Epilogue

Time to give 2005 a swift kick out the door, Cards fans.

I’m confounded this morning. Confused, vexed, thoroughly perplexed.

Are the White Sox really the most dominant post-season team ever?

11-1. Tied for the best postseason record with the 1999 Yankees. Wow. Include the final five games of the regular season, and the White Sox have won 16 out of their last 17.

Congratulations, I suppose.

But this is a Cardinals site. Not a White Sox site. I’m less interested in congratulating the Sox, and more interested in how the Cards are effected by all this.

Point one: I think the Birds played a definite roll in the Astros ineptitude in this Series. If Lidge retires Eckstein in game 5, he’s still invincible. Oswalt is fresh for Game 1, and the Series is likely tied 1-1 going back to Houston. Clemens gets an extra three days to rest his hamstring, and he pitches in warm weather.

It’s a different series. As it happens, Oswalt was ineffective, having thrown far harder for far longer in Game 6 of the NLCS than he’s used to doing. Lidge lost two of the three games he appeared in during the Series, and he’s lost three of his last four overall. Last nights rally was started by a single from Willie Harris. He’d spent the last two weeks hitting solely off of first base coach Tim Raines.

Is Lidge going "Calvin Shiraldi" on us? His stuff would suggest otherwise. Still, it was his control and confidence that separated him from, say Kyle Farnsworth. You have to wonder, is he done? I doubt it, but still….he’s got a long winter ahead of him.

Point two: I can’t imagine being more miserable than a Cub fan this morning. Not only have they failed to win since 1908, but they’ve lost the only two teams that have kept them company since then.

Does the Cub fan’s plight compare to anything? It’s the ultimate kick in the cohunes. Enough to drive you to eat nothing but Funyuns and watch reruns of the Littlest Groom.

This has to be how Neil Bush feels around George and Jeb. George is President, Jeb is Governor, and Neil is divorced after having what CNN described as “sex romps” with women in Thailand.

To make matters worse, Cub fans have to be thinking that they missed the opportunity providence granted them in 2003. They were six outs from the Series. They would have had a rested Wood going against a very battered Yankee team. A team the Marlins carved up in six games.

That was it. That was their shot. Cub fans curse Bartman. I blame Alex Gonzales. It was his error that opened the floodgates. Gonzales gets paid to catch routine grounders. Bartman pays to catch foul balls.

Now they have by far the longest Series win drought in baseball. Second place goes to the Cleveland Indians, who last won in 1948. Come to think of it, the Indians looked pretty good coming down the stretch….

So, the Cubs missed their shot. But, if history is any guide, both Sox and the Cubs should have another chance in about 2091. I’ll only be 119 years old.

Point Three: Perhaps Bud Selig is more miserable than Cubs fans. The Series may have been the least watched Series ever. EVER. Intriguing teams, great players, hall of famers. No one watched.

Are you paying attention, Bud? Are you going to start marketing your sport, Bud?

This postseason was remarkably quick, and MLB had to lose a lot of money on it. With all of the sweeps and the White Sox domination, there were only six games played above the minimum number possible. SIX!!!! In seven series. Each playoff series averaged less than one game over the minimum. That's amazing.

I can't blame that on Bud, sadly. However, I'm curious to see what overreaction he has to this "crisis." Perhaps there will be a mandatory loss for any team that takes a 3-0 lead in a Series.

Perhaps he'll build in an advantage for NL teams, who have now lost 8 straight Series games. Ouch. In any event, MLB lost a lot of money this postseason, which is always fun to watch.

That's it for 2005, time to gather around the Hot Stove and countdown the days until we utter the greatest four words in the English Language....pitchers and catchers report.

Welcome To The Union

Welcome to my blog.

Jeff Vernetti, whom most of you know as the host of The Saturday Sports Edge on 1380 ESPN radio in St. Louis, suggested I start a blog. I occasionally co-host with Jeff on his show, and I thought it might be fun to blog.

I love to write about Cardinal baseball and other St. Louis sports issues. I’d love to create a place for some in-depth discussion/analysis of the Birds by the fans. I’d love for Cardinal Nation to have some venue to discuss issues important to baseball.

Still, I was uncertain as to whether I should do this. It takes a fair amount of time to do this right. It also takes a rather large ego to think that others might want to read what you have to say.

I can make the time; sleep is, as I’ve learned, overrated.

I also have the ego. I just don’t like to use it intentionally. Something happened today to convince me to press on. What was it?

Bud Selig went to work, and raised the roof, literally.

It’s not that I think Bud was wrong to force Houston to open their roof for Game 3 of the Series. There are rules governing what you can do to your stadium during the post-season. I mean, if the Cardinals wanted to install a hill in-play near the centerfield wall and plop a flagpole onto it, that would certainly be frowned upon.

But if closing the roof is wrong now, why wasn’t it wrong during the first two series, or, for that matter, during the stretch run in September? Did Bud just realize the National League exists?

The Commissioner’s office was certainly aware that the Astros were closing their roof earlier in the playoffs. The issue was out there. They failed to see the issue until the World Series. Then the issue had to be dealt with… at the last possible moment.

Bud, once again, has put himself in a position where he has to be wrong---either last week or this week.

I can’t stand Commissioner Bud. For over a decade Bud has ruled baseball. For over a decade baseball has been blindsided time and again by damaging issues. Steroids, the strike, tied All-Star games, Expansion/threatened contraction, the complete failure to market any team outside New York or Boston.

It’s not so much that these issues arise; all professional sports have their problems. It’s just that Bud never seems to see these issues coming. Ever.

The roof is only the latest issue Bud failed to see coming. I’m sick of it.

I’m sick of Bud coming to St. Louis during the Sand Diego series and saying the noon/3 pm start times were not acceptable. Those times were decided upon months ago.

I’m sick of Bud completely failing to market any player outside of New York or Boston. There is a reason these World Series Games have the second lowest ratings in history. No one outside of Chicago or Houston has ever heard of any of these players.

When these issues arise, it seems that no one speaks for the fans. Well, me and my sleepless ego will speak. At first, I’ll probably just speak for my mom. We’ll see where it leads.