Through the first three weeks of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, the St. Louis Cardinals have discovered some young talent in their pitching rotation. Shelby Miller, who had to fight his way into the rotation during spring training, has looked borderline dominant in his first four starts. The rookie hurler might be establishing an early case for the Rookie Of The Year Award.

The National League has a few rookies putting up notable numbers but few have shown the clear-cut edge of Miller. The right-hander has compiled an impressive 26 strikeouts, walked only seven batters, surrendered just one home run and six earned runs, over 25 innings pitched while winning three of his first four starts. His wins, earned run average, runs allowed, and home runs allowed rank first among all rookie starting pitchers.

His competition from rookie-level pitchers in the National League is sparse, but there are a few challengers that are not exactly falling flat to start the season.

To read about the competition for Rookie Of The Year in the National League, follow this link to the Yahoo Article.

St. Louis Cardinal fans and beat writers jumped quickly to the conclusion that Shelby Miller was “out of the competition” for a spot in the opening rotation due to reported shoulder stiffness on Wednesday.

News broke across the internet out of Jupiter, Florida on Wednesday that 22 year old Cardinal prospect Shelby Miller had sat out throwing drills on Wednesday with “shoulder tightness” according to the team.  Fans held their breath and pundits declared that the three way competition between Miller, Trevor Rosenthal and Joe Kelly for the final rotation spot was now down to two.

It did not seem to matter that manager Mike Matheny downplayed the problem saying that the team was not concerned about it.  No matter that the tightness appeared overnight and the righty did not feel any pain when he was throwing on Tuesday.  Never mind that the pitcher himself said that he would be back by the end of the week.  A fanbase that is still reeling from the loss of Chris Carpenter was ready to hit the panic button.

Thursday morning came and the team announced that Miller had been cleared to throw.  While they would continue with a conservative path and not push the hurler into games this weekend, there are no restrictions on the young man at this point and they expect him to be in game action early next week.

The fifth spot in the rotation is still up for grabs and is still locked into a three-way battle between some very exciting, young arms.

Don’t count Shelby Miller out just yet.

The Wilmington Blue Rocks, down 2-0 in the third inning, were struggling to find some footing.

With runners on first and third, Blue Rocks hurler Leondy Perez would strike out Carolina Mudcats hitter Giovanny Urshella.  The runner on first, Tony Wolters, was attempting to steal second but was quickly dispatched by the Blue Rocks’ catcher, Kevin David.

Reacting to the play on the field, Mudcat runner Tyler Holt attempted to take advantage and score from third, only to get caught in a rundown and become the third of the inning and the play.

The Blue Rocks would ride the high of the triple play and go on to win the contest 9-2.

Courtesy of Sean Greene from local station WDEL, here is video of the fantastic defensive play.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.
Follow him on Twitter here.

The St. Louis Cardinals had their Home Opener spoiled by the Chicago Cubs on Friday, as the North Siders downed the Redbirds 9-5. The Cubs were up 8-0 at one point, so the Cards did make a game of it. But huge hits by the visitors early in the game were too much to overcome.

It was a weird Home Opener from the get-go. First, the whole situation had ominous implications: The Cardinals were playing their home opener against the Cubs on Friday the 13th. That could not be scripted better for weird things to happen. Next, the weather would not cooperate and the game was delayed nearly two hours before things even got underway. Then, the resulting conditions on the field made it so the Budweiser Clydesdales could not make their signature trip around the Busch Stadium turf. A jinx? Perhaps. The only thing for certain is that display of the Clydesdales is as much a part of the Opening Day ceremonies for the Cards as is having Hall of Famers on hand and someone throwing out a ceremonial first pitch.

Everything else about the pregame festivities went fine, and the game started late but was played in its entirety. But it was an ugly game for the Cardinals.

Adam Wainwright got rocked early and often. Maybe the chilly, wet weather had an effect on his surgically-repaired elbow, or maybe his routine was altered, or maybe he just didn’t have it in this start. But it seemed like every pitch he threw Friday was hittable. It definitely was not the Wainwright we are used to seeing…but then again, we really have not seen him in a long time because of the injury. Hopefully this was just a bump in the road and starts like these are few and far between for the Cards’ hurler.

Some of the Cubs’ hits could be classified as seeing-eye singles or finding the holes, but they launched a couple of homers that really put the game out of reach early.The Cardinals’ offense, however, was not able to find an answer early on. Jeff Samardzija stymied the Cards’ bats until the 5th inning, when the Redbirds climbed back into the game by putting up five runs. But it was all they could muster.

There is something even more disappointing about losing the Home Opener. No one likes to lose any games, but losing is a part of baseball. No team wins them all; in fact, just winning two thirds of a team’s games puts that team into historic territory. But at the Home Opener, whether it’s the first game of the year or the seventh, that feels like it is owned by the home team. They pull out all the stops to make the entire day an event not soon to be forgotten. The St. Louis Cardinals are great at this. It’s not just about lining the players up and introducing each one individually over the stadium’s sound system; it’s about tradition and success and icons and starting things off on the right foot. So when the game sucks, was it all in vain? Did we drag these people and these vehicles and these trophies out just to the team can blow it on the field? Of course not. But after all the ceremonies and celebration is over, it does not become just another game. That cake needs icing. On Friday, there was none.

In the grand scheme of things, it was Game 8 of 162. There is still plenty of baseball left to play. But I would bet the Cardinals come out hungry for a win on Saturday. Maybe this time Mother Nature and the Baseball Gods will cooperate.

Chris Reed also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

Roy Oswalt wants to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals or the Texas Rangers.  Roy Oswalt wants to start and is not open to moving to the bullpen.  Roy Oswalt also wants a one year deal worth ten million dollars.

The Cardinals and Rangers have full pitching staffs that will see a hurler from each team spend time in the bullpen that have seen time on the mound at the beginning of a game.  There simply is no room for Oswalt in the rotation of either team and little room in the budget for either team, yet both are still engaged in “fluid talks” with the veteran right hander.

The Cardinals are the most logical fit.  While they have three pitchers (Jake Westbrook, Kyle Lohse, Kyle McClellan) that can fill the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation, Oswalt would be a markable upgrade and McClellan or Westbrook could easily pitch out of the bullpen.  The team is attempting to free up some cash by trading one of the aforementioned pitchers but is finding fewer buyers than what they would like.  A pure salary dump seems near impossible and the team is seemingly standing it’s ground with a lower offer than what Oswalt desires.

The Rangers have met with Oswalt, but seem to have less room for him in the rotation.  Many experts seem to feel, at this point, the Cardinals are the most likely landing spot for him, but it still takes an offer and a signature on the contract.

Roy Oswalt has a lot of demands and is summing them all up by saying there are two teams he wants to pitch for.  He is the first player in recent memory that has said “I want to play for this team, for this much, in this position.”  Talk about having your cake and eating it, too.  He may have an air tight list of demands, but it still requires the specific team to meet the demands.  The teams and the pitcher have entered a virtual staring contest over the situation.

I wonder who is going to blink?

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.

The United Cardinal Bloggers puts together monthly projects and post ideas for the group of us to chime in on.  Next month will start another run of round-table discussions, a personal favorite.  This month they have asked us each to summarize our top five iconic moments in St. Louis Cardinal history.

That’s a lot of history to pour through, even for a historian like myself.  My top five will be moments that I personally remember, whether on television or in attendance, that are ingrained in my mind and truly define my love for that franchise.

Number Five: Where 1998 Started
A lot of writers will plug in the great home run chase into their top fives, but I’m not sure many would utilize Opening Day of the 1998 season.

As a fan, it is one of my favorite games to attend.  The fanfare and celebrations around the city are a holiday like no other.  From the parade of champions to the player introductions, it is a ballgame that rivals any other.  In 1998, long before anyone realized the special season we were about to witness, the player we would all cheer for to chase the unreachable record would start things off in grand style.

During a scoreless game entering the bottom of the fifth inning, Dodger starter Ramon Martinez would find himself in some trouble.  A lead off double to Gary Gaetti followed by a base hit by Tom Lampkin would have runners at the corners with no one out.  Back-to-back strikeouts of Cardinal hurler Todd Stottlemeyer and lead off man Royce Clayton had Martinez back on top.  When the Dodger pitcher failed to retire Delino DeShields, Mark McGwire stepped to the plate with the bases full.  The one ball, no strike pitch to McGwire landed deep in the left field seats, an opening day home run in front of a crowd of just under 48,000.  The city of St. Louis would erupt in the middle of the game and while home runs 61, 62 and 70 would not only be etched in the record books, it was the opening day grand slam that I was in attendance for that started it all.

Number Four: The Passing Of The Guard
A tumultuous few years seen a Cardinals franchise changed forever.  Fan favorite manager Whitey Herzog would leave, former popular player Joe Torre would arrive and take the reigns of a team that had very little support from upper management, and a new era would be ushered in with the arrival of Tony LaRussa.

Tony would stick around for a long time, making decisions that would make the most die hard fan question his methods, only to find that his methods lead to victories, and championships, along the way.  The biggest change, and the one that most fans could not bring themselves to move past, happened after the arrival of LaRussa, however.

Prior to that arrival, in 1992, franchise legend Ozzie Smith had filed for free agency.  By December, the team had reached an agreement on what was being called a “Lifetime Contract”.  That contract guaranteed the short stop three million dollars a year and automatically renewed the following season if he reached a modest amount of plate appearances.  The contract also included a $500,000 signing bonus, payable upon retirement, and a 10-year personal services contract.

in 1996, with the arrival of Tony LaRussa, Walt Jocketty, and a new ownership, the team reached an agreement with former Giants short stop Royce Clayton.  It was the beginning of the end for the man known as “The Wizard”, Ozzie’s playing time was cut drastically and his contract would not roll over.  While Ozzie had reached the age of 41, many fans believed him still capable of handling the position and was forced out of the league by the new regime.  Ozzie would retire after the season and enter the Hall Of Fame later as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, but the decision to remove him from the short stop position in St. Louis was the single most iconic personnel change in my life at the time.

Number Three: Go Crazy Folks
On a personal note, my family moved to Missouri in 1985.  I was a young, eight year old boy that was just truly discovering the beauty of the game.  That summer, I attended a Cardinals game against the Chicago Cubs and had fallen in love with the beauty of listening to the game on the radio.

I was sitting on the living room floor, not to far from our console television, with the sound on mute so that we could hear Jack Buck instead of the national announcers.  I can remember the feeling of anxious anticipation with Ozzie at the plate.  No one, not one baseball fan anywhere, can say honestly that they expected what happened next.

Angela at Diamond Diaries explains that reprinting the words and recounting the scene does not do it justice.  The moment, as provided by Ozzie Smith, was shared by Jack Buck.  It was the combination of the two that created a moment in my mind that will live forever.  Without Jack’s call, it was a great walk off moment.  But with Jack Buck on the mic and Ozzie Smith hitting his first home run of the year from the left side of the plate, the moment became iconic.

Number Two: Grief
It is hard to believe that number two on our countdown will have happened 10 years ago by this summer.

I remember the news on June 18, 2022 announcing the passing of a man that I had grown to idolize.  The reason I wanted to write and do radio and continue being around this game was Jack Buck.  The sight of him, frail and suffering, in front of a crowd days after the September 11th tragedy was hard to watch and harder to process.  Legends like him are not supposed to die.  When he passed away, I wept openly.  A man I had never met face to face, yet I felt I spent a portion of my adult life with, was gone and I reacted as if he was family.  Because he was.  One of my first articles for Baseball Digest contained the simple phrase “I miss Jack Buck…” and I don’t think I have written another line with as much feeling as I did that day.

As iconic of a moment as the passing of Jack Buck was, it was four days later that the moment came to close in Chicago.  Settling in to watch a game with the Cubs, I could not understand what the delay was.  The game was delayed but there was no rain and the announcers were not saying why, other than an emergency.  A tearful Joe Girardi, the Cubs catcher and team captain at the time, approached a microphone near the plate and announced that the game would be postponed due to “a death within the Cardinal family”.  We would later find out that Darryl Kile, the Cardinals ace of their pitching staff, had lost his life in his hotel room the night before.  Ironically, Kile’s last pitching performance was a 7-2 Cardinal victory over the Anaheim Angels on the day Jack Buck passed away.

In four short days, the Cardinals family had been shaken to the core.  The moment, all four days of it, is etched in our minds.

Number One: We Will See You Tomorrow Night
Maybe it ranks this high because it was so recent.  Maybe it is because I am a sucker for announcers.  Maybe it is because of who I watched the game with.  Maybe it is all of those reasons.  However you count it, this past post season was magical.

The night of Game Six was amazing, no doubt.  From the game tying hits, the come from behind moments, and the “they just won’t go away” moments, it was an emotional roller coaster ride that I had never experienced as a fan.  The end of the game, however, is what ensured that I would never forget it.

David Freese would send the crowd home happy with a game winning home run to center field that would fit the mold of the season.  A game-six, walk off home run was enough to make it iconic.  What came across the television cinched it as a moment I will never forget.  When I heard Joe Buck exclaim as the ball landed in the grass beyond the center field wall, “We will see you …. tomorrow night,” I immediately commented that he used his father’s call.  A moment for the ages suddenly spanned a generation of fans.  It brought back memories of Jack.  It created a new found respect for Joe.  It wasn’t forced.  It didn’t feel scripted.  It simply flowed across the screen and then, as friend Bob Netherton points out, he and Tim McCarver did the thing that most broadcasters fail to do.  They shut up.  The let the fans at home be overflowed with the emotion of the moment and share in the joy of the fans at the park.  Cardinal Nation, from coast to coast, was united.  It was an amazing, and iconic, feeling.

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.

St. Louis Cardinal hurler Adam Wainwright showed up to the Winter Warm Up Saturday looking fit and ready to go for the 2012 season. After signing autographs for a good number of fans in attendance, it only took a couple sentences into his session with the media to confirm he was, in fact, ready to pitch come Opening Day.

Courtesy of Erika Lynn and DiamondDiaries.net

But first, the big question that’s really on everyone’s mind: What does he think of that one quarterback in Denver?

“I am obsessed with Tim Tebow, and I’m not afraid to say it,” Wainwright said. “It’s almost embarrassing to us athletes that this much attention has been put on Tim Tebow because that means we aren’t living our lives like we should.” Wainwright was stunned when he was watching the news one night and while talking about prospective GOP presidential candidates in 2012, the broadcasters mentioned Tim Tebow “about 50 times in a 30 minute span.” Wainwright is very vocal about how proud he is of Tebow and even deliberated missing an event with Tony La Russa Saturday night just to watch the Broncos play the Patriots. So is Tim Tebow the face of football right now? “I feel like he is the face of sports right now and rightfully so,” Wainwright said. “He gives the whole nation something to believe in.”

Well, some in towns with rival NFL teams may have arguments to the contrary. But in St. Louis, the question on everyone’s mind goes back to the health of Wainwright’s surgically repaired elbow.

“The arm is feeling great,” Wainwright said, adding that he’s “kind of worried I’m too far along…(I’m) going to feel fresh and ready to go, and they’re probably going to pull the reins on me a little bit in the beginning.” Wainwright has already begun throwing in Florida so Spring Training will feel normal, rather than how it might feel with a different routine coming off a year lost to Tommy John Surgery. When asked about his readiness for the start of the regular season, Wainwright says he’ll be able to pitch but hinted the role of rotation ace may belong to someone else for now. ”I’ll be ready for Game 2, or whatever they tell me,” he said with a grin.

Wainwright said he is already throwing breaking balls with ease, though that’s not what causes the most stress during the healing process—letting a fastball fly is. He also felt like his command was there before his velocity was but that neither should be an issue early on in the 2012 campaign.

Earlier in the day, General Manager John Mozeliak commented on Wainwright’s recovery and reintegration into the Cards’ rotation. He anticipated 150-175 innings for Wainwright in 2012 depending on the number of high-leverage situations and high-stress innings were mixed in. But the hurler rejected that mentality. “150 innings sounds like half a season,” Wainwright said. “If I’m making all my starts, I just don’t see how that’d be possible. But he is the boss, so at the end of the day you defer to him. But any pitcher who’s out there competing their tail off and is decent at what they do should throw more than 150 innings, so that would never ever be a goal of mine. I’ve kind of refrained from setting and goals, especially this year.”

Wainwright feels like he is one of the leaders on this team, a role that may be expanded now that Albert Pujols has departed. And the season lost to injury has taught him that he definitely loves to pitch, and isn’t ready to quit. He searched for ways to satisfy his competitive hunger, but the limitations of his rehab relegated the star pitcher to playing games on his cell phone. Wainwright said one of the benefits of all the time off was some additional healing in other areas of his body, including strengthening the structure of his throwing shoulder and eliminating some soreness in his Achilles. That should bode well for the hurler’s future health the further he gets from the Tommy John procedure.

And speaking of the future, the Cardinals did pick up Wainwright’s two year option. But he said no long-term extension has been discussed with the team at all. Wainwright thinks the team probably won’t initiate such contact until they see he’s healthy, adding “But if I go out there rolling, they better get going quick!” with a chuckle.

“I want to finish my career here,” Wainwright continued. “Everybody that stays here wants to finish their career here. With St. Louis, people call it Baseball Heaven. We kind of have it like that. I’m very blessed to play in St. Louis.”

Chris Reed is covering the Winter Warm Up all weekend for I-70 Baseball. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

Today, we will take one last look back at 2011.

Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas

The season was not much different than what many expected from the Kansas City Royals. In a rebuilding year with a crop of youngsters coming through the system to keep fans excited, the Royals would finish low in the standings and surprise very few people.

There were a few bright spots and plenty of reason to be optimistic if you are a Royals fan. Here are the top five stories from the 2011 calendar year in Kansas City.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to our own Troy “KCRoyalman” Olsen for helping come up with the stories and ranking them.

Number Five: Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur
or I Thought This Was A Youth Movement
The Royals, in the middle of a youth movement, grabbed two veteran outfielders that had many fans scratching their heads. Somehow, the Royals caught a break and ended up with solid production from both of the outfielders.

Francoeur turned his work on and off the field with the young players into an extension that will keep him in Royal Blue through 2013. Meanwhile, the Royals capitalized on the rise of Lorenzo Cain through the minor league system and Cabrera’s productive 2011 into a trade that would bring promising young hurler Jonathan Sanchez to Kansas City from San Francisco.

Number Four: Royals Farm System Is The Best In Baseball
or Maybe Dayton Moore Knows What He Is Doing
After years of “rebuilding” and many fans, experts, and writers of all kinds questioning the consistent moves made by general manager Dayton Moore, the Royals farm system suddenly appeared to be stacked full of minor leaguers ready to bust onto the major league scene.

The excitement level in Kansas City grew and the team, fans, and pundits had a focus on the future. It was no longer a matter of if the team would win, it became a matter of when the team started winning. The number of prospects about to hit the big stage was overwhelming and for the first time in almost a decade, the entire nation was discussing the Kansas City Royals.

Number Three: The Countdown Begins
or The World Will Witness The Beauty Of Kauffman Stadium
With the final pitch of the 2011 All Star Game, the countdown to the 2012 Mid-Summer Classic began. Kansas City will play host to baseball’s biggest gala in 2012, but the hype began in July of 2011.

The unveiling of the official All Star Logo, the unveiling of a renovated stadium that featured some of the most attractive sight lines in all of baseball, and the excitement surrounding the city began to build towards a chance to shine in front of the world.

Number Two: Rookies Hit The Bigs
or The Youth Movement Begins To Arrive
If there was one thing everyone around the Royals was clamoring for from Dayton Moore and the front office, it was patience. Patience with the young players as they developed, patience with the team as it would hit hot and cold streaks, and patience with a fan base that may want to win now, but winning overall would be more important.

Moore was willing to give fans a sneak peak of what he had in store and two of the best the system had to offer, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, arrived on the big league scene. While Hosmer showed poise and determination, fans realized that Moustakas and others would be learning at this level to become the players they were capable of being. The field management staff did exactly what they needed to do when they simply stayed on course with Moustakas and were rewarded with a September that shows the young man is exactly what he is projected to be.

Number One: A Legend Continues To Fade
or Why Can’t The Royals And Frank White Get Along
Last season, Frank White was upset with his passing over at management’s hands but agreed to stay on as a commentator for Fox Sports Kansas City and help keep a legend from on the field in the booth with the Royals organization. Now, as the Royals prepare to move into 2012, White has been told he is no longer needed.

Tired of feeling disrespected, White has vowed to be done with the Royals and has even considered requesting that his iconic number 20 be removed from the wall and put back into circulation. It has been a public and brutal public relations nightmare that has fans steaming. A reconciliation does not seem imminent and the whole situation leaves a stain on an otherwise positive time for the franchise.

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.

This Monday night on Blog Talk Radio, I-70 Baseball Radio will make a long anticipated return.

I-70 Radio launched in July 2010 in support of this website. Over the time, it has featured many writers, players, and coaches bringing their thoughts to the airwaves.

In July of 2011, I-70 Radio took a hiatus from the airwaves due to issues beyond the staff’s control. In all honesty, I simply had to step away for a while to tend to real life issues.

Life is in order and I-70 Radio is back. With Bill Ivie (hey, that’s me!) and Troy Olsen bringing you all the news from around Cardinal and Royal nation.

This week, tune in and hear Bill Ivie interview Jon Jay and Lorenzo Cain as we check in on the center fielders from both organizations. Troy will be on hand to talk about Jonathan Sanchez, the new hurler in Royal blue, and Bill will break down the managerial search. Both guys will bring you up to speed on all the rumors surrounding the teams on the eve of the Winter Meetings.

Tune it at our new time, 9 PM Central Time. Join Angela Weinhold in the chat room and talk with some of the writers and fans of the site during the show.

The news is still very young at this point, but Cardinal great Bob Forsch has apparently died of a heart attack at the age of 61.

You can read the official press release from the club, by clicking here to read a PDF file.

Forsch is best remember in St. Louis for his place in the pitching rotation through the successful “Whiteyball” years. A Cardinal from 1974 until an August trade in 1988 sent him to the Houston Astros for Denny Walling, Forsch was a staple in the starting rotation.

I-70′s resident historical writer, Bob Netherton, had some thoughts on Forsch:

I was saddened to hear the news of Bob Forsch’s passing. He was always a fan favorite, and for good reason. We know all about the two no-hitters, but the fact that he was the only player that Herzog kept from the 70s team to last through all three NL Pennants says far more about him as a player and person than those two magnificent games. Forsch was a mirror of the team he played for, never seeking the spotlight, probably wasn’t the best at his position, but he gave it everything he had each time he was called on. From the rotation, to the bullpen, back to the rotation – whatever the team needed, Forsch was there.

Forsch was a stingy pitcher who walked few but also did not strike out many. A pitch to contact hurler in a spacious Busch Stadium, Forsch was also a work horse that threw over 200 innings seven times in his 16 year career. He would also post double digit wins in all but five of his seasons on the mound, winning 20 games for the one and only time in 1977.

A steady pitcher that anchored many rotations, Forsch was never regarded as the ace of the staff. In fact, he led the league in one category one time in his career with a 1.4 walks per nine innings in 1980. He was also regarded as a very good hitter and would retain two Silver Slugger awards, 1980 and 1987, for his commitment at the plate.

More from Netherton:

My favorite Forsch moment came in Game Three of the 1987 National League Championship Series. The Cardinals were being bullied around by Will Clark and Jeffrey Leonard. Forsch came into the game and immediately took control but hitting Leonard with a pitch. It put a runner in scoring position, but Forsch never let that runner cross the plate. It started one of the greatest comebacks in Cardinals postseason history. What a competitor.

Forsch would throw two no hitters in his time with the Cardinals. His first would come on April 16, 1978 against the Philadelphia Phillies, the second on September 26, 1983 against the Montreal Expos. As impressive as it was for Forsch to throw two no hitters in his career, it was a game that he did not pitch that would etch his name into Major League Baseball’s record books. Almost one year to the day after Bob threw his first no hitter, his brother Ken would throw a no hitter for the Houston Astros on April 7, 1979 against the Atlanta Braves. They are the only brothers to every throw no hitters in Major League Baseball history.

Most recently, Forsch has been serving as the pitching coach for the Rookie League affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, the Billings Mustangs.

Netherton’s final thought: Bob Forsch was one of my favorite players, and he will be missed.

Bob Forsch’s career statistics:

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.

Editor’s Note: I feel compelled to include a few Tweets from around Cardinal Nation this morning:

I've always heard stories about Bob Forsch from his playing days. R.I.P. Sad news. #stlcards

November 4, 2011 9:20 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@FishSTL

Michael Fisher

Bob Forsch was who I imagined myself to be playing ball in the street as a boy, hitting grand slams & pitching no-hitters for the #stlcards.

November 4, 2011 9:19 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@bamatthews

Ben Matthews

Oh man...Bob Forsch. Rest in peace, brother. #stlcards

November 4, 2011 9:18 am via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@deckacards

Kevin Reynolds

Thinking of Bob Forsch's family today. Rest in peace, Bob. #stlcards

November 4, 2011 9:18 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@singmichele

Michele

Stunned, saddened to hear the news that Bob Forsch has passed away. We talked last week, before Game 7. I am praying for his family. So sad.

November 4, 2011 9:16 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@Ackerman1120

Tom Ackerman

Bob Forsch pitched two no-hitters for #stlcards. I was there to see his first in 1978. Groundball under Reitz glove at 3B ruled an error

November 4, 2011 9:13 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@Jeffsteig

Jeff Lloyd