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Fan celebrations were tame, just like the Tigers

Larry Millson, 28/10/06 at 11:31 AM EDT

It seemed like a fairly tame celebration compared to some others after a World Series championship, even compared to the one in 1982, the previous year the St. Louis Cardinals won one of these things which also was at home.

Of course, 24 years later, one might hang out at different places. Even someone with a bad case of arrested development makes adjustments over that period of time.

Outside the stadium a couple of hours after the game ended, there was still a lot of horn-honking and there were beer bottles on the street outside Busch Stadium. People called from cars and waved pictures of players, towels, flags, whatever they had that was red or said Cardinals on it.

“This is the greatest feeling,” a young man yelled from a car stopped for a red light on Market Street. Many of the cars turned up streets headed to the city’s areas where there are bars. And no doubt things were hot in the Laclede’s Landing area not far from the ballpark.

Earlier, the celebration had continued for a long time inside the ballpark with fans who nearly all wore something red, either hats or shirts or both, while some even wore Santa Claus hats, perhaps because the Detroit Tigers did their best to gift-wrap this World Series with eight errors.

A couple of nitwits in the stadium were shaking beer bottles and spraying them like they’ve seen celebrating players do with champagne bottles. The crowd stayed in the stadium, watching the postgame interviews from the field that were being played on the scoreboard television.

One fan had a large stuffed replica of a tiger and was carrying it around with a noose around its neck.

One fan offered to buy the game scoresheet from someone who had kept score during the game. The sounds of stadium fireworks interrupted the music, which, of course, included "We Are the Champions."

There was a rush to pick anything remaining at the souvenir shops at Busch Stadium. Cardinals souvenirs were big all over town. A day or two earlier, a couple was observed at Union Station, leaving a Cardinals souvenir store in the station mall with five bags full of Cardinals stuff.

Early Saturday morning, an Irish pub near Union Station on Market Street about 20 minutes walk from the ballpark was filled with Cardinals fans wearing typical red shirts and hats but they were quiet and polite, mostly sitting at tables.

As early morning wore on and sleep overtook most, the occasional sounds of a car horn could be heard.

A parade is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.

Life in centre ain't grand

Jeff Blair, 27/10/06 at 8:25 PM EDT

Curtis Granderson's costly slip and fall in centrefield in the seventh inning of Thursday's Game 4 was predictable, according to Jim Edmonds - and that has nothing to do with Granderson and everything to do with the turf at one-year-old Busch Stadium.
"This has been a tough field at times this year," Edmond, the St. Louis Cardinals centre-fielder, said before Friday's fifth game of the World Series. "You guys have seen that all year long with the troubles that Scott (Rolen) has had at third. Guys have been slipping in the outfield all year long, and some balls have been taking some bad hops on infielders and outfielders."
Noticing that Rolen walked in to the interview room at that time, Edmonds winced and said: 'Sorry, Scott."
Edmonds said that the turf "has not really been sticking well all year," whether the field has been dry or, as it was Thursday, water-logged.
"The wetness adds to it, but for some reason it's stayed wet in the outfield all year long," Edmonds said. "It's like the grass has had a tough time taking to the sand underneath. It's a tough spot to be in ... I'm glad it didn't happen to me."
Granderson, of course, saw his misplay replayed all day on a continuous loop on television. He is a stand-up guy, this child of two school teachers, and he smiled when the name Curt Flood was brought up. Flood, a Gold Glove centre-fielder with the Cardinals, stumbled in Game 7 of the 1968 World Series chasing what would turn out to be a bases-clearing triple by Jim Northrup of the Tigers.
"Part of history now - especially since the other guy's name is Curt, too," Granderson said, smiling. "Except from what I read and heard about that play, it was more a misjudgement. I had a hard time trying to put into words what happened on my play after the game ... but I guess what I was trying to tell people is that it wasn't a misjudgment or a physical or mental mistake. I just slipped."
Granderson acknowledged that for a brief second, after his initial slip, he thought he still had a chance at the ball.
"I knew it was going to land pretty close to me and, yeah, there was that thought ... but I just took my eyes off the ball."
(*) sooner or later the Washington Nationals ownership and Stan Kasten will wake up and realize the reason no one wants to manage their team is the presence of general manager Jim Bowden. It's embarrassing for a team that has such a bright future that its managerial search has been dotted by withdrawals both of experienced managers and others who should be looking for an entry-level position;
(*)The San Francisco Giants were given permission to announce the hiring of Bruce Bochy as manager during the World Series because he struck a deal with the commissioner's office in return for filling in on an emergency basis as manager of a team of touring Major Leaguers that will leave Monday for an exhibition series in Japan. Barry Bonds helped make it a doubly happy day in the Bay area (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2641065) and my guess is he'll end up DHing in 2007, possibly with the Chicago White Sox;

(*) not to get ahead of ourselves, but any Cardinals World Series win will be celebrated with sparkling wine provided by Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta, Mo., as well as the usual higher-priced champagne. The winery supplied the Cardinals with 20-30 cases free of charge. It was prepared to supply the Tigers in the event they had won at Busch Stadium - at a cost of $216 (U.S.) for each 12-bottle case. Clearly better for spraying than drinking.

 

St. Louis celebrates already

Larry Millson, 27/10/06 at 2:19 PM EDT

ST. LOUIS --  The horns were honking on the streets of St. Louis last night. At least they were around Busch Stadium. If you didn’t know any better you’d have thought the Maple Leafs had won a playoff game, er, had actually participated in a playoff game. In some cities, just being there is good enough, it seems.

The Busch Stadium crowd stood and celebrated at their seats for about 10 minutes after Thursday night’s 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers. The Cardinals had been down 3-0, took a 4-3 lead in the seventh and won it in the eighth after Detroit tied  it.  It was the best game of this year’s series with some accidents (Curtis Granderson’s slip on the wet grass in centre field) and mistakes (Fernando Rodney’s throwing error ona bunt) to earn a spot in World Series lore.

The Cardinals haven’t had a World Series winner since 1982 when Bud Selig’s might Milwaukee Brewers, Harvey’s Wallbangers, took a 3-2 lead in games to old Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals won the sixth game 13-1 on a nasty night that was delayed twice by rain, for 26 minutes the first time and 2 hours 13 minutes the second time. Don Sutton took the loss and John Stuper pitched a complete game for the victory.

The Cardinals also won the seventh game 6-3 with Joaquin Andujar winning and Bruce Sutter saving.

Since then, the Cardinals blew a 3-1 lead in games in 1985 to the Kansas City Royals, partly because of a wrong umpire’s call that turned the sixth game.

They also blew a 3-1 lead in games in 1968 and that is getting some play since that also was against the Tigers. Mickey Lolich pitched the victory in Detroit in the Tigers 5-3 victory. The Series moved to St. Louis where Denny McLain was the winning pitcher in a 13-1 game and Lolich came back on two (2) days’ rest to defeat Bob Gibson 4-1 in the seventh game.

Damp Cardinals fans remain jovial

Larry Millson, 26/10/06 at 1:38 PM EDT

ST. LOUIS -- Considering the wet, miserable conditions the fans who filed onto the MetroLink Wednesday night were in a good mood.

Considering that they had waited around Busch Stadium for 1 hour 51 minutes after the scheduled time for the first pitch before the decision was announced, a decision that seemed inevitable for hours, they were absolutely jovial as they boarded the light-rail train.

The fans had mostly hung out in the concourse area of Busch Stadium because most of the seats are in uncovered areas. They used the concessions liberally, which might account for their good mood since this is the home of Budweiser.

There were families and some sat on the floor of the concourse waiting out the weather and during the wait exchanged information about the weather forecasts they had heard.

Most of the fans, of course, were wearing St. Louis Cardinals hats and shirts.

On the train after the postponement was announced, one exuberant fellow noticed a Detroit Tigers fan on a crowded car and urged the other passengers to take up the chant of “Detroit sucks.” The idea fizzled.

Their good mood was fuelled no doubt by the fact that the Cardinals are leading the series 2-1 with the fourth game rescheduled for Thursday night. Actually with the postponement, Game 4 tickets are good now for the fifth game scheduled for Friday, which originally an off-day. Game 5 tickets are to be used for the fourth game, if played, Thursday night. The weather forecast wasn’t so good for Thursday, either.

At the Union Station stop, one fellow noticed a couple of Tigers fans climbing the stairs leaving the stop and said, “I see not one but two Tiger fans. They shouldn’t even be here.”

His friend said, “Well, without the Detroit Tigers, there wouldn’t even be a game.”

 

Suppan's other pitch

Jeff Blair, 25/10/06 at 2:22 PM EDT

Jeff Suppan of the St. Louis Cardinals will be making pitches of two different sorts Wednesday night - providing the rain lets up. Suppan is scheduled to start Game 4 of the World Series for the Cardinals and will also appear on a televison commercial urging Missouri voters to vote 'no' on Amendment 2, which would put into the state constitution protections for all forms of stem cell research that are legal under federal law.
The issue takes on added significance going into the Nov. 7 mid-term elections because Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill supports embryonic stem cell research, while the loopy right opposes it by trotting out nightmare scenarios of low-income women being enticed into potentially-dangerous operations to harvest eggs - because, as everybody knows, the political right has always put concern for low-income people high on its priority list.
Uh-huh.
This is, of course, one of those things that seems pretty clear-cut in most forward-looking societies. But this isn't a forward-looking society - it's George W. Bush's U.S. So there will be Suppan, telling voters: "Amendment 2 claims it bands human cloning, but in the 2,000 words you don't read, it makes cloning a constitutional right. Don't be deceived."
Bible-thumping NFL quarterback Kurt Warner, formerly of the Rams, will also be part of the commercial. Scary stuff. Just in time for Hallowe'en.
(*)speaking of Hallowe'en, what did Marcus Thames ever do to become a ghost? After hitting 26 home runs during the regular season, Thames' right-handed bat has been largely forgotten this post-season. Tigers manager Jim Leyland said after Tuesday's 5-0 loss in Game 3 that he would go to bed mulling over lineup changes - Placido Polanco, Curtis Granderson and Pudge Rodriguez are 0-for-34 - but that's going to be a difficult task since there's still two more games to be played in the NL ballpark, which means the designated hitter is not in effect. It would be difficult to take Granderson's defence out of the equation and Polanco remains the brains of the Tigers attack. One possibility is dropping Granderson lower in the order (Polanco led off 12 times this season.) Vance Wilson is the Tigers backup catcher, but sitting down Rodriguez (6-for-12 lifetime against Game 4 starter Jeff Suppan) for Wilson would be a courageous move even by Leyland's standards.
(*)Bill Madden of the Daily News has a funny story about pitchers cheating involving an in-game telephone conversation between then-New York Yankees manager Lou Piniella and George Steinbrenner (http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/465014p-391288c.html)
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Time for the gushing to stop

Larry Millson, 25/10/06 at 1:14 PM EDT

ST. LOUIS -- This may baseball’s golden age according to commissioner Bud Selig using the accepted modern definition of success - obscene riches.

But when you listen to all these people gushing about parity as if it were something new and wonderful, it brings back the memory of a book by an old friend Michael Magee, The Golden Age of B.S.

Parity? It was there when baseball’s owners tried break what didn’t need to be fixed when they forced a season-ending strike in 1994. The same with 1981 when there was a 50-day strike.

Going into 1994 only two teams had won two consecutive World Series since the age of free agency began with the 1977 season. They were the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978 and the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.

Between those years, look at the teams that won the World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers (2), St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Minnesota Twins (2), Oakland Athletics, Cincinnati Reds. Small markets, big markets and middle markets.

Guess what? The Montreal Expos had a good chance to win it all in 1994 when the forced strike ground the game to  a halt.

Now we are going to have the World Series won by seven different teams when this one is over starting with 2000 when the Yankees won their third in a row and their fourth in five years.

Over that time, things needed to be fixed and it seems as they have been. Sensible people could have done it with a lot less grief. It’s nice to see ownership finally has come to its senses. That became apparent with the 2002 agreement. The gushing can stop at any time.

 

Cards have written other greasy Series tales

Larry Millson, 24/10/06 at 12:49 PM EDT

ST. LOUIS -- The last time the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series was in 1982 and they lost the opener 10-0 at Busch Stadium on a three-hit shutout by the Milwaukee Brewers’ Mike Caldwell.

Cardinals’ manager Whitey Herzog was asked about the scouting report on Caldwell. “A little sinker, little slider, little scroogie, little spitter. Not a good move to first, but we didn't get many on.”

That was the topic after the game. George Bamberger, one of the top pitching coaches in the game, managed the Brewers for a couple of years in the late seventies and he was a proponent of the Staten Island sinker, called a spitter in less polite circles. Bamberger was from Staten Island and by the time the Brewers made the World Series he was managing the New York Mets.

Caldwell was an avid student and was considered a practitioner of the Staten Island sinker. It was quite the topic after that opening game in 1982.

“Sinker, slider, screwball,” Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez said. “Maybe a little grease on it. I don't know what it was. But Fernando Valenzuela doesn't throw a screwball that drops like that. Hey, I might be wrong but I got four pitches where the bottom just dropped right out.”

He fouled off three of those pitches so he didn’t complain. “The ball's already on the ground,” he said. “I’m not making a big thing out of it.”

Gene Tenace didn’t want to comment. “I don't know what it was, a screwball or a forkball. He had excellent command of it….I never let that bother me when I'm batting. As soon as you start complaining, that's what a pitcher wants you to do. I've never complained. He's still got to get it over.”

In his second start in the Series, Caldwell gave up 14 hits and four runs in 8 1/3 innings as the Brewers won Game 5 6-4 and funny how nobody complained about the spitter.

The Cardinals won in seven games.

Labour peace isn't a surprise

Larry Millson, 23/10/06 at 10:06 AM EDT

DETROIT --  Labour peace in our time? Amazing? Not really.

Anybody who had a read of the situation in 2002 knew there wouldn’t be a strike then, even though negotiations went down to the deadline of Aug. 30 before the strike date set by the players.

This time there wasn’t a need to set a strike date. A new five-year agreement should be announced this week before the current one expired.

You only needed to be half awake to know that the players sure didn’t want a strike in 2002. The owners weren’t that keen on it and they got some pretty good concessions from the players.  The scars from the 1994 strike that wiped out the World Series were still too fresh. So there would be no strike, no matter how much some people in the media seemed to be pushing for one, perhaps out of habit.

And if Paul Beeston, the former Blue Jays CEO who worked from Major League Baseball then, had been allowed by commissioner Bud Selig to continue his good work with the players association that 2002 agreement would have been done a lot sooner. Our  Bud wouldn’t let it happen. Selig will get a lot of credit for establishing peace, more than he deserves. Don’t forget the 1994 strike was under his watch, too. If someone gets enough chances they’re liable to get it right, though.

The money is good in the game right now, always was pretty good, whining aside. Free agency hasn’t ruined the game the way the owners said it would. Now the owners have become a little smarter and have stopped trying to shove a salary-cap formula down the players’ throats, something they wouldn’t accept.

The luxury tax and revenue-sharing seem to be working and that will basically be in effect in the new agreement. And there will remain some draft-pick compensation for the signing of top free agents.

There was incentive to get the deal done now because it means the luxury tax will be in effect next season, which is good for most teams other than the New York Yankees. Under terms of the existing agreement that expires on Dec. 19, it wouldn’t have been in effect next season.

Leyland's pre-emptive second guess

Jeff Blair, 22/10/06 at 4:22 PM EDT

When Buck Rodgers managed the Montreal Expos he used to say “I had a hunch” whenever he was asked a question about a tactical move he’d screwed up because, as he said, “nobody can ever really question a manager’s hunch.”
  In the immediate aftermath of his teams 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday night in Game 1 of the World Series, Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland was less interested in defending hunches than he was launching some pre-emptive second-guessing about his decision to pitch to Albert Pujols in the third inning with first base open, two out and two on. Pujols slugged a two-run home run on the first pitch from Justin Verlander. Verlander said later he missed his spot “a couple of inches up and a couple of inches over the plate.’
  "The manager's decision is either to pitch him or walk him," said Leyland, who could have ordered Verlander to walk Pujols and instead pitch to Jim Edmonds. "I pitched to him and obviously he burned us. I'm not going to get into a lot of explanation about what the thinking was. But I take the bullet there. And if somebody gives criticism you accept it, because it's ultimately my decision."
Second-guessing is fine, but some of Leyland's players said they thought the third inning of Game 1 of a best-of-seven series was a little early to start looking for turning points. They're right. Tigers closer Todd Jones, I thought, made a salient point when he said that:  "If we want to win this series, we're going to have to contain him. None of us fear him, we're not scared of him. But we know what we're dealing with when it's Albert Pujols. He's a special player." Now, all they have to do is figure out whether avoidance is the best method of containment.
(*)Bob Seger sang ‘America The Beautiful’ before Game 1 instead of the national anthem, after saying earlier in the week that he considered the Star Spangled Banner to be a “death trap” for singers (not to mention that ‘America The Beautiful’ is, simple, a better song.) Unfortunately, his decision won’t set a trend. Anita Baker was scheduled to sing the anthem Sunday. National anthems have no place being played before sports events – it isn’t a political gathering, for pete’s sake – just as it’s time to deep-six the playing of ‘God Bless America’ during the seventh-inning stretch. It’s been five years since Sept.  11, 2001. Time to move on.
(*)One of the most anticipated moments of this series, locally, will take place before Game 2 Sunday night when Alan Trammell and Sparky Anderson are expected to take the field for the ceremonial first pitch. Trammell, hugely popular as a player, was fired as manager of the Tigers last year after it was generally perceived he’d lost the clubhouse. Not surprisingly, Trammell, who played on the 1984 Tigers World Series team, has been unfailingly gracious in the days leading up to the World Series when discussing the job Jim Leyland has done turning around the team. ``I've been trying to stay out of the way," he is quoted as saying. ``I'm just really happy for the fans, who have stuck with this team for many, rough years.  It's also a great time for the franchise, which is no longer a laughingstock but is now regarded as an up-and-coming organization.'' But this is expected to be a moment of some healing, nonetheless. Trammell is a candidate to be Lou Piniella's bench coach with the Chicago Cubs and could also be added to Clint Hurdle's coaching staff with the Colorado Rockies, where some think he would assume the role of manager in waiting;
(*)Peter Gammons of ESPN (http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=2634916&name=gammons_peter&univLogin02=stateChanged) reports that players and owners are going to finish off a new collective agreement by the end of the series and that one of the alterations will be the disappearance of compensatory draft picks for teams that lose free agents. The New York Times reported the sides might have a deal done by the weekend.

Don't blame Tigers - Reyes threw strikes

Larry Millson, 22/10/06 at 3:26 PM EDT

Were the Detroit Tigers really that impatient at the plate in the opening game of the World Series? They lost 7-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals after a week off and there were grumblings about their lack of patience at the plate, something that was considered a fault earlier in the season but something that had improved in the postseason.

But before you reach that conclusion, consider this: Of the 29 batters who faced Cardinals’ starter Anthony Reyes, 20 took the first pitch, 12 for strikes and eight for balls. There were three swings and misses for strike one, two fouls for strike one, three outs on the first pitch and one first-pitch homer.

Depending on the box score, he made 90 pitches with 66 strikes or 93 pitches with 68 strikes. That’s still a lot of strikes and he had a first-pitch strike including outs and homers on 21 of 29 batters. Strike one is supposed to be the best pitch in baseball.

When the count is at 0-1 that begins to makes it a little more difficult for the hitters to be looking over pitches.

The first four Tiger hitters of the game took the first pitch, the first three for strikes.

The Tigers hitters might not have been on their game but was it impatience that did them on? Or was it that Reyes was on his, too, for this night?

Too often it is easy to get caught up in the radar gun. It’s great to be able to put up gun readings of 99 and 100 miles an hour, but it still the movement of the pitches, their location and the control of them that make a pitcher effective.

It does not require verification but it was there in the opening game of the World Series if anyone needs reminding. The hard-throwing Justin Verlander did not have good command of his fastball and gave up seven runs, six earned, and

did not retire a batter in the sixth. There were some errors involved, too, some of them his own as he threw the ball away on a pickoff throw.

Reyes overcame a shaky first inning and became aggressive with his fastball. He does not throw anywhere near as hard as Verlander but he was putting the ball in the right places. That’s what counts. It helps when hitters have that dandy changeup on their minds as well.

 

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