Curtis Sanford, You're My Hero!
What more can I say? Mr. Sanford is giving spreading hope and joy to the St. Louis area. Maybe we can salvage this season.
"Drugs are bad, mmmkay."
I am trying to recover after reading ESPN the Magazine's article on steroids in baseball. It's all there. Steroids getting cast aside as a non-issue when other things were taking up media space. MLB turning a blind eye when anyone and everyone was hitting homeruns in bunches and then having their oversized muscles fall off of their bones or their overworked tendons snap like Mike Tyson at a press conference. Why did they turn a blind eye? Because fans were coming back to the game after they lost interest because of the strike. Or because they did not want to tarnish the image of McGwire and Sosa. Well both of them survived quite well didn't they?
Whether it's Andro or cork or stealing signs or gambling, baseball players cheat. Obviously there are still honest people in baseball, but we live in a culture that encourages people to get ahead at all costs. Kids today go to school seeing cheating and plagiarizing as the norm. I had a friend in college who could barely read because he had friends who would do his homework and write his papers for him all through high school. They all figure that as long as they don't get caught, it's a victimless crime.
Except everyone becomes a victim eventually. The people who don't cheat don't get the credit they deserve for their talents. The cheaters don't learn, or get hurt, or get caught, depending upon the arena or the situation. The world has to waste money in ways to train people to catch cheaters, test people for drugs, and hope that they don't except a bribe or something to look the other way because once again our culture is embedded with a cheater's mentality. It sucks.
Major League Baseball dug their own grave on this one. McGwire, Bonds, Giambi, Sosa, Palmeiro, all of them are going to get into the hall of fame. Why? Because they cheated. Everyone knows it, but it is too late to prove it. And baseball can't do anything about it. Roger Maris is still the record holder for most home runs in a season. Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth are still the only player who have hit 700 or more home runs in their careers.
Mark McGwire was my hero. I still remember where I was when I saw number 62. We were playing Tekken 3 in Chris and Jared's room across the hall, and either Justin and I would be checking the TV in our room for when McGwire was coming up to bat. Then it happened. It barely made it. It was his shortest homer of the year. And now it is just another symbol of all that is wrong with sports. I'm almost glad that the 62 in left field won't be there anymore with the new stadium being built. And Jim Edmonds did the right thing by getting it down and taking it to Big Mac. Now he can be reminded everyday of how he broke America's heart. I still love baseball, and I still love the Cardinals, but there is a black spot hanging over the past two decades that will never be clear.
Of course after reading what Victor Conte thinks about the new steroid policy in baseball, that dark spot may still be hovering over the sport today.
Whether it's Andro or cork or stealing signs or gambling, baseball players cheat. Obviously there are still honest people in baseball, but we live in a culture that encourages people to get ahead at all costs. Kids today go to school seeing cheating and plagiarizing as the norm. I had a friend in college who could barely read because he had friends who would do his homework and write his papers for him all through high school. They all figure that as long as they don't get caught, it's a victimless crime.
Except everyone becomes a victim eventually. The people who don't cheat don't get the credit they deserve for their talents. The cheaters don't learn, or get hurt, or get caught, depending upon the arena or the situation. The world has to waste money in ways to train people to catch cheaters, test people for drugs, and hope that they don't except a bribe or something to look the other way because once again our culture is embedded with a cheater's mentality. It sucks.
Major League Baseball dug their own grave on this one. McGwire, Bonds, Giambi, Sosa, Palmeiro, all of them are going to get into the hall of fame. Why? Because they cheated. Everyone knows it, but it is too late to prove it. And baseball can't do anything about it. Roger Maris is still the record holder for most home runs in a season. Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth are still the only player who have hit 700 or more home runs in their careers.
Mark McGwire was my hero. I still remember where I was when I saw number 62. We were playing Tekken 3 in Chris and Jared's room across the hall, and either Justin and I would be checking the TV in our room for when McGwire was coming up to bat. Then it happened. It barely made it. It was his shortest homer of the year. And now it is just another symbol of all that is wrong with sports. I'm almost glad that the 62 in left field won't be there anymore with the new stadium being built. And Jim Edmonds did the right thing by getting it down and taking it to Big Mac. Now he can be reminded everyday of how he broke America's heart. I still love baseball, and I still love the Cardinals, but there is a black spot hanging over the past two decades that will never be clear.
Of course after reading what Victor Conte thinks about the new steroid policy in baseball, that dark spot may still be hovering over the sport today.
At Least Pronger is Happy
I was hanging out with my friends from the Frozen Food Section backstage at the pageant last night. It was a good time. Great music. Great art. Crazy excitement. Only one dark spot hovered over an otherwise profitable and fun evening: the Blues. They lost at home 7-2 to Chris Pronger's new team the Edmonton Oilers. And although Pronger did not score any points last night, you know he was happy. The Blues should have never let him go.
Sure long term contracts can look like debt to a prospective buyer for a team for sale, but any fan of the game should be able to understand what Chris Pronger brings to the table. Wins should look great for a team for sale. They bring excitement and money. No one wants to see a losing team. Chris Pronger was a winner. He has proven his worth after the Brendan Shanahan trade. Coupled with removing the captaincy from Brett Hull, they accounted for the only two good decisions he made during his tumultuous tenure in St. Louis.
The Blues are not winners right now. After losing two of the top five defensemen in the NHL, they have fallen apart. Their new goalie stinks, but it does not help that he gets no help from our porous defense. Dallas Drake is a gritty captain, but he can't save this ship. The Blues right now are the worst team and the league, and there does not appear to be any hope insight. As Tucker Booth so eloquently stated, "The Blues are like the Cardinals would be if they had spent a year playing with themselves in Canada."
Sure long term contracts can look like debt to a prospective buyer for a team for sale, but any fan of the game should be able to understand what Chris Pronger brings to the table. Wins should look great for a team for sale. They bring excitement and money. No one wants to see a losing team. Chris Pronger was a winner. He has proven his worth after the Brendan Shanahan trade. Coupled with removing the captaincy from Brett Hull, they accounted for the only two good decisions he made during his tumultuous tenure in St. Louis.
The Blues are not winners right now. After losing two of the top five defensemen in the NHL, they have fallen apart. Their new goalie stinks, but it does not help that he gets no help from our porous defense. Dallas Drake is a gritty captain, but he can't save this ship. The Blues right now are the worst team and the league, and there does not appear to be any hope insight. As Tucker Booth so eloquently stated, "The Blues are like the Cardinals would be if they had spent a year playing with themselves in Canada."
Halloween Heart
I am happy for the Rams. I am happy for Coach Vitt. I am happy for Steven Jackson. Things are finally looking up at Rams Park. Sports are so weird sometimes. Games that are so tied to statistics, usually breakdown to something more. Joe Vitt used the movie Gladiator to rally the troops. This may seem silly, but in sports sometimes the smallest things can make the big differences.
I will always love Mike Martz and the excitement he brought to St. Louis every year and every week, but sometimes it was not the good kind of excitement. He is a great X's and O's guy, but he always seemed aloof and unexciteable. He never seemed able to instill the passion for the game needed to win the game. He obviously had it, but he could not communicate it.
As we may be seeing more as this season progresses, it is more about the heart than the head. Which is slightly ironic given that both Martz and Vitt had heart operations this season. But when players and coaches believe in their hearts that they can do something, it can be much more powerful than whatever is running through their minds.
It may be cheesy, but so is Gladiator. That worked.
I will always love Mike Martz and the excitement he brought to St. Louis every year and every week, but sometimes it was not the good kind of excitement. He is a great X's and O's guy, but he always seemed aloof and unexciteable. He never seemed able to instill the passion for the game needed to win the game. He obviously had it, but he could not communicate it.
As we may be seeing more as this season progresses, it is more about the heart than the head. Which is slightly ironic given that both Martz and Vitt had heart operations this season. But when players and coaches believe in their hearts that they can do something, it can be much more powerful than whatever is running through their minds.
It may be cheesy, but so is Gladiator. That worked.
I've Got the Blues
Once again we have left another baseball season with not much more than hope about next year. While Jocketty tinkers with the pitching staff and the outfield, we have nothing left to do for the winter. The Rams are in trouble again, and I wish only the best to Mike Martz. (I still give him most of the credit for turning this franchise around. Dick Vermeil is a cry baby.) Jamie Martin may know the offense, but that does not make him a good quarterback. Mizzou seems to be wasting another year. Our friend Brad Smith may just go down as another athletic, exciting to watch quarterback without the requisite skills to be a quarterback in the NFL. I guess he could become the next Hines Ward, but sometimes I feel like he could have been so much more.
And don't get me started about Mizzou basketball. Self-Proclaimed "Coach" Snyder did not build a new basketball stadium, the Walton fortune did. It can be a gray area, but maybe "Coach" just forgot that he got in trouble with the NCAA and has missed the tournament the past two years. Is it any wonder the new arena almost got named after a cheating failiure? Maybe he did build the new arena. Maybe it will fall on his oversized head. But I digress.
So all that I am left with, besides short interludes of St. Louisan Larry Hughes playing with King James on national TV, is The Blues. And since in St. Louis the NBA doesn't exist anyway, all I really have is the Blues.
The Blues are in an interesting place right now. The team is for sale. The current owners are trying to do everything they can to convince people that a hockey team can be profitable in the US, by cutting costs and trying to get rid of any unnecessary debt (read: no new long-term contracts). Where this leaves us is with a scrappy team that will probably miss the playoffs this year. To some this may not seem like a big deal, except that the Blues have been in the playoffs each of the past 25 years. I am of a generation of hockey fans that have never seen the Blues miss the playoffs. That's crazy. I'm 25 years old!
We may get to test a prevalent sports theory which entails that you must go through a rebuilding process in order to win it all. During the 25 year stretch, and actually during the entire history of St. Louis hockey, we have never won a Stanley Cup. So the question becomes do we need the requisite bad years to get the high draft picks needed to develop a core of strong young bucks to carry this franchise into the next stage of Blues hockey, which theoretically will bring a Cup through the Gateway to the West?
I don't know if there is a definitive answer to this. During this stretch we weren't always mediocre. We won a President's Cup, only to lose in the first round of the playoffs to those dirty San Jose Sharks, and we have progressed twice to the Conference Finals. We have had our share of talented players come through St. Louis, including, since I have been following them: Brett Hull, Scott Stevens, Curtis Joseph, Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan, Wayne Gretzky, Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Pavol Demitra, Grant Fuhr, Keith Tkatchuk, Doug Weight, and Barrett Jackman. These came with a few notable awards, including two Hart Awards, two Norris trophies, a Calder, and two Lady Byngs. (Speaking of which, do players get ribbed about winning the Lady Byng award? Do opposing players check them into the boards and say things like "You gonna cry, you big girl," or "Wow, I just checked the bearded lady!") But anyway, there were a few years where we were one of the top teams in the league, but things just didn't come together for us. Whether because of injury, or because the stars weren't aligned well (both on the ice and in the sky) we just could never put it together.
Although we lost some guys, I see some hope. We seem to be figuring out the new rules, and Lalime seems to be getting more comfortable. My hope is, squeak into the playoffs, get bought by someone who cares about hockey and wants to win and wants to stay in Saint Louis even after the current lease on the stadium is up, keep the streak going, and add a Stanley Cup sometime soon. Will all this happen? Probably not. Am I going to keep hope alive anyway? You're damn right I am.
Go Blues.
And don't get me started about Mizzou basketball. Self-Proclaimed "Coach" Snyder did not build a new basketball stadium, the Walton fortune did. It can be a gray area, but maybe "Coach" just forgot that he got in trouble with the NCAA and has missed the tournament the past two years. Is it any wonder the new arena almost got named after a cheating failiure? Maybe he did build the new arena. Maybe it will fall on his oversized head. But I digress.
So all that I am left with, besides short interludes of St. Louisan Larry Hughes playing with King James on national TV, is The Blues. And since in St. Louis the NBA doesn't exist anyway, all I really have is the Blues.
The Blues are in an interesting place right now. The team is for sale. The current owners are trying to do everything they can to convince people that a hockey team can be profitable in the US, by cutting costs and trying to get rid of any unnecessary debt (read: no new long-term contracts). Where this leaves us is with a scrappy team that will probably miss the playoffs this year. To some this may not seem like a big deal, except that the Blues have been in the playoffs each of the past 25 years. I am of a generation of hockey fans that have never seen the Blues miss the playoffs. That's crazy. I'm 25 years old!
We may get to test a prevalent sports theory which entails that you must go through a rebuilding process in order to win it all. During the 25 year stretch, and actually during the entire history of St. Louis hockey, we have never won a Stanley Cup. So the question becomes do we need the requisite bad years to get the high draft picks needed to develop a core of strong young bucks to carry this franchise into the next stage of Blues hockey, which theoretically will bring a Cup through the Gateway to the West?
I don't know if there is a definitive answer to this. During this stretch we weren't always mediocre. We won a President's Cup, only to lose in the first round of the playoffs to those dirty San Jose Sharks, and we have progressed twice to the Conference Finals. We have had our share of talented players come through St. Louis, including, since I have been following them: Brett Hull, Scott Stevens, Curtis Joseph, Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan, Wayne Gretzky, Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Pavol Demitra, Grant Fuhr, Keith Tkatchuk, Doug Weight, and Barrett Jackman. These came with a few notable awards, including two Hart Awards, two Norris trophies, a Calder, and two Lady Byngs. (Speaking of which, do players get ribbed about winning the Lady Byng award? Do opposing players check them into the boards and say things like "You gonna cry, you big girl," or "Wow, I just checked the bearded lady!") But anyway, there were a few years where we were one of the top teams in the league, but things just didn't come together for us. Whether because of injury, or because the stars weren't aligned well (both on the ice and in the sky) we just could never put it together.
Although we lost some guys, I see some hope. We seem to be figuring out the new rules, and Lalime seems to be getting more comfortable. My hope is, squeak into the playoffs, get bought by someone who cares about hockey and wants to win and wants to stay in Saint Louis even after the current lease on the stadium is up, keep the streak going, and add a Stanley Cup sometime soon. Will all this happen? Probably not. Am I going to keep hope alive anyway? You're damn right I am.
Go Blues.
New Era
Well, as a sports fan, and specifically as a St. Louis sports fan, today is filled with mixed emotions. I agonized once again as my favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals lost in the playoffs. The last time they won the World Series was in 1982, before I was old enough to realize what the difference was between a ball and a box. The first time I remember them in the World Series was when they lost in 1987, when I was not in St. Louis yet, and I thought that Kirby Puckett was cool. Sometimes I feel bad about this fact, but then I remember that it's just sports, and Kirby Puckett was pretty cool.
Now, though, not only is the Curse of Keith Hernandez still haunting the franchise, but we also have to say goodbye to Busch Stadium. Once criticized for being another one of the "cookie cutter" stadiums, Busch Stadium has become one of the most beloved havens for baseball fans in the country. After converting it to a full time baseball stadium, (it had shared time with such things as the St. Louis football Cardinals, the Beatles, and REO Speedwagon) and taking out the awful astro-turf, and adding a few upgrades and modern amenities, the stadium had really become quite a place. Fun for kids, beloved by true sports fans, enjoyed by everyone, it was great. Even after all the other "cookie cutter" stadiums (of which Busch Stadium was the first) were torn down, Busch Stadium seemed to be getting better.
Now it will be gone. The plans for the new stadium look nice. It's supposed to have more "good" seats. And there are plans in the works for a Stadium Plaza that hopefully will benefit a struggling downtown area. It will also take over the name Busch Stadium. To me it will always be the New Busch Stadium, even when it is old and cracked. However, that is better than some of the new corporate names that are out there.
I have some fond memories of Busch. I saw the Wizard do a few back flips there. I saw Big Mac hammer some balls. I saw the Great Albert Pujols play. I heckled Rickey Henderson. Ben Clark and I tried and failed to get some autographs from Orel Hershieser and Tommy Lasorda once when the Dodgers came to town. I booed Kenny Lofton in the playoffs. I learned how to use a scorecard there. I even witnessed a few baseball miracles. It was pretty cool.
Next year will be a new chapter for St. Louis. New ballpark, probably some new faces. And even though we missed out on a championship this year, maybe next year we can bring it home.
Now, though, not only is the Curse of Keith Hernandez still haunting the franchise, but we also have to say goodbye to Busch Stadium. Once criticized for being another one of the "cookie cutter" stadiums, Busch Stadium has become one of the most beloved havens for baseball fans in the country. After converting it to a full time baseball stadium, (it had shared time with such things as the St. Louis football Cardinals, the Beatles, and REO Speedwagon) and taking out the awful astro-turf, and adding a few upgrades and modern amenities, the stadium had really become quite a place. Fun for kids, beloved by true sports fans, enjoyed by everyone, it was great. Even after all the other "cookie cutter" stadiums (of which Busch Stadium was the first) were torn down, Busch Stadium seemed to be getting better.
Now it will be gone. The plans for the new stadium look nice. It's supposed to have more "good" seats. And there are plans in the works for a Stadium Plaza that hopefully will benefit a struggling downtown area. It will also take over the name Busch Stadium. To me it will always be the New Busch Stadium, even when it is old and cracked. However, that is better than some of the new corporate names that are out there.
I have some fond memories of Busch. I saw the Wizard do a few back flips there. I saw Big Mac hammer some balls. I saw the Great Albert Pujols play. I heckled Rickey Henderson. Ben Clark and I tried and failed to get some autographs from Orel Hershieser and Tommy Lasorda once when the Dodgers came to town. I booed Kenny Lofton in the playoffs. I learned how to use a scorecard there. I even witnessed a few baseball miracles. It was pretty cool.
Next year will be a new chapter for St. Louis. New ballpark, probably some new faces. And even though we missed out on a championship this year, maybe next year we can bring it home.
Spring Time
As the air gets warmer, the leaves return to the trees, and people start to feel that itch again, it can only mean one thing. Hockey Playoffs. That's right! After the arduous thirteen month pre-season has wound down to a thunderous halt, the real hockey season starts. Somehow almost every team seems to make the playoffs, which manages to put somewhat of a damper on the Blues consecutive playoff streak. Sure 25 straight is nice, but does it really mean anything? Shouldn't we have won at least one Stanley Cup during that streak? It is all a great mystery. Now we get three more months of playoff hockey, and somehow the next season has already started. This is getting out of hand.
Two important issues:
1. Hockey should not be played during the summer. They are pushing it in March, and one of the top teams in the country should not be from Tampa Bay.
2. No one cares about the current labor agreement. If there is no hockey next season, then the four guys from South Boston that still care about the NHL will probably shoot themselves, leaving the NHL with exactly zero fans.
Sure I like the Blues, and the Blues-Blackhawks rivalry is one of the best in sports period. Every game, no matter how each team is doing in the standings, is a good one, but I can't go to a game because the tickets cost too much. The only two hockey games I have been to in my life, someone paid for me.
God I hope I won my office pool because otherwise I will have nothing to be happy about right now. I have no basketball team in Saint Louis to root for. Barring some kind of deranged miracle, the Blues will get thrown out of the playoffs even before they start. The Cardinals rotation is already giving me nightmares. Matt Morris has been battling injuries and lost confidence. The fact that Woody Williams has played much better than his ability the last two and a half years has got to catch up with him soon. Plus he's getting old. Chris Carpenter hasn't pitched in two years. Jason Marquis has been nothing better than inconsistent in the majors thus far. And Jeff Suppan is just a slightly better Brett Tomko. Their both given contracts because they can pitch a lot of innings, but without a huge amount of run support, they would never finish a season with a winning record.
Of course the Cardinals' lineup can produce the necessary run support, but with a brand new bench with little big league experience, we cannot expect the same kind of attack we had last year. Yes I love anyone in a Cardinal uniform (unless we managed to get Barry Bonds or Kenny Lofton, God I hate those two guys), but sometimes we have to be realistic. I really hate saying bad things about Woody Williams, but I can't help but to be pessimistic. Gravity happens.
The Cubs have Prior, Wood, Maddux. The Astros have Oswalt, Clemens, Pettitte. They have three aces apiece. We have an ace, an overachiever, an overrated innings eater, a rehab experiment, and an unproven and inconsistent prospect. Things will not end well. But I always like rooting for the underdog (except for G. Tech in the final because they ruined my bracket by beating Kansas and Oklahoma St.), and it will be fun to root for the underdog Cardinals as they kick both of those teams out of the playoff picture. It's a beautiful world that way.
Two important issues:
1. Hockey should not be played during the summer. They are pushing it in March, and one of the top teams in the country should not be from Tampa Bay.
2. No one cares about the current labor agreement. If there is no hockey next season, then the four guys from South Boston that still care about the NHL will probably shoot themselves, leaving the NHL with exactly zero fans.
Sure I like the Blues, and the Blues-Blackhawks rivalry is one of the best in sports period. Every game, no matter how each team is doing in the standings, is a good one, but I can't go to a game because the tickets cost too much. The only two hockey games I have been to in my life, someone paid for me.
God I hope I won my office pool because otherwise I will have nothing to be happy about right now. I have no basketball team in Saint Louis to root for. Barring some kind of deranged miracle, the Blues will get thrown out of the playoffs even before they start. The Cardinals rotation is already giving me nightmares. Matt Morris has been battling injuries and lost confidence. The fact that Woody Williams has played much better than his ability the last two and a half years has got to catch up with him soon. Plus he's getting old. Chris Carpenter hasn't pitched in two years. Jason Marquis has been nothing better than inconsistent in the majors thus far. And Jeff Suppan is just a slightly better Brett Tomko. Their both given contracts because they can pitch a lot of innings, but without a huge amount of run support, they would never finish a season with a winning record.
Of course the Cardinals' lineup can produce the necessary run support, but with a brand new bench with little big league experience, we cannot expect the same kind of attack we had last year. Yes I love anyone in a Cardinal uniform (unless we managed to get Barry Bonds or Kenny Lofton, God I hate those two guys), but sometimes we have to be realistic. I really hate saying bad things about Woody Williams, but I can't help but to be pessimistic. Gravity happens.
The Cubs have Prior, Wood, Maddux. The Astros have Oswalt, Clemens, Pettitte. They have three aces apiece. We have an ace, an overachiever, an overrated innings eater, a rehab experiment, and an unproven and inconsistent prospect. Things will not end well. But I always like rooting for the underdog (except for G. Tech in the final because they ruined my bracket by beating Kansas and Oklahoma St.), and it will be fun to root for the underdog Cardinals as they kick both of those teams out of the playoff picture. It's a beautiful world that way.
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