, right?

Not really. According to the Post, Gall is regarded by the team as a defensive liability. And I suppose with guys like Luna (ouch) and Anderson (egads) patrolling left, we don't need another iron glove out there.

But I'd still take Gall's stick. Baseball Prospectus has him with a terrific .272 major league EqA, which is surely enough to make up for any Kleskoian follies in left.

Posted 8:43 AM by Brian
THE WALKING MAN Last night Barry Bonds drew his 100th walk of the season. To put that in perspective, here are the seasonal career highs in walks for each of the Cardinals starters:

Matheny, 44
Pujols, 79
Womack, 52
Rolen, 93
Renteria, 65
Lankford, 95
Edmonds, 103
Sanders, 69

Posted 8:06 PM by Brian
WINNING FUGLY A friend of mine has a theory that women are better looking when they have some physical flaw, some small imperfection that makes them more relatable and human. When he first told me this he rhapsodized about Rosanna Arquette's overbite (that should tell you how long this theory has been in play), claiming that, without it, she'd be just some prefab Barbie doll, nothing to grasp onto at all.

Tonight's game was full of pock marks, crooked noses, and missing teeth -- including 11 runs by both bullpens combined, a ball that went through Rolen's legs, another ball dropped by Moises Alou, a temper tantrum from Steve Kline, a silly strike zone from home plate ump Sam Holbrook, both teams blowing leads of 3 or more runs, a critical two-out bobble by Ramon Martinez, a horrendous misplay by Hector Luna in left, two ejections, 6 walks from Cardinals pitchers, multiple guys thrown out on the basepaths, cockeyed numbers all over the scoreboard, and a passed ball that allowed the winning run to score. And yet the end result was beautiful.

In the 6th inning -- or, right around the time Steve Kline was making some sort of obscene gesture to his own manager -- I was blowing a gasket of my own. I was as mad as I've been over a ballgame since... well, since last September, when the Cards dropped four of five in Wrigley. I picked a fight with my sofa, and there's a good chance the sofa would have had me on a TKO if Tavarez didn't get Todd Walker to stop the bleeding. A moment earlier, as the Cubs were trotting around the bases (reminiscent of that killer merry-go-round against Haren a couple weeks ago), Al Hrabosky chimed in with this gem:

"I worried last night, when the set-up men were not used in the 8th inning, after they had pitched so brilliantly [over the last few weeks]. I worried about a letdown from those guys [as if they were] saying [to La Russa], 'how could you not trust us the way we pitched?' If that's the case, then they've had to overcome that mentally, because Tony brought in his closer [last night] thinking that was the best way to win the game."

It takes a special kind of moron to use tonight's game as evidence that our set-up men, namely Calero and Taverez, should have been used in last night's game. If they pitched so disastrously tonight, with a two-run lead in the 6th, why should they be any better in the 8th with a one-run lead?

So that's where I found myself in the 6th inning, yelling at the screen, yelling at Hrabosky, yelling at the sofa... when the Cards started to mount a little rally. A walk here, a double there, a couple singles over there. Suddenly it was 9-8 heading into the late innings. And just as importantly, Cal Eldred was doing what Calero and Tavarez could not -- he was keeping the Cubs' bats in check. (Cal-El has given up only 2 runs in 11.2 innings in June; not bad.) By that point you got the sense that anything was possible.

And sure enough, just like the Sandberg Game 20 years ago, the team that made the last mistake lost. This time it was Paul Bako (in for Michael Barrett, who chose a terrible time to get himself booted from the game), who let a Kyle Farnsworth pitch sail to the backstop, and, after a surprisingly calm and dignified ninth from Kline, that was all she wrote.

Needless to say, this was a terribly important game, with a share of first place at stake and Matt Clement waiting in the wings tomorrow night. But more than that, it was a clear sign that the Cardinals -- who blew the game last night and seemed to be coming apart at the seams in the 6th -- are not hexed by the Cubs this year. We're still a good-looking outfit, ugly wins and all.

Posted 10:50 AM by Brian
#%$*!@ RHYNO! Kurt over at Cub Nation points out that today is the 20-year anniversary of the infamous "Sandberg Game." If you're over 10 years of age and you follow Cardinals baseball at all, you know exactly what happened back then, but Kurt does a nice job of filling us in anyway. What's great about that game is that it stung so badly at the time, but over the years it's become truly legendary, regardless of the outcome. Will people be calling tonight's Cards-Cubs contest the "Womack Game" twenty years from now? I'd say the chances are pretty good.

Posted 9:37 PM by Brian
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY I had a dinner to attend to tonight, and when I left the Cards were winning 3-2 in the 6th. I got home, checked the box score, and it was like going to bed, waking up the next morning, and finding out your house had been robbed. Very disappointing. It was the first game in a month blown by our bullpen, with the same 5-4 losing score as that heartbreaker up at Shea.

I was able to go back and see the replay of Ramirez's tie-breaking double, and three things had to happen for it to pan out the way it did:

1. Ray Lankford, who has played only 6 innings in center the last two years, had to field Ramirez's double in the outfield. Ray got a late jump and a bad read on the ball, then stumbled on his way to pick it up. If Edmonds is in center, or if Lankford fields the ball cleanly, Sosa has to hold at third.

2. Tony Womack had to handle the relay throw. T-Dub, bless his heart, was in good position and his throw was on line, but he's still suffering from that elbow injury and he's got no hose to speak of. If he could throw at all he gets Sosa, or, again, Sosa holds at third.

3. Mike Matheny had to misplay the ball at home, sweeping his glove to get Sosa before he had the ball. Matheny dropping the tag is like a Bigfoot sighting -- awfully rare. A decent tag would have kept the score 4-4 going into the bottom of the 8th.

But alas, it didn't work out that way, the Cubs snuck one from us, and our lead in the Central has been whittled down to 1. Feels about as good as a punch in the stomach.

Posted 1:37 PM by Brian
MATTY MO'S WOES From medhead Will Caroll:

I finally got a good look at Matt Morris in his last couple starts. While MLB.tv isn't the biggest picture, it doesn't look like Morris' mechanics are off, but there's clearly something wrong there. There's rampant speculation that he has a shoulder injury. The loss of velocity -- he's establishing his fastball in the high 80s -- sure supports this. The smooth mechanics and normal arm slot make me think it's a rotator cuff rather than labrum. Keep an eye on this.

Posted 9:40 AM by Brian
BREAKABLE PARTS Here's an interesting article in Slate about the sinister labels we apply to fragile, injury-prone athletes. As a thought experiment, consider the associations you make between the following two lists of people:

THE ALL-FRAGILE TEAM

C Sandy Alomar Jr.
1B David Segui
2B Wilton Guerrero
3B Fernando Tatis
SS Barry Larkin
LF Jeffrey Hammonds
CF Ken Griffey Jr.
RF J.D. Drew
SP Darren Dreifort, Kevin Brown, Kris Benson, Garrett Stephenson, Chan Ho Park
RP Matt Mantei

THE ALL-STURDY TEAM

C Jorge Posada
1B Jeff Bagwell
2B Alfonso Soriano
3B Scott Rolen
SS Miguel Tejada
LF Bobby Abreu
CF Juan Pierre
RF Shawn Green
SP Livan Hernandez, Bartolo Colon, Mike Mussina, Tim Hudson, Roy Halladay
RP Octavio Dotel

Posted 9:25 AM by Brian
DK57 In some ways it seems more recent than two years ago; in other ways more distant. Only eight Cardinals remain from the roster the day he passed away. Best wishes to them, but more importantly to Darryl's wife Flynn and his kids Sierra, Kannon, and Ryker.

Posted 1:05 PM by Brian
BENCH MARKS Last week Bernie Miklasz ran an interesting article about the Cardinals bench, claiming that our reserves “may be stronger than last year’s” and that “the contributions from new backups are a primary reason for the Cardinals' 38-27 record and emergence as the leader in the NL Central.”

If you wanted to, you could verify Miklasz’s claim simply by looking at lump pinch-hitting stats (Cards pinch hitters currently rank 6th in the NL in OPS). But I’m more interested in a wider definition of bench strength – how our reserves do filling in for our starters, how they perform on the basepaths, how they do with the glove, and so on. And for that I needed more wide-ranging data.

So I went to the fine stats page over at the The Hardball Times, looked up some of their Win Shares totals, and designed a little study to test Miklasz’s claim that the Cardinals have a solid bench. What I did is I took ever hitter in the National League, but I threw out anyone from consideration who was among his team’s top 8 position players. (Generally these are guys with the most playing time, but I had to make judgment calls here and there – like I considered Nick Johnson the starting 1B for the Expos, despite his limited playing time). Then I took the 5 guys on the team who had the next most playing time, and I considered this fivesome each team’s bench.

For each group of five I took their Win Shares Percentage (which is simply Win Shares expressed as a rate stat – that way I could better judge a team’s depth for any given situation rather than adopt a counting stat that’s more a function of playing time or managerial usage). I added these WSPs together for each player on each team and got a total that approximates how well each bench is doing this year. The results, in order:

BEST BENCHES IN THE NL

1. Philadelphia, 3.17
2. New York, 2.43
3. Atlanta, 2.41
4. Cincinnati, 2.24
5. Houston, 1.97
6. San Francisco, 1.95
7. Chicago, 1.89
8. St. Louis, 1.79
9. Milwaukee, 1.70
10. Los Angeles, 1.57
11. Arizona, 1.30
12. Colorado, 1.07
13. Pittsburgh, 1.06
14. Florida, 0.934
15. Montreal, 0.932
16. San Diego, 0.32

So that’s where the Cardinals enter things right now: at #8. Not too good, not too bad. Simply average.

But when looking at these numbers, there’s something you should keep in mind: most benches suck. They just do. I mean, you hear a lot of talk lately about how fungible talent is, how you shouldn’t cling to this or that player too tightly because most of the time you can find another guy lying around who’s just as good and twice as cheap. But you look at some of the benches in baseball today and you start to wonder where these lava flows of talent reside.

Take the Philadelphia Phillies. Ricky Ledee has been, so far anyway, the best role player in baseball, with 6 home runs in only 72 ABs and a nifty .402 on-base percentage. But the rest of their bench is nothing special – Tomas Perez is a very good defensive infielder, but he also has a .289 OBP; Chase Utley has a bit of pop but he struggles mightily to reach base; Todd Pratt is a fairly effective backup backstop, but again, nothing fantastic; and Doug Glanville is a black hole. And yet, despite the presence of a couple real clunkers, this quintet makes up, pretty handily (at least by this measurement), the best bench in the National League.

Or how ‘bout the Cubs’ reserves? Talk about a bunch of stiffs: Jose Macias, Tom Goodwin, Paul Bako, Rey Ordonez… just one lousy bat after another. And yet, they have Todd Hollandsworth, whose numbers in part-time play – .314/.394/.547 – elevate the bench unit to the top half of the NL. As bad as they are, they’re infinitely less scary than the guys you see warming the pines in, say, Montreal, Florida, or San Diego (hurt by carrying the worst player in the major leagues).

So that’s important to keep in mind: most benches suck. Given that standard, here’s how our current corps of stand-ins stack up:

Marlon Anderson: still scattershot at the plate and in the field, but he’s turning a few of the doubles he hit last year into homers

John Mabry: the leading contender for the 2004 Thrill Clark Memorial Award

Roger Cedeno: a player who seems to thrive on comfort, he seems to have found a groove (hitting .412 after an 0-for-12 start)

Hector Luna: does few things very well, but also few things very poorly

So Taguchi (now in Memphis): better than I thought while up here (which, admittedly isn’t saying much) and he does have nice leather

Cody McKay: okay, he’s no good, but surprisingly not much worse than last year’s Widger/Girardi combo or 2002’s Mike Difelice Experience

Yadier Molina: I don’t think he’s ready to face major league pitching, unless he’s wearing a glove, in which case he’s pretty sharp.

There’s one big thing we’re missing from these people, and that’s a heavy righthanded bat off the bench. Doesn’t need to be a great player, just someone who can go yard now and again, the way Eduardo Perez did the last couple years. The obvious candidate for this role is John Gall, who’s ripping it the Pacific Coast League. He’s hitting .314 and already has 17 homers among his 30 extra-base hits. In fact, if I had my druthers I’d send down Yady yesterday and call up Gall today.

On the bright side, we may have found a replacement for Orlando Palmeiro – i.e., the guy who can work the count and draw a walk to get things started. John Mabry, of all people (career high in walks: 39), has a .397 on-base percentage this year and seems more patient at the plate than in years past. And as long as he’s hanging around, Yadier Molina has walked in 18% of his plate appearances. That figure is bound to drop, but it’s still nice to see.

At the end of last season, Walt Jocketty had a pretty tall order. Almost his entire bench entered free agency at once, and there were precious few replacements within the organization (that part was Jocketty’s own making, but that doesn’t diminish his task). Rather than overpay for guys like Perez, Palmeiro, and Miguel Cairo (who’s currently doing well for the Yanks, but for $900,000 a year), Jocketty let them walk and cobbled together a bench out of spare parts. The results haven’t been exactly stellar, but as I’ve said, few benches are capable of stellar work all around, and an average bench is more than I could have expected going into the season. So give Walt Jocketty credit for giving us some passable depth.

Posted 12:52 PM by Brian
BEDEVILING The Devil Rays have been one of the strangest teams I’ve ever seen. They began the morning of April 18th at .500, with a 5-5 record. Then they hit the skids, going 5-23 over their next 28 games. But in their next 28 games, they’ve gone 22-6. Now they’re almost back to .500. Wild.

Posted 5:25 PM by Brian
ID VS. SUPEREGO One of the most difficult things about writing this blog is that I'm torn by two impulses. On one hand, I'm a Cardinals fan: lifelong, irrational, zealous, in my hearts and hearts a true believer that This is the Year, regardless of what my head tells me. To that end, I try to write material that reflects some of this passion, that caters to the lizard-brain and its need to yelp with joy when we win and howl with pain when we lose.

On the other hand, I try to be objective, proportionate, fair to other teams, aware of our limitations, sabermetrically correct. I know that the law of averages has a way of evening out, that you have to look at things telescopically, as it were, and that what feels good in the moment isn't always what wins out in the end. As a baseball fan, then, you can end up somewhat schizophrenic, constantly quarreling with yourself, like some bad Andy Capp comic strip going on in your head.

I was reminded of this recently while reading an article by the fine Jim Baker. Baker points out that baseball's most exciting plays -- the bunt base hit, the hit and run, the collision at home plate -- are rarely its most sound, strategically speaking. What Baker doesn't say, although surely it's just as true, is that some of baseball's most prudent offensive strategies (taking pitches, drawing walks, playing station-to-station) are about as interesting as getting drained by leeches.

There's a similar principle at work with players. Alex Sanchez, for example, has bunted for dozens of hits this year, and he takes off for second every time he lands on first. My kneejerk reaction: sounds like fun! A more seasoned POV: sounds annoying as hell, probably worth more losses than wins. I feel the same about the Royals' Mike MacDougal. Guy throws serious heat, can get the speedometer up to 100, and throws one of the knee-bucklingest changeups I've ever seen. It's always fun when he enters the game... unless, that is, you're a Royals fan and you like wins and stuff.

Tony Womack can prompt the same kinds of feelings. The other night I was watching the game with my dad, and he asked me what I thought of Womack. I grumbled something about him being useful if he hits .300 (and fortunately, as of this writing, he's hitting .300 on the nose). But the truth is there're few things I enjoy more than a drag bunt by T-Dub, and I can't at all blame my dad for falling in love with the guy, especially when I put aside my objectivity hat and put on the stained red Cardinals hat I've had for years. Just because you're aware that Womack has never hit this well over a full season, and just because you know he might slip as he nears age 35 in September, doesn't mean you're not allowed to root like hell for him here and now.

Anyway, this is a very longwinded way of trying to describe what it's like being a Cardinals fan right now. That lifelong, unconditional Cards rooter in me couldn't be more thrilled with the State of the Cardinals Union. (Notwithstanding today's gopherballs from Matt Morris and the best game ever -- by far -- from young Jung Bong.) In fact, I confess that sometimes, before I go to bed or when I get up in the morning, I stroll over to the standings page over at ESPN.com just to soak up the Euclidian rightness of it all: 41-29 record, -- GB, 8-2 over our L10. Gives off a nice fragrance.

On the other hand, I find myself playing games with those numbers, second-guessing our success. This is not to say that the Cards are flukes. We're leading the league in runs scored (great, but not shocking), our pitching staff is keeping runs off the board (unexpected, but I knew we'd improve in that area from last year), and our Pythagorean record (which is exactly the same as our actual record) indicates that we aren't winning more than our share of lucky games. In other words, this team seems to be legit.

The Cardinals won't keep up the .750 winning percentage they've maintained over the past three weeks, and we won't pull rabbits out of top hats forever. (I guess today's game tells you as much.) But with the Cubs rolling into town on Tuesday, I suspect we're about to find out very soon how long the good times will last. The optimist and the pessimist in me will be laying down some serious bets on either side.

Posted 5:19 PM by Brian
HAWKSWORTH AND WAINWRIGHT, LTD. You may have heard already, but two of the Cardinals top three pitching prospects -- Adam Wainwright and Blake Hawksworth -- will likely miss the rest of the season to injury. At one point this year Wainwright looked like he might be able to help the Cards this season, and Hawksworth was part of an exciting set of up-and-coming arms in the organization, so obviously this news is very unfortunate.

Posted 5:03 PM by Brian
THE ALL-HOMEGROWN TEAM Matthew Namee of The Hardball Times has a fun article in which he takes every player in baseball and puts them back with the organization they originally signed with. It's sorta what today's teams would look like if they operated under rules from 1930 (although that's not a great analogy, as there was more trading and a lot more selling of players back then than most old fogeys care to admit).

Anyway, Matt's article has a lot of great tidbits -- like the Astros boasting an outfield of Lance Berkman, Bobby Abreu, and Luis Gonzalez, and the Dodgers' rotation anchored by none other than Pedro Martinez. But he doesn't include the Cardinals' homegrown team, presumably because they're so bland.

So here's what the Cardinals would look like if they were composed strictly of players they had actually drafted:

C Eli Marrero
1B Albert Pujols
2B Adam Kennedy
3B Placido Polanco
SS Jack Wilson
LF Dmitri Young
CF Coco Crisp
RF J.D. Drew
SP Matt Morris, Jeff Fassero?, ???
RP Braden Looper, Jay Witasick, Rheal Cormier
Bench: Todd Zeile, Ray Lankford, John Mabry

As should be obvious, this alternate Cardinals team is a testament to Walt Jocketty's shrewd moves over the years. I mean, it's not the worst team in the world -- it'd be nice, for example, to have Jack Wilson and Dmitri Young hanging around -- but I doubt it would crack 70 wins.

Posted 4:26 PM by Brian
THE JUNE STRETCH DRIVE From a recent article in Baseball Prospectus:

Old-school baseball folks will tell you that pennants are won in September, not in May and June. But this year, the Cardinals and Cubs don't play after July 20, and St. Louis and Houston will only play six times after the All-Star Break. If the Cards are playing in October, they'll look back on this past month as the key to their season.

Indeed, what the Cardinals are doing right now -- an 18-6 record since May 26th -- isn't that uncommon, historically speaking. In fact, the Cardinals went 19-5 or better over a 24-game stretch in each of their division-winning seasons of 2000, 2001, and 2002. What's unusual about this Cardinals outfit is that they're taking care of business early, whereas each of those previous hot streaks occured in September.

Posted 4:25 PM by Brian
ONE CATCHER, TWO CATCHER, THREE CATCHER, FOUR Can you make heads or tails of La Russa's plan for Yadier Molina? Matheny came off the DL today, which means that someone had to go. The options:

A) Yady Molina. I assumed he'd be the guy to go. He's been very impressive behind the plate, but he's still pretty rough with a bat in his hands. Although his plate disciplate has really surprised me (his OBP, .349, is higher than the .322 league average for a catcher), he's a slap hitter with a real inability to drive the ball. He needs more time to grow, and the best way to do that is by taking his licks down in AAA.

B) Cody McKay. As we noted yesterday, McKay has been hitting well lately, but he still has no upside as a hitter (he has neither plate discipline -- only 2 walks in 63 plate appearances -- nor power, with one measly double his only extra-base hit). If you send down McKay, you could justifiably keep Molina, who's a better fielder than McKay, especially if you let Molina start frequently in place of Matheny (who performs much better when rested anyway).

C) Jason Simontacchi. Simo is our last option out of the pen, and despite his good showing last night, his numbers are flat, both in Memphis and in the Show. Plus our other relievers are doing well enough that there's not much use for him.

La Russa, as you know, chose option (C). There's actually a defensible case to be made for sending down Simontacchi, but I'm not sure TLR has made it. Earlier this week he said if Molina played two games a week it would not retard his growth. I'm not at all convinced that 8-10 at bats a week in the majors is as effective for a young hitter's growth as 25-35 ABs a week in Memphis, but even if we concede that point, La Russa's comments today seem to belie that:

"Our No. 1 priority is what's best for our club. Molina is an important player, but I'm not going to make out a lineup to get him two games if that isn't the best for us."

In other words, the Cards main priority is winning now, and as a result Molina may well rot on the bench. I'm not sure how that helps Molina or the Cardinals.

Posted 11:09 AM by Brian
THE 500 CLUB Do you remember who gave up Rafael Palmeiro's 500th home run? Or where Sammy Sosa was when he hit #500? Do you even remember McGwire's 500th?

(In case you're interested, Raffy went yard off of the Indians' David Elder; Sosa hit #500 off Scott Sullivan at Great American Ballpark; and Big Mac hit his off of Andy Ashby at Busch in '99.)

The point is, the specifics of such milestones are usually lost to history (if not instantly forgotten by history), so it should concern us little if Ken Griffey Jr. gets his 500th at Busch this weekend. Nonetheless, if you had to put down money at Vegas, you'd peg Griffey to go deep on Saturday. He has no homers in 14 ABs off of tonight's opponent, Chris Carpenter, but 5 in 27 ABs vs. Saturday's starter, Woody Williams. Overall Junior has 3 career home runs in 46 at bats at Busch.

Posted 11:32 PM by Brian
CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, C'MON! I’ve been hit with a triple whammy lately – deadlines at work, parents in town, plus an annoying viral infection – so my postings have been light lately. But tonight’s game was too good to pass up, so a few quick hits:

• I confess: somewhere around the 5th inning I had this game written off as a loss. We’d already won the first two games of the series, we were facing Tim Hudson, and as the game went on you got the distinct impression that our best chances had been either booted or thrown away (usu. by Marlon Anderson or Edgar Renteria), especially going into the bottom of the ninth down by two and Renteria (fine), McKay (ugh), and Lankford (uninspiring) due up. But sometimes strange things happen...

• This was the only game all year which I watched with my girlfriend Miranda – she checked out the 8th and 9th innings with me. Now, Miranda was thrilled the Cards won, but it dawned on me that games like tonight are more fun when you’ve sat through countless ones that go the other way – when you trail 4-2 heading into the ninth and go out with nary a whimper. By the way, Miranda only watched one game with me last season, and it was at Dodger Stadium, and there were 9 home runs hit in the game (the Cards won that one too). As far as I know, Miranda thinks that 9-HR games and 3-run rallies in the bottom of the ninth are routine.

• Unsung heroes of the game: Cal Eldred and Jason Simontacchi. 3.2 innings, 1 hit. Generally when those guys enter a game it’s with a mop and some Pine-Sol. Not tonight.

• Not quite sure why Ken Macha didn’t keep Bradford in to pitch the 9th. He pitched to one batter in the game, Hector Luna in the bottom of the 8th, and made him look ridiculous with his crazy-wing delivery. Now, I know Bradford took the loss the other night, but I still think our hitters have trouble picking up his release. Moreover, once Bradford was gone Macha was stuck with Mecir (and his 5+ ERA) come hell or high water – Rincon had been used already, Arthur Rhodes is on leave of absence, Chris Hammond is out with a bum shoulder, Duchscherer got bombed the other night, and the only other guy in the pen was Justin Lehr, who’s never thrown a pitch in the big leagues. Given those options, don’t you stick with Bradford?

• Tonight Marlon Anderson at second base reminded me of Marlon Anderson in the outfield. (And I can say with absolutely 0% hyperbole that he’s the worst outfielder I’ve seen since Bull Luzinski.)

• How do the A’s score any runs? I know that sounds disrespectful, and I suppose it is, but there’s really no one in their lineup that scares me with a bat in their hands. I mean, sure, Hatteberg is having a fine year, but he won’t wreck you. And the A’s usually have both Chavez (who’s injured) and Durazo (who has nowhere to play in NL parks) around. The Athletics scored 10 runs in this series and quite honestly I feel they were lucky to break double digits.

• Is Cody McKay actually morphing into a passable major league hitter? Probably not, but his average is up to .230 after getting off to a godawful 3-for-39 start. I think something (say, the heart of a tiger, or the bloodthirstiness of the Orca whale) awakened in him after going 4-for-5 down in Houston on May 29th. Since that game (that is, not including those 4 hits) he’s hit .388.

• Joe Buck flat-out accused Eric Byrnes of hot-dogging it when he dove for Lankford’s line drive in the 7th and dropped it for a leadoff double. Could be. But I think it’s more likely that Byrnes is just a goofball to his core. I noticed he did a somersault trying to catch Lankford’s liner, scrambled after the ball, then did another somersault throwing the ball into second. Whatever Barry Zito is selling him he's got to start cutting it with oregano.

• The Cardinals now lead the major leagues in runs scored. Well, actually we’re tied for the lead with (I’ll give you 10 guesses...) Cleveland.

• Can’t the Astros help a brother out now and again? Swept at home? With Oswalt going against Rusch tonight? Yeesh. But at least we maintain our two-game lead.

Posted 10:01 PM by Brian
PICKIN' MACHINES After the other teams in our division fell 18 straight times to the mighty A's, the Cardinals finally stood up, took matters into their own hands, and put the kibosh on that silly winning streak. The rest of the NL Central ought to thank us for sparing the division any further shame, although somehow I suspect their congratulations won't be forthcoming.

It was only a matter of time in this game. The Cardinals had runners on base all night -- 21, to be exact -- and they never let Barry Zito get in a groove. In fact, for most of the game it was unclear who the Moneyball team was and who wasn't. The Cards forced the A's hurlers to throw 182 pitches in 8 innings, and they made them look as ragged as Woody Williams after six days in Colonel Saito's sweat box.

Of course in retrospect it all seems preordained that the Birds would finish on top, but it was pretty touch 'n go for awhile there. Matt Morris spotted his pitches, had good control, and pitched pretty well, except (and stop me if you've heard this one before) he fell victim to those damn long balls. The ones tonight especially hurt, seeing as the perpetrators were Damian Miller (1 HR every 38 ABs entering tonight's game) and Mark Kotsay (1 HR every 103 ABs). Not exactly heavyweights.

Which raises the question: How likely is Matt Morris to break the single-season record for home runs allowed? He's on pace for 54 and the record is 50, set by Bert Blyleven in 1986. Now, I know these "on paces for"s can get out of hand (Ken Harvey is not going to end the season hitting .361, and I doubt Melvin Mora will finish with 157 runs), but Morris has a really shot at breaking the record.

Matty Mo is actually pretty similar to Blyleven. Blyleven had a decent fastball when he first came up, but by his mid-30's (when he gave up all those gopherballs) his heater was fooling no one and he had to rely more and more on his bread and butter pitch, a big overhand curve. And when those curveballs hang up, so does the old HR rate. Same deal with Morris: he still has enough placement to keep runners off base and maintain a semi-respectable ERA (4.14, about the same as Blyleven's in '86), but he's going to hang a few Charlies every game. Just the way it is.

As aggravating as Morris can be, he wasn't half as annoying tonight as Reggie Sanders. Despite his UNICEF-worthy charitable work, and his all-around good-guy aura, he hasn't been so generous at the plate this year. In fact, he's been almost completely absent from the Cardinals' team resurgence -- he's hitting only .204/.246/.333 since April. And his K/BB ratio is third worst in the league (ahead of only Alex Gonzalez and Pedro Feliz).

After his first three at bats tonight, Reggie was being fitted for goat horns (most likely by assistant equipment manager Buddy Bates). Here's how his night was going:

1st inning, runners on first and third, one out: K swinging
3rd inning, runner on first, no one out: K swinging
4th inning, runners on first and second, two out: K swinging

Not too good, huh? So he came up in the 7th inning, runner on first, one out, and he fell behind 1-2 to a pitcher he faced only twice before (and struck out once). He promptly singled into left center, and it was like a dam breaking for the Cardinals offense. The team strung together five more baserunners in a row, and that was all she wrote.

The A's pitchers were in such a fix that it reminded me of something Mike Shannon said earlier in the game, when Barry Zito was getting deluged by the Cardinals ding-dang-dunk attack: "Zito must be thinking to himself rightabout now, 'How'd I get myself into this caterpillar?'... And not the kind that crawl. The kind they have down in Fenton that roll over you."

Posted 8:39 PM by Flynn
THAT CHAMPIONSHIP FORM I know, this is a baseball blog, but I couldn't resist...

Three minutes left in the Pistons blowout of the Lakers, ABC prepares to go to commercial and Al Michaels says "They're counting down to a party in Motown" over the outro music. That music? None other than Disco Inferno ("Burn, baby, burn!").

Oh, Detroit. Will you ever get any love?

Posted 2:41 PM by Brian
R-E-L-I-E-F I was struck by this item in yesterday's Post-Dispatch:

Manager Tony La Russa was asked recently if he thought this year's Cardinals bullpen would have made a difference last season between a third-place finish and a division championship. He hardly hesitated. "The way the season played out, I don't think there's any doubt," La Russa said.

Is that true? Would the 2003 Cardinals have won the Central with this year's bullpen?

Most likely, yes. Last year the Cards allowed 55.3 more runs than an average bullpen (given the circumstances in which they entered games), which was good enough (or lousy enough) for the second lowest mark in baseball. This year Cards relievers have allowed 6.9 runs fewer than an average team.

That's not exceptional -- in fact, it's barely above average -- but all last year I said what the Cardinals really missed were not great arms out of the pen, but decent arms, even mediocre arms, ones that could "get you by." This year we've got guys like Kiko Calero and Julian Tavarez who aren't setting the world afire, but they're a massive upgrade over deflated balloons like Esteban Yan and Jeff Fassero. And no one (outside of Cal Eldred, I suppose) is really hurting the team out of the pen. Everyone is pretty much doing what's asked of them, some guys (notably Kline and King) more so.

Add it all up, project it out over a full season, and the Cards should finish with something like 73 fewer runs between last year's bullpen and this year's version. That's about 7 wins over a full season, and the difference between an 85-win also-ran and a 92-win division champ.

How does this improvement stack up against other teams in baseball? Pretty well. Here are the top five teams in terms of improved Adjusted Runs Prevented from last season to this:

San Diego, +94.7
St. Louis, +62.2
Boston, +41.1
Kansas City, +40.9
Pittsburgh, +26.2

The Padres' bullpen is really one of the great unheralded stories of the year. Last year they finished dead last in the majors in terms of ARP, with some truly miserable arms (Jaret Wright, Jesse Orosco, Joe Roa). This year they brought in guys like Akinori Otsuka, got Trevor Hoffman healthy, and their relievers currently rank 2nd in baseball. (For the same story in reverse, see the debacle that is the Indians bullpen.)

But the Cardinals are experiencing a fine turnaround of their own. But you really don't need any numbers to tell you that. Just imagine yourself watching a 4-2 lead in the 7th inning a year ago, then compare it to how you'd feel in the same circumstance today. If nothing else, we oughtta thank Walt Jocketty for lowering the collective blood pressure of Redbird Nation.

Posted 2:12 PM by Brian
WHO'S TONY LA RUSSA'S FAVORITE TEAM? Hint: it's not the Cardinals. It's actually tonight's opponent, the Swingin' A's:

"I started my career by getting drafted by the Kansas City A's, and I came up with the Oakland A's in 1968," says La Russa. "I was with the A's for 10 years. Then to come back as a manager and walk into as ideal a situation as any manager could have... it's not even a close call. As a baseball fan, the A's are still my team."

And what of the Cardinals?

"The best way to describe it is that professionally it's been terrific, because I really enjoy the National League style of play," he says. "And the St. Louis Cardinals, with their history and support, this is a lot of fun. But personally, [wife] Elaine and the girls are in California, so it's not even close to a good trade. It's what you do for a living."

I personally have no problem with this. In fact, I would guess that very few players and coaches play for the team they grew up rooting for. (Although I do know that Jason Isringhausen and Scott Rolen were big Redbird fans as kids.)

Posted 1:47 PM by Brian
BELTRAN IN TRANSIT The big behind-the-scenes question this summer is the fate of toolsy Kansas City CF Carlos Beltran. Sports Illustrated proffered Sean Burroughs and Xavier Nady for Beltran and Joe Randa (a solid deal for the Royals, in my opinion), Will Carroll mentioned Corey Patterson plus a few prospects for Beltran (until someone pointed out that KC wants a 3B and a C), and Pete Gammons chimed in with a host of permutations, including the Cards landing Beltran in exchange for Yady Molina and some character named Brad Hanson. I'm assuming Gammons is referring to Donut King Brad Thompson, and I'm also assuming this deal won't happen, at least not in this dimension.

Speaking of Thompson, he did pretty well in his AAA debut last night -- 5.1 innings, 6 hits, 4 K's, one walk, one run. It'll be awfully interesting to see how well Thompson does against better competition. He's not supposed to have great stuff, just great control, which makes his task that much tougher the higher he goes.

Posted 2:33 PM by Brian
SO FAR SO GOOD If you're a fan of the Dead Ball Era, and you pine for such concoctions as the the shine ball, the mudball, the spitter, the emery ball, or the tobacco/black licorice/shoeshine ball, then this past week of Cardinals baseball must have been miserable for you. But if you like runs, blowouts, jumbotron fireworks, and conga lines of players crossing home plate, then you're in luck.

The Birdnals haven't played a tight game in a week, and at least one team has scored a dozen or more runs in four of their last five. Fortunately the Cardinals -- even with Pujols hobbled, and even with the team trading wins and losses over its last nine contests -- have been, more often than not, on the good side of those lopsided scores.

The Cardinals are now 1.5 games out in front of the NL Central, and in some ways the roughest part of their schedule is behind them. They just concluded a stretch where they played 20 of 25 games on the road, including half those games head-to-head against rivals Chicago and Houston. And they passed the test with gold stars all around, picking up ground on every division opponent (including 5 games on both HOU and CHI).

The Cards have been incredibly fortunate with their schedule so far. Consider:

• We have the most attractive interleague schedule of any team in the Central, and with Texas out of the way it only gets easier. Here are the weighted winning percentages of the remaining interleague opponents for each team in our division:

Chicago, .573
Houston, .569
Cincy, .525
Milwaukee, .500
Pittsburgh, .488
St. Louis, .461

What accounts for this discrepancy? Regional rivalries. While the Cards get to play bottom-dwellers Kansas City and Seattle, the Cubs and Astros must play strong White Sox and Rangers teams.

• We didn't have to face the Reds at all when they were scorching hot. Now that they're pitching woes have caught up to them and they've dropped six straight games (almost all due to their lousy staff), the Cardinals will play them 13 times over the next six weeks.

• The Cardinals were able to dodge the Cubs at full strength. They played 7 recent matchups without Sosa or Wood, and 7 earlier games without Mark Prior. They've also played 12 games against the Astros without having to face Andy Pettitte once.

• Lastly, the Cardinals have been able to get a lot of their road games out of the way early. We play 53 of our remaining 99 games at home, the most of any team in the Central. (Although with the way we rip it up in our gray unis -- best road record in the majors by a mile -- that might not be such a great thing.)

This isn't to say the Cards are out of the woods -- not by a longshot. Four teams are within 3.5 games of the Redbirds, and the Cubs are getting healthier and stronger. And despite our recent run of good pitching, we're still 11th in the league in runs allowed.

So there are still a lot of question marks ahead, but so far the Cards have passed all their tests heading into midterms.

Posted 2:32 PM by Brian
BASEBALL CRANK has published the established Win Shares totals for each team in our division (essentially it's a way of measuring how good each team is "on paper"). The Cubs came into the season with the best overall team, whereas the Cards can boast one of the best infields in recent memory.

Posted 2:17 PM by Brian
FUN FACT #1 The Cardinals have now played every team in baseball, either in the regular or postseason, except the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

FUN FACT #2 Scott Rolen is currently on pace for 175 RBI's. It's doubtful he'll get there (the last guy to reach that total was Jimmie Foxx in 1938), but he's got a shot at breaking the all-time record for most ribs by a third baseman. The current record-holder is Al Rosen, who knocked in 145 in 1953.

FUN FACT #3 The Oakland A's, who visit Busch on Tuesday, have never lost to a team in the NL Central. They are an astounding 18-0 all-time against Cincinnati, Houston, Milwaukee (after their move to the NL), and Pittsburgh.

Posted 1:59 PM by Brian
EJECTA EJECTION I know Roger Cedeno is a handful, and I know he acted like a fool up in Chicago, but how is his crime against umpire Rick Reed worth a four-game suspension? First of all, Cedeno didn't touch the guy (as opposed to Steve Reed, who bumped an ump, then threw a glove in his direction, and received only a three-game timeout from MLB). Secondly, although Cedeno did spit on Reed, it was clearly incidental to his yelling (totally different from Robbie Alomar willfully hocking one into the face of John Hirshbeck, which earned him a five-game suspension). Cedeno should be suspended two games, tops. Might not sound like a big deal, but Cedeno has been stroking the ball nicely, and with Lankford cooling off (only 5 XBH's in May and June combined), we could use the depth.

Posted 1:54 PM by Brian
REDBIRD NATION has made it to the wild-card round of the World Series of Blogs. Vote for us here, if you so choose, and see if you can get us into the NLCS. (If the AL teams come up on the poll, just hit refresh until you get to the NL.)

Posted 12:47 PM by Brian
TURNABOUT Well, first place was nice. The game just ended up in Wrigley Field (unofficially, of course -- the scoreboard says 11-0 in the bottom of the 4th), as Danny Haren suffers perhaps the worst outing of his pro career.

Haren has been a curious case in AAA. His numbers in Memphis are okay (7-2 record, 3.58 ERA), but every once in awhile he'd slip on a banana peel, give up a couple homers, and many more walks. Today's game was his biggest pratfall yet, an ugly affair in which he looked simply overmatched, falling behind every hitter and fooling no one. Part of me wants to apologize for his performance -- after all, he was thrust into the spotlight at a moment's notice, he was going up against one of the premier pitchers in the NL, and the infield behind him was shaky at best (especially Renteria and Mabry). But at the end of the day you can't disguise 10 earned runs.

So this series becomes a carbon copy of the four-game set in St. Louis -- Cards open with a close win, get spanked by Matt Clement, win a dramatic third game, and then lose to a superior pitcher in the finale. At the time I said the split favored the Cubs, as the games were at Busch and the Cardinals were behind in the standings. You could say this series goes to the Cards for the same reasons -- now the Cubs are looking up at us in the NL Central, so a split in Wrigley isn't good news for them (they'll be only 5-5 on their longest home stand of the year).

But it's hard to keep all that in proportion after the scoreboard reads -- well, now it's 11-2. Wait. Make it 12-2. Walker just went yard. Sigh...

Posted 2:41 PM by Brian
BEAR HUNTING Here are the notes I kept during today's 12-4 Cardinals win:

• Prior's first start vs. Cards since his word war with them last September. He might be throwing butcher knives toward home today.

• Prior might not have it today. T-Dub and Renteria ground out but hit the ball hard, getting all the way around on his fastball. Anderson also pulls the ball, cranks it into right center. (TLR's decision to bat him 3rd pays off.)

• Reliable Rolen. Does something good every game. 1-zip Cards.

• 3rd inning, first and second for the Birds. Why is Molina bunting? (a) Morris is on deck -- does La Russa want second and third with one out for Mo Mo? (b) Prior is practically helping us win (just threw 6 straight balls out of strike zone to Gootch and Yady -- he should carve those guys up). Don't give him any outs.

• Luckily Molina walks. Prior is not Mark Prior today. Now he walks Womack (last time ever Taguchi, Womack, and Molina walk in the same inning). 5 BB's, only 1 strikeout, and that was when he K'd Morris. Steve Stone likens this to spring training for Prior. Agree.

• Renteria: GRAND SLAM! (Flashback to hitting a grand slam on Mattel baseball -- red lights, fireworks all over the place.) With one swing, E-Rent has more ribs than he has in all the games since ??? [I checked - 5/27]

• Morris coughs up homer to Patterson. Now on pace for 53 HR allowed. MLB record: Blyleven, 50, '86.

• 4th IN: Barrett (thorn in our side) drives in Martinez. Lead shaved to 5-3. Shades of J.D. Drew grand slam/loss last year.

• 5th IN: Leicester (pronounced like city) strikes out Rolen in first ML appearance. Now he knocks down Edmonds. (Something I noticed last year: Cubs fans instinctively cheer pitches thrown at the other team's heads. Gotta cheer something, I guess.) Edmonds hits a BOMB into right center. Wow. No doubter.

• Morris gets away with hanging curve to Hollandsworth. How many hanging breaking pitches has MM thrown today? 5? 6?

• Morris retaliates by knocking down Lee. Stupid. I don't think Leicester was throwing at Edmonds. (And I know it was intentional from Morris. Can read his lips, very distinctively, shouting at Cubs: "Get the fucking ball down!") Must be carryover from headhunting in Pirates series. But no need to instigate the Cubs.

• Tavarez was the first guy on the field for the Cardinals. Dog bites man.

• Ump, Rapuano, has got to have the least predictable strike zone I've ever seen. It's messing with both team's pitchers -- they can't tell what's a strike and what's not. Neither can I.

• Ramon Martinez doubles to left, Cubbies down by two. Marlon Anderson is among the least polished OFers ever. He goes after flyballs like he's navigating invisible buoys.

• Tying run at the plate -- Baker bats GLENDON RUSH??? Alternatives on the bench: Bako, Macias, DuBois, and Ordonez. Dusty bats the pitcher so he can save his real hitters for some hypothetical situation down the line??? [As it turns out, three of those guys never do come to the plate. Poor tactics.]

• The difference between this year's game and the game with the J.D. Drew slam: middle relief. Last year had to rely on Fassero and Springer. Now: Calero, King, Tavarez. Much better for the old ticker.

• Taguchi's single becomes a triple b/c of a divot in right center. Second time in two days we've seen e.g. of poor Wrigely turf. Did ZZ Top play here last night?

• I'm convinced Mabry will never hit a hard slider (Clement last night, Remlinger today).

• Womack is quietly earning his keep (3 hits, 2 doubles, walk, stolen base today). [His batting line is now .293/.340/.414, about same as Todd Walker's.]

• Edmonds second homer. Cards really pouring it on. Turning into one of those wet, farcical Wrigley games c. 1979. [Cubs end up issuing NINE base on balls.]

• 12 Runs. Is that the most ever scored by opponent in game started by Mark Prior? [Yes.] Is this his worst start ever? [No -- this game vs. Astros was worse. Astros always seem to hit Prior hard. He's now 2-3 lifetime against both 'Stros and Cardinals.]

Great win.

Posted 10:41 AM by Brian
TODAY'S LINEUP From the Throw Spaghetti Against the Wall Dept., Marlon Anderson is batting third (4-for-7 lifetime vs. Prior), Taguchi in center, and Jedmonds playing first. Jed actually has more experience in the infield than I'd thought (43 career games at first), but still, awfully strange...

Posted 8:45 AM by Brian
INTERLEAGUEING I've already given my thoughts on Interleague Play, but one complaint I have is that the matchups often feel like exhibition games, devoid of any context or tradition or rivalry. The current face-offs seem even odder than usual. For example, if you were a PR man, who would hype the following series?

Arizona at Baltimore: Do they have any historical connections? Ex-D'back Schilling once played for Baltimore, but otherwise these teams seem to play different sports entirely.

San Diego at Boston: I guess you could pump up some Ted Williams angle, you know, the San Diegan who came to Beantown. There's also the whole Northeast-vs.-Southwest chowder-vs.-fish tacos aspect. Not much there...

Florida at Cleveland: Ah, here's a good one, a rematch of the '97 World Series. The Injuns were my favorite AL team as a kid, so I was heartbroken when Edgar Renteria slapped that single through the middle to end the series. But if you want to know true heartbreak, read this anecdote that Roger Angell published after the Series had ended:

The pains of true fandom are perhaps insufficiently appreciated. Last month, I heard about a retired Cleveland truck driver named John Moskal, who has been an Indian loyalist since boyhood. He had a chance to play professional ball as a young man, but when it fell through he went right on rooting for the Tribe. Now eighty-eight, he was home in bed when the final out of the championship arrived, once again with his team on the wrong end of things. “Oh, dear, the poor old Indians,” he said, clicking off the set. He lay back and died.

Atlanta at Detroit: Call this one the Battle of John Smoltz. The Tigers, as you recall, dealt Smoltz to the Braves in 1987 in exchange for Doyle Alexander. The trade isn't as bad as its reputation. Alexander went 9-0 down the stretch for the Bengals in '87, and they needed his services then more than they did Smoltz's for the past decade and a half.

Colorado at Yankees: Not much to work with here.

Los Angeles at Toronto: Some people have seen this series as a preliminary meeting between Carlos Delgado and his future team, the Dodgers. Unfortunately Delgotit is on the DL and Howie Clark is at first. How 'bout that Shawn Green homecoming? (Question: who's the blandest player in baseball? Green is a good place to start.)

San Fran at Tampa Bay: Sometimes I like to picture old-timers in modern-day uniforms, like Babe Ruth in one of those technicolor Astros unis from the late '70s, or Walter Johnson in Marlins teal. Try Barry Bonds in that goofy D-Rays outfit. It doesn't work, does it? Neither does this matchup.

Philadelphia at ChiSox: The Race for the Bottom. Of the original 16 teams, the White Sox have the fewest world titles in the AL (two) and the Phillies have the fewest in the NL (one). But they could possibly meet again in October...

Pittsburgh at Texas: Bert Blyleven played for both these teams. So did Al Oliver. And Jim Bibby, and Mario Mendoza, and even Steve Buechele. Hey, maybe there's something to this. Maybe it's their recent ineptitude, but these teams have always been somewhat linked in my head.

Mets at Minnesota: After the big Rick Reed-Matt Lawton trade a couple years back, these two teams will be out for blood.

Cincy at Oakland: Another good one. These teams have already met twice in the World Series, the first time in '72, the last time in '90, which had to be the greatest tale of underdog triumph since the red ants took on the scorpion at the beginning of The Wild Bunch.

Houston at Seattle: A showdown between the first two "dome" teams. These teams also have some history from 1998, when the Stros traded half their readymade prospects (Freddy Garcia, John Halama, and Carlos Guillen) for 57 games and 80 inches of Randy Johnson. I'm still bummed Houston blew it (once again) in those playoffs. Yankees-Astros in '98 should have been one of the all-time great Series. In Pythagorean terms, the two teams were fairly matched (Astros with 106 wins, Yanks with 108), but instead we got to see the Pads roll over in four straight. Depressing.

Milwaukee at Anaheim: Ah, memories of 1982, one of many sad tales for the Halo franchise before they finally broke the curse twenty years later. Maybe there were no hard feelings between the Angels and the Brew Crew coming into this series, but after last night's epic duel (seriously, one of the best pitching duels of the past decade), this rivalry might just be getting started.

Posted 10:19 PM by Brian
EVEN STEVEN So just like Lakers-Pistons (although only half as thrillingly), our series with the Cubs is knotted at one. Tonight's game was the first since... well, perhaps since Woody Williams' last performance at Wrigley Field, where the Cardinals just plain didn't show up. Woody brought his C game and the guys behind him committed an unusual number of fumbles, miscues, and head-scratchers. To wit:

• 1st inning. Barrett on first, Alou hits a drive to left, and Lankford flags it down. You'd think after allowing Jason Kendall to score from second on a sac fly last week that Ray Ray would be more aggressive about holding runners. Nope. Barrett scoots to second with Lankford asleep at the wheel.

• 2nd inning. Ramon Martinez singles to center with Patterson on first. You'd think after Lankford allowed Barrett to go to second in the first that Edmonds would be more aggressive about holding runners. Nope. He fields the ball lazily and Patterson scoots to third.

• 3rd inning. Runner on first, one out, Alou hits a sharp grounder to the left side that goes off Rolen's glove. I hate to pick on Rolen because he gets a gold star damn near every night -- hell, he went deep twice off Clement, and except for Eldred was our only good player tonight -- but I thought Alou's grounder could have been a DP. I guess that's a measure of how spoiled I am by Rolen's excellence.

• Next batter. Aramis Ramirez singles to left with Barrett running from second. Lankford actually has a play on Chicago's catcher, but he bobbles the ball, letting the run score easily, and the game istied.

• Next batter. After two unsuccessful pickoff throws to nab Alou off second, Woody tries a third time and throws it into right field. What is it with WW and errant throws in that ballpark?

• Two pitches later. Hollandsworth lofts a flyball down the rightfield line, and for some reason Roger Cedeno pulls up short and lets the ball drop. He was probably fearing the wall, but it's a padded wall and the ball was very playable.

• Two hitters later, Woody throws a ball to the backstop. He pitched around it, but in general Woody looked lost out there. During his stint on the mound, he faced 27 hitters -- 13 of them reached base.

• 5th inning. Derrek Lee singles to center, Edmonds misreads the hop, and the ball skips past him for a two-base error. That makes something like 8 sloppy plays in a span of four innings.

Despite all this Keystone Kops action, this game was still fairly winnable at 4-2 going into the bottom of the 5th. I know this sounds like 20/20 hindsight, but I'd have hit for Woody in the top of the 5th. He had zilch tonight, and it was clear that he wasn't going to make it to the 6th anyway. Our bullpen was well-rested too -- why not go for the win rather than let Woody flail out there in the bottom of the 5th? I know that goes against book, but it seemed like a worthwhile gamble.

Of course, that implies that the Cardinals could have gotten to Clement. Is Clement a great pitcher, or is he just great against the Cardinals? Probably a little of both. He's 3-0 with a 2.74 ERA against the Birds this year; 4-4, 3.51 vs. everyone else. Sorta makes you wonder, though, if the Cards had conceded this game before it started. They sure didn't seem like they were operating on all cylinders.

Posted 9:53 PM by Brian
ONE DOWN, THREE TO GO This wasn't a must-win game for the Cardinals, but it was certainly a "should-win," with Rusch on the hill and Clement, Prior, and Zambrano in the queue (Jesus, the Cubs rotation is like a box of Kleenex -- every time they use a great pitcher, another one pops up right after). It was a ho-hum sorta win, with all the Cardinal runs coming in a span of about 45 seconds in the 4th, but the team has excelled at ho-hum wins lately, and we'll certainly take it.

A few stray thoughts:

• Carpenter was throwing very fluidly tonight. He seemed totally relaxed on the hill, working quickly (the game took only 2:22 to complete) and efficiently (only 92 pitches in 8.1 innings, 67 of them for strikes). After the first two innings it looked like he might never give up a hit -- his curve looked that sharp. I especially liked how he maintained his composure after both a wind-aided homer by Patterson (more on that later) and a yard job by his opposing moundman.

• Cardinals pitchers are taking on a very definitive identity. Almost to a man, they don't strike out too many guys, and they yield a fair number of homers, but they've been able to win by keeping walks down and letting their fielders make plays.

Chris Carpenter may be the poster child for this approach. His K/9 IP is no more than average and he's given up a bushel of homers. So how is he 7-1? It's not his run support (which, at 4.9 per game, puts him only 24th of 40 qualifying pitchers). It's more that he's walked only 16 men in 10 starts, so that when guys do homer off him, it's relatively painless (11 of his 14 HRs allowed have been solo shots).

Additionally, Carpenter keeps the ball on the ground and lets his glovemen bail him out. 78% of all balls hit behind CC are gobbled up cleanly by his fielders. That's quite a bit higher than the league average of 70%, and one of the main reasons our staff has been able to shave 2/3rds of a run per game off of last year's ERA.

• Just as Carpenter has given up home runs at opportune times -- rarely with men on base -- Scott Rolen has made the most of his bombs. In fact, he's hit more than twice as many homers with men on base than with the bags empty. After tonight's three-run jack, Rolen has 4 solo homers, 5 two-run jobs, and 5 three-run homers (fact, I'd venture that he has more three-run homers than anyone in baseball, but that's just a guess). Rolen is now on pace for 174 RBI's. He won't get that many, of course, but it's fun to think about.

• Rolen's and Sanders' back-to-back homers were both no-doubters, but Corey Patterson's fooled me about as much as any home run I'd ever seen. The other day I was watching a ballgame with my girlfriend (she was in the room, anyway; she doesn't go much for the sport), and as soon as a batter hit the ball I blurted out "gone." My girlfriend asked me how I knew it was going to be a homer, and I said it's something every fan picks up after watching 25 or so games on TV -- you can just tell by the angle of the ball leaving the bat.

Well, I'm glad she wasn't around while I was watching tonight's game, because I swear I thought Corey Patterson's hit was a pop up to shallow center. How it carried into the basket in left center I have no idea. I suspect either the Bermuda Triangle or ex-Cubs announcer Ronald Reagan pulling off some celestial monkey business.

• The Cardinals gained ground tonight on every team in the NL Central -- a full game on Cincinnati, Houston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, and a half game on Milwaukee. Are we peaking or does it get better than this?

Posted 8:11 PM by Brian
THE IGNORANCE OF TOOLS So the Cards drafted a pitcher from Boston College, Christopher Lambert (who I've already nicknamed "The Highlander"), with their first pick in the June draft.

To be honest, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to amateur players. I don't have enough time to study up on them, nor, to be honest, do I have the inclination (I usually wait for them to ripen on the vine a bit before I mash the grapes).

But I can pass along what Josh Schulz and Baseball America say about Lambert -- they both fret about his lack of command, and Josh points out that BC had the 108th toughest schedule in college ball this past year.

I can also tell you that Lambert brings some serious heat, ratcheting it up to 97 on the radar gun. In other words, Lambert seems like a classic toolsy ballplayer -- so-so performance-wise, but a high ceiling, especially with the right coaching. I wouldn't have guessed that our resident wonk, Jeff Luhnow, would go for a guy like this, but again, what do I know?

Posted 8:03 PM by Brian
FIDGETY Studes over at The Hardball Times has a nice breakdown of the most hands-on managers in the bigs. Not surprisingly, Tony La Russa calls more, oh, what's the word, "intrusive" plays (stolen base attempts, sac bunts, intentional walks) than most managers. Second most in the NL, actually.

The one strategy that TLR rarely employs is the intentional walk -- he's down near the bottom in that category (although he hasn't faced Barry Bonds yet). As we noted last November, that's typical for him. He tends to go after guys.

Posted 6:44 PM by Brian
PUJOLS UPDATE from Bernie Miklasz over at the Post:

Cardinals were deciding whether to even take him to Chicago. The left hamstring needs to be reexamined tomorrow, and then treated... the doctors would like to keep him here, because they can do a better job of looking at him and giving him the necessary treatment (the visiting team clubhouse at Wrigley is very small and tight and not very comfortable for injured players). Pujols, however, was planning to go to Chicago. I don't think they told him (yet) that staying home is a possibility.

Dr. George Palleta says it's a "moderate" hamstring injury... doesn't appear to be torn. They hope that the hamstring spasm and cramped and will get better in 2-3 days. That's the best-case scenario. The other scenario is that it's a sprained hamstring and he'll have to go on the 15-day DL. Again, the docs will know more on Monday after they take a second look at AP.

At minimum, Pujols won't play for 2 days and I'd say it's doubtful that we'll see him at all during the four-game series at Wrigley.

Not good timing, obviously. Albert has been hot as hell lately (19 for his last 34, with 9 XBH's), and he's one of the few guys on our team who rips Cubs pitching. He's got a .325/.426/.638 career line against the current Cubs staff, including 6-14 with three HRs off of Prior. Needless to say, the Cardinals will act gingerly toward their Man in the Middle, and it sounds like we won't see him in Wrigley. Karma after facing the Sosa-less Cubs two weeks ago?

Posted 2:54 PM by Brian

"Now don't be sad
'Cause two out of three ain't bad."
-- Meat Loaf

THE WEEKEND THAT WAS So we tried for the sweep -- and at times today it seemed tantalizingly close (I mean, when Cody McKay knocks in two big runs, you assume it's Christmas Day and you'll never run out of presents). But the Birds fell just short, dropping a game that frankly could have gone either way (the difference was Raul Chavez, who showboats way too much for a guy hitting a hollow .250).

But all in all it was a fine weekend for baseball -- the Cards kept pace with the Cubs and Reds, and they gained one on the Astros, who they won't play again until September. The highlight of the series, for me at least, was Albert Pujols' AB against Wade Miller on Friday night.

Albert had already stretched Miller thin (he made him throw 13 pitches his first two plate appearances) when he came to bat in the fifth with runners on first and second and the game tied. Pujols worked the count to 3-2 before fouling off five straight nasty pitches from Miller. On the 11th pitch of the at bat, Pujols watched ball four low, and -- this is my favorite part -- he celebrated as if he had just hit a walk-off grand slam. He flipped the bat and clapped exuberantly, knowing that Ol' Reliable Rolen was coming to the plate and that Miller was gassed (his pitch count was 106 at that point, with almost a quarter of those thrown to Pujols alone).

On the next pitch of the game, Rolen untied things for good and the Cardinals were on their way. But it was that showdown with Miller that typified the Cardinals relentlessness in this series. For most of the season it's been two steps forward/two steps back for this Redbird squad, but they finally broke out with 9 wins in 10 games (after a ruthless bloodletting on Saturday night), and they've stared down the Astros pretty well this season, taking 7 of the last 9 contests.

Granted, there's been some luck involved too (the Cards are yet to face Andy Pettitte, for example), but even with today's loss the team seems to be cresting nicely. We'll know more after heading to Wrigley this week. And no cop-outs this time. It's Rusch on Monday, then Clement, Prior, Zambrano. Damn.

Posted 2:42 PM by Brian
THE REDLEGS I officially dislike the Reds. For most of the year I've rooted for them -- I like Casey, Dunn, and Kearns a lot, and I've always felt sorta uncomfortable with the way Ken Griffey's career has fizzled in the NL. Good to see him back atop the HR leaderboard.

Besides, even though the Reds are in first, they did it in part with winning records against the Cubs and Stros. Given my druthers, I'd rather be looking up at the Cincinnatians than our more rivals in the Windy and Enron Cities.

But today's game -- and yes, I've been scoreboard-watching with the Reds -- was truly deflating. Reds were down by two, one on, two outs, bottom of the ninth. The Expos ace reliever gets ahead of Jacob Cruz, then surrenders a pinch-hit, game-tying bast. After three straight singles (off three different pitches), the game was over. Annoying as hell. Hence my newfound dislike for the Reds.

J.D. Arney has a good survey of chatter around the Web regarding the legitimacy of this Reds team. Most seamheads consider the Reds record (best in the NL) a castle made of sand, but that doesn't make me feel too much better about the pace they've been setting. I might start liking them again, but only if they take a little dive.

Posted 2:29 PM by Brian
SACRIFICIAL LAMBS I'm thinking about giving out a prize to anyone who can find the most timid use of the sac bunt. I thought of it today when the Astros got the leadoff hitter on the top of the first, no one out, and Jimy Williams has Adam Everett laying down a bunt. That's in the first inning. With Bagwell, Kent, and Berkman due up. Williams has now had Everett lay down 17 sac bunts, which makes me wonder how many big innings he's marred for the Astros.

But my nominee for the most timid bunt of the year goes to Tony La Russa, for a bunt against the Cubs two weeks ago. Top of the second, Cards down 4-1 against Matt Clement. Obviously you need three runs to have a chance. Matt Morris leads off the inning with a walk, so Clement is clearly wild (he's already issued three free passes the first time through the Cards lineup). That brings up the leadoff hitter, Tony Womack, with the heart of the order around the corner.

You go for the jugular, right? Nope. La Russa has him lay down a dribbler, and it wasn't for a hit either (he had squared to bunt during the first delivery). Would you move the pitcher into scoring position with all those home run hitters due up? In the third inning? I doubt you'll find a lamer move all season, unless a guy actually lays down a sac bunt with no one on base. Anyone who can find a lamer example wins a free subscription to Redbird Nation for a year.

Posted 2:17 PM by Brian
ODDITIES Quirky things that make baseball the weirdest game ever created:

Cody McKay vs. Houston: .412 (7 for 17)
Cody McKay vs. the rest of the NL: .061 (2 for 33)

Jose Vizcaino vs. Jeff Suppan: .750 (12 for 16)
Jose Vizcaino vs. everyone else: .270 (1,278 for 4,737)

Edgar Renteria's H/AB during his seven game hitting streak:
1-5, 1-5, 1-4, 1-4, 1-4, 1-4, 1-3

Posted 1:58 PM by Brian
CUB BALL This from Rob Neyer (who will soon cost money to read, if you haven't heard):

If the Cubs have Mark Prior and Kerry Wood and Sammy Sosa in the second half of the season, they're going to win the NL Central.

That's a pretty bold statement. The Cubs are in good shape, all things considered (only 4.5 games out of first after playing most of the season shorthanded), but I'm not convinced they've wrapped up the division as long as they stay healthy. An injection of Prior, Wood, and Sosa should help them a ton, but don't forget that guys like Alou and Barrett are due for a tumble.

Posted 1:38 PM by Brian
THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF CATCHERS As you know, Yadier Molina is the third Molina to play in the majors, after his big brothers Jose and Bengie. According to Christian Ruzich, this makes them the 19th sibling trio to play big-league baseball.

The complete list can be found here, but the best trios are probably:

1. The DiMaggios (Joe, Dom, and Vince)
2. The Alous (Felipe, Matty, and Jesus)
3. The Delahantys (Ed, Jim, and Frank, and Tom and Joe too)
4. The Boyers (Ken, Clete, and Cloyd)
5. The Cruzes (Jose, Hector, and Tommy)

The Molinas resemble the DiMaggios in that all three boys play the same position. Wonder who was pitching to all those Molina catchers as they were growing up. Alfred?

Posted 1:23 PM by Brian
THIS JUST IN Pujols suffered a strained hamstring while running bases in the 6th. The injury didn't look that serious to me, but you never know with these hammies. He's listed as day-to-day (then again, as a wise man once said, aren't we all).

Posted 1:03 PM by Brian
HEAVY LOADS There's been some griping lately (in the comments section of this blog, for example) about pitch counts from Cardinals starters. Matt Morris, for example, threw 120 pitches on Friday night, Woody threw 124 a couple weeks ago, etc. As you recall, both Morris and Woody were burnt out by the middle of last year, and some pointed to early-season high pitch counts as the culprit.

But by my reckoning, La Russa and Duncan have been just fine with their starters this year. Only twice this year have Cards hurlers thrown more than 115 pitches in a game. What's more, as Will Carroll pointed out recently, pitch-count totals aren't too illuminating without other supporting variables:

Providing context to the number is what is important... We must try to determine the pitcher's age and conditioning, the efficiency of his mechanics, the conditions of the game, the types of pitches he throws, whether he was forced to throw at maximum effort a great deal of the game, and perhaps most important, what is this pitcher's normal workload?

Until we get into a finer discussion about Morris and Williams' mechanics, pitch types, and recovery time, we're not going to make much headway about their workload.

Posted 12:44 PM by Brian
IN ABSENTIA So Tony La Russa tied and passed up Walter Alston on the all-time managerial wins list while sitting up in the skyboxes during the first two games of this series. Can anyone tell me what TLR did to warrant a two-game suspension? Yes, he came out of the dugout to argue with McClendon the other night, but that's a one-game suspension, tops, especially when you consider that McClendon marched toward the Cards dugout and called out La Russa. Has MLB become the NBA, where simply leaving the bench results in a layoff?

Speaking of La Russa, here's something you probably already know, from the New Jersey Times:

The rumor mill out of St. Louis indicates that general manager Walt Jocketty and manager Tony La Russa will be in serious trouble if the Cardinals don't make the playoffs this year. We also hear that 73-year-old Whitey Herzog is telling friends that he would love to return to the Cardinals' dugout.

Posted 12:34 PM by Brian
THE GIPPER YEARS Farewell to Ronald Reagan (he's the one on the left in that picture -->). In honor of the Gip, here are the leaders in various categories during RWR's tenure in office (1981-1988):

AVG: Wade Boggs, .356
HR: Mike Schmidt, 259
RBI: Dave Winfield, 812
Runs Created: Tim Raines, 869
SB: Rickey Henderson, 661
ERA: Dwight Gooden, 2.62
W: Jack Morris, 140
SV: Jeff Reardon, 227

Posted 12:01 AM by Brian
THOSE MIGHTY CARDINALS The Cardinals just capped off a fantastic road trip -- they took 6 of 7 from divisional foes, went seven games over .500, got two great starts from Woody Williams, and deftly moved into sole possession of second place in the Central.

After tonight's game, the Cards' season will be 1/3rd over, so it's a good time to assess where we are. As things stand, the Cardinals season is looking remarkably like two years ago. At the same point in the season in 2002, the Cardinals had the same record, the same place in the standings, and the same distance (2 games) behind the front-running Reds. The 2002 squad also started slow (16-20 at one point), before catching fire and climbing 8 games over .500 at the end of May.

So is this current Cardinals outfit for real? Well, you may be surprised to hear this -- in fact, you might even want to make sure you're sitting down before I tell you this -- but the 2004 Cardinals have as good a record through 53 games as any Cardinals team over the past seventeen years.

That's right -- the last Birdnal squad to do better than 30-23 through 53 games is the 1987 Cardinals, who started 33-20 and went on to win 95 games. There have been two recent teams to match our current record (namely the '00 and '02 Cardinals, each making it to the NLCS), but none better.

Now, I tend to doubt the staying power of this team, for a litany of reasons (too many holes, too strong a division, etc.), but you have to admit -- few of our guys are playing over their heads, while a couple Cardinals (notably Edgar Renteria) can only go up. So things look promising. We'll know more now that the Cubs are getting Prior back and as the Spring turns to Summer, but so far the team is doing about as well as anyone could have expected.

Posted 11:10 PM by Brian
WHO'S YOUR YADY? Nice little game for Yadier Molina tonight in his major-league debut. He went 2-for-4, including a double that led to a key insurance run in the 7th.

Although you can scarcely assess a player after one game (a professional scout might do all right), we saw a lot of phases to Yady's game tonight. We saw how he handles balls in the dirt (several corkers from Woody; Molina did okay keeping them in front of him, but he's not nearly as accomplished as Matheny in that area). We saw how he blocks the plate (great play -- and great composure -- tagging out Abraham Nunez at home in the 2nd). We also saw his arm (he's reputed to have a great arm, but his throw trying to nail Jason Kendall in the 6th was weak; he redeemed himself in the 8th with a sizzling toss to cut down Jack Wilson). And we saw how he worked with pitchers (he seemed to have a good rhythm with Woody Williams).

As for his stroke, he's got a nice compact swing, seemingly hacking down on the ball. I don't know how he'll ever hit a homer this way (he hit only 14 jacks in 1,035 minor-league at bats), but he seems to be able to make good contact and keep the ball out of the air. His single in the 5th and his double in the 7th were both sinking line shots.

We even got a tiny glimpse of Molina's discipline at the plate. He took the first two pitches in three of his four ABs, which is encouraging. His first three pro seasons, Molina walked only 58 times in 973 PAs, or 6%; but this year in Memphis he's worked a walk in 10.4% of his plate appearances, a good trend.

The only thing we didn't get to see during the game is Molina's speed. He's certainly built like a catcher -- squat and low to the ground, like a gallon of milk (or 190 pounds of Joe Girardi, who has almost the exact same dimensions). I do know that on Molina's double to left, infielder Jack Wilson was motioning to the outfield as if he had a play on him. Considering most guys would be standing on second polishing their nails when Wilson called for the throw, I'm guessing that Molina's got some creaky wheels.

So we'll see how this Molina character pans out in the bigs. He's still young (he turns 22 in five weeks), and I wouldn't be surprised if he went on to have a Mike Scioscia-type career (stellar D, decent average, not much pop). I hope he gets plenty of at bats up here while Matheny is on the mend, as there's no point investing looks in Cody McKay, a non-entity who has no future in the organization.

The biggest long-term import of Molina's stint with St. Louis is how it affects year-end negotiations with Mike Matheny. Math, as you know, is in a walk year, and as a good field-no hit catcher in his mid-30's, there will be less incentive to keep him if Molina can fill his shoes just as capably and much more cheaply.

As I mentioned in an earlier comments thread, the Cardinals have not had a reliable catcher since the Darrell Porter era. You had some quasi-acceptable years here and there (Pena in '88, Zeile in '90, Pagnozzi in '96), but by and large the catcher position has been, for the Cardinals, a Gobi desert of futility. In fact, I'd argue that no franchise over the last 20 years has had as little success with their catchers as St. Louis (although Montreal and Seattle give us a run for the money). It would sure be nice to get a legit backstop who could park his wide ass behind the plate for the next 7 or 8 years.

Posted 8:59 PM by Brian
TAKE ME OUT TO THE BRAWLGAME The beaning of Scott Rolen on Tuesday night provoked a lot of heated talk (including on this website), and, as might be expected, the talk spilled over into action tonight.

It all began in the top of the ninth, when Bucs reliever Mike Gonzalez let loose a pitch that sailed past Tony Womack's head. Evidently Tony La Russa yelled at Lloyd McClendon down in the Pirates dugout. (On the replays you could see him shouting and holding up three fingers -- I'm guessing he was referring to the three times the Pirates pitchers either hit or buzzed our players with head-high fastballs: Rolen the other night, Edmonds last night, and Womack tonight.)

So McClendon pulled a Buford Pusser and stalked toward the Cardinals dugout, apparently calling out TLR for a middle-aged duke-off. I don't care how responsible La Russa was for the boiling rhetoric, I was glad to see him get chest-to-chest with McClendon. It would have been nice to see him go kangaroo noogie on McClendon's head (Nolan Ryan style), or else bind his wrist with McClendon's and square-off for a Beat It-worthy knife fight.

But alas, as so often happens in these testerone staredowns, all we got was a lot of posturing, plumage, and antler-rattling. But it was fun while it lasted...

Posted 8:54 PM by Brian
HAIL PRINCE ALBERT Richard Lederer has an invaluable piece on Albert Pujols' career to date. He's not quite Barry Bonds, but he's one of the few guys in baseball (Gagne would be another) whose accomplishments leave you blinking in disbelief.

And what of Albert's slump? He's currently on pace for 106 XBH's, 53 jacks, 109 walks, and a .317 batting average.

Posted 7:55 PM by Brian
RECYCLING The other day in a comments chain, our friend Dan pointed out that John Mabry has only four career triples, and yet "he had the foresight to use one" to hit for the cycle. Which is true -- Mabry hit for the cycle on 5/18/96 at Coors, making him one of the unlikeliest cyclists of all time.

So I got to wondering, does Mabry have the fewest triples of any player to hit for the cycle? Not quite. Here's a list of cyclists with fewer than 10 lifetime triples:

Mike Blowers, 8 (hit for cycle on 5/18/98)
Albert Hall, 8 (9/23/87)
Roy Carlyle, 6 (7/21/25)
Chad Moeller, 5 (4/28/04)
Travis Hafner, 4 (8/14/03)
John Mabry, 4 (5/18/96)
Daryle Ward, 3 (5/26/04)
Bill Salkeld, 2 (8/4/45)

Oddly, two of the players on this list hit for the cycle this year, including Ward against the Cards last week. But the all-time champ is Salkeld, who hit only 2 triples but used one of them to go cycling.

Here are some other rad things I discovered while researching this list:

• Despite flukes like Salkeld and Carlyle, you'd heard of most guys who hit for the cycle. I find that pretty wild. The cycle seems like lightning in a bottle, the type of thing any schlub can accomplish under the right conditions. But most guys who hit for the cycle are Hall of Famers or perenneil good citizens, and the list is populated with names like Musial, Yastrzemski, Raines, and Ripken.

• Lots of players have hit for the cycle twice, but Bob Meusel and Babe Herman hold the record with three cycles each.

• Which team has the most guys who hit for the cycle? The Pirates, with 20 guys hitting for the C a collective 23 times. (Ward's cycle this year gave them one more than the Giants.)

• Who has the fewest homers among cyclists? Dude named Otis Clymer, who hit only two lifetime dongs but used one of them to cycle on 10/2/08.

• Who's the most unlikely guy to ever hit for the cycle? You could make a case for Bill Collins (hit for cycle on 10/6/10, lifetime 11 2Bs, 10 3Bs, and 3 HRs). But Collins had only 828 lifetime PAs, so it's not that freaky that he clustered his XBH's in one game. No, in my opinion the unlikely cyclist of all time is Tim Foli. Foli had 6,573 plate appearances and hit only 20 triples and 25 homers. But he did enough to hit for the cycle on 4/22/76, while a member of the Expos. Statistically speaking, he's the least likely player to accomplish the milestone.

Enough about the cycle. I fear I'm turning into Jayson Stark.

Posted 7:42 PM by Brian
CARDINALS LINK BLOG Check out Josh Schulz's new "grab bag of links" blog. It's like tossing popcorn into your mouth at the ballgame -- good, breezy fun.

Posted 8:40 AM by Brian
HUMP DAY The Cardinals, on the heels of a three-game win streak, are a season-high six games over .500. But unfortunately our record this year is 0-5 when we've tried to win our fourth in a row. Time to break the hex, Woody.

Posted 7:41 PM by Flynn
WHO'S KING? Part 6 of 6

In this series, we explore the sports hierarchies in each MLB town and determine which team has the tightest grip on the local psyche and is “King.” This is the sixth of six parts.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL

Milwaukee

You have to love a place that takes a term created by outsiders as an insult and turns it into a source of pride. Even more impressive is when that insult becomes a cranial accessory that both enriches and saves lives in airplane crashes.

On Wisconsin: sausage races, Harley-Davidson, Summerfest, naked beer slides at the defunct Avalanche Bar, and Art’s Performing Center are but five of the many reasons to love Milwaukee. Miller Park isn’t so bad either.

The most-loved team in Milwaukee doesn’t even play there, though. It should come as no surprise that the Packers rule all of Wisconsin, Milwaukee included. The Packers are, arguably, the NFL equivalent of the Celtics, the Yankees, or the Canadiens when it comes to “legends” of the sport. Timing, I am convinced, has a lot to do with this. The Packers rose to dominance at the same time the NFL was beginning its ascent to the pinnacle of the American sports scene, on the shoulders of television, the medium that launched football past baseball in the hearts of most Americans. Some would say that rise wouldn’t have happened without Lombardi’s boys, though. The Pack has also won more NFL Championships and Super Bowls combined than any other team, with the Bears in second place.

The 1960s Packers were a nice mix of glitz and grit coached by the fiery New Yorker. (Lombardi’s East Coast background surely led to a lot more glorification of him and the team than if he was from, say, Omaha.) They were a terrific team, for sure, but I believe that if they had come along a decade earlier, before NFL Films was able to capture the smeared eyeblack on their faces beneath yellow helmets coated with tundra, they would have been just another great team, not THE team. TV made the Packers the Packers. Ironic, isn’t it, to think that the team in the smallest media market in the country owes its lore and allure to the very factor that would ruin it today without the NFL’s revenue sharing system?

As for the Brewers, it’s hard to root against these guys. They have racing sausages, something called the buckethead brigade, and the funniest announcer of all time doing their games. The new park is pretty nice and the parking lot has lost none of its tailgating appeal. What’s sad for the people of Milwaukee (aside from the fact that Bernie Brewer no longer slides into a giant beer mug) is that the Beermakers haven’t been to the playoffs in 23 seasons. They haven’t even had a winning team since 1992. Sure, a lack of Yankee-sized revenue hurts, but every other team except the Expos and the Devil Rays has found a way to scramble into the playoffs since Gorman swung and missed.

Baseball has deep roots in Milwaukee, with the 1957 and 1958 Brave teams led by Aaron, Mathews, Schoendienst, Burdette, and Spahn ranking among the greatest of the 20th Century. The fans are there and the support the Brewers have received through the years is admirable, considering they have usually been worse than lesser-drawing teams such as the Expos. The bottom line, though, is that the town and the entire state revolves around the Packers.

Final Packer bit -- according to a friend who travels to Green Bay frequently, many homes in the city feature displays of team spirit and civic pride. “Welcome to Titletown” and “Go Pack Go” seem to pop up on mailboxes and on flags flying from porches. Then there is the house, just down the way from Lambeau Field, that has a garage door facing the street painted green and yellow and emblazoned with eight-foot letters that proclaim “BEARS SUCK.” How’d you like to grow up in that house? “Yes, that’s 2304 Maple, just look for the blue minivan in the driveway and the eight foot insult on the garage door. Can’t miss it.” I love it.

1. Green Bay Packers
2. University of Wisconsin Football
3. Milwaukee Brewers
4. Milwaukee Bucks
5. Marquette Warriors

Pittsburgh

I turn Steel City over to my friend Eric, who has lived there for a long time now and has a good read on the place...

Living in Pittsburgh, a blind man could tell you the following:

The Steelers, bar none, are the #1 game in this town. The best time to do any errand is Sunday afternoon during football season because everyone here is either at the game, tailgating at the stadium, or watching the game at a bar or at home. Steelers Football is spoken about here 365 days a year. The commitment and craziness about the Steelers and pro football put Chicago Bear fans to shame. Add that to the fan following the Steelers have both here and overseas, plus the number of famous football players from Pennsylvania... Iron Mike Ditka, Joe Montana, Broadway Joe Namath, Fred Biletnikoff, George Blanda, Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Jack Ham, Johnny Unitas, Randy White and probably the greatest football player ever... U of I's Red Grange (who put pro football on the map). Pennsylvania claims 25 Pro Football Hall of Famers, the most of any state.

#2 would be Western Pennsylvania High School Football. Name any pro football team and I'll bet you that at least one of their players played high school football in this area. One school, Central Catholic, produced Dan Marino as well as current St. Louis Ram, Marc Bulger.

The next two (Pirates and the Penguins) are a toss up. Both teams enjoyed great success, the Pirates in the 1970's (two World Series) and 1990's and the Penguins in the 1990s (Two Stanley Cups). Each team has slashed its payroll, the Pirates in the mid-1990's and the Penguins the past two years. I'll give the nod to the Pirates for now because of the beautiful new PNC Park. I have been to almost a dozen baseball parks and PNC is by far the nicest.

#5 would be the Univ. of Pitt Panthers. Interest in the Panthers has gone up and down over the last thirty years. They currently are on an upswing with the success of their basketball team and the consistency of their football team. With the removal of Miami and Va. Tech from the Big East, Pitt football will suffer. However, with the addition of a number of Conference USA teams (Louisville, Marquette, etc) to the already powerful Big East basketball conference, interest in college basketball may shoot Pitt basketball up in the rankings.

(In keeping with the earlier rule cited in the Atlanta section, we won't include schoolboy football in the rankings.)

1. Pittsburgh Steelers
2. Pittsburgh Pirates
3. Pittsburgh Penguins
4. Pitt Panthers

Cincinnati

It sits by a river, has a mostly German heritage, has a history with lots of beer involved, is mostly conservative, and is passionate about baseball. St. Louis? Yes. Cincinnati? Yes. When you talk about baseball cities, you must include Cincinnati. As we all know, the Reds were the first-ever professional team and also the first to host a night game. For years Cincinnati made a big deal about hosting the first game of the year. That has sort of subsided with other teams and TV networks not caring anymore about the Reds’ presumed preeminence. But in Cincinnati, the Reds are still the top dog in town.

Many, including me, consider the Big Red Machine teams that averaged 100 wins a year from 1970 to 1976 (leaving out the aberration 1971 season) to be the gold standard by which all other 20th century teams should be measured. According to interviews with some of the Reds from that era, the fans of Cincinnati followed their boys around the Midwest to see them thump the Cubs, Cardinals, and Pirates with ease. Such dedication can be found nowadays among Cardinal and Cub fans, but the Reds seem to have lost a large part of that traveling support group. Now, granted, the team isn’t as good anymore (no team has really been that good for that long since, in my opinion) so it is to be expected that the traveling squads would diminish.

Cincinnati is also blessed with a rich basketball tradition centered on the man some consider to be the best ever. The Big O, from Indianapolis, eschewed his Hoosier roots to come play some amazing hoops for the Bearcats of the University of Cincinnati. After four straight Final Fours and two championships in the Robertson era (they actually won two titles the two years after he graduated), the school drifted back to mediocrity until the late 1980s and the arrival of mild-mannered Bob Huggins. Huggy Bear has certainly done his part to raise the level of play on the court and lower the standards off it. In true sports form, though, all venial and most mortal sins have been overlooked by Cincinnati boosters as Bob’s Bearcats have been a top 20 fixture for years.

While they haven’t been a top-20 fixture, the Musketeers of Xavier University have made some strong runs in the NCAA tournament, including an Elite Eight appearance last year that had the Ohio Jesuits drooling for just 4 more points against Duke. The Xavier-UC rivalry has shot right up there with the nation’s most storied and intense, especially in the last few years when both teams have been quite good.

Speaking of good, the Bengals did not have a losing season this year. (They were 8-8.) That’s good. 19-61 over the last five years, though, is not good. The Bengals have been so insanely bad lately that it's easy to forget that they have been to two Super Bowls and almost won in SB XXIII.

This city bleeds Red, though, and the current leaders of the NL Central are also Cincinnati’s sports King.

1. Cincinnati Reds
2. UC Basketball
3. Xavier basketball
4. Ohio State football
5. Cincinnati Bengals

Chicago

For more on Chicago please see the American League Central chapter. For this chapter I rely on quotes from the natives...

As you've probably already heard from many, Chicago is and always will be a Bears town. Although at the moment the Cubs are right there next to them. There are enough Sox fans, though, to keep the Cubs from number one. Sox fans loathe the Cubs while the Cubs don't care enough about the South Side to notice. Back in the 90s, and only in the 90s, I think the Bulls were probably number 2, but they've really slipped quite a bit thanks to their recent suckiness. Even now, when absolutely nothing is happening, local sports radio is 40% devoted to the Bears. Right now they're talking about "which veteran backup QB they're going to sign" and how good Lovie Smith will do in his first year.

As for your theories I would agree with the Bears choice. I think the best criteria is whose leaving the city would devastate Chicago the most. I still hesitate because of the time factor. During the Jordan Championship years the Bears took a slight backseat since the Bears sucked and the Bulls were winning everything in sight. However, I think if you gave most Chicago sports fans a choice during those years they would sadly wave goodbye to the Bulls. The thought of no NFL team in Chicago would be too much to bear. Another factor in Bears decision is the timing of the football season. When it is 20 below zero on a Sunday morning, what else is there to do but watch football? Also, since there are only 16 games a year, there is much more focus on each game. If football were somehow structured similar to baseball or basketball, where there are games all the time, the focus wouldn’t be as strong.

1. Chicago Bears
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Chicago White Sox
4. Chicago Bulls
5. Notre Dame football
6. Chicago Blackhawks
7. University of Illinois basketball / football
8. Chicago Fire
9. DePaul University basketball
10. Chicago Wolves

Houston

Does anyone realize that Houston is the fourth largest city in America? Come on now, how many of you really knew that? I’ve been to Houston a few times but never long enough to qualify myself as one who can comment on the sport scene there. For a brief summation I turn to my Houston buddy Eric (not the same Eric as Pittsburgh):

As far as Houston goes, the bottom line is that it is a crappy sports town. If the team is losing, the people don't give a crap about the team; if it is winning, you can't get a ticket. As far as a specific team... in Texas, football is king... although a little weird b/c they lost the Oilers, I would say the Texans have a stronghold on the city's fanbase right now.

My best personal memory of Houston came when I was twelve years old and I went down there with my dad for the sole purpose of seeing the Astrodome. Domes were still a novelty then and we figured we might as well see the son of this mother. We got there really early and wandered down to the box seats and then to the rail. I stood there wordlessly as the Astros and the Dodgers milled about, resplendent in double-knit. The Dodgers wrapped up their batting practice and, in a graceful motion and with a quick glance that I remember to this day, Tommy Lasorda flipped a baseball over the rail to me and gave me the head tilt that signifies “there ya go, kid.” In the hundreds and hundreds of baseball games I have attended that is the one and only ball I have ever come home with. (I got a foul ball at Busch once but had to give it away because I was working there.)

Nice story, I know, but it tells us nothing about Houston’s fans. Relying on feedback from the natives, I can safely say the Astros are not King, nor are the Rockets, who did take advantage of Michael Jordan’s first retirement to win two NBA titles in the mid 1990s. Back in the 1980s Guy Lewis had a monster team at the University of Houston that sported the very best team nickname of all time; but their dominance was fleeting and, like every other team in Texas, they fell back in line behind King Football.

Houston, though, has much more of a baseball fanbase than Dallas or other Texas towns. There is a good, albeit frustrating, Colt .45 and Astro tradition in town, anchored by names like Morgan, Wynn, Cruz, Richard, Ryan, Scott, Biggio, and Bagwell. And for all its football insanity, the University of Texas, which is closer to Houston than it is to Dallas, does have a rich baseball history and is currently the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. I think baseball gives football much more of a run for its money in Houston than anywhere else in Texas, but at the end of the day you just can’t knock the helmet off the King.

1. Houston Texans
2. Houston Astros
3. UT / Texas A&M football
4. Houston Rockets
5. UT baseball
6. UH Cougars football/basketball

St. Louis

Do I even need to do this one? I suspect that if you are visiting this site you believe the Cardinals are king. Well, you’re right. No contest. I could elaborate, but why?

Who is #2? Gotta be the Rams or the Blues right? Well, my long time friend Scott offers a different take than most would think of...

When you say "king" I know you mean supporting the "local teams," but if we are including institutions other than professional (i.e., college or other...), as well as what people actually play, soccer nearly tops baseball. The Cardinals are #1 but consider what soccer means to St. Louis. My thinking is based on history & numbers...

Comparatively speaking, throughout the town’s history & up to present day, soccer is something we all have in our blood.

Consider:

* The first organized leagues in St. Louis date from 1881. It was only in 1863 that the first codified laws of soccer were written!

* Semi-professional teams date from 1910 and were sponsored by the likes of Stix, Baer & Fuller, and various breweries, among others. League games in the 20s, 30s, 40s & 50s were played before "standing room only" crowds at Forest Park, Carondelet Park & other various places.

* The large Catholic make up of St. Louis led to the CYC soccer league participants outnumbering the Khoury leagues in terms of teams and players, then & now

* The first Olympic games to feature soccer were the St. Louis games of 1904. The team representing the US was none other than the CBC schoolboy squad!

*Over a dozen St. Louis teams, the first in 1920, have won National Championships at the youth & amateur level, more than nearly any other city.

*The world's first women’s league was formed in St. Louis in 1951

* In 1958 a local Amateur (!) team, Kutis, was selected to represent the US in World Cup Qualifying play

* SLU is the UCLA of college soccer. They possess 11 national championships (the most of any D1 program) and have appeared in 42 NCAA tournaments. Amazing when you consider the NCAA began the tourney in 1959.

* Other local college national champions: Florissant Valley has won 7 Junior college championships (the most ever), UMSL 2, Meramec 1 & SIUE 2

* The 1950 World Cup team that beat England (!) featured 5 St. Louisans. By the way, there was only one journalist from the US that accompanied them: Dent McSkimming of the Post Dispatch. In his words..."the town hangs on soccer news & we had to come, our readership demands it..." He is now in the US Soccer Hall of Fame. By the way, this win is the subject of a movie this summer called "The Game of Their Lives."

* EVERY World Cup squad ever assembled has had at least one St. Louisan.

* The National Soccer Hall of Fame has over 25 St. Louisans enshrined.

If you're thinking "great history but not a "fan sport," I disagree. The old NASL stars (featuring homegrown talent) had the highest attendance at the time, while the old Steamers had sellouts at the old Arena for nearly every game. In addition, SLU, UMSL, Lindenwood, and Wash. U actually consider soccer a moneymaker based on ticket sales & concessions. Even further down the chain, club soccer regularly sells tickets at the St. Louis Soccer park, and parochial matches are always well attended. Last year approx. 5,000 attended the state final match at the Soccer Park to see SLUH beat Chaminade.

Add it up: for 125 years St. Louisans have been participating & turning out in droves to see some of the finest soccer in North America. While sports fans are fickle, this hasn't waned much. Thus, I see it as "closer to king" than any other sport except Cardinal baseball.

Want more proof? Click on this

Excellent stuff, I think. It’s a nice alternative view with some good supporting evidence. Plus, I couldn’t pass up the chance to get the name “Dent McSkimming” into this piece.

As much as I love soccer, though, I have to look at stuff like the Post-Dispatch sports page and what the sports radio shows are talking about to decide what teams rank higher than others. With that in mind, here’s how the teams rank in the heart of St. Louis (this is not how I’d rank them in terms of my personal preference, except for the #1 slot, but how I think they are in STL) --

1. St. Louis Cardinals
1(a) – Redbird Nation staff
2. St. Louis Rams
3. St. Louis Blues
4. St. Louis University Billiken basketball
5. University of Missouri basketball
6. SLU Soccer
7. University of Missouri football

So, that’s it. The King series is over. I appreciated all the feedback from those who live or have lived in the cities covered. I certainly expected to be disagreed with a bit more!
I realize my subjective writing was a change of pace from those of you used to a daily dose of Brian’s astute observations and SABR-arguments. Hopefully you were able to wade through these long posts and get a chuckle or two out of them. Most importantly, I hope this series stirred some discussions among friends and families and gave you all something else to waste time on while at work. Thanks. - Flynn

Posted 9:49 AM by Brian
BEANBRAWLING Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here in Three River City. It all started in the first inning of last night's game, when struggling Bucs righthander Ryan Vogelsong drilled Scotty Rolen with a fastball to the batting helmet. Rolen, who was later diagnosed with a mild concussion, ran the bases but had to be pulled from the game before assuming his position in the field.

Rolen was shaken up, for sure, but he was thankful the beaning wasn't worse. "It could have hit me right in the face," he said.

Vogelsong, for his part, asked Rolen if he was okay after the incident, then checked again by calling Rolen in the Cardinals clubhouse, apologizing, and expressing his concern. Said Rolen,

"I tell you what, I'm a Vogelsong fan now. He came out of the game and called over to the clubhouse and asked if I was all right and apologized. That's first-class right there. That's very professional. Very, very classy."

End of story, right? Well, no. Seems our manager isn't as level-headed as his thirdbaseman. About Vogelsong's apology, TLR said, "that didn't make any difference." As for the pitch itself, Tony fumed,

"If you try to throw the ball inside, you've got to get the ball below the shoulders. That's inexcusable. If you're going to throw a 90-plus fastball and try to get it in on a major-league hitter, get the ball down. It just doesn't look very good when [Rolen] hits a three-run homer [Monday] and he hits a three-run homer off that kid last week."

Don't you admire how La Russa drops hints that the pitch was payback without having the courage to actually say it?

But La Russa wasn't done. He says he kept Rolen in the game to run the bases so that... well, I'll let him explain it:

"That way he might get a chance to break up two and knock the pivotman into the stands. Or a play at the plate where the pitcher covers the plate. You've got to give him a shot."

Now, some people might consider this kind of rhetoric tough, but it sounds totally pussy to me. Accidental beanings are part of the game, the same as rain delays and divots on the infield. If you stand in the batter's box, you can assume that a pitcher might get a little wild. It happens. La Russa's response to this -- bitch, moan, cast aspersions, aim for retaliation -- shows you how irrational the guy can be, especially considering he had hours after the HBP to calm down.

Rolen and Vogelsong deserve credit for acting like gentlemen and keeping a volatile situation from spiraling out of control. I can think of plenty of guys who would have made things worse: Milton Bradley, Izzy Alcantara, and, of course, our 59-year-old, animal-loving moron manager.

Posted 8:28 PM by Flynn
WHO'S KING? Part 5 of 6.

In this series, we explore the sports hierarchies in each MLB town and determine which team has the tightest grip on the local psyche and is “King.” This is the fifth of six parts.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL

Minneapolis / St. Paul

Grain Belt Beer. I love the Grain Belt Beer sign that is a local landmark and civic treasure in Minneapolis. I also love the fact that you can walk from building to building downtown in countless third story “skywalks” that span city streets. This keeps you out of the bitter winter cold, at least until you head out to your truck and then out to the lake for some ice fishing. (Please, take some time to read this, now...)

The cold used to be a formidable ally for the Bud Grant Vikings, the rugged Purple People Eaters who would grind out games over foes who slowly became numb and immobile in the freezer known as Metropolitan Stadium. It was during these years that Minnesotans, like their brethren in Buffalo, Green Bay, and other cold weather football towns, matured into major league pigskin maniacs. There’s got to be something about enduring the harsh weather to support your team that breeds the pride and passion that brews a city into a certified football hotbed. When the weather is lousy, there is the inevitable split between those who wimp out and run inside and those who find glory in braving the elements. When those who consider themselves tough for staying outside (and they are tough, don’t get me wrong here) find others who are willing to do the same simply for the sake of supporting their team, and then a fair amount of alcohol is thrown into the mix, well then you have yourself some fans. Minnesota has those fans.

Trouble is, back in 1982 the Vikings moved inside. While the faces of the team morphed from stoic Alan Page and slippery Fran Tarkenton through the Tommy Kramer years and now into the video game razzmatazz of Culpepper and Moss, the lunacy of the fans remained at the ten-below-zero level. Despite four Super Bowl losses and a slew of other near misses, the twin cities exist under a Purple Reign. The Vikings wear the crown, and the horns, here.

Reader feedback and testimony from several who lived and studied in MPLS rank the University of Minnesota hockey team as the #2 squad in town. High school hockey is enormous in Minnesota and interest in the state tournament has reached a level unsurpassed by any high school tournament in any sport anywhere [although surely equaled by wrestling in Iowa, hoops in Indiana (pre-size classification), and football in Texas]. Most of these schoolboy heroes, if they don’t go on to play junior hockey, play for the Golden Gophers. What’s incredible about the Gophers is that for an extremely long time, if not forever, their roster was 100% Minnesotans. While other elite programs nationwide loaded up on Canadians and Europeans, the Gophers stayed with the homeboys. Finally they gave in and recruited Grant Potulny, a North Dakotan. Minnesotans surely forgave Grant the sin of not being from the Land of 10,000 Lakes when he led them to the 2002 National Championship, scoring the game winner in overtime in the Final.

Speaking of championships, the Twins won two in five years back in 1987 (ouch) and 1991. The love for the team comes and goes, though, and this is yet another place where baseball has to be content to be second fiddle, or really, fourth here. The Twins have been nudged even further out of the picture by the NHL’s Wild, who seem to have a very intelligent approach to running a team. The Wild have a policy of making the team more important than any player (easier said than done) and establishing a culture about themselves that fans can relate to and support. It’s very college-like and makes sense in this age when players come and go like so many mercenaries.

The Wild does tons of work in the community and sort of mandates that its players carry themselves like regular guys. It is almost like they are a minor-league team doing whatever they can to ingratiate themselves to the town. The difference is that these guys play at the highest level and they win, like last year when they made it to the Western Conference Finals. And oh yeah, they sell out every game too. Pretty good example to follow if you are starting up a team. The built-in mania for hockey doesn’t hurt, but remember, the Wild is probably the #3 hockey team in most fans’ hearts behind their local high school team and the Gophers. That, to me, makes what they’ve done all the more impressive.

As for the Timberwolves, well...

1. Minnesota Vikings
2. University of Minnesota Gopher hockey
3. Minnesota Wild
4. Minnesota Twins
5. Minnesota Timberwolves

Detroit

I turn the Motor City over to my friend Dave, who was born and raised there and has, as you will see, a writing style all his own. I, for one, have no idea what “sanguinary” means. See below...

(Important pre-reading disclaimer: I know many more Michigan State people than Michigan people. I think they tend to stay in Michigan and the Midwest more than those from Ann Arbor and most I know take themselves a lot less seriously. I take no responsibility for the MSU reference contained below...)

In the state of Michigan, the city of Detroit holds court to what passes for sports royalty. With one exception, this royalty can be compared with the monarchy of England: thin-blooded, ineffectual, archaic, twitchy, and in a near-constant, effusive love affair with its halcyon days. However, like many inbred families, a throwback to the pure bloodline occasionally reasserts itself and asserts control of the kingdom. In the City of Detroit, the king sports the sanguinary plumage of the Redwing. So total is its control that large numbers of avid fans have sought to re-brand the long-standing moniker from The Murder City to Hockeytown USA. Better marketing, but a bloody fist by any other name...

It is unsurprising that, in a city equally celebrated and decried for its casual violence, hockey is king. In Detroit, they fight in the streets; they fight in the arenas – Joe Louis Arena to be specific, named for one of our more celebrated gladiators. Coincidence? At least our routines are less markedly disrupted by our sports than in other cities. In Detroit, there is no such thing as a rabid hockey fan... just your average citizen out for a mildly diverting evening (if that involves beating the piss out of friend and foe alike, what matter?). That we occasionally mark our champions’ approval by hurling unlucky mollusks onto the battlefield is a simple eccentricity, like ancient Scots painting themselves blue or the naked Spartans of legend.

Standing well below the Wings is another sports team worth noting. This is because the entire state can support it, if only through the solidarity inspired by casual hatred. No matter what college in Michigan you went to (or even if you went out of state for that matter), when college football season begins, it's automatically okay for everyone in Michigan to detest Ohio (and not just for the usual reasons), Indiana, Minnesota, and any other state’s school that dares to defile the grass of The Big House with it’s presence. The rivalries between U of M football and other school's programs foster a hatred of which Satan himself would be proud. And with the Michigan label, everyone in the state can get in on it (even those think they support Michigan State know where the real action is). It's not unknown for Buckeye fans to be set upon and caned across the state line during this time. And they are the lucky ones. God help you if happen to support that nefarious institution called Notre Dame. Whatever religion you happen to subscribe to in your daily life, The Church of Michigan College Football cries such anathema on Our Lady it’s as if she had been spat from the ninth circle of hell itself (St. Shembeckler, pray for us!).

The Pistons fall in here somewhere as well for being a Detroit team with at least middling success. They ride a Tilt-a-Whirl of mediocrity and talent that rolls them into success about every ten years or so. While undisputedly a fan generator (and the Pistons have their die-hards), it has no serious bid for king. At best, it contests with Michigan football on a battle line that coincides disturbingly with the city/suburban boundary.

The Tigers, while fierce-sounding, are actually the Redwings' sickly and inbred cousins. They have no real power outside the pity-induced memories of their fathers and have of late set impressive records for being not just abysmal, but triumphantly abysmal at their chosen profession. But if you have to be the worst, you might as well be the best at it. Since the last successful Tiger World Series ended in a celebratory and high-minded burning of the city by fans, perhaps this is just as well.

The Lions are beyond even pity. They’ve reeled through a 20-year slump like a one-legged man attempting The Curly Shuffle. Too bad Moe hasn’t been there to slap them around a bit.
So, in conclusion, I would rank Michigan/Detroit sports as follows:

1. Wings
2. Michigan football
3. Pistons (Edge to Wolverines for sheer numbers)
4. Tigers
5. Hunting Canadian hookers in Windsor
6. Lions

Cleveland

I’ve only been to Cleveland once, so I’ll turn it over to the natives...

My friend Jon...

Growing up in Cleveland and still to this day, the Browns are the be all and end all in C-town. The Indians made a strong run in the 90's and were endeared not only because of the great run they had, but because the Browns left town. The Indians have never had a consistent team other than the 90's so there's not a tremendous amount of history (compared to the Browns). The horrible attendance indicates this, no doubt (approximately 15,000/game compared to 7 years straight of sellouts (43,000)). Here's the wild card, however.... LEBRON.... We’re starting to turn into a basketball town... it's up in the air... if King James lives up to the hype (which it looks like he will) and he gets a good supporting cast (a la Jordan), basketball may takeover as James may go down as one of the greatest athletes of all time... I stress the "time will tell," but it looks pretty damn good.

And my friend Barry...

Cleveland is Browns Town without question. The Cavs and Indians are fun to watch when they are winning and get a great following, but when they are losing attendance drops dramatically along with the general interest in the teams. But Browns games sell out no matter how poorly they play. Talk radio is dominated with Browns talk even in the off season. The Browns did leave once and there was almost mass suicide (not to mention the murder of Modell).

1. Cleveland Browns
2. Ohio State Football
3. Cleveland Indians
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
5. Cleveland Steamers

Kansas City

Kansas City is a great sports town in part because they have a pretty limited amount of teams there to dilute their interest. Unless I am missing something there are four real players in town with perhaps two or three supporting acts that get a second look when they are winning.

One look at the acres of parking lots sprawling under a haze of barbecue smoke during the hours before a game at Arrowhead is all you need to know who is King here. The Chiefs rule KC, as they should, given their name. With solid roots of success in the great AFL, the Chiefs give Kansas City something to hang their hat on.

Smaller markets like Kansas City are, to me, one of the things that I love about sports. I think back to the late ‘70s Whitey-led Royals who fell to the mighty Yankees in ’77 and ’78 but finally broke though and beat them in 1980. I’m just making an ignorant guess here, but I would presume that New York could beat Kansas City, as a city, in pretty much every measurable and immeasurable “city” category across the board except for maybe greeting cards and stockyards. But, in sports, the Royals can beat the Yankees, the Chiefs can cream the Jets, and the little band of KC rooters does occasionally get its chance to sit atop the world (insert MLB competitive imbalance rant here).

Kansas City enjoys a unique situation in that it sits between two college hoops programs that don’t get the East Coast press of Duke and North Carolina but have a fierce rivalry nonetheless. Kansas-Missouri is, unfortunately for Tiger fans, fairly lopsided in favor of the Rock Chalks but the Hearnesians have won enough big games to keep things interesting throughout the years. Feedback from KC people tells me that the town is fairly split between each school, with your geography, predictably, dictating whom you root for.

This is a Cardinal site so any mention of the Royals surely has most readers reaching for the nearest bottle of Tums. I know I once attended a game at Kauffman stadium and kept gazing at the 1985 championship flag there as if it were emblazoned with the face of the guy who robbed my house. The feeling is equal parts denial, amazement, and still, 19 years later, shock. We better wrap Kansas City up before this monitor gets thrown out the window.

1. Kansas City Chiefs
2. University of Kansas basketball
3. University of Missouri basketball
4. Kansas City Royals

Chicago

Here is the town that started the debate that led to this series. It is my belief that, while the Cubs are hot now, they still can’t fill the clawmarks of the largest mammals in town – the Chicago Bears.

There is a post-college track that a lot of people take through Chicago. People who take this track generally come to town for a job in the Loop, live on the north side for several years, and then head back to their hometowns or out to the massive suburbs once they marry and have a few kids. These people generally believe that the Cubs are #1. These people made up a large portion of the manic crowds you saw on TV surrounding Wrigley Field last year when the Cubs were in the playoffs. They didn’t grow up here, but the Cubs are fun, Wrigley Field is fun, it’s all fun – Yaaay!!!

Get out into the suburbs where families have been for three or four generations, though, and you are in Bear Country. It’s hard to describe the magnitude of Chicago’s suburbs. Go 35 miles west of downtown and you’ll be in Naperville, the third largest city in Illinois and without question a suburb. Heck, there’s more suburbs west of there, filled with people who come into Chicago to work every day. Go 35 miles west of St. Louis and you are in Pacific, Missouri, a growing town for sure, but not one with over 130,000 people like Naperville. And oh yeah, everything between Naperville and downtown is packed with people as well. And they’re all Bear fans. The suburbs are where you’ll find the Superfans, the RVs painted blue and orange, and framed album covers on the walls. The never-ending suburbs are the lifeblood of Bears football and their undivided loyalty to the Bears trumps the area’s baseball fans, who are split unequally between the Cubs and the Sox.

This is the AL Central chapter, so what about those White Sox? It’s been said on this site that the Sox are the least interesting team in sports. They never win and they aren’t colorful when they lose. Well, in their recent past they played awfully well in 2000, Albert Belle had the best season nobody knew about in 1998, and Comiskey was jumping on a few nights last year before they faltered late. Not much, I know...

The Sox are of course hindered by the presence of the Cubs in Chicago. The big difference, to my eyes (and I’ve lived here full time for only six years, just to qualify, or disqualify if you want), is that there are no “casual” Sox fans. I think as far as real hardcore fans go, there are probably more hardcore Cub fans than Sox fans, but not an overwhelming amount. The Cubs, though, have an enormous amount of casual fans. If you’re a twentysomething young lady who has moved to Chicago from another midwestern state and is starting a post-college life, you love the Cubs. Your boyfriend with the Greek letters tattooed on his ass loves the Cubs. So you go and pay $70 to a guy on the street to sit in the bleachers and have a good time. More power to you.

This is not true of all Cub fans, of course. In fact this is not true of most Cub fans. There are tons of well-informed, loyal, good Cub fans who resent the image I just painted. I recognize that those fans (as well as those who have been fans forever) probably despise the new generation of frat-boy fans that has invaded Wrigley the last ten years. Every team, nowadays, has this element in its fanbase. The Cubs, though, play in a neighborhood that is overwhelmingly populated with these people. Wrigley is for a lot of them just another bar. Again, there are more Cub fans that don’t fit this description than do.

The Sox? They don’t get those fans. There are plenty of Sox fans in Chicago, and plenty of young Sox fans. They grew up here. Most of them would consider themselves unlike the uniform-wearing Cub fans throwing balls back on the field, but there’s a ton of people who head out to US Cellular to pound beers and get silly just like they do up north. There is a lot made of the “cultural differences” between Sox fans and Cub fans, most of which is driven by stereotypes and ignorance. The “core” Cub fans seem to me to be similar to the “core” Sox fans. They both care deeply about their teams and most root against the rival team with as much fervor as they root for their own (Sox fans tend to hate Cub fans more than visa versa, in my view). What hurts the Sox is that they don’t have anything close to the “regional” fanbase the Cubs do. Sox fans are city people or those in the south and west suburbs. There are tons of Cub fans from outside Chicagoland, though. Busloads of people come in from Iowa, Indiana, and downstate Illinois for every game. It’s these Chicago immigrants, along with the “just moved here” crowd, that creates the Cub Nation that rules the city, but not all of Chicagoland.

Speaking of immigrants, Chicago has ‘em by the shipload. As a guy who grew up in whitebread St. Louis County, I am always intrigued when I hear the various languages spoken in my neighborhood. Just in my little community we have Germans, Poles, Mexicans, Thais, Romanians, Russians, Croatians, Serbs, Bosnians, Filipinos, and more. One thing all these people have in common, besides green cards, is their love of soccer. This population, and the ranks of those who grew up playing in various youth leagues in the ‘burbs, makes up the legion of Chicago Fire fans that filled last year’s temporary home in Naperville and now makes its presence known at Soldier Field. The Fire get much love in Chicago.

As for the teams that play inside, Chicagoans will tell you that even when the Bulls were hot (and were they ever hot), there was a feeling that it was all so fleeting. Once MJ left it would all be over, the Bulls would fade into the woodwork, and fall back into their slot below the Bears and Cubs. Those folks were right. Despite Chicago’s abundance of basketball talent and tradition, the Bulls following is meager.

The Blackhawks are a sad story. Putrid ownership has steered this once proud franchise into the NHL sewer. A few years ago, I was at a Blackhawk game and the pre-game build-up, which in most arenas consists of a video montage of the team’s stars scoring goals and beating guys up, was a slow-motion pan shot of the Blackhawk sweater. Now, the Blackhawk crest is the best in hockey and the sweater is probably the coolest uniform in all sports, but it’s pathetic when the best thing a team has going for it is a logo designed 80 years ago. Hawk fans are, like all true hockey fans, a dedicated bunch who occupy a special niche in the city’s fanbase. Their ranks are dwindling, though, as hockey junkies are now increasingly turning to the suburbs to support the minor league Chicago Wolves, a low-priced alternative that offers hitting, scoring, fighting, and as a change of pace, winning.

1. Chicago Bears
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Chicago White Sox
4. Chicago Bulls
5. Chicago Blackhawks
6. Chicago Fire
7. DePaul University basketball
8. Chicago Wolves

Live in one of these towns? Agree? Disagree? I’m sure you do. What do you think and why? Please save any comments about towns not in this article. We’ll get to them in due time.

Next chapter – NL Central: Milwaukee, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Houston, St. Louis.