Why Albert Pujols Will Stay In St. Louis

We heard it a lot. At the end of September and during every playoff series, we heard “this could be the last time Albert Pujols has an at-bat in a Cardinal uniform,” sometimes tweaked with the last home appearance. So much so that someone made a chart out of how he did in those situations. […]

Happily Ever After

Once upon a time, there was a baseball team. This baseball team wasn’t the richest team, though it wasn’t poor by any means.  It wasn’t the strongest team and it wasn’t by any means the fastest team.  It wasn’t even considered the best team within its region, much less in all the land. This team […]

All-Star Thinking

No, the title of this post has nothing to do with the quality of thoughts that you’ll find here.  With the All-Star Game this evening, it seemed a good time to talk about my thoughts on the game.  I probably have done that before, but it’s always good to rehash and rethinking things.  Below are […]

St. Louis vs. Cincinnati

How exactly did we get here?  How did we come from St. Louis and Cincinnati having just a passing thought in each other’s minds to a knockdown, dragout rivalry between the two squads and the two fan bases?  And, honestly, why is there such a rivalry, Johnny Cueto notwithstanding? The history of Cardinals and Reds […]

A Loss, But Not A 2010 Loss

I missed a lot of last night’s game, since our TV was on the local weather instead of more enjoyable pursuits.  (For the record, lot of time spent huddled in the safe area and according to some pictures, there were some ugly clouds right around our place, but no damage done.) I did get to […]

A New Beginning, The Same Ending

In all the hoopla surrounding the start of the season, perhaps I misunderstood.  I thought we were turning the page to 2011, not reliving 2010.  Yet, for one game at least, a lot of last year’s issues reared their head in St. Louis. It was extremely frustrating to see how many two on, nobody out innings […]

Final Cardinal Cuts

I’ve had a wonderful run of luck with my prognostications lately.  Seems like anytime I say X, Y actually happens and fairly quickly afterwards. Yesterday was another of those days, as Fernando Salas was sent to Memphis and Bryan Augenstein made the team.  I will admit that when the Cards plucked Augenstein from the waiver wire, I just […]

Off On The Wrong Foot

After months and months of the cold winter void, even a loss to the Marlins looks good. Cardinals stumbled out of the gate yesterday in their first Grapefruit League exhibition, losing 5-3 to the Marlins.  Raul Valdes didn’t do much to put his name into the fifth starter conversation, giving up four runs in his two […]

Overly Optimistic Cardinals Post

There was a lot of doom and gloom among fans and national media types yesterday with the news that Adam Wainwright is out for the season, as confirmed this morning by John Mozeliak.  The players may not be feeling it, but there were a lot of people that immediately wrote off the chances of the Cardinals, going so […]

The Calm After The Storm

Yesterday’s deadline came and went.  Albertageddon peaked yesterday morning, but by the end of the day had calmed back down.  Life goes on. The man himself showed up today at camp.  He spent a good half an hour talking to the press, in a situation reminiscent of Mark McGwire’s address to the media last spring training.  McGwire spoke […]

Stan Musial Day

Today, we set aside deadlines and contracts and negotiations.  Today, we set aside forecasting and expectations.  We set all of that aside, at least for a short time, because today is a day for greatness. As all Cardinal fans know, Stan Musial, the greatest Cardinal of them all, is in Washington today to receive the Presidential […]

Love Is In The Air

Today is a day of love.  That love that keeps you going, that warms you through the winter and sustains you in the summer.  The love that is always there, continuing to grow and evolve.  You have to have it, can’t live without it. Yes, my friends, today is Pitchers And Catchers Report Day.  I […]

Cardinal Nation Catchup

As we continue to hold our breath, waiting for news that will indicate that February 16th will be a great day in Cardinal Nation rather than the potential beginning of the end, there are a few other things going on as well with the team in red. First off, last weekend the Cardinals signed Jim Edmonds […]

Yet Another Pujols Entry

I know, I know.  The Albert Pujols negotiations have been done to death.  The scraps of information in the national press are even too small for a mouse, to reference a classic Christmas tale.  So why should we talk about it again? Well, for one thing, there’s not much else out there to talk about. […]

Scraping Bottom

The biggest news in the last few days in Cardinal Nation has been the signing of Nick Punto.  When that’s your biggest news, you know things are quiet. Punto is probably fine, as far as he goes.  The problem is, he just doesn’t go that far.  As Joe Strauss not-so-obliquely implied, whenever the official press release […]

A Tale Of Two Cities

Yesterday, following Twitter, there was the suggestion floated that Cliff Lee might be looking at an unnamed team in a “place he loves.”  Following on that with some discussion at this weekend’s poker table, when around a third-hand report (which, being that Lee is from Arkansas, wasn’t surprising) of Lee hoping last year that the […]

Scrooged

My thanks to all that read and expressed such kind things about my recent foray into parody writing.  Unfortunately, one of those that did not read this (apparently) was Mr. John Mozeliak, because he completely gutted the piece by trading Brendan Ryan yesterday. Everyone has immediately jumped all over Tony La Russa for this move, which may […]

A Cardinal Christmas Carol

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Mozeliak.” The general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, John Mozeliak, looked up from the paperwork on his desk.  Running a baseball team might be enjoyable and have great perks, but it never stops. “Thank you, Molly.  I hope you have a nice holiday as well.  Are you visiting family?” Molly nodded. […]

The Berkman Actuality

Regular reader(s) will remember that, last week, I wrote about the possibility that Lance Berkman would become a Cardinal.  My conclusion was that it wouldn’t happen and it didn’t work for the Cardinals. Yeah, this is why I don’t bet actual money on anything. As you know by now, the Cards came to terms with Berkman over […]

Expectations Met

Well, it was a road game against a cellar-dweller.  Was there really any doubt how last night’s game was going to turn out? Just for kicks, here’s something interesting.  The last time the Cardinals won on Tuesday, they had a brawl during the game, as it was that sweep in Cincy that had everyone fired up. […]

Broken Promises

“I won’t lose again.” Adam Wainwright said those words two starts ago, upset with how he had been performing and looking at a four-game losing streak.  He was able to win last time out, continuing the vow, but last night, that promise was broken. The two-out problem bit the Cardinals again.  In the second, Wainwright had […]

More Of The Same

It’s a little checklist that Cardinal fans go through before games, to prepare themselves for what is to come: Is the opposing pitcher someone the Cardinals haven’t seen much of? Check. Does the opposing pitcher have a high ERA? Check. Is the opposing pitcher lefthanded? Hey, he’s not!  Maybe they have a chance! Of course, […]

Cardinals Get Off Script

We’ve seen it before.  Way too many times, in fact.  A miscue, a bad pitch, and suddenly the Cardinals are in a 3-0 hole early in the game, a hole that they don’t climb out of as they slog to another loss. Finally, someone got that script into rewrite. I was afraid we were in for […]

“It Didn’t Look Like They Wanted To Come Out And Beat Us”

I think the title of this post says it all.  When a player on the opposing team questions the desire, there’s little else to say about the 2010 Cardinals. That was Geoff Blum’s quote to MLB.com after yesterday’s game.  “It didn’t look like they wanted to come out and beat us at all.”  We talked about […]

Cardinals Keep Destroying Hope

I wonder if any of his old friends in Cincinnati have called Adam Dunn and said thanks for the help. Since his home run on Saturday, the Cards have scored a total of two runs in 31 innings.  Since that moment, this team his hitting .152 against staffs that are on second-division teams.  Since that […]

Another Lost Cardinal Weekend

What is left to say about this team?  We are using up all the possible words to describe what we are seeing out of this team that, on paper, is one of the most talented ever to play in St. Louis but, on the field, has a frustrating inability to not put bad teams away. […]

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

On the face of it, it wasn’t a terrible loss.  Most discussion of the next 10 games had the Cardinals going 8-2 if they wanted to make a run, so they haven’t ruined that.  Cincinnati lost and so did Philadelphia, so they stayed right where they were in regards to the postseason. And yet….. It […]

Pujols In The City

I think that, if I were the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I would petition Major League Baseball to make sure that the Cardinals never came to Pittsburgh in August.  It’d be bad enough to face Albert Pujols in his own park in the month that he’s always hitting, but to have him come to PNC […]

Sigh-Inducing

Just when you start to believe in this team, to think that they’ve finally found that gas pedal on the team car, they stomp on the brakes.  A four game winning streak to get into first place?  Let’s follow that up with three losses against sub-.500 teams!  I feel like I’m a driving instructor. Of course, […]

The Frustration Continues

Remember when I said that Cardinal fans should caution against getting too high off of that Cincinnati series?  Unfortunately, this 2010 team is becoming predictably frustrating.  Let’s look at the series. Friday (6-3 win) Hero: Albert Pujols.  Three hits, including a home run, and scored three runs.  AP pretty much did it all. Goat: Brendan Ryan.  Not […]

A Cautionary Note

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a bit, but before I could write about it Brian Burwell, for once, beat me to it.  There’s been a lot of optimism out of the sweep of Cincinnati, as well there should be.  However, I’m not sure we can say this team has turned the corner and the […]

Sweeping Our Cares Away

Earlier this year, the Cardinals took the first two games from the Toronto Blue Jays on the road and sent out Adam Wainwright to complete the sweep.  Wainwright, though, had one of his rare off games and the Cards weren’t able to use the brooms. This time, though, Wainwright was able to seal the deal and […]

Doing It The Hard Way

When I turned on the game a little late last night, I was well-pleased to see that the Cards had already been serious, putting up six in the top of the inning.  And even though Jaime Garcia allowed two runs of his own in the bottom of the frame, I figured the Cards were well […]

Frustration Revisited

I thought this was behind us. Whatever corner the Cardinals turned after the All-Star break, they’ve turned another one or two and seem to be back where they started from–a frustrating team that can’t get anything going.  And when the big gun has an off night, you know things aren’t going your way. I guess you […]

Gaining On The Off Day

The Cardinals hit the Big Apple yesterday.  They saw the sites (Ryan Franklin went to the Statue of Liberty with his family, according to the official Cardinal Twitter feed), made some appearances (more on Albert Pujols in a bit) and picked up a half-game on the Reds when Milwaukee beat them 3-2.  In other words, just […]

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