Tony wants this
As soon as Curtis Granderson slipped in the outfield on David Eckstein's hit last night, I thought immediately of Curt Flood in 1968. It wasn't exactly the same play, but it was pretty similar.
Eckstein had a great performance in Game 4. He is as tough as they come. He is an unbelievable competitor. They list him at 165 pounds, but he has to have at least four or five baseballs in each pocket to be listed at 165. He is a man who is all guts, wire and determination. He is as great as they come.
What Jeff Weaver needs to do tonight on a wet, damp and cold night, is get his sinker working. If the sinker is working, he is going to have the advantage because when that ball goes in the air tonight, it is going to play some tricks with some people. Justin Verlander is a strikeout pitcher. If he has his good stuff tonight, he is going to be tough to beat.
I think a World Series title is immensely important for Tony La Russa. I think he has wanted this worse than he has ever wanted anything in his managerial career. This to him would be the cherry, whipped cream and nuts on top of a Hall of Fame managerial career.
We all know that he is going into the Hall of Fame as either the second- or third-winningest manager in the history of this business, and it is up to him if he wants to manage that long if he wants to go in as the second all-time. He is one of the greatest managers in the history of the game.
It is so important to him because it would be the 10th in Cardinal history and he would want this title to top off his brilliant career. This would go down as one of his fantastic years in managing. This might put it right at the top. With what he has done with this team and the way that he has done it this year, it is just simply marvelous.
I don't know how to get this message to you other than here, but today is my husbands birthday and he has been dealing with some major illness and has had no good news for awhile. Could you wish him a very happy birthday? He son bought tickets for tonights game and surprised him by coming from West Virgina to take him to the game. Mike, I would be so grateful if you did. His name is Jim Monday and son Keith.
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Congratulations from a 60-plus years Cardinal fan in New Jersey:
Cardinal letter
Mike--
Today, October 27, was my birthday. Thanks to the rain-out, the Cards have given me the best birthday present I ever had.
I know there are a lot of Cardinal fans out there who go back even farther than I do, fans even in darkest New Jersey who twisted themselve into knots holding their transistor radios up up up to catch KMOX, hearing your voice and Jack Buck's through the static and that **** station in West Virginia that keeps breaking in just when we're about to score. Last of the 9th, "Bases loaded, Willie's up there," then zap, nothing but static and West Virginia, then, through the airwaves: "That's a winner!" That was how I got through the great seasons in the 1980s and right on until a few years ago when GameDay made it easier and saved me from further contortions and frustrations, but I miss hearing your voice, Get up Get Up Get Up
and of course Jack's. I go back to when he was Harry Carey's sidekick and maybe even before that to Gabby Street. I was growing up in southern Indiana then and didn't have to perform sleight of hand to pull in a Cardinal station.
I thought you might be interested in my tale of almost 60 years as a Cardinal fan. I sometimes try to figure out why I fell in love with the team. I think it's a primal attraction: probably the two birds on the bat, Stan Musial, the glamor of his batting stance, the name St. Louis--who knows. But when I was ten I was hooked, making scrapbooks and being given Cardinal uniforms by two different grandmothers, one who bought a jersey somewhere, the other who hand-stitched a uniform complete with the birds on the bat and piping on the sleeves. She did the cardinals beautifully because she liked to do watercolors of birds.
The only Cardinal game I ever saw was Aug 28 1950 at Sportsman's Park. My dad ordered tickets and we drove the 250 miles to St. Louis, spent the night, and had seats along the third base line. Musial homered and Gerry Staley beat the Dodgers 3-1. What more could I ask?
My dad, by the way, was totally out of it regarding baseball. He used to make fun of himself by saying how my mom didn't know anything about baseball. "She doesn't even know right base from left base!" he's say. What a card.
He was an English professor at Indiana University and I grew up in Bloomington, and besides the fact that he's such an admirable player, I've been pulling for Scott Rolen ever since he joined the team because he's from the same region, almost went to I.U. in fact. September was a really tough time if you're pulling for Rolen, especially after last year. It was great when he seemed to have broken through with that 2-homer, 7 rbi game, but then --
So when he hit that drive against the Mets in the clincher, I was out of my seat and came down hard when the guy on the invisible tampouline caught it. But that was the blow that broke the spell.
And he's been hitting a ton ever since.
And here we are. What a great feeling for someone who has plugged along through the 1950s hoping and hoping until 1964 finally came along.
It's crazy that I haven't been to St. Louis since 1965, never saw a game in the old Busch Stadium. But I've been there just now yelling along with everyone else, and I'm sure there are thousands of others like me in all parts of the country who've been pulling for this team and suffering the horrors of the Hernandez trade and the demon tarp that swallowed Vince Coleman's leg and then Denkinger and then the Homerdome.
I'm a writer, have published some novels, and just finished another one. I also write for the local weekly here in Princeton reviewing books and art, CDs and DVDs. I just did an art review and while I was writing about a painting painted about 350 years ago I realized that my eye for art began with the image of those two redbirds on the slanted branch of a bat. Still and always the best sports emblem ever, certainly in baseball, including Yankee pinstripes.
Keep flying, redbirds!
Stu Mitchner
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Dear Mike Shannon, If it is not to much to ask, could you possibly put a poem I wrote in your next blog...
83 wins all we had,
Made the post season and I'm kinda glad.
Worst team ever, countless wrote,
Look who's popping champagne down there throat.
Under dogs the name they gave,
Yet Cardinal Nation stayed strong and brave.
One said, Tigers in 3, Red Bird Nation now full with glee
Small things win championships yes they do..
First world series since 82.
Thanks for your time! Keep up the good work!
A Cardinals Fan
Bud
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Great job today!
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