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St. Louis Cardinals Home Opening Big Post

Written by athooks on .

The last time we saw the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, we'd rather forget. 

A coronation of back-to-back NL champs somehow morphed into the first few bars of Taps and the Birds haven't been back to play at 700 Clark St. until today.

Coming off a 3-3 road trip that could have been much better (losing a 1-0 game and another one in 16 innings after blowing 4 leads) or much worse, the Cardinals have the first games against the team expected by most to take the NL Central... the Cincinnati Reds.

Yes, the pomp will be welcome and I'm 100% sure that the emotion of having 45K faithful remember Stan the Man will be AWESOME... but, beyond all of that... this is a pretty critical game and series against the Reds. Just so much good stuff going on today, we figured it'd be best to put it all in one post so you can enjoy the day.

It's Opening Day. A St. Louis holiday. And here's what you need to know:

Pep Rally:  Joe Buck's downtown anytime after 10:30a. Why Joe Buck's? 1) Giving away good tickets to the game today. 2) Autographs from former Cardinals. 3) Live music. 4) These are being given away:

Stan Musial: Opening Day marks the first time the Cardinals family will be together at Busch Stadium for a game since the passing of Stan Musial earlier this year. On Monday Stan and Lillian Musial’s four children, Dick Musial, Gerry Ashley, Janet Schwarze, and Jean Edmonds will unveil a memorial marker in left center field as part of the Opening Day ceremony. All fans will also receive a #6 sticker to honor Stan. 

Clydesdales: Fans can see the Clydesdales pre-game when they start staging near Poplar Street and Broadway @ gate 1 around 1p today. They'll make a lap around the field to kick off pre-game ceremonies as well.

Opening Ceremony: The pre-game ceremony begins at 2:30p. and kicks off the 2013 season with the famed Budweiser Clydesdales and appearances from Missouri Governor Jeremiah “Jay” Nixon, St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley, St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay, Fredbird, Team Fredbird and an American Bald Eagle, courtesy of the World Bird Sanctuary. The ceremony will feature all four of the team’s Commissioner’s Trophies from each of those World Championship teams (’67, ’82, ’06, and ’11), as well as the introduction of the Cardinals Hall of Famers and 2013 Cardinals.

National Anthem: The National Anthem will be performed by six members of the Gateway Harmonica Club of St. Louis. Stan Musial was an honorary member of the club. Scott Sir Force Base will present the colors and American Flag in center field. 

First Pitch:  Former Cardinals, pitcher Jason Isringhausen and center fielder Jim Edmonds, will throw a ceremonial first pitch.

Game time is 3:15 today and the weather radar for the game is here: LINK HERE

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Bad Memories & The Friday Links

Written by athooks on .

Here we go. 

Back to the house of horrors better known as AT&T park. The site of the games 6 and 7 of the NLCS, games I'm not sure the Cardinals are still over. 

The MLB schedule maker*, no doubt wanting to pump up the drama, made sure that the Cardinals opening road trip ripped off the band-aid that had been covering the Cardinals psyche and splayed it out for all of America to see.

(* ED NOTE: It's been pointed out that the MLB schedule maker actually made the 2013 slate well before we all knew the outcome of the NLCS and this is more of a horrible coincidence than anything. Thanks to @Kath_Manning for pointing out that facts sometimes get in the way of good points. The above paragraph is still in its original form, but the mistake has been noted.)

It's like seeing the girl that dumped you out with another guy, are you ready to handle it? You said you were before you saw them out... but now she's right there. Can. You. Deal?

The opening set in Arizona indicates no.

No dominant pitching performances. Too many mistakes on the base paths. A general sense that something bad was going to happen instead of something good. It wasn't an encouraging way to start 2013. Certainly not a team that looked like it was treating 2013 as a revenge tour.

And I think that's the big question with this weekend: which Cardinals team is showing up? The one that was down to a final strike against Washington and fought back like crazy? Or the team that rolled over and burped in San Francisco 5 months ago?

Usually the first week in April doesn't provide much insight to the season as a whole. 

In the Cardinals case this weekend, it probably will.

Now, the Friday Links...

A GPS gem. LINK HERE

The best way to make new friends. LINK HERE

Nice try, bin. LINK HERE

Cat decision making tree. LINK HERE

The high price of whine. LINK HERE

Woman of the year? LINK HERE

That's it. That's the week. Lot's going on this weekend, including the Final Four on Saturday and then the return of Mad Men on Sunday. (Roger Sterling supercut anyone? LINK HERE) Enjoy whatever you might be doing.

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Ugly In Arizona

Written by athooks on .

You ugly. 

U-G-L-Y.
 
16 innings, 4 blown leads and a 3:30a plane ride later the Cardinals are in San Francisco, sporting a battered bullpen and a losing record.
 
Good thing they don't have any history with the Giants or anything.
 
It's hard to do a list, right after you just did a list, but when the Cardinals ruin your sleep cycle, it's only fair that we get to mail it in to.
 
So here's the Top 5 things that are most worrisome right NOW!
 
1) The closer. Mitchell Boggs is now 4 for 12 in save opportunities. That's not a mis-print. He blows 2/3 of the save chances he gets. If he didn't do this while being on the Cardinals, it'd be a comical little stat. He does, though. So it isn't.
 
2) Carlos Beltran. 1 AB yesterday. 2 ABs the day before. The old day off before an off-day to sneak in a 2 day break kind of works in July and August. In the first week of April, though?
 
3) Ty Wigginton. Unless the Cardinals have a super secret roster exemption that no one knows about, it's hard to see this experiment lasting past April. Dude looks JJ Abrams at the plate... LOST *. At least he's not on a two-year deal... 
 
4) Jon Jay. When you're the table setter, you've got the set... the... table. Can't be hacking at the first pitch when you need a baserunner (MON) or not put the ball in play with 1 out and runner on 3rd (WED). 
 
5) Lance Lynn and Adam Wainwright. Both torched. That's 2/3 of your top 3 starters. Jamie Garcia kind of got bailed out the other game. 
 
Ok, ok. We're only 3 games into the season. And there were some highlights (including Daniel Descalso's bat and Marc Rzepczynski's appearances). Still hard to swallow losses that should have been wins when the Reds were doing exactly the opposite.
 
* Sorry about this, actually. It's early. And the game ran late. 
 
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Vine'ng Cardinals Home Runs

Written by athooks on .

Ok, it took a while. But we're hooked on Vine.

Hadn't really found a great reason to Vine until last night. And then it dawned on us... HOME RUNS! 

Behold... the magic of Vine: (Please note, Vine is pretty new to the embed game. What is below should be like mini 6 second movies. If they don't play, click HERE, HERE and HERE)

 

 

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10 Things From Opening Day

Written by athooks on .

10 totally overblown snap observations from Opening Night @ Arizona Monday: 

1) Carlos Beltran is 35. We're sure about that? Wait until he gets a hint of these 40 degree nights in St. Louis and the Cardinals might just be better off with the very rare 2 man outfield and take their chances.

2) Top of the 6th. Down by three runs. Need to get base runners. Leadoff hitter is up... and swinging at the first pitch. 

Of course Al and Rick absolve Jon Jay before the ball is even in the first baseman's mitt. There's toeing the company line and then their is smothering it in Ricky Horton and eating it whole.

3) Yadier Molina doesn't look right real skinny. Good for him, but still.

4) The Stan Musial memorial sleeve patch is money. Looks awesome.

5) Adam Wainwright got paid to be the man. When you only get the ball every 5th day, you've got to make each of your 30ish starts count. On the second straight Opening Day, he didn't bring his best stuff.

In fact, the night was pretty brutal.

6.0 IP/ 11 H/ 4 ER/ 4.50 ERA plus one maybe/maybe not injury on a comebacker up the middle.

6) Not the best way to forget what an abortion the end of the 2012 was. 

7) Baserunning wasn't a part of the spring training program in Jupiter, looks like. Hapless was the word of the night.

8) My favorite moment from the 3 man broadcast booth? It was the 8th inning where Al was breaking down Joe Kelly's spring training and thought a big part of why he couldn't secure the 5th starter position was his confidence.
 
Then one batter later, Rick noting how Joe Kelly's was a very confident pitcher on the mound.
 
9) Whoa. Did you stay up for the Ty Wigginton at bat? I'm not going to say he's a lost cause yet, but I imagine that's probably what it'd look like if me or you went up against MLB pitching.
 
10) #TossedSalas. Was hoping to wait at least a couple games to bust that hashtag out. Sigh.
 
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GAME ON: STL Cardinals Opening Day 2013

Written by athooks on .

On Monday October 22nd, 2012, 31.8% of St. Louis houses had their TV tuned to Game 7 of the NLCS. 

A huge rating, for sure. But in a baseball-crazy city 9 innings away from back-to-back pennants, the number on the surface seems low.

At least until you put yourself back in that dark space. Where the Cardinals were up 3-1 in the NLCS, at home and ready to pop bottles just 3 days prior. 

Then 32% seems silly for a whole other reason. 

By the thrid inning, it was 6-0 Giants (side: enjoy Kyle Lohse, Brewer fans!) and we knew a long, long winter was ahead. Tonight, around 9p St. Louis time, the healing begins. 

It's Opening Day.

And the Cardinals have a fresh 162 chances to help us all forget the last 3.

OPENING DAY ROSTER:

IF: Tony Cruz, Yadier Molina, Matt Adams, Matt Carpenter, Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso, Ryan Jackson, Pete Kozma, Ty Wigginton

OF: Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday, Jon Jay, Shane Robinson

SP: Jaime Garcia, Lance Lynn, Shelby Miller, Adam Wainwright, Jake Westbrook

RP: Mitchell Boggs, Randy Choate, Joe Kelly, Edward Mujica, Trevor Rosenthal, Marc Rzepczynski, Fernando Salas

DL: Chris Carpenter (60-day/Season), Rafael Furcal (60-day/Seson), David Freese (15-day), Jason Motte (15-day)

ODDS:
 
Win World Series: 20/1
 
NL Pennant: 10/1
 
NL Central: +250 (Bet $100 to win $250)
 
Over/Under: 85.5 wins
 
BOLD PREDICTIONS THAT WILL GO WRONG:
 
Oscar Taveras will be called up by Father's Day. His first month will call into question why this wasn't done sooner and how much different the 2013 season would have been if he had. 
 
Jamie Garcia makes the NL All-Star team.
 
Jason Motte loses his closer role after coming back from the DL. Mike Matheny gives him a couple of more chances in the 9th, but Rosenthal is the fireman from September on. 
 
Albert Pujols has one last final monster season left in him. Making us all feel real uneasy about calling that contract the Angels gave him and Albatross. 
 
ONE LAST THING?
 

It's Opening Day. Make sure the boss knows you'll be up late tonight celebrating. Winter sucked. Now it's over. Time to make the summer of 2013 memorable. 

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Soccer Coming To Busch Stadium & The Friday Links

Written by athooks on .

U2. Dave Matthews. The Eagles. 

The Busch Stadium concert series has drawn some impressive artists to town the past few years and has become an annual tradition... something to get excited about about. (Except the Eagles, I think this about sums up the Eagles.)
 
So what do the Cardinals have in store for 2013?
 
 
Wait, wha?
 
That's right. May 23rd, Premier League teams Manchester City and Chelsea will face off on the diamond pitch for an exhibition match.
 
Part of an exhibition tour featuring the two teams state side, St. Louis will be hosting top-flight soccer for the first time in over 15 years (according to people that know) and the first time ever in Busch Stadium. The club expects a sell-out crowd of nearly 42,000 fans in the special soccer configuration.
 
Ok, it doesn't really count for anything. And seeing how the Premier League will finish a few weeks before the match, you can probably count on several of the top line stars to either sit this one out or be pulled from action early. 
 
But still... pretty cool. 
 
I'm not a soccer guy, per se. The US/Mexico match earlier this week was cool. The World Cup is always a fun sporting event to watch. I've seen some Messi highlights that looked pretty sick. 
 
Other people live and die with soccer.
 
So kudos to the DeWitt's for thinking outside the bun and bringing an event to St. Louis that our city can enjoy. Hell, thanks to them for doing something different. I mean, it's not like anyone else in this town had any connections to bring major soccer to STL before the Cardinals stepped in...
 
 
Now, the Friday Links...
 
Day 21. LINK HERE
 
Things look cooler with leather gloves. LINK HERE
 
Spongebob ruins party. LINK HERE
 
Skywriting. LINK HERE
 
Lazy people. LINK HERE
 
Real mature, guys. LINK HERE
 
That's it, friends. That's the week. I think it's supposed to be above 30 degrees for the first time in 2 years this weekend, so it might finally be time for us to get outside and do something. Then again, last weekend we had a foot of snow. Opening Day on MONDAY!
 
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Adam Wainwright Signs Monster Deal

Written by athooks on .

14-13 with a nearly 4 ERA and 1.24 WHIP gets you 97 million dollars? 

Jay Lenno says "I've GOT to get into pitching!"
 
Let's get three things out on the table before we put the scalpel to this contract:
 
1) Adam Wainwright is good dude. He's the kind of guy that you want as a face of your baseball team. He's easy to market, popular with the fan base and has a rare thing in professional sports: a non-offensive, but totally likable personality. 
 
2) Our longstanding feeling on baseball contracts hasn't changed. Who gives a rip what the Cardinals are paying for players. As long as they're winning, it's not our job to pay the bills. Ticket prices, cable TV prices and beer prices are still going up, no matter what. (Ask Pirate fans). So playing accountant is silly. The Cardinals are going to make a profit no matter what the next 5 years.
 
3) Coming back off Tommy John surgery in 2011 made Wain-O less effective than he normally would have been. We'll take this assumption at face value, since there is no way to know for sure... but it is totally plausible. 
 
Ok.
 
So reading the reaction around the web seems to be about 80% positive on the signing. And the biggest consensus plus seems to be Wainwright is now the staff anchor that will Shepard in the youth movement (Jenkins, Wacha, Miller, etc al) and be the guy that teaches young prospects how to become big league stars.
 
The Cardinals better get way more than that for almost 9 figures. 
 
This contract puts Wainwight in the top 10 of all MLB pitching contracts. A list that includes 2 pitchers that everyone can agree are "worth it" (Sabathia and Verlander). 
 
Like it or not, the Cardinals limit their budget yearly. We know this as fans, and generally accept it. But now, even if the contract ceiling is raised over the next 5 years, you can expect Wainwright's contract to eat 15% to 20% of the overall player spend for the team.
 
That's significant. 
 
And even more so for a player that is coming off a major surgery and hasn't been All-Star caliber since 2010.
 
Again, refer to point 3 above. We HOPE that Wainwright returns to ace form. We don't KNOW if he will or not. If he doesn't regain at least 90% of his play from 2010 and prior, this contract is going to be an albatross for the Cardinals. 
 
Candidly, I'm surprised this deal got done.
 
I know that Wainwright and his agent said they wouldn't negotiate during the season. That's just not true. If the Cardinals wanted to make an offer during the middle of the season, they'd do so to Wainwright's agent. And if it was this offer, pending on how the first 2-3 months of the season went, I think they'd take it. 
 
They might add on a few million if he starts out strong. Maybe drop a few million off it if he started out rough. But it'd probably be in the 90-105 million range. 
 
But by inking the deal know, we're in the midst of a very expensive craps roll. This isn't Holliday. This isn't Molina. Heck, this isn't even Pujols. This is a huge investment in a player that was not available in 2011 and often times not good in 2012. (Dirty little fact? Cardinals won the World Series the year he didn't get rocked in the playoffs. 7.88 ERA 4 IP each outing in the NLDS. A very nice game in the NLCS, though, if you want to be more optimistic). 
 
Again, it's the Cardinals money. They'll be fine. But they could have waited to see how the beginning of this season broke. It wouldn't answer every question, but at least it would be a piece of mind.
 
But if Wainwright is going to be the reason the Cardinals can't get a middle infielder, or any other glaring need, then he's going to have to be an All-Star caliber starter that comes up big in the big games.
 
He can do it. I want him to do it.
 
Cheers to Wainwright. Hopefully he'll buy us all a beer when he sees us out. The weight of a huge contract is a relief for some and a scarlet letter for others (hello there, Mr. Zito. Meet Mr. Santana). Let's hope our buddy Adam is ready to be viewed through a whole new spectrum. 
 
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Look At That Face

Written by athooks on .

Jon Hamm.

It's good to be Jon Hamm.

That right there is the face of a guy who just had a story published in NY Magazine about how big his, ahem, "package he's carrying" really is. 

Seriously: LINK HERE

Of course he's wearing a Cardinals cap. Of course. 

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More Cardinals Snow Art

Written by athooks on .

I love spring!

And in St. Louis, we're going to have a spring sooner or later. But until then, feets of snow keep piling up on our lawns and shared public spaces. So we might as well make Cardinals snow art, right?

Friend of the the site @Dathan7 is back at it with a Chris Carpenter/Yadier Molina set piece. 

Enjoy...

By the way, Opening Day? Less than a week from now. Maybe we'll take a cue from US soccer and just play on? 

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