So Long September

My St. Louis Cardinals wrapped up the 2019 season by playing mediocre baseball in a mediocre division.  The Birds won the National League Central Division with a record of 91-71, two games ahead of a beat up Milwaukee Brewers team and seven games in front of an overrated Chicago Cubs team.  Next up the Cards will play the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series starting on Thursday October 3rd in Atlanta.  I wouldn't be surprised to see the Braves sweep the Cards.

In football my beloved Missouri Tigers are off to a 3-1 start after having laid a big turd in Laramie, Wyoming in the season opener.  Mizzou wasn't ready for the Cowboys and lost the contest despite getting up 14-0 on its first two possessions.  Since then they have played two bad teams in West Virginia and Southeast Missouri.  They pounded South Carolina 34-14 two weeks ago, but South Carolina will be lucky to finish with a .500 record in the SEC.

And I won't miss the heat of September.  This has been one of the warmest September's I can remember in my life and I am old.  The temperature today was 94 degrees on the last day of the month.  I look forward to cooler fall temperatures.  But, at the same time I don't look forward to the cold and snow of the season that comes after fall.

That's my take on the completed month.  Talk to you in October.

Rants and Rambles

Happy October!  The weather has finally cooled off to more seasonable temperatures and fall has finally checked in where I live.  Instead of highs in the low 90s temperatures are now in the upper 50s.  I welcome fall, but wait until this winter and I will bitch about how cold it is.

In no particular order here are a few things I have been thinking about.

-NCAA Football.  My beloved Missouri Tigers are 3-2 on the young season and play at Tuscaloosa this Saturday night against the top rated team in the country; the Alabama Crimson Tide.  'Bama is a 28 point favorite and the over under number is 74.  I think if I were a betting man I would take the over number.  Mizzou has generated offense in every game it has played this year, but it's secondary leaves a lot to be desired and will have a hard time getting stops against the Tide.

-Times of games.  The NCAA still needs to figure out a way to speed up its games.  They are way too long and I am getting tired of sitting in the stands at Mizzou games watching the teams stand around and do absolutely nothing.  For starters, when a 30 second timeout is called, make the teams stay at the line of scrimmage and start play 30 seconds after the timeout is called.

-Baseball has done absolutely nothing and despite all of the hype about limiting the number of visits to the mound the games are still way to long.  The playoffs have brought the games to a crawl, with too many now taking over four hours to play.  This is ridiculous.  As I wrote earlier this year, keep the hitters in the box and the pitchers on the rubber, and limit the number of commercials and the games will have more action.  Oh, and have the umpires call the strike zone as it is written in the rule book.

-Baseball Predictions.  I think it will be the Red Sox and Brewers in the World Series.  And I think the Red Sox will win it all.  The Sox won 108 games this year and seem to have it all.  I look forward to both of the League Championship series too. While I like the Sox and Brewers, I may be wrong since Houston and the Dodgers seem to be peaking at the right time.

Well enough for now.  But, I will leave you with a picture I took while on vacation of a spot I had always wanted to visit.  It is the new Yankee Stadium at 161st Avenue in the Bronx.  The view is looking down the first base side of the ballpark.  I hope you enjoy it.

My take on Baseball's Post Season

It's taken me about three weeks to get past the Cardinals being eliminated from the MLB playoffs to be able to write about their demise and this post-season.

The Cardinals were beaten by a better Chicago Cubs team three weeks ago.  The Cubs pitching and timely hitting for power was more than the worn out Birds pitching staff could handle.  I am a fan of Cardinals manager Mike Matheny but also think he may have over worked his staff during the regular season.  But, then who am I to argue with his success.  The Cards won 100 games this year, more than any other club in Major League Baseball.  Matheny did a great job of running the Cards even when the club was torn up with injuries.  I will remember this season because of all the lost games to key players all season long.

As far as the rest of the Playoffs:

-I was surprised at how easily the Mets swept the Cubs in the NLCS.  I thought the Cubs had their best chance in years to make it to the World Series.  But the Mets' pitching was even better than the Cubbies.  And pitching and defense win championships.  As I write this the Mets are down three games to one in the Series.  The Mets' defense has cost them two games already and I would not be surprised to see the Kansas City Royals clinch the Series tonight.

-Royals and Blue Jays players showing up the other team after hitting home runs is disgusting.  José Bautista's flipping his bat after his home run in the final game of the Blue Jay - Rangers' series was sickening.  Bautista had better be looking for a fastball in his back the first game they meet in 2016.  Likewise, Kendrys Morales' behavior after jacking a homer against the Astros was also immature.  His skipping around the bases like a six year old girl will also be welcomed with a fastball to the back the first time those two teams meet next year.

I am looking forward to the 2016 MLB season and watching my beloved Cardinals play in the NL Central, the toughest division in baseball.  The Cubs are going to be good for a while, the Pirates are good and the Brewers and Reds should also get better.  And it all starts in just 155 days! Woo-Hoo!

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National League All-Star Team

Major League Baseball is back at it again asking its fans to select the All-Star team.  This is a ludicrous idea because most baseball fans can't name many more players than those on the team they support.  Which is why you have moronic selections each year.

I'm no expert, but after watching the game for 55 years, I know who can play and who isn't living up to their hype.  So, with that in mind here are my National League picks for the upcoming All-Star game which will be played in Minneapolis at Target Field on July 15th.

C      Jonathan Lucroy          Milwaukee Brewers
1B     Paul Goldschmidt        Arizona Diamondbacks
2B     Anthony Rendon         Washington Nationals
3B     Todd Frazier               Cincinnati Reds
SS     Troy Tulowitzki           Colorado Rockies
OF     Giancarlo Stanton       Miami Marlins
OF     Yasiel Puig                  Los Angeles Dodgers
OF     Andrew McCutchen    Pittsburgh Pirates

Of these players only\Tulowitzki, Puig and Stanton are currently leading at their positions.

Maybe the Cardinals Bats are finally Warming Up

As you may or may not know it was a very cold winter and cool wet spring in Saint Louis.  Perhaps that's why the Cardinals have been hitting so poorly thus far this year as compared to last year.

But, this weekend the Birds swept the Washington Nationals at Busch Stadium III and showed a little pop in their bats.  Cardinal First Baseman Matt Adams homered in each of the game and gives St. Louis a legitimate power hitter now that he is off of the DL.

Hopefully, the warm weather has warmed up the bats and the Cards are on their way.  As I write this they trail the Milwaukee Brewers by 3.5 games in the National League Central Division and are only three out on the lost side.

Now that the Cardinals are hitting let's hope the pitching continues to be just as strong as the last few weeks.  Oh did I say that includes four shutouts of the opponent in the past eight days and a strong start this afternoon by number five starter Jaime Garcia.

I Love a Pennant Race

OK, I haven't been very faithful in writing.  Yeah, I know I keep using the excuse I'm busy.  And it's not exactly as if you Mr. and Mrs. Reader are asking for more.  So, I do the best I can and if you don't like that, well too freakin' bad.

As I write this I'm watching my beloved Cardinals play the Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin.  The Cardinals lead it now 6-4 on Matt Adam's gargantuan Home Run in the top of the ninth.  But, the bigger picture is the National League Central divisional championship race.  All season the Cards, Pirates and Reds have chased each other for divisional supremacy.  Already tonight the Reds have come from behind and beaten the Pirates 6-5.  If the Cards, or Birds as we call them in the Saint Louis area, can close out the Brewers they will up their lead to two games over each of their rivals.

If...and that is a big IF, the Birds hang on to win, the Cardinals magic number will be seven with eight games remaining.  Any combination of St. Louis wins and the second place teams losses will guarantee the Cards yet another divisional championship.  How 'bout them Birds!

Congratulations Cardinals!

It's been almost four days now and I am still celebrating the St. Louis Cardinals latest World Series Championship. I won't go into a lot of detail but this World Championship is sweeter than the first four I've experienced in my lifetime.

I had written this team off back in August when they were playing like, well...crap. They weren't hitting, the bullpen was terrible and the defense was making stupid mistakes 10 year old kids don't make. But after falling back 10 1/2 games on August 25th, it turned around. Why, I don't really know. Injuries started to heal, the bullpen started getting batters out and the starting pitching came up with solid starts almost every night. Top it off with timely hitting and you can see how the club won 15 of 20 down the stretch. Twice, in the playoffs they got behind teams that were better on paper. The Phillies had more wins than any team in baseball this year and the Brewers were six games better than the Cards during the regular season. But still it was the Redbirds who found themselves in the Series.

The Cardinals again fell behind the Rangers after five games. In fact they were down to their final strike, twice, last Thursday night in Game 6. But, they rallied and went on to win this Series described by many baseball writers as the best World Series in years.

David Freese was named the MVP of the series, but really almost every player stepped up at one time or another down the stretch and during the playoffs. In my book (and yeah I know this will sound corny) they are all MVPs. Congratulations World Champion Saint Louis Cardinals!

Good Luck Redbirds

Here it is 19 days later and the Cardinals are still playing. I really didn't have much hope for their playoff chances but...they are still playing. In fact the World Series starts tomorrow night at Busch Stadium.

It's the Cardinals against a very good Texas Rangers team that tore through the American League playoffs and destroyed the Rays and Tigers along the way. At the same time the Cardinals edged out a tough Philadelphia squad and then got past a good Milwaukee team that hit the ball hard.

But, bottom line it's the Cards in the Series for the 18th time in their history. This has also been one of the most enjoyable baseball post-seasons for me in a long time. Maybe it's because of the Cardinals underdog role. Maybe, it's because of their never-say-die attittude. But, it's a great group of guys and they seem to be having a lot of fun and seem unfazed by any pressure. Witness the teams catch phrase #HappyFlight and tweets from Allen Craig's pet tortoise @TortyCraig. Whatever it is they are having fun and so am I. I won't make a prediction on the World Series this year but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see this team win it all. Go CARDS!!!