I don’t know the specifics, but ESPN just informed its viewers that relief pitcher Josh Hancock was killed last night in a car wreck. I don’t know the circumstances of the wreck or if other people were involved, but I’m sure that information will follow shortly.

Josh was only twenty-nine years old. Please keep his family in your prayers.

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This time around, I’m looking at the opposite side of the coin — the players that had an awful year against Cardinals. I had to rush this one a little bit as I’m gearing up for Draft Day for the fantasy baseball keeper league I play in. Until Sunday, most of my time and brain power will be devoted to figuring out who I’ll be able to draft in the third round and the like. I’m convinced if Doc Gooden and Strawberry would have had fantasy baseball, they wouldn’t have even bothered with the white powdery stuff. It’s that addictive. Speaking of Darryl Strawberry, I’m planning to attend the three-day baseball card show in Bridgeton this weekend where he will be signing autographs with Keith Hernandez and a number of Hall of Fame Cardinals. I’ll be back next week, so for now, here are the 2006 Cardinal Killed:

• C: Brad Ausmus (HOU)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
46	3	7	3	0	0	2	0	0	5	0.152	0.250	0.217	0.467

Worst performance: September 11: STL 7, HOU 0
0-3, K, GIDP

• 1B: Todd Helton (COL)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
37	1	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.189	0.211	0.216	0.427

Worst performance: May 9: STL 4, COL 2
0-4, BB, 2 K

• 2B: Mark Grudzielanek (KAN)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
25	2	4	3	0	0	3	0	0	0	0.160	0.160	0.280	0.440

Worst performance: May 19: STL 9, KC 6
0-5, 2 K

• 3B: Chad Tracy (ARI)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
25	2	4	1	0	1	4	0	0	2	0.160	0.222	0.320	0.542

Worst performance: May 12: STL 5, ARI 3
0-4, 3 K

• SS: Adam Everett (HOU)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
40	3	7	1	0	0	0	1	0	4	0.175	0.250	0.200	0.450

Worst performance: July 9: STL 7, HOU 5
0-3, 2 K

• LF: Matt Murton (CHN)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
58	4	11	2	0	0	2	0	0	5	0.190	0.254	0.224	0.478

Worst performance: June 4: STL 9, CHN 6
0-5, 3 K

• CF: Brady Clark (MIL)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
33	1	6	1	0	0	3	0	1	1	0.182	0.206	0.212	0.418

Worst performance: August 4: MIL 4, STL 3
0-5, K

• RF: Brad Hawpe (COL)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
31	3	7	1	0	1	5	0	1	5	0.226	0.333	0.355	0.688

Worst performance: May 9: STL 4, COL 2
0-3, BB, K, E

February 15th 2007 Posted to Miscellaneous

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For the next couple of posts, I thought I’d take a look at those whom my circle of friends have dubbed Cardinal Killers – those feared players who, much to our chagrin, routinely thump the Redbirds. Off the top of our heads, I imagine most people can still picture Carlos Beltran belting frozen ropes in the 2004 and 2006 Championship Series. In order to indulge my insatiable hunger for the more trivial aspects of the game of baseball, I’ve assembled the team of players whom I consider to have given the Cardinals the worst fits during the regular season. The only prerequisite: players considered must have had at least 25 at-bats. This helps to reinforce the idea that a given player sustained a high level of play over the course of a number of games against the Cardinals. Without further ado:

• C: Michael Barrett (CHC)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
58	11	21	5	0	5	14	0	0	5	0.362	0.422	0.707	1.129

Best performance: April 9: CHN 8, STL 4
2-4, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
What a brutal end to a brutal series. Barrett’s grand slam put the Cubs ahead and secured the series sweep.

• 1B: Lance Berkman (HOU)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
61	10	23	7	0	4	19	0	0	8	0.377	0.451	0.689	1.139

Best performance: September 21: HOU 6, STL 5
3-4, 2B, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
Berkman’s line is impressive to begin with, but both homeruns came against Carpenter. Only two other players (Barrett and Abreu) have ever homered twice in the same game against Carpenter during his tenure as a Cardinal.

• 2B: Craig Biggio (HOU)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
46	9	12	2	0	2	9	1	0	4	0.261	0.340	0.435	0.774

Best performance: July 8: STL 7, HOU 6
1-1, HR, 3 R, RBI, 2 BB, HBP
Classic Biggio.

• 3B: Rich Aurilia (CIN)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
34	5	14	4	0	4	13	0	0	4	0.412	0.450	0.882	1.332

Best performance: June 7: CIN 7, STL 4
4-5, 2B, HR, R, 5 RBI
Aurilia single-handedly overpowers the Cardinals in and pulls Cincinnati even with St. Louis for the division lead.

• SS: Bill Hall (MIL)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
55	10	18	4	1	5	11	1	1	3	0.327	0.356	0.709	1.065

Best performance: September 28: MIL 9, STL 4
3-4, 2B, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB
Hall’s first-inning homer set the tone for a 9-run beating that cut the Cardinals’ division lead to a half game over the Astros.

• LF: Matt Holliday (COL)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
32	7	13	1	1	4	6	0	0	4	0.406	0.486	0.875	1.361

Best performance: May 8: COL 6, STL 2
3-4, 2 HR, 3 R, 2 RBI
Apparently, Marquis’ sinker wasn’t working today (surprise, surprise); Holliday took him deep twice. He would homer four times in the three-game set.

• CF: Ken Griffey Jr. (CIN)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
34	10	14	1	0	4	6	0	0	6	0.412	0.500	0.794	1.294

Best performance: June 5: CIN 8, STL 7
3-5, 2B, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
Both of Griffey’s homeruns yielded go-ahead runs in a victory that pulled the Reds within two games of the Cardinals.

• RF: Geoff Jenkins (MIL)

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
54	10	20	1	0	4	7	1	0	8	0.370	0.477	0.611	1.088

Best performance: October 1: MIL 5, STL 3
3-3, HR, R, RBI, BB
On the final day of the season, Jenkins had a perfect day at the plate and helped ensure that St. Louis would be backing into the playoffs.

• P: Roy Oswalt (HOU)

G	GS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	W	L	ERA
5	4	30.1	29	8	8	5	18	2	1	2.37

Best performance: September 13: HOU 5, STL 1
W, 8.1 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR
Four starts, all quality. Remember that the loss came in an impromptu relief appearance.

There they are: the Cardinal Killers of 2006. Next time, I’ll take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum and assemble a team of players who were completely stymied by the Redbirds last year.

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Honestly, I’d be surprised if anyone even checks to see if this site is active anymore, but I’m back, nonetheless. There hasn’t been much to write about this offseason (off-season… or is it off season? Still haven’t figured that one out), so I doubt I was too sorely missed. In addition, I’ve had plenty of obligations to deal with that take precedence over blogging about the possibility of Braden Looper starting a baseball game. With pitchers and catchers reporting this week, I feel like I’m ready to break the cold snap and devote a little more brain power to baseball again. Back with more in a bit.

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I, like everyone else, am fully entrenched in all of the hot stove reports and rumors floating around these days. I’ve been taking a little break and enjoying all of the posts on the rest of the fine blogs out on the web. I don’t have any of the inside sources or rumors on the market, so I’m not all that useful right now as far as posting goes, but I plan on having a few things up in the near future. In the meantime, the following information was e-mailed to me so I thought I’d do my good deed for the day and pass it along to the rest of you. Seems to be a great cause and a trip to Jupiter sure sounds great right about now. Without further ado:

St. Martin of Tours Catholic grade school in South County is raffling off a trip to Jupiter to see two Cardinal Spring Training games next season. Package includes roundtrip airfare to Florida on American Airlines, hotel accommodations, two front row tickets to two Cardinal games, and a “Baseball Breakfast” in Florida with 1380 Radio’s Randy Karraker. Tickets are $25, with proceeds going to the Tim Haber Jr. Endowment Fund, which provides tuition assistance to students in need at the school. The fund is named for 9-year-old Timmy Haber, a great Cardinal fan and St. Martin’s student who died of meningitis last year. For more information, call (314) 544-5432 or (314) 544-4261, or visit this website.

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The trophy rack at the Pujols household just got a little bit more crowded this weekend. Congratulations to Albert for winning his first Gold Glove. As the list of accolades continues to grow, it becomes more and more clear just how special his short career has been. There’s a good chance that another piece of hardware — a second Most Valuable Player award — could be added in a few weeks. Even before Pujols added a Gold Glove and a World Series ring to his résumé, his accomplishments had placed him among an upper echilon of players in baseball history. Even if he posts less than stellar offensive numbers for the rest of his career, voters may have a hard time not punching his ticket to Cooperstown. To help put his accomplishments into better perspective, I’ve compiled a few statistics to drive home this discussion.

Since the Rookie of the Year award was first presented in 1947, only seventeen of the recipients have went on to win a Most Valuable Player award in their careers. Seven of those seventeen are in the Hall of Fame — five are not yet eligible for induction. Of the twelve players eligible for the Hall that have won both Rookie of the Year, seven have won a Gold Glove on at least one occasion; three of those seven are in the Hall of Fame. From that same group of twelve players, seven have at least one World Series victory to their credit; five of those seven are in the Hall of Fame.

Finally, only seven players in history have won the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards, a Gold Glove, and a World Series ring — Pujols being one of them. Of the remaining six, three of them are in the Hall of Fame (Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, and Johnny Bench), one should be (Pete Rose), one will be very soon (Cal Ripken), and one is not (Thurman Munson). Munson stands out as the only player in that group to not post the offensive numbers warranting induction into Cooperstown; Pujols has already eclipsed his career numbers in many categories. Should Derek Jeter win his first Most Valuable Player award, he would be the eighth member to join this group. Likely, seven of the eight will all be enshrined in Cooperstown when all is said and done.

To help illustrate the previous paragraphs, I’ve presented everything in the following table. The ‘ROY’ column denotes the year the player won the Rookie of the Year award while the numbers in the ‘MVP’, ‘GLOVE’, and ‘WS’ columns denote the number of times the player won a Most Valuable Player award, Gold Glove, or World Series title, respectively. An ‘x’ in the ‘HOF’ column denotes a player who has been elected to the Hall of Fame while an ‘n/a’ denotes a player that is not yet eligible for enshrinement.

I realize that I’m not breaking any earth-shattering news by stating that Albert is having a Hall of Fame career. However, I do feel that it is important to note how his achievements compare to those of other Hall of Famer’s. A little perspective can help us to appreciate just how special of a player he has been to this point.

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I happened to spot this girl at the parade on Sunday. That’s the parking garage across from the stadium she’s sitting on; I guess she didn’t have a clear enough view by simply standing on the roof and looking down. The picture shows her sitting on the ledge, but before I had my camera ready, she was walking back and forth on it. The way the wind was blowing on Sunday, I’m not sure why she felt the need to tempt fate like that. We just won the World Series — life can’t be that terrible. I’m convinced she was a Cubs fan in disguise.

Anyway, I’m still in celebration mode so I don’t feel much like digging for material to blog about. In addition, I have a little off season project I’m working on to pass the long winter months. Hopefully, I’ll have it started soon and post more information on that in the near future. Back with more later.

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St. Louis was rocking yesterday afternoon. Never in my life have I seen downtown that crazy; I heard that around 500,000 people came out to celebrate yesterday. The parade was good fun; I found a spot across from the stadium along the Third Base side and cheered on the champions as they came rolling through. The players looked like they were having a blast. By far the most comical sight of the day was John Rodriguez, Jorge Sosa, and Ronnie Belliard thuggin’ it up in their truck. Jeff Weaver looked absolutely elated; could he have found a better home than St. Louis? The only player that I didn’t see was Juan Encarnacion — never heard why he wasn’t there.

After the parade, the crowd spilled into Busch Stadium as the celebration continued. I, along with a few thousand other Cardinal fans, were pinned behind a barricade across the street from the stadium with nowhere to go as the security crew refused to open up the guard rails and let us cross the street. We eventually grew tired of waiting and, much to the chagrin of the security crew, began hopping the rails. Nothing like a little mob mentality to expediate the flow of traffic into the stadium.

Before entering, I had a few extra tickets to the ceremony that I was hoping to pawn off. They were free to begin with, but that wasn’t going to keep me from trying to turn a profit. I spent a few minutes patrolling across from the Musial statue looking for prospective customers; I watched as another nearby scalper did the same. No sooner had he completed a transaction when a police officer approached and escorted the gentleman off the premises. At that point, I thought better of trying to make a sale and decided to make my way into the stadium. A few feet from the gate, I ran into a lady looking for three tickets; I asked her what three tickets were worth to her, and she offered me the shirt off of her back in exchange. It was one of those special souvenir “Parade Edition” World Series shirts which probably cost her husband $35, so I went ahead and took it off her hands… er, back. I sold one more ticket for $10 which went toward covering the expense of a World Series program, two jumbo dogs, and a souvenir cup of Coke. All in all, I’d say I broke even on the day.

The ceremony inside the stadium was rather humdrum; members of the management read short speeches while Shannon and Rooney briefly interviewed most of the players. After an hour or so of festivities, the ceremony concluded with an electric chorus of “We Are The Champions” with the entire crowd singing in unison. Gave me the chills. Overall, it was a great way to begin the reign as World Champions on a picture-perfect day in St. Louis.

How long until pitchers and catchers report?

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All is right with the world.

My head is still spinning. What an absolute rollercoaster of a season. All throughout the playoffs, I haven’t had the stomach to finish a post. If you looked at my Wordpress dashboard, you’d see around fifteen drafts that were left for dead. Each time I sat down to type about the team I love, that sinking feeling would settle in my stomach and I couldn’t muster the nerve to prose anything coherent. Honestly, I figured I was just wasting my time. I thought as soon as I let that part of my brain take over and eat, sleep, and breathe October baseball, I’d be setting myself up for more of the same — another letdown after watching another team fall short. I didn’t want to look back on those posts and have to read about how disappointed I was, so I didn’t bother.

But tonight, I can write to my heart’s content now that the St. Louis Cardinals are the World Champions. That hasn’t sunk in yet, so let me repeat: the St. Louis Cardinals are the World Champions. In my twenty years and eleven months on this earth, I have never been able to utter those words. I’ve seen the old victories run and rerun ad nauseum, but I couldn’t claim any of those. As much as I loved to watch the footage of Bruce Sutter throw up his arm as the crowd rushed the field, that was nothing but a history lesson for me. Every time I visited old Busch Stadium, my eyes would follow the line of nine championship pennants that adorned the roof of the dugout. As much as I love to read about those magical seasons, quite frankly, none of those teams mean a darn thing to me. As wonderful as the tradition of the St. Louis Cardinal franchise is, I’ve been a witness to only a miniscule part of that. I was beginning to wonder — especially after coming so close the last few years — when was I going to witness some of that magic? Where was my championship team?

While sitting in my apartment earlier this week, I happened to catch an airing of “The Little Giants,” and I’m darn glad that I did. After his team of misfit ten-year-olds has taken a pounding for the first half of the showdown against the high-powered Cowboys, coach Danny O’Shea (played by Rick Moranis) delivers quite possibly the best sports speech in the history of clichéd, predictable sports movies. As his team is ready to forfeit the game, Danny tells how his football star brother of a brother, Kevin, used to beat him at everything. But one time, while bike racing down Cherry Hill, the weaker and nerdier Danny beat his brother. No matter how many times he was beaten, Danny could always look back on that one time he got the better of his superior brother. The players then followed with their own one-timers. One time, Rudy Zolteck beat his older brothers in the cow dung toss. One time, Rad Tad Simpson did a back flip off the high dive while his older brother chickened out. One time, Jake “the Bermenator” Berman went on a family fishing trip, and he was the only one that didn’t throw up. Moral of the story: no matter how many times the underdog is pounded into submission by the alpha dogs of the world, the chance may come that, just once, the weaker may prevail over the strong. One time.

When I watched that team converge on the mound tonight, I thought about that goofy kid’s movie. One time, after nine years of micromanaging his team to death, Tony La Russa pulled all the right strings. One time, after grounding out weakly all year long on the exact same pitch, Yadier Molina connected for a home run that propelled his team over the heavily-favored Mets. One time, after an injured closer gave away game after game, Adam Wainwright buckled Carlos Beltran’s knees with a wicked Uncle Charlie. One time, after being booted out of Anaheim, Jeff Weaver pitched an eight-inning gem that brought home the title. No matter how each member of this band of 83-win misfits performs for the rest of their careers, they’ll always have that one time when they came together and won it all. For all I know, the Cardinals may never win another title in my lifetime. But I’ll always be able to look back on 2006 — that one time — when I watched with pure elation as the St. Louis Cardinals became World Champions.

Now, I have my moment as a Cardinals fan. I’ve committed the highs and lows of this season to memory, and I don’t plan on ever letting those memories go. Until tonight, I didn’t have a true connection to any of that championship tradition that many older fans had witnessed before me. Until now, a Cardinal championship was nothing more than a collection of box scores and highlight reels. This one tonight, it’s mine. When I think back on this World Series-winning team, I’ll think about how excited I was when walking through those big brick arches of the new Busch Stadium for the first time on Opening Day. I’ll think about waking up at 5:30 in the morning and sitting in the lobby of Bluff Hall with my roommate Josh just so we could get tickets for the first Cubs-Cardinals game of the year. I’ll think about catching up with my favorite high school teacher at the game and collectively wondering, “just how bad is Sidney Ponson?” I’ll think about the grim 2:00am discussion I had with the fellas at the 200-block of Parkview Court after watching another eight game losing streak. I’ll think about laughing at familiar faces on the Illinois Department of Corrections web site with James and Joe during game one of the NLDS. I’ll think about having dinner at Union Station with my Cubs fan of a girlfriend after she had braved through nine long innings just because I asked her to. I’ll think about holding her hand and squeezing the living daylights out of it as Adam Wainwright snuck a slider past Brandon Inge to seal the deal.

For the first time, I have a connection with a championship baseball team. Years from now when someone mentions the 2006 Cardinals, I may not be able to recall every win or loss, but I will recall all of the great memories I shared with so many people as we enjoyed the ride to a World Series title. I suppose that’s what makes it all so special. While the game of baseball itself may have little to no bearing on the course my life takes or the events that transpire in it, it has ultimately become intertwined in a web of great memories that unfolded as I followed 170-plus baseball games from April to October. It’s silly for me to think that something that is so completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of my life — a World Series title — has become some sort of landmark event that I’ll never forget. But it has. Those of you who don’t care about baseball won’t understand that, and I don’t care. Those of you that do, well, I suppose you have some idea of where I’m coming from.

What a great ride. I think it’s safe to say that I, along with the rest of Cardinal Nation, never saw this one coming. I sure am glad it did, though. I’m not quite sure how to respond to all of this. I better enjoy it and live it up, because I never know if it will happen again. For that reason, I’m going to paint the town red, high-five my buddies, and rub it in the face of every Cubs fan that ever crossed me. Do you realize what happened tonight? The St. Louis Cardinals are the World Champions!

Drink it in, it always goes down smooth.

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Our closer went under the knife today; I’ve heard no news about how successfully the arthroscopic surgery on Izzy’s bum hip went, but I assume he’s still breathing. While much of the fan base is breathing a collective sigh of relief that La Russa isn’t handing Izzy the ball in the ninth, I’m not convinced that this team is going to be any better without him. Sure, everyone is loving that Adam Wainwright will have the chance to prove his worth as a late inning gamer for the Cardinals, but I’m not so sure that’s such a good thing, either. I’m counting on him to help fill the gaping hole in the rotation next year; I believe he has much more value as a starter no matter how good his ninth innings are for the next few weeks. People have contested that point with me before, and I agree that it’s a valid argument. That’s fine if you want Wainwright to close, but tell me how fiscally responsible it will be to carry a right-handed setup man with an $8.75 million contract next year. (As soon as I finished typing that sentence, I reminded myself that Braden Looper will be paid $5.5 million in 2008, and I’m sure he’ll earn every penny of that. If you just heard someone scream with disgust, that was me.)

Anywho, thinking back on the postseason appearances of this decade, a key injury has kept the Cardinals from trotting their best possible product onto the field almost every year. As painful as it may be, take a trip down memory lane:

Following the 2000 regular season, Mike Matheny was given the birthday present from hell when he skewered his hand with the hunting knife he had received as a gift. The best defensive catcher in the league was shelved for the postseason while Carlos Hernandez was given the daunting task of handling the rotation in his absence. I’m fully convinced that had Mike Matheny caught those games, that meltdown would have never happened and Rick Ankiel would be 15-game winner with 200 K’s for six years running. (Okay, so maybe he wouldn’t have been that good, but you never know.) Instead, Ankiel throws a total of nine wild pitches in a whopping four innings of work during the 2000 playoffs and essentially runs his career into the ground. Can you blame the guy, though? I wouldn’t have wanted to throw to Hernandez, either.

In the second game of the 2002 NLDS, Alex Cintron collided with Scott Rolen on a force play that ended the seventh inning. Rolen would leave the game with a sprained shoulder and remain sidelined for the rest of the postseason. Miguel Cairo replaced him and hit .529 (9/17) in the playoffs, but the loss of Rolen was possibly the most demoralizing injury I’ve ever witnessed. Rolen was absent from postseason play again in 2005 after his collision with Hee Seop Choi crippled him for much of the season. Watching Abraham Nunez throw across the diamond scared the daylights out of me, but Hector Luna was the one who committed two huge errors in both the fourth and fifth games of the NLCS at Houston — both led to costly unearned runs.

In 2004, Chris Carpenter missed the entire World Series run due to nerve irritation in his pitching arm. Without him, Cardinals starters surrendered 18 earned runs in 18.1 innings against Red Sox hitters. I don’t think I need to say anymore, you should get the picture by now.

Back to 2006, the Cardinals will make a run at the postseason without the help of a proven closer. For a team with so many flaws, the bullpen will have to perform exceptionally well to cover the mistakes of any shaky outings by a starting pitcher or stifle opposing offenses if their own fails to produce. While Wainwright may very well prove to be a stud closer, we can’t forget how valuable he has been in his middle relief role. Now that Tony and Dunc are saving him for the ninth, we’ll have to watch some combination of Brad Thompson, Josh Kinney, and Jorge Sosa attempt to fill some big shoes. If they, along with the rest of the boys in the pen, fail to protect a lead into the ninth inning, it’s not going to make a difference who our closer is. Why is everyone else failing to recognize this? Sure, an injured Isringhausen was frustrating to watch, but he wouldn’t have even had a chance to close many of those games if Wainwright hadn’t been bridging the gap between starter and closer. If you want to watch Wainwright close games, that’s fine with me, but I don’t want to hear any moaning and groaning when one of our middle relief scrubs gives up the go-ahead run in a pivotal playoff game.

I’m just hoping this season doesn’t end like all of the previous playoff runs — one piece short of completing the puzzle.

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