Cards Soar In Foreign Land
June 23, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
You know, when the discussion of launching pad stadiums comes up, I never think of Toronto’s Rogers Center. Â Wrigley, Coors, even the old Atlanta stadium that started the nickname. Â However, if last night is any indication, Rogers Center is right up there with the rest of them. The Cardinals played the long ball better, smashing […]
Sweep Incomplete
June 17, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
Busy couple of nights at the ballpark, with most of the focus on the bump in the middle. First off, the Jeff Suppan return tour kicked off in a manner that didn’t shock me too much, though I will admit I didn’t think it’d be that strong. Â You had a guy that’d made some adjustments, […]
Cardinals Struggling In LA
June 9, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
You know, when the offense is clicking, you think things are just going to roll on forever. Â However, even with an offense like the Cardinals’, when you take out a couple of pieces, the Jenga tower apparently falls down. Another game without David Freese or Colby Rasmus turns into a 1-0 loss. Â Chris Carpenter deserved […]
A Cardinal Weekend
June 7, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
The Cardinals had a good weekend against the Brewers, though it could have been better. Â Their slipup last night on ESPN’s game of the week dropped them back into a tie for first. Â I go over this series and the Reds series in my weekly column, but let’s take a look at them here as […]
Another Brick in the Wall
June 2, 2010 by Ted Leavengood · Leave a Comment
Is Strasburg’s looming debut next Tuesday more important for the future of the Nationals, or Roy Oswalt’s admission on Tuesday of this week, that he would accept a trade to Washington? The two are inextricably linked. Â Oswalt’s view that there are good things going on in Washington redounds to the excitement Strasburg is generating, but […]
Laying An Egg
May 14, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or been thrown into some big glowing light on a remote island. Â My work schedule has made it tough to blog this week and the Cardinals’ play has keep the motivation to blog down as well. Â Let’s take a quick look at the Houston series […]
That Night, They Were Men
May 7, 2010 by Gabriel Schechter · Leave a Comment
Recently I was showing the photo album of my bar mitzvah to some long-lost cousins who only vaguely remembered attending it. Even with the help of the photos, I don’t remember all that much about it myself. I do know that it was the last time I ever spoke–much less chanted–in Hebrew. I ate, danced, […]
Redbirds Roll Through Weekend
May 3, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
It was a very busy weekend for me, but the Cardinals did a lot of working as well. Â By now you know all about the games, but let’s take a quick look at Thursday through Sunday to get our Heroes and our Goats. Â (If you want a more in-depth look, my Week that Was column […]
Cardinal Comeback
April 27, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who has expressed kind words over the Cardinal Blogosphere Guide.  I hope that it results in increased traffic for the blogs listed and that you can find another source of can’t-miss Cardinal writing. Perhaps it was just me, but it seems like if this was […]
Pitchin’ On The Dock Of The Bay
April 26, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
You knew, just looking at the matchups, two things about this weekend’s series. Â One, it was going to be darn tough for the Cardinals to keep their streak of not losing a series alive. Â The second was that if anyone scored, it was going to be a fairly impressive accomplishment. Sometimes when you think you […]
Disaster Start
April 21, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
So far the Cardinals have played two games in Arizona. Â The differences could not be more stark. Monday night, it was vintage 2010 Cardinals. Â Brad Penny allowed a couple of runs in the first, then cruised, piling up out after out, extending the streak of starters going seven and allowing two runs or less to […]
Whatever happened to finish what you start?
April 20, 2010 by Steve Lenox · Leave a Comment
For some reason, I can’t get Joe Girardi’s comments about possibly pulling C.C. Sabathia in the late innings of his start against Tampa Bay on Saturday, April 10 with a no-hitter intact because of his rising pitch count out of my head. I understand that high pitch counts, especially early on in the season, can […]
2010 NL Central Preview
March 31, 2010 by Kevin Wheeler · Leave a Comment
The NL Central may not be the strongest division in baseball but the top four teams in for 2010 have all improved over what they were in 2009, at least on paper. There is some depth to this division that didn’t exist before and that should make for an exciting Summer.
Cardinals Continue to Battle Injuries
March 25, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
Things were rolling along. Â Matt Holliday was back from his rib cage injury and starting to find his groove. Â Albert Pujols was back from his back, relieving a lot of worries in Cardinal Nation. Â Everything was great, until yesterday’s game, when Yadier Molina pulled up lame, left the game, and was diagnosed with a strained […]
Garcia Makes a Statement
March 17, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
Even though the Cardinals lost to the Nationals yesterday, they were able to take something away from it.  Jaime Garcia isn’t interested in Memphis. Garcia struck out seven batters in three innings, allowing no runs and just one hit and a walk.  Of  course, you adjust that for competition, since the Nationals aren’t known for […]
Dealing With the “Rumor”
March 16, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
I guess not surprisingly, the biggest thing coming out of Cardinals camp yesterday was a Seinfeldian discussion about nothing. Look, no one took that “trade rumor” involving Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard the least bit seriously. Â No one thought that it might happen, that the teams really had talked about it, etc. Â I think most […]
Fun at the Old Ballpark
March 15, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
The Cardinals seem to have righted the ship and are moving in a positive direction, winning both games of the weekend. Â Before we talk about that, though, let’s discuss the topic making the rounds: Buster Olney’s report of a Albert Pujols/Ryan Howard trade. First off, the Olney report is probably accurate, because when you read […]
Wounded Birds
March 11, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
While there was plenty of news from the game yesterday, the biggest discussion point probably happened before the first pitch was ever thrown. Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday were both scratched from yesterday’s game against the Nationals. Â Pujols’s back still isn’t quite right and Holliday has a strained rib cage muscle. Â A team that looks […]
Back Against It
March 9, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
The biggest news from Cardinals camp yesterday didn’t come out of the matchup between the Cards and the Red Sox, between Chris Carpenter and Josh Beckett. Â The news of the day was made before the game even started and hopefully hasn’t put the team’s back to the wall. Albert Pujols didn’t make the trip yesterday […]
Stumbling Out of the Gate
March 5, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
Well, that wasn’t the way Cardinal fans wanted to see things get started. OK, let’s put in the usual disclaimers. Â It was a spring training game. Â Most of the regulars weren’t in there, and you can’t take a lot away from one game, especially the first of the year. Â So I’m not drawing any conclusions […]
Let’s Play Some Ball
March 4, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
I check the weather forecast and it’s supposed to be in the sixties this weekend. Â I can see the sun coming up earlier and earlier and staying up later and later. Â Those might be signs, but the real indicator that spring is returning comes today, as the Cardinals take on another MLB team. Â Baseball games […]
The Day “Sunny Jim” Made History
February 22, 2010 by Dave Heller · 1 Comment
One of the great things about going to a baseball game is you’ll never know what you will see. Perhaps you might witness a no-hitter or a triple play. Or, as was the case for roughly 8,000 fans in Brooklyn on Sept. 16, 1924, a record which has yet to be broken. Certainly there were […]
Cardinals Getting Ready
February 22, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
Before we get to the news of the weekend, it’s just come across Twitter that the Cards have invited Shelby Miller and Sam Freeman into camp. While it’s most likely to make sure they have enough arms for whatever drills and situations that they have in mind, it’s still interesting to see Miller get a […]
Starting the Routine
February 19, 2010 by Daniel Shoptaw · Leave a Comment
Things are starting to get established down in Jupiter. Yesterday, it was Tony LaRussa’s time in front of the media. You can hear some of his remarks here. A lot of what you’d expect out of TLR, a lot of working hard, have a chance to compete, etc. Tony’s not likely to tip his hand […]