It’s amazing what nine innings of stellar pitching can do, when combined with a timely hit or two.

Jaime Garcia was back to his brilliant self, tossing eight innings (on 92 pitches) and allowing only one run. His teammates were struggling against Bronson Arroyo for much of the night, but Garcia did enough that one swing of the bat could change the whole story.

Matt Holliday apparently liked that idea. After Carlos Beltran singled, Holliday blasted a critical (some would say “clutch!”) home run to give the Cardinals their first lead in a game since Saturday. Only those two runs would score for the Redbirds, but with Jaime going strong, and Edward Mujica ready for the save, that would be enough. The Cardinals picked up win No. 15 on the season, and snapped a three-game losing streak.

I guess one way to keep the struggling bullpen from wasting quality starts and late-game leads is to pitch well enough to not need them! (Also, as a side note, look at Garcia, fielding his position! He was all over the place yesterday, chasing down slow rolling balls and firing down to first for the outs. Well done, sir!)

No, this win didn’t solve all the problems the Cards have had lately. The offense didn’t come bursting out of its funk with double digit runs. But, a win’s a win. And a win is just what the Cardinals needed to end the first month of baseball on a good note.

Let’s look at that note, shall we? » Continue reading “Holliday Helps Jaime And The Cardinals Finish April Right”

A few years back, the Cardinals came up with this crazy idea to invite 40+ amateur writers/photographers/analysts (okay, bloggers) to a special, private event at Busch stadium. Bill DeWitt III and John Mozeliak played along, making themselves available to answer questions and provide insight. And, somehow, three years later, Blogger Day continues!

The Cardinals in recent years have done a great job incorporating non-traditional media into the way they share information. They’re not only committed to their own branches of social media, but they have embraced what we as fans have turned into quite the network of “non-traditional” coverage. And, the Cardinals staff make excellent hosts.

I keep trying to decide how best to describe the experience this past weekend in St. Louis. Last year, (my first at the event) I may have been so in awe of the whole ordeal that I didn’t realize the same things I did this time around. Let me try to explain …

You know how, as a kid, your parents would drag you to dinner with some old family friends, and you would be threatened within an inch of your life to be on your best behavior? It wasn’t like that. At all. Think, instead, about that trip to see your really cool aunt and uncle and your favorite cousins. Sure, they may expect certain things of you, but mostly they just want you to feel comfortable, have the best time, and go home ready to come back again.

Photo courtesy of the Cardinals

It was like that.

The event is a reunion of sorts anyway, since most of us don’t actually live in St. Louis. So, we see one another once or twice a year. The efforts made by the media relations staff to get us all there and coordinated are tremendous each time, and it certainly makes for an even more enjoyable visit to beautiful Busch.

Many who attended last year were greeted by name as we made our way through the executive offices to the conference space where Mr. DeWitt and Mo would soon be joining us. Thanks to Lindsey Weber and Ron Watermon, we collected not only tickets, but also Carlos Beltran bobbleheads.

And, we were just getting warmed up. » Continue reading “Blogger Day 2013: Ballpark Village, Shelby Miller And The Hat Color Conundrum”

Cards win 5-1 over Reds behind Lynn, Adams & yes, the bullpen.

This was just the kind of bounce-back winner the Cardinals — and all of us fans — needed.

After Monday’s home opener collapse, there was an overwhelming sense of “Maybe we have more problems than we thought we did!” that was fighting against the ever-present logic shouting “It was ONE GAME!”

The reality is, Monday night was a really awful way to lose. But, more telling than one heartbreaking loss would be how this team rebounded the very next day against the very same team … with the very same guys who struggled the night before.

Before Trevor Rosenthal and Mitchell Boggs had their chances to remind us that all is not lost, Lance Lynn was up for a comeback of his own. After pitching only four innings in his first start of the season, we all needed a boost of confidence where last year’s All-Star was concerned.

Ten strikeouts over six innings will do that.

The kid looked good. He looked really good. And manager Mike Matheny commented after the game on just how much fun Lynn is to watch when he’s throwing the ball as easily as he did last night. Mike, I have to agree. » Continue reading “Lesson Learned: These Cards Bounce Back”

A look out the window shows white stuff falling again as the never-ending winter continues. Thankfully, today’s St. Louis Cardinals game is on Fox Sports Midwest starting at 12:05 p.m. Central Time — that will help. It’s also on KMOX Radio. Either seeing sunshine (hopefully) in Jupiter or hearing Mike Shannon’s voice should help improve your snowy Sunday as the Cards take on the Mets.

And minus Shane Robinson playing right field instead of Carlos Beltran and Jake Westbrook as the starting pitcher, the lineup looks to be what we can expect on Opening Day — Jenifer Langosch has it here, but you can probably name who’s in it and where.

Although he’s in all likelihood not going to be in St. Louis to start the season, Oscar Taveras will probably be with the big league club before the end of the season. He’s preparing for that, and the Cardinals are helping him prepare for it as well — as this piece by Jerry Cransick at ESPN details.

Taveras has received much attention this spring, from the media but also within Cards camp, and the latter is most important:

“He’s been over-mentored this spring, if there is such a thing,” Matheny says. “He’s had so much information to absorb, but that’s perfect. That’s what we hoped for — that we would have a willing learner on the back end. He’s done that.”

Good to see that there are so many of his teammates willing to help him learn and grow.

» Continue reading “Catching Up With The Cardinals: Snowy Sunday Edition”

Every week, it seems, Wednesday rolls around and here we are talking about Rafael Furcal again. Trouble is, ever since last August the things we’ve had to say about him haven’t been terribly pleasant. Torn ligament. Opting for a surgery-free recovery method. Slow healing process. Should be 100%. Isn’t 100%. Not even 50%. Now there’s a bone spur. Can’t throw. Can’t hit. More pain and inflammation. Shut down completely, seeking Dr. Andrews’s opinion on how to proceed.

Opening day? Doubtful. The 2013 season? Honestly? Questionable.

Here’s the latest from John Mozeliak himself:

Mozeliak said it was his understanding now that surgery won’t necessarily be recommended this time either. But he didn’t want to speculate until the second opinion, beyond that of Dr. George Paletta, the Cardinals’ medical supervisor, had been offered.

“We’ve sent many players to Andrews who don’t have surgery,” said Mozeliak.

But, he said, “Furcal’s situation is up in the air. We don’t know the answer as we sit here on March 4. I can envision us by mid- to late week that we’ll have some finality of direction where we’re going. Right now, we’re in that great area of unknown.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m not such a fan of this “unknown” he speaks of …

What isn’t unknown is this — Furcal is out of the equation now, and potentially for the long haul. If he does end up having surgery, his season is done. If he doesn’t heal enough to feel like he can pick up a baseball without his elbow swelling up, his season is also done. I’m not aiming for doom and gloom here, but there is a very real possibility we don’t see Furcal spend any kind of significant time on the field in 2013. Basically, if he is healthy, it’s a bonus.

Not long ago (but long enough that baseball was still just a conversation about the near future), I was talking with some baseball fans about what the Cardinals needed most this year to give themselves the best chance of winning. As many others have, I pointed to the middle infield, claiming Furcal was the key piece to the Cardinals puzzle. Not that, per se, the team would live or die based on his ability to play, but that, without doubt, his presence — or lack thereof — would dictate how the team could operate.

To keep a long story relatively short, I went on to explain (keep in mind, this was pre-Cedeno) how you could move the pieces around to fill Furcal’s void: Pete Kozma ended 2012 at short stop and could “fill in” (permanently) there again, but he’s relatively unproven. You could move Matt Carpenter to second, and slide Daniel Descalso to short, at the expense of second base defense for that of a quick glove at short. Or, you take a risk on Ryan Jackson who is entirely unproven, and, frankly, doesn’t seem to have the trust of the club. But, if he can’t hack it, and Matty Carp isn’t settled and Dirty Dan has to man second … you get Pete Kozma.

My friend, who sat back and watched the other grizzled baseball guys react to that logic, was quite impressed with my “point-A-to-point-B,” if-then hypothesis.

Impressed or not, you still end up with Pete Kozma. » Continue reading “Furcal Is Out. Is Kozma In?”

The news from John Mozeliak and the Cardinals yesterday no doubt left you, as it did me, remembering the legacy that is Chris Carpenter. The highs, the lows, the masterful Octobers. Of course, the leadership he brings to the team is second to none. Without question, whether or not he pitches again, his legacy in St. Louis is more than secured.

If yesterday’s news left you as nostalgic as it did me, then I have the perfect thing for you. Christine and I recently had the privilege of being part of this great project: The 2013 United Cardinal Bloggers Annual. We each wrote a piece about two very important players in the 2013 season. One of those players was Chris Carpenter.

Today, we’re giving you a special sneak peek at both pieces.

Adding to “The Legend of Chris Carpenter”
by Christine Coleman

As you flip through “The Legend of Chris Carpenter,” you’ll notice the elements that make any story a compelling read. Sure, there are chapters on his high school days excelling at both hockey and baseball in New Hampshire, as well as the start of his professional baseball career in 1994 and the six seasons as a Toronto Blue Jay. But those chapters basically serve as a prologue.

“The Legend of Chris Carpenter” doesn’t really begin until he arrives in St. Louis.

Those chapters provide quite the page-turner: good times and one-hitters and a Cy Young Award (and a coulda-been-second one) plus of course two World Series championships, combined with bad days and shoulder problems and elbow issues, Tommy John surgery and seasons (plural) lost to injury. Plus a role in that brawl in Cincinnati.

Then there’s the 2011 chapter, an up-and-down-and-ultimately triumphant tale all its own that includes Carpenter’s role as one of the team leaders who spoke at the famous team meeting on Aug. 25 that started the Cardinals charge to the wild card, his two-hit shutout in Game 162, winning the showdown for the ages against his BFF Roy Halladay in Game Five of the National League Division Series, starting three games in the World Series including Game Seven on three days’ rest …

After all that, did this legendary tale really need more dramatics?

Yes, said the baseball gods. Yes it did.

And thus we arrive at Chris Carpenter’s 2012 season.

Don’t pretend you don’t want to read the rest, especially now!

I was eating at Hardee’s with friends Saturday evening after a long day spent at the Cardinals Winter Warm-Up when my cell beeped, alerting me to Twitter activity. I glanced at my phone and saw this:

“@JMotte30 RT: @stanthemaninc: Stan the Man passed peacefully at home at 5:45 pm tonight of natural causes. Life will never be the same without baseball’s perfect knight.”

Amazing how something conveyed in 140 characters or less can have such a huge impact. I immediately reacted in shock and disbelief. My friends asked me what was wrong and, in a voice strangled by tears, I told them that Stan had died. They too were stunned, and then we were all overwhelmed by a simple urge — we had to go to Busch to the statue.

The beginnings of the memorial

Outside Gate Three of Busch Stadium stands a giant tribute to a giant of a man, the Stan “The Man” statue. Anyone who has been to the stadium knows where it is and it is used as the landmark. “Meet you at Stan” is a common phrase used by people meeting up for games and that is exactly what we felt we had to do upon hearing the news. With quick detours to buy flowers and stop by the hotel to grab coats, we headed to Busch; we headed to Stan.

We weren’t alone in feeling the pull to that place. A handful of people were there, a memorial already taking shape at the base of the statue. A candle burning in a mason jar sat next to a single can of Budweiser. We placed our flowers, then stood and stared blankly, still trying to grasp the reality of the loss.

Tears flowed freely down the faces of men and women. The stories started, of seeing him at Opening Day, the roar of the crowd when he would go into his batting stance and swing an imaginary bat. If you live in St. Louis, you have a Stan story. You don’t even have to be a Cardinal fan to have a story, that’s how much he meant to St Louis.

St Louis is a baseball town, plain and simple. That’s not to knock the Blues or the Rams, but neither has the rich tradition and deep roots of baseball. We fans in St Louis love our Cardinals and we love the players. Stan was not just a Cardinal player, he was the Cardinal player. Having had Stan as that Cardinal icon all my life, losing him felt like losing a member of the family. The growing crowd at the statue was proof that I wasn’t alone in that sentiment.

» Continue reading “Only One Place For A Cardinals Fan Saturday Night”

Get ready, world. Baseball is almost back. The kick-off event for St. Louis baseball is taking place this weekend in the form of the Winter Warm Up, the Cardinals Caravan, and the Baseball Writers Dinner, and more. It’s a lot to take in, so it was awfully nice of the Cardinals to spell it all out for us.

Take a deep breath … okay, go.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (January 17, 2013) – The 17th annual Cardinals Care Winter Warm-Up (#WWU), the Cardinals Caravan (#CardsCaravan) and the 55th annual St. Louis Baseball Writers Dinner highlight a busy Cardinals-themed holiday weekend that unofficially kicks off the 2013 baseball season.

Winter Warm-Up – the largest fundraising effort for the team’s charitable fund, Cardinals Care – returns to the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch Saturday, January 19th through Monday, January 21st (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) with appearances by a variety of current and former Cardinals players. In addition to familiar favorites, fans will have their first opportunity to greet offseason acquisition Randy Choate and the team’s 2012 first-round Draft pick, Michael Wacha. Both are scheduled to appear on Saturday.

“Winter Warm-Up is our favorite way to bring together players and fans as we work to care for kids in the community,” said Michael Hall, Vice-President of Community Relations and Executive Director of Cardinals Care. “Not only is the event a fun-filled weekend with something for everyone to enjoy, our fans are helping us make a real difference throughout Cardinal Nation.”

For Winter Warm-Up information, and to learn more about Cardinals Care, visit cardinals.com/winterwarmup.

That’s only the beginning, because at the very same time, the annual Cardinals Caravan kicks off the 2013 tour. » Continue reading “Baseball’s Weekend Return: Winter Warm Up And More”

The start of a new year naturally leads us to reflect on the last one. Chris collected a lot of our greatest memories from 2012, but that, in turn, tends to get me thinking about the coming year. Before we know it (and yet not as soon as we’d all like!), pitchers and catchers will be headed to Jupiter. Shortly after that, we’ll get our first taste of the latest edition of our Cardinals, and begin to develop ideas and opinions on the season ahead.

We’ve been pretty fortunate the last few years to have exiting and successful late-season runs. But this year, I’m selfishly hoping for a little different route to the postseason. (But, I’ll gladly take it however it comes!)

However things play out, though, I’m just ready for baseball to be back.

And with my mind geared up to look ahead, I’ve come up with the top 13 things I’m most excited about for the 2013 season.

13. Bacon-wrapped hot dogs

I probably could have just said, “ballpark eats.” But, after the food we ate at UCB Weekend, those bacon-wrapped dogs were sensational, I must say. There’s nothing like a good hot dog on a summer night at Busch. And you can never go wrong with bacon!

12. High Sock Sundays becoming High Sock Weekends

I thought “High sock Sundays” were a pretty great treat. I know there are people who aren’t fond of the Cardinals adding an alternate jersey this year, or their plans to wear it once a week, but Jon Jay made an excellent suggestion when he tweeted about wearing high socks on Saturdays to complete the throwback look. I’m totally okay with this. In fact, I’m pretty excited about it.

11. Mo’s magic

The last few years, it’s turned into a bit of a trend. Mid-season struggles have John Mozeliak searching for the perfect solution. Nothing all too dramatic, but enough of a shake up to get the team over the hump. While I hope the circumstances are a bit less imminent, I find myself quite curious to see what dear old Mo has up his sleeve this time around.

» Continue reading “Looking Back To Look Ahead: Cards in 2013″

Dear Matt Carpenter,

It was only a matter of time before a Love Letter came your way. I mean, after the way you stepped in this year and, in any circumstance at any time on any corner of the field, you deserve an “‘atta boy” or two!

But for me, it goes back a little further. I had the pleasure of interviewing you at a Cardinals Caravan event before the season started. I had been a fan of yours before (and was quite disappointed when you were not on the Opening Day roster in 2011 …), but there was something about the way you spoke of the game. There was so much respect, yes, but it was more than that.

When you talked about the 2011 team winning it all in such dramatic fashion, it was like you were reliving it all with them. When the subject switched to where you thought you fit on the big league lineup, your eyes lit up with determination and a belief that you had something very valuable to contribute.

I believed that then. But I had no idea how significant your season would be! » Continue reading “Cardinal Love Letter: Matt Carpenter”