One of the best infographic artists has an amazing book out there called Flip Flop Fly Ball.

We have talked with and about Craig Robinson in this space before.  This time, we bring your attention to a recent project that Craig undertook – building famous baseball players out of Legos.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know we are supposed to talk about Royals and Cardinals baseball here at i70, but sometimes you reach out and find something fun and baseball related and you just have to share.  There are no Royals or Cardinals players in the images below, but there are nine pretty awesome Lego creations of some great players.

Keep an eye over at Flip Flop Flying to track down any more that Craig makes.

Use the controls below to look through the nine images of Pete Rose, Dennis Eckersley, Jose Bautista, Sergio Romo, Randy Johnson, Mark Fidrych, Andre Dawson, Barry Bonds, and Fernando Valenzuela.  Please note: all images are the property of Craig Robinson.

Fernando Valenzuela

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Fernando Valenzuela - He finished his career with the Cardinals, but he was most famous as a Dodger.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

I am not sure I have encountered a Major League Hall Of Famer that can work a crowd and a room better than Lou Brock.

Over All Star Weekend, I took the opportunity Sunday morning to attend FanFest at Bartle Hall in Kansas City.  The highlight of the schedule, for me, was question and answer sessions with two Hall Of Famers, Andre Dawson and Lou Brock.  The sessions were each 30 minutes long and open to anyone in attendance that wanted to come in and listen.

Dawson was one of my father’s favorite players and a Hall Of Famer that I can attest to having seen play myself.  ”The Hawk” was frank, answered many questions, and was straight forward and candid with his responses.  It was a legitimate look at baseball north of the border, on astroturf, and throughout baseball.  It was not until after Dawson spoke and Brock took center stage that I realized the stark differences.

Lou came into the room to the obvious chants of “Lou” that resounded like boos from the crowd.  He smiled and waved, took his seat and handled questions from the interviewer and then from the crowd.  One fan preceded his question by telling Brock that his son was named Lou after the great basestealer.  The fan’s young son, who was maybe twelve, was with him and Brock invited his namesake to come stand next to him while he answered the young man’s father’s question.  He talked with the young man like he was answering the question just for him, played him up to the crowd for another loud “Lou” response, and sent a family home with a memory they will never forget.

Lou told stories and gave technical advice on base running.  He explained how he got jumps off of pitchers and how he taught young ball players to square up quickly.

He was asked near the end of his interview to compare current Cardinal catcher Yadier Molina to someone from his era.

“Johnny Bench.  The way that Yadi has learned to hit the ball at this point in his career, Johnny Bench is a completely fair comparison.”

One fan asked about Lou’s first All Star Game, his thoughts and memories from that game.  Lou responded (paraphrased):

I arrived early because I did not want to be seen as “big time”.  The last thing I wanted was to arrive when Willie Mays was arriving, I was young and did not want to show disrespect.  The game started at 3:00 p.m., so I got to the stadium at about 9 a.m. that morning.  I was the only one in the clubhouse except the young man clubhouse attendant they had there.  I decided, being an All Star, that I could be a little “big time” and I beckoned the kid over and asked him if he would go get me a Coca-Cola.  The young man returned with my Coca-Cola and then introduced himself, “Hi, I’m Tom Seaver”.  He made me pay for that Coke for about 14 seasons.

The crowd, of course, was eating out of Brock’s hands by this point and Brock went on to share personal stories of his friend, mentor, roommate and father figure, Buck O’Neil.  The stories showed a personal side to a relationship that started between a scout and player.  They showed an emotion that I was unaware of.  The demonstrated a bond that was stronger than most knew.  It was touching, funny and engaging.

Another fan marveled at Brock’s base stealing ability and remembered a game that he was in attendance for that Lou Brock stole home.  He asked Lou if he could recall how many times he achieved the feat of stealing home in his career.  Lou’s response did not disappoint.

Once.  I stole home exactly one time in my career.  The lineup that we had was full of guys that were paid to drive in runs.  Once I stole a base and put myself into scoring position, they would yell out at me “STAY THERE”.  While it was a joke sometimes, the one hard fast rule I was given was not to steal home so the guys behind me could continue to drive in runs.

Finally, Brock was asked about pitchers he once faced and what he thought of all of them.  The key to the question was the wording which contained “who did you see the ball well against.”  Brock, deliberate in his delivery, dropped a few names and then gave us a great quote:

“I saw the ball out of Koufax’s hand very well.  Never hit it, though.”

Listening to a player of Brock’s caliber talk about life and baseball made 30 minutes seem like mere seconds.  It was the highlight of a very full Sunday for me and an opportunity I suggest no one ever pass up on.  FanFest gave us all the opportunity to make a personal connection with larger than life figures, and it’s an opportunity I will never forget.

St Louis Cardinals fans rejoice in Ozzie Smith’s return to the spring training fold.  Seeing the older but still fit Wizard in uniform brings back fond memories of his 15 seasons in the St Louis infield.  Twenty-five years ago, during the last of Whitey Herzog’s runs to the World Series, Ozzie enjoyed his finest season along the banks of the Mississippi.

The Cardinals entered the 1987 season as a question mark.  For the second time in the decade they had followed up a World Series appearance with a sub-.500 season.  No one expected them to challenge the New York Mets for NL East supremancy; the 1986 World Champs were coming off an 108-win season and looked like a budding dynasty.  Over the first week of the 1987 season, that future appeared to be today, as the Mets won six of their first 8 while St Louis stumbled out of the blocks.  The Cardinals were two games back of New York when the Mets came to town for an early 3-game series.

New York did not roll over the Cardinals on their way to the post-season.  Instead, St Louis swept the Mets, and rarely looked back.  They never trailed by more than a game in April and early May, took sole possession of first place permanently on 22 May, led by 9 games at the All-Star Break, and won their third NL East title in 6 years.

In the middle of this Cardinal resurrection was Ozzie, who had the best offensive year of his career.  It was the only year he hit over .300 (.303).  He set career highs in OBP (.392), hits (182), doubles (40), RBI (75), runs scored (104), stolen bases (43), walks (89), and total bases (230).

Those career highs compared favorably with the rest of the league.  He finished eighth in batting average, eighth in runs, third in hits, second in doubles, sixth in walks, seventh in stolen bases, and was fourth in at bats per strikeout. He was the only player in the top 10 of all those categories.   By Baseball Reference’s calculations, his WAR of 7.1 was fifth-best in the NL, behind Tony Gwynn, Eric Davis, Dale Murphy, and Orel Hershiser.  Broken into categories, his offensive WAR was seventh, his defensive WAR third.

As seemed to be the trend with those 1980s Cardinals teams, they quit hitting in the post-season.  In years past Smith had hit in the NLCS but struggled in the World Series, but in 1987 he struggled in both.  Ozzie hit only .207  combined (11 for 53) that October, and although St Louis rode home-field advantage and superior starting pitching to the NL pennant, they were bested by Minnesota in the Fall Classic.

Ozzie had some good years after that, and some years with better power numbers, but he never quite reached the heights he had in 1987.

It’s a shame he and Tony LaRussa could never find common ground, and that LaRussa had to retire before Ozzie was willing to come back to Spring Training.  Although it’s not the same without Don Tony, the team is better with Ozzie teaching the finer points of middle infield defense to a new generation of Cardinal players.

Welcome back, Ozzie.

For failing to garner 5% of votes cast this year, Juan Gonzalez will be dropped from the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot next year, leaving the Kansas City Royals with no former players on the regular ballot.

Jason Kendall

Do the Royals have any chance of getting a player in the Hall anytime soon? It’s looking like it will be a very long time.

As I documented in a previous article, few former Royals have ever received significant support to be in the Hall. In fact, few have ever even received the requisite 5% to remain eligible.

Two current players with an outside chance at making it might even consider wearing the Royals’ cap, were they to make it to Cooperstown. Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon have a shot, and each spent a significant portion of his career in KC.

But according to a Baseball-Reference ranking system, a couple of other former Royals might actually have a better shot at making the hall. A graph called the Hall of Fame Monitor shows that the next in line with the best shot at the Hall is actually none other than… Jason Kendall.

Shocked? I was.

Next after Kendall? Roberto Hernandez.

Disgusted? I was.

The system ranks former players and attempts to predict the chances of current and recently retired players of being elected to the Hall. It awards points for a variety of accomplishments and especially rewards longevity and offensive output from catchers and shortstops. The system describes itself as follows:

This is another Jamesian creation. It attempts to assess how likely (not how deserving) an active player is to make the Hall of Fame. It’s rough scale is 100 means a good possibility and 130 is a virtual cinch. It isn’t hard and fast, but it does a pretty good job.

Gonzalez actually came in with a rating of 120, the exact same rating as the newly inducted Barry Larkin. Gonzalez ranks ahead of a number of Hall of Famers, including recently elected outfielder Andre Dawson. But Gonzalez was undoubtedly penalized for his link to performance-enhancing drugs.

With Gonzalez now gonzo, the former Royal with the most reasonable chance now is Kendall with a 108 ranking. But while the system says a 100 ranking would indicate a chance, don’t tell that to former Royals Vida Blue, David Cone and Bob Boone. Each was over 100 and got nary a sniff from the voters.

Beltran comes in surprisingly low (in my mind) at just 92. He is penalized mostly for a low number of career hits and a low career average. When he reaches 400 homers and 2000 career hits (this season?), his ranking will jump considerably.

Damon sits currently at 90 points. If he could somehow reach the 3000 hit mark (273 away) he would become a virtual lock for the Hall. According to the system, that’s about his only shot.

Such systems are not without flaws, and it’s not hard to find some rankings you disagree with. Personally I don’t like seeing Hernandez (93 points) come in ahead of Dan Quisenberry (77) and Jeff Montgomery (74).

But like the system or not, it illustrates the sad truth. Unless the Royals acquire some aged star who’s playing out the twilight of his career (see former Royals Harmon Killebrew, Gaylord Perry and Orlando Cepeda), it could be more than a decade before we think about a Royal joining George Brett in Cooperstown.

Former Royals Chances of Making the Hall of Fame, According to the Baseball Reference Hall of Fame Monitor:

Batters eligible – Top 200 all time (rank #, total points):

#116 (tie) Juan Gonzalez – 120 points
#153 (tie) Bob Boone – 102 points
#176 Vada Pinson – 95 points
#177 (tie) Benito Santiago – 94 points

Batters not yet eligible – Top 100 (rank #, total points):

#27 (tie) Jason Kendall – 108 points
#38 Carlos Beltran – 92 points
#40 Johnny Damon – 90 points
#77 Mark Grudzielanek – 49 points
#78 (tie) Jermaine Dye – 48 points
#78 (tie) Mike Sweeney – 48 points

Pitchers eligible – Top 200 (rank #, total points):

#78 (tie) Vida Blue – 114 points
#93 David Cone – 103 points
#152 (tie) Dan Quisenberry – 77 points
#161 (tie) Jeff Montgomery – 74 points
#167 (tie) Bret Saberhagen – 70 points

Pitchers not yet eligible – Top 100 (rank #, total points):

#17 Roberto Hernandez – 93 points
#43 (tie) Tom Gordon – 47 points
#58 (tie) Joakim Soria – 34 points
#67 (tie) Zach Greinke – 22 points
#95 (tie) Octavio Dotel – 19 points

Batters already in – Top 200 (rank #, total points):

#39 George Brett – 210 points
#55 (tie) Harmon Killebrew – 178 points
#108 (tie) Orlando Cepeda – 126 points

Pitchers already in – Top 200 (rank #, total points):

#29 Gaylord Perry – 177 points

In the fifth inning of Sunday’s ball game against the Chicago Cubs, Albert Pujols drove a 1-1 pitch from Rodrigo Lopez into the left field seats, connecting for his 439th home run of his 11 year major league career.

The blast would move Pujols further into elite company and break a tie with Hall Of Famer Andre Dawson. Pujols now sits alone in 38th place on the all time home run list.

Dawson was most remembered for his years north of the border in Montreal as a member of the Expos. Secondary to that, however, was his career as a Chicago Cub. While Dawson hit 438 home runs in his career, he would post an impressive run against Cardinal pitching over his 21 year career. During that span of time, he would face the St. Louis Cardinals a total of 260 games, with 248 of them coming as a starter. Dawson would post a slash line of .298/.510/.851 while driving 41 home runs, 55 doubles, 17 triples, 153 runs batted in, and 32 stolen bases. In terms of power numbers, Dawson hit against the Cardinals better than every club except the Philadelphia Phillies in his career.

Pujols had fared well against the Chicago Cubs, for that matter. Over the course of his still young career, Pujols has faced the Cubs 170 times, 168 as a starter. His slash line against the north-siders is .302/.617/1.023 with 52 home runs, 34 doubles, and 134 runs batted in. He has indeed hit the Cubs better than any other team in his career.

While Pujols has moved into sole possession of 38th place on the all time list, he finds himself climbing another list that he will have to decide if he wishes to continue to climb. Pujols finds himself in 12th place for most home runs hit by a player for one single team in his career. The list is as follows:

Time will tell if Albert continues to climb that list.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.

Quick. Name all the players with 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases. Name the only player to hit 20 homers with six different teams. Name a player who, in the last decade, played in three World Series for three different teams.

You’d be hard pressed to find many fans out there that could come up with the answer to those questions.

The name Reggie Sanders wouldn’t come quickly to the minds of many fans when it comes to such lofty credentials. Sanders flew under the radar most of his career – frequently injured and generally solid but not spectacular.

But St. Louis fans will remember the Reggie Sanders who played a key role in helping the Cardinals to the 2004 World Series. Signed as a free agent prior to the season, he played a solid left field and produced 22 homers and 67 RBIs while hitting .260.

For his contribution in two years in St. Louis and two more in Kansas City, Sanders is one of five players inducted into the I-70 Baseball.com Hall of Legends.

Sanders was a fixture in the World Series during the early 2000s. In 2001 he played a leading role for Arizona, hitting 33 homers and driving in 90 runs to help the D-Backs defeat New York in the series. He was back in the series the next year with the San Francisco Giants.

Sadly, Sanders was having one of his finest seasons of his career for the Cardinals in 2005 before he was derailed by a broken leg suffered in a collision with Jim Edmonds. Sanders hit .271 and tallied 21 homers in just 93 games that year. He returned from the injury in time to play in the playoffs for the sixth time in his career.

Sanders’ playoff performances in a Cards’ uniform were a mixed bag. He went hitless in the 2004 series versus Boston, but he hit .286 and homered in the NLDS against the Dodgers. In 2005 he drove in 10 runs in a three game NLDS against San Diego.

Sanders’ biggest highlight in Kansas City came in June 2006 when he joined Willie Mays, Bobby Bonds, Andre Dawson and Barry Bonds in the 300 homer/300 stolen base club. (Steve Finley joined the club just four days after Sanders) Sanders stole his 300^th base in a Royals’ uniform as well.

Signed to provide veteran leadership for the Royals as they developed young talent, Sanders unfortunately spent much of his tenure in KC on the DL. The Royals shopped his services to contending teams to no avail, and they allowed him to become a free agent after the 2007 season, in which he played just 24 games. At 40 years of age, Sanders sought opportunities to play in 2008, but eventually retired.

One can only speculate about the numbers Sanders could have compiled had he avoided injuries throughout his career. Sanders made it into 140 games in just one of his 17 seasons. In eight of those seasons, he actually played fewer than 107 games. Had he avoided injury in some of those seasons, Sanders could possibly have made it to 400 homers and 400 steals, recorded over 2000 hits and had well over 1,000 RBIs.

But regardless of the numbers, Sanders was a winner. He was a respected clubhouse leader who played a key role on several successful teams throughout his career. For his two productive seasons on playoff teams in St. Louis, and for his record-setting time in Kansas City, I-70 Baseball.com bestows the honor of “Legend” status on Reggie Sanders.

This was one Felipe Lopez home run away from being a very different looking column. Four days after an eight game winning streak came to an end, the Cardinals seemed poised to let the Cubs sweep a three-game set at Wrigley Field in front of a boisterous ESPN Sunday Night Baseball crowd, which would have extended their run of losses to four.

The first game, a 5-0 loss that Albert Pujols admitted was a “flat” performance by the team, marked the ninth shutout of the year, just one fewer than occurred over the entire 2009 campaign. It was also the first time in Tony La Russa’s tenure as manager in Saint Louis that his team had been shutout in consecutive days. The day before the offense had been stifled by lefty Cole Hamels of the Phillies, wasting a quality start by Adam Wainwright.

The adjective used by TLR to describe Game 2 was “frustrating”. The offense was awakened by the brisk, Friendly Confines’ winds, but missed out on several key opportunities to pile on runs. They lost the contest 6-5.

On Sunday, the energy on Chicago’s north side more closely resembled that of baseball in October than it did a game in the middle of July. A noisy contingent of fans clad in red battled the Cubbie faithful for dominion of every chant. In a year thus far constructed largely of disappointments, and on the day Cub’s great Andre Dawson would be entered into the Hall of Fame, you can bet that the entire Cubs organization wanted this win.

The Cardinals would survive a number of gaffes to earn the win in extra innings, but more than the surrendering of bragging rights, the final game of this series held, in my opinion, far more serious ramifications had they lost.

Allow me to shed the façade of alpha-male sports columnist momentarily in order to offer a relevant philosophical point. In sports and in life there are only two underlying motivations…fear and love. Think about that for a moment. At times it may be a blend of both, but at the very root of every single act there are only these two motivating forces. There are no others.

For much of the first half of the season, the Cardinals have looked like a team operating from a position of trepidation and self-doubt. The seed of lofty expectations that was planted in early spring was at first bearing fruit, blossoming into an April record of 15 and 8. However, shortly after, another driving force began to grow in its place. Untimely strikeouts and an inability to plate runners in scoring position, especially in clutch scenarios, seemed to be eroding a foundation that had not yet rooted itself deeply enough for the 162-game grind. A team that initiated the 2010 season enthusiastically and with fervor suddenly appeared tentative and afraid of failure. If at any point you have competed seriously for sport, or played a musical instrument, you have known this phenomenon and the unsavory results it will normally produce. It is because of this that the “underdog” often has upper hand…i.e. the Cincinnati Reds.

Not only would a sweep at the hands of lowly Cubs have erased the intangible gains of winning eight in row, but it would have put in jeopardy the new swagger that the home team had exhibited since its return from the All-Star break. The Cardinals, for the first time in months, looked like a team playing from the same place that it began the year.

Indeed, had the Cardinals been swept in such demoralizing fashion and by such an unworthy opponent, whatever precious confidence had been achieved would have taken a damaging blow. On a team with such temperamental psyches as players such as Brendan Ryan, Colby Rasmus, and Skip “Nobody Feels Worse” Schumaker, a legitimate concern would have to be that correcting the confidence level of the ball club a second time could prove too difficult, if possible at all.

And if you think Walt Jocketty’s legion of spurned formal Cardinals isn’t playing with a purpose that transcends the fear of falling short, you are fooling yourself.

Justin Adams is a freelance writer and staff writer for i70baseball, as well as Cardinals columnist every Thursday for InsideSTL.com. Follow him on Twitter @Intangiball