.500 for the first time since we were 6-6

8/28/2007 11:02:08 PM

Please die.


Your friend,
The Cubs

8/28/2007 11:08:41 PM

Haha now EVERYONE in this division had their chance this year.

Unreal....without top 2 starters and Edmonds/Rolen combining for what 17 homeruns?

In 2nd and only 1 loss behind the Cubs. Wow.

8/28/2007 11:38:11 PM

more proof of how horrible the NL is.

8/28/2007 11:41:51 PM

Oh lord not you again.

Just because the Tigers are fading away and not going to make it you don't have to troll our WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS thread.

[Edited on August 28, 2007 at 11:44 PM. Reason : ..]

8/28/2007 11:43:35 PM

motherfuckin w00t indeed


have i mentioned how much i hate the Cubs?

8/28/2007 11:44:01 PM

i wish the tigers played in the NL if thats what you are trying to say.

Not often to the planets align and a shit team get hot for 10 games and have the other team hand you the WS. See you not in the playoffs

8/28/2007 11:47:33 PM

Yeah the Planets aligned...that is what happened.

When you are in the playoffs just about every single year, like the Cards are, eventually you are going to win one or two unless you are the Braves.

8/28/2007 11:55:20 PM

i would absolutely LOVE to see the Tigers and Cards rematch in the WS


unfortunately, the Tigers would have to stop sucking dicks for a series or two

10-16 so far in the month of August just aint gonna cut it


there's always 2008, guys

[Edited on August 29, 2007 at 12:08 AM. Reason : v]

8/29/2007 12:04:32 AM

this thread is starting to get pretty cocky

8/29/2007 8:05:10 AM

we need a big couple innings tonight...

8/29/2007 10:17:11 PM

Oswalt has killed us his whole career.

5-0...maybe they will bring in Lidge in the 9th so we have a chance.

EDIT: Well now 6-0 and they have bases loaded with no outs....GG Flores.

[Edited on August 29, 2007 at 10:38 PM. Reason : Flores is terrible]

8/29/2007 10:32:24 PM

Well just watched us lose 2-1 to the Stros....and they pitched a damn rookie Albers. We couldn't hit it out of a brown paper bag today. Pujols almost hit a 2-run shot in the 8th....but it was caught. So much for gaining ground.

8/30/2007 4:38:16 PM

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070831&content_id=2181057&vkey=pr_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl

WTF Jocketty Russell Branyan? Is Rolen hurt that bad that we have to pick up this loser?

Also Houston beat the Cubs today so a chance to get to 2 back if Reyes can at least keep us in the game.

8/31/2007 6:21:48 PM

4 things:

1. Cards are up 2-0 after yet another Rick Ankiel homer.

2. Cubs are down 5-1.

3. WTF is up with everyone on our team always being injured?

4. While I have always felt this way deep deep down, trading Polanco for Rolen was a huge mistake.

9/2/2007 4:09:19 PM

Cubs win. Fuck off.

9/2/2007 5:37:06 PM

Kip Wells strikes again! 6 runs in 3 innings...we lost 11-0.

Now I am reading that Mike Marotherfucker as noted in this thread starts Thursday!

What gives La Russa? We are trying to win this thing or not? Hopefully Mulder can come back and be a good 3rd option after Wainwright and Looper, who is on a roll right now. Least the Dodgers are beating Zambrano, who hasn't won a game in almost 2 months but is the best pitcher ever.

9/3/2007 5:37:30 PM

We score 16 mother-fucking runs and Mike Maroth still can't get the win?

Get this guy out of the Majors, he is a joke to MLB in general. This guy couldn't shut a little league team down.

3-way tie in the loss column for the NL Central!

9/6/2007 10:11:35 PM

both him and Kip Wells. I think Wells has only won games where the cards have put up 10 runs, and he's lost a fair amount when we've scored that many.

9/6/2007 11:23:16 PM

SWEEP

9/11/2007 10:06:39 AM

5 game losing streak. Dammit. Don't tell me we came all the way back only to not even be in it at the end.

Mulder may never be the pitcher he was before his injury.

We need the Brewers to lose and for us to go at least 3-1 against the Cubs coming up here at Busch.

9/11/2007 10:07:31 PM

Quote :

"Duncan will be restricted to complete rest for a period of 10 days, at which time he will be re-evaluated. However, according to a club source, he is not expected to play again this season. Duncan will likely need surgery to repair the condition."

Duncan out for the year. He can watch with Rolen, Carpenter, Preston Wilson, and Josh Kinney.

9/12/2007 4:01:02 PM

pwnt

9/14/2007 10:49:59 PM

god your team is terrible

9/25/2007 9:54:51 PM

Thank you.

We've only had like 1000 injuries this year.

And we haven't been given you sorry Cubs fans hell for the last 99 years.

9/25/2007 10:36:39 PM

oh the memories of good times in this thread

9/25/2007 11:11:16 PM

THANK YOU for tonight.

9/26/2007 11:24:21 PM

I take it all back

thanks

9/26/2007 11:26:12 PM

It's a good thing Pujols got his rest when the Phillies came to town. Had to rest up for the Mets series...

9/27/2007 7:49:05 PM

Blame Ned Yost.

He got the Cards fired up and because of it, his team isn't going to make the playoffs now.

9/27/2007 11:06:32 PM

gg Cardinals - you are my favorite team now behind the Phillies

9/27/2007 11:08:57 PM

78-84. First losing season of the 2000 decade.

Too many injuries and a death even to overcome this year.

Now we wait and see if La Russa will be back or not.

9/30/2007 7:48:12 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071003/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbn_cardinals_jocketty_8;_ylt=And5uV_QiV8mJpR7obG5AwwE1vAI

Damn no more Jocketty. La Russa is probably next.

This makes me

10/3/2007 7:11:11 PM

Bump for offseason moves. So far we have resigned Russ Springer and Joel Piniero and picked up Izzy's option.

Good. That means 3 starters are set with Wainwright, Looper, and Piniero. Hopefully Mulder can be healthy and back to his old self.

10/16/2007 11:44:57 PM

i'm not entirely sure the sentence:

Quote :

"That means 3 starters are set with Wainwright, Looper, and Piniero."

should be prefaced with the sentence:

Quote :

"Good."

we need to make some off-season moves

10/20/2007 4:31:51 PM

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071022&content_id=2275736&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl

La Russa is back....2 year deal. I am sort of torn if this is good or not. I like the fact that a manager is in place for free agents we are looking to sign. Now a permanent GM is needed and he needs to immediately go out and get us pitching!

10/22/2007 4:14:13 PM

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071025&content_id=2281992&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl

W000000T no more Mike Marotherfucker. Realeased today. That's an addition by subtraction for our rotation.

10/26/2007 1:33:56 PM

Bump

Aaron Miles non-tendered and Jim Edmonds traded for a nice minor leaguer.

I will still miss Jimmy.

12/17/2007 1:13:28 PM

Top 20 homers in Cardinals history

from http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/

20. carl taylor, august 11 1970, off ron herbel: this is not really a very important home run, but it holds a special place in family lore --- and it's my list, dammit. i was 7 years old, at the game with my dad, my brothers, and a cousin who was visiting from new york. the cards fell behind 8-1 early and were still down 4 by the bottom of the 9th; then, with 2 outs, the journeyman taylor came off the bench and blasted a walkoff grand slam. years from now, when my brothers and i are roommates in the alzheimer's ward, i reckon we'll still nod at each other from time to time and say: "carl taylor; yep. carl taylor." lengthier writeup at the old blog.

19. rick ankiel, august 9 2007, off doug brocail: the carl taylor homer writ large --- a moment so indelible that several generations of fans (young, old, and in between) will never forget it.

18. tom lawless, october 21 1987, off frank viola: the homer was big, yeah --- it broke a 1-1 tie and put the cards up by 3 in a game they had to win --- but it's only on the list because of the pose, bat flip, and trot. lawless had homered only once in his big-league career (in 1984), but you'd never know it from the way he strolled down the line, bat still in hand, admiring every millimeter of the baseball's journey over the wall (which it barely cleared). jack buck (calling the game on national radio) had a priceless call of this homer, which went something like: "the cardinals go ahead on a 3-run homer by tom [pause] lawless [longer pause] . . . . folks, that is hard to believe."

17. fernando tatis, april 23 1999, off chan ho park: my wife (then girlfriend) and i were in st louis for a bat mitzvah; we'd just flown in and were sitting around getting caught up with my parents, with the ballgame on in the background. nobody was paying much attention to the game, but we did note tatis' first grand slam and were engaged enough that one of us said, as the lineup cycled around: "hah, that'd be nuts if he got a chance to hit another one." tatis was batting 4th, and the bases were loaded for the leadoff man, darren bragg; they stayed loaded through 2 batters (bragg reached on an error, renteria singled in a run) to bring up mcgwire, who seemed sure to ruin the opportunity. dad and i had by then peeled off from the conversation, and mom and heidi soon joined us in front of the set. "c'mon, walk him," we were all saying; big mac obligingly flied out to short right, keeping the sacks jammed for the immortal moment.

16. george hendrick, july 4 1980, off kevin saucier: i know george hendrick once hit a home run off the face of the stadium club at busch II; i'm pretty sure it was this one, ending a game that had been deadlocked at 0-0 for almost 10 innings. this happened long before the ball and / or the players were juiced, when it was virtually impossible to hit a home run into the upper deck at old busch (i think only willie stargell and mike schmidt had done it up to that point). hendrick's blast didn't quite reach the upper deck, but only because the windows of the stadium club got in the way; the ball still seemed to be rising when it bounced off the plexiglass. i saw it in person.

15. mark whiten, september 7 1993, off rob dibble: how stunning was this --- four homers in a game by a cardinal? this was only 1993, remember --- a date more proximate to whiteyball than to mcgwireball. busch II was still at its native proportions (ie, 414 to dead center and 386 to the gaps), and the team had witnessed only two 30-homer seasons in its history (not surprisingly, this game took place on the road). nor was it a particularly homer-heavy season; only 2 nl players topped 40 homers. whiten's feat was about as likely as it would be for brendan ryan to tie the single-game record for stolen bases (and who knows what it is?).

14. brian jordan, october 13 1996, off greg mcmichael: another personal favorite --- my dad called this homer, down to the pitch. the cards had rallied from an 0-3 deficit the previous (7th) inning to tie the score; when jordan stepped up in the 8th one 1 out and the tie still in force, dad said something like: "i think it's jordan's turn to be the hero today." so what are you saying, dad --- you think he's gonna hit it out? "that's what i'm saying." on this pitch? "this pitch." boom! --- jordan lines it into the left-field bullpen, and the cards win the game 4-3. it would be their last win of 1996 . . . . .

13. mark mcgwire, may 16 1998, off livan hernandez: the longest homer ever at busch II, a 545-foot missile off the post-dispatch ad in centerfield. it was his 16th of the year in his 171st plate appearance, a rate of 1 dinger per 10.7 pa, an incredible rate; he would hit 54 more over his remaining 510 plate appearances, or 1 dinger per 9.4 plate appearances.

12. stan musial, may 2 1954 (game 2), off hoyt wilhelm: i had to find some way to get The Man on this list --- just through dumb luck, at least one of those 475 homers he hit for the cardinals must have been important. unfortunately, his only postseason homer (in the 1944 series) wasn't particularly crucial, and the regular-season boxscores aren't available for most of his career (retrosheet's archive only goes back to 1957). his walkoff in the bottom of the 14th won the 1955 all-star game, but it wasn't truly a "cardinal" homer; so i went with this, musial's famous 5th home run in a doubleheader --- which made him the first big-leaguer to hit 5 homers in a single day.

11. mark mcgwire, september 8 1998, off steve trachsel: number 62. would rank higher if not for --- well, you know.

[Edited on January 21, 2008 at 6:51 PM. Reason : .]

1/21/2008 6:49:39 PM

10. terry pendleton, september 11 1987, off roger mcdowell: the cards were down to their last out in this game and 3 run behind the noxious mets. they'd only mustered 1 hit through 8 innings; they'd lost jack clark for the season; and they were about to blow the last vestiges of a once-9.5-game lead. the shea faithful were aroar, and mcgee's RBI basehit with 2 outs in the 9th did nothing to shut them up --- the mets still led by 2, and against this slumping bunch of cards it might as well have been 20. pendleton coolly moved forward in the batter's box, hoping to catch mcdowell's sinker before the late break; he lifted one to center, and (from my vantage point 3,500 miles away) it looked like an easy out coming off the bat. but dykstra kept going back, then looked up . . . . . for me, this was the true "go crazy, folks" moment of the 1980s. the cards went on to win that game in the 10th, then pounded the still-stunned mets the next day; pendleton's homer brought a left-for-dead team back to life and sent it on to a division title.

9. ken boyer, october 11 1964, off al downing: after their 9-run outburst in game 1 of the '64 series, the cards' bats went silent. they scored only 4 runs in the next two games and lost both (dropping game 3 on a walkoff homer by mantle), and they managed only 1 hit through the first 5 innings of game 4. trailing 3-0 in the top of the 6th at yankee stadium, they were staring a 1-3 series deficit in the face. with 2 on and 1 out, groat hit a double-play ball to richardson that should have ended the inning; he booted it and everyone was safe. boyer made them pay big time: his grand slam gave the cardinals their first lead since early in game 2. ron taylor made it stand up, and the cardinals evened the series.

8. tim mccarver, october 12 1964, off pete mikkelsen: the day after boyer's grand slam knotted the series at 2 games apiece, bob gibson threw a masterpiece. after putting down an early threat, he retired 10 men in a row and breezed through to the 9th with a 2-0 lead and 12 strikeouts. groat booted a grounder leading off the inning, but gibson retired the next two and had only to get tom tresh to complete the shutout. . . . tresh took him deep and tied the score. it was a crushing blow for the cards, a terry pendleton moment for the yanks --- new life when all seemed lost. but the cards put runners at 1st and 3d with one out in the 10th for mccarver. way back in the first inning, he'd struck out with the bases loaded against mel stottlemyre; this time he came through, yanking it out to right field to give the cards a win and a 3-2 lead in the series.

7. jim edmonds, october 20 2004, off dan micelli: edmonds hadn't been a factor in the series --- 5 for 20 with a homer overall, but just 1 hit in his last 10 at-bats. he'd struck out in his 2 previous trips to the plate. but edmonds had always been a stellar postseason performer --- he carred a career october slugging average of .617 into that at-bat, averaging a homer every 13 at-bats (vs a regular-season average of 1 homer per 17 at-bats). it was only the 2d elimination game the cardinals had ever won under la russa.

6. albert pujols, october 17 2005, off brad lidge: for sheer heroism, no homer tops this one. if the cards had gone on to win the series, it'd probably be #1 on this list.

5. whitey kurowski, october 5 1942, off red ruffing: as the only homer in st louis history that clinched a world series title, this one's got to be high on the list even though few (if any) of us remember it. it wasn't the most critical moment; the cards already led the series 3 games to 1 and games 6 and 7 would be played back in st louis, if necessary. kurowski, a rookie in 1942 who'd hit 9 homers and earned 6 points in the mvp balloting, came up with 1 out in the top of the 9th with the score tied 2-2 and the series-clinching run at 2d base. in today's game, he might have been pitched around --- the punchless marion was on deck, with the pitcher due to follow. but ruffing, a great world series pitcher with a 7-1 career record and 2.63 era, elected to pitch to him, and kurowski took him deep. it was ruffing's october swan song; he would never again pitch in the world series.

4. scott rolen, october 21 2004, off roger clemens: seems laughable in retrospect, but clemens was assumed to be retiring after the 2004 season; he'd done the farewell tour and all, and it looked as if his last act on a big-league diamond would be to yield a fall-behind homer late in a winner-take-all game. rolen had taken an 8-pitch at-bat against clemons in his previous trip, which ended in a flyout to center; this time he jumped on the first pitch. kerpow.

3. ozzie smith, october 14 1985, off tom niedenfuer: if it had been anyone other than ozzie, i don't think this hit would hold quite the same place in our hearts, 20+ years later. damn, but that little squirt was a winner.

2. jack clark, october 16 1985, off tom niedenfuer: probably shouldn't be listed this high, but i was in the park --- it was the greatest in-person thrill in my 40 years of watching this team. and what the hell, it did turn a loss into a pennant-clinching win; that's got to be worth something. niedenfuer had already faced clark once in this game and got the better of him --- struck him out with 1 out in the 7th and the go-ahead run on 3d in a tie game. he had a base open in the 9th and could have put him on; bill james made a good case in the 1986 Baseball Abstract that pitching to clark was the right percentage play. i wouldn't have . . . . i think it took clark about 4 full minutes to round the bases.

1. yadier molina, october 19 2006, off aaron heilman: perhaps i'm just overrating this homer because the memory's still so fresh, but i don't think so. the franchise had never witnessed a homer like this one --- it simultaneously staved off elimination (as the pujols and edmonds homers of the previous 2 years) and propelled the cards to a championship (like rolen and clark's blasts). molina's homer was one of only 6 in baseball history (unless i've missed one) that decided a winner-take-all game in the 9th inning or later.


I like how this thread has been around for five of them.

[Edited on January 21, 2008 at 6:51 PM. Reason : .]

1/21/2008 6:50:30 PM

Oh and Troy Glaus for Scott Rolen

dig it

triple post

1/21/2008 6:52:13 PM

I liked Rolen, but he's been bad at the plate for the past few seasons and injured too much. His relationship with Larussa is the only reason he's gone, which pisses me off. Rolen seems like a good enough guy and Tony is a fucking prick, hands down. We'll see how Glaus does.

1/21/2008 11:55:39 PM

i hope i get to make it for a spring training game this season...

with so many new faces, it'll be interesting to see the early offerings...

also - i wish that top 20 list had mentioned this one, at least as an honorable mention:

Quote :

"They have made a habit of winning these games. But their luck finally ran out last night as Billy Wagner, their sixth pitcher of the game, allowed a tie-breaking solo home run to So Taguchi leading off the ninth inning to boost the St. Louis Cardinals to a 9-6 victory in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series at Shea Stadium."

i only say this cause i was there and feared for my life at that point, because i was clearly in a less-than-friendly part of shea...but thats how amazing it was

1/22/2008 12:43:26 AM

Does Matt Clement still have good enough stuff to be in the majors?

Also Aaron Miles is back so we have a clusterfuck in the IF and OF still. Ryan should be starting at one of the positions I think he is ready and is going to be good. Kennedy sucked ass last year.

1/22/2008 9:45:44 AM

Man our thread hasn't been too active this offseason....

3/24/2008 8:58:25 PM

theres a reason for that. I can't really get excited about this season. Maybe opening day will change my mind. It usually does.

3/24/2008 11:38:20 PM

i'm excited about Brian Barton.

we should have a very interesting outfield. ankiel, barton and duncan? at least we're not paying any of them too much

3/24/2008 11:57:37 PM

why does there have to be a thread for every baseball team?

3/25/2008 12:57:07 AM

stfu

this thread is going into its 5th season.

3/25/2008 8:21:38 AM

Ludwick and Schumacher have also been solid 4th and 5th outfielders

but the guy I'm really excited about is Colby Rasmus...kid's gonna be a star

and I know on paper we're only projected to finish around .500 if not lower, but there's something about this season that excites me - a lot moreso than last. not sure why, but I can't wait for opening day

3/25/2008 9:17:21 AM