“I love it when a plan comes together” – John “Hannibal” Smith

Two weeks ago I decided to write today’s article about the city of St Louis, their baseball team, and their unbearable fans. I spent countless hours researching, and remembering, all the things I dislike about this pompous trinity and was just beginning to feel prepared as I settled in to watch Friday night’s game. Less than 4 hours later, the best fans in baseball gave me all the ammunition I would have ever needed.

I should have seen it coming. You see I had developed a theory that determines how much you hate the Cardinal Nation, and Friday night’s experience just proved it. The theory basically states that hatred of the Cardinals begins with a person’s decency and is positively correlated with how much exposure you have to their fans. In other words, the more you get to know them, the more you hate them…and Friday night was a window into their souls.

Cardinals fans are, at their core, spoiled little brats. They’re the kid you hated in high school because he drove a brand new BMW, wore Abercrombie and Fitch to school every day, and always had that smirk on his face like he knew something that you didn’t. Everything in life was so easy for him. The hot chicks adored him because of his car, he never got in trouble because of daddy’s money, and he certainly wasn’t working a job in the summer. Remember how that kid acted when he something didn’t go his way? He threw a fit, just like Cardinals fans did Friday night. Remember how he acted when someone had a great accomplishment? He tried to diminish it, just like Cardinals fans did when Johan Santana no-hit them a couple of weeks ago. And if that didn’t work? Well then, he generally went off his rocker, like sending death threats to the family of an umpire because he had the audacity to blow a call.

The thing I always hated the most about that kid was that he actually thought we were all jealous of him, and of course so do Cardinals fans. They self-gloss with the ”best fans in baseball” tag, they talk about their 11 World Series rings any time you dare to question them, and most of all they love to act like they don’t give a damn about the Kansas City Royals because that would be beneath them.

Much like the rich kid, they’re just over compensating for their obvious shortcomings. I mean, c’mon they live in one of the dirtiest, most crime riddled cities in America. It’s no wonder they flock to the K every year, who wouldn’t want to get out of that abyss for a few days? I think the city of St Louis wanted to be Chicago but could only duplicate the crime and pollution. They like to compare their barbecue toKansas City, but the fact that they consume more sauce per capita than any city in the country tells me they probably aren’t very good at cooking their meat either. Maybe their team is a divine gift after all, to make up for how terrible every other aspect of life is in that cesspool.

Of course, Cardinals fans aren’t just making up for the inadequacies of their city, they have some of their own. For one, they are incredibly hypocritical. Their love and adoration of Mark McGwire as he injected his way to the home run record was sickening in itself. It became more so when it was replaced by indignant cries as Barry Bonds did the same thing, only better. Finally, when McGwire finally came clean, they no longer seemed to have a problem with steroids, as long as you admit it. So using the moral compass of the Cardinals, it seems that cheating is fine, drunk driving is to be revered, but human error from umpires is intolerable. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, these are the same people who cheered on Leonard Little long after his conviction for manslaughter.

Another thing the “best fans in baseball” pride themselves in is their knowledge of the game. That’s why I found it odd watching last night and hearing the roar of the crowd when Matt Holliday hit a can of corn to Jarrod

Dyson in medium-depth center field. Maybe their knowledge doesn’t include depth perception. Surely, though they stood and applauded when Alcides Escobar made one of the best plays the brilliant shortstop has ever made, right? Well, they were standing, but that’s because many of them were on their way out of the stadium…before the final out. I obviously don’t understand what makes a good baseball fan.

Now I mentioned the trinity at the beginning of this article, and I haven’t spent any time at all on the team. Honestly, before last night I didn’t have many feelings about this team. They’ve been ravaged by injury much of the season and at this point it appears to be a pretty mediocre collection of scrappy players and nearly has-beens. Of course, that’s generally good enough to win in the inferior league, but with no Albert Pujols to lead the way it won’t be this year. In fact, another Royals win tonight combined with a Reds and Dodgers victory would put the Royals closer to first place than the Cardinals, I wonder what the “best fans in baseball” would think of that?

The Springfield Cardinals have been down more than up this year and frustrations are not far behind.

New manager Mike Shildt, who took over for Ron “Pop” Warner after Pop was promoted to Memphis to manage the Tripe-A Redbirds, took exception to a call in a game against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals on 5/11.  An argument ensued and Shildt would not let it die for a good while.  Unfortunately, before all was said and done, he flipped his helmet into the field of play.  The bigger problem was that the umpire stood between him and the location he was flipping the helmet to.

Very seldom does throwing equipment come out as a good idea.  Check out the video below, provided by our friends at Rambling Morons.

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.

St. Louis Cardinals projected No. 3 starter Jaime Garcia could become one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball, but his emotional control will have to catch up with his physical ability.

Garcia has the talent to be a 20-game winner in the big leagues. He kept opposing teams hitless the first time through the lineup several times last season, but still ended up with a 13-7 record with a 3.56 ERA.

Much of the reason for Garcia’s lack of spectacular numbers is because he allows himself to get rattled during a game. If a defensive play isn’t made behind him in the field or the umpire squeezes the strike zone, Garcia has a tendency to lose command and become hittable.

Unfortunately, that same script played out Saturday in his Spring Training start against the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers have a powerful lineup with MVP candidates Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder holding down the corners of the infield, but Garcia held the Tigers to one hit in the first three innings. With the Cardinals up 3-0 in the fourth, Cabrera singled, Fielder tripled on a questionable fair/foul call and all of a sudden the flood gates opened. By the time the fifth inning rolled around the score was tied 3-3.

Garcia left the game after recording one out in the fifth. He was charged with four runs on five hits with three walks and the Cardinals went on to lose 10-3.

Granted, this was just another Spring Training start and the Tigers have a good lineup, but Saturday’s start continued a frustrating trend with Garcia. At times he shows the talent of an ace but also shows the steadiness of a rookie.

As Garcia struggled on the road to a 4-3 record with a 4.61 ERA that was two full runs higher than his home ERA of 2.55, reports surfaced that Garcia had trouble focusing for his starts on the road. That problem wasn’t caused by any misbehavior. Rather, he cared so much about the upcoming game that he would get bugged up if something didn’t go as planned during the day, such as a taxi cab showing up late.

Garcia could be the next part of the Cardinals’ two-headed monster and join Adam Wainwright at the front of the rotation if Chris Carpenter is indeed in the final stages of his career, but right now Garcia could just as likely be a guy who remains stuck in the middle of a rotation.

We must remember, however, that 2012 is going to only be Garcia’s third full season in the majors. It often takes talented pitchers some time to develop before they become great perennial all-stars such as Justin Verlander.

Verlander won the Cy Young and MVP awards last season, and although he had success his first two full seasons, he went 11-17 in 2008 before starting a three-year record of 61-23.

Garcia doesn’t have Verlander’s fastball, but Garcia does have good enough pitches to potentially throw multiple no-hitters. He came close a few times in 2011, but one problem would always happen and then Garcia became an average pitcher for the rest of the game.

Garcia did go the farthest of any Cardinals starter so far this spring with his 4.1 innings Saturday, and soon starters will begin throwing regular-length games as the regular season approaches. Hopefully Garcia learns to focus for a full seven innings or longer without letting one issue mess everything up.

If that happens, the Cardinals could have a great starting rotation in 2012.

The 2011 edition of the St. Louis Cardinals is not exactly a defensively sound bunch. Ok, let’s behonest, they’re pretty awful in the field. As frustrating as it is to see throws sail into the stands and easy infield pop ups most of us could corral by the 4th grade dropped (yes, I’m talking about you, Ryan Theriot and Tyler Greene), perhaps the most frustrating part of it all is how often the Cardinals are burned by the errors they make.

It seems like the majority of errors should be harmless. Though the proverbial “4th out” is about as big a baseball sin as swinging on 3-0 with the bases loaded, most hurlers can pitch around an error without any damage done. Cincinnati, for instance, only lets an unearned run score 44% of the time it commits an error. But for some reason, the Cardinals’ seem to pay for their errors every time.

Take Sunday’s loss to the Reds for example. Cardinals leading 1-0, runner at 1st, 1 out. A high chopper to 2nd leads to a rushed flip from Skip Schumaker… a throw errant enough to elicit a safe call from the umpire. Officially ruled E-4, the Reds had runners at 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Jaime Garcia struck out the next batter with a 3rd strike in the dirt, allowing the runners to move up 90 feet. Then before he got the inning ending ground ball, he threw another wild pitch to allow the tying run to score.

An error. A wild pitch. A second wild pitch. Tie game. The game eventually went to the Reds, 3-1.

It isn’t the first time an error has cost the Cardinals critical runs. A dropped 9th inning pop up led to a loss in Atlanta in early May. Another 9th inning error cost the Red Birds a game in Houston. It was driving me crazy, so I had to look it up. The results are not pretty.

For starters, the Cardinals have committed 66 errors in 95 games, good for 3rd worst in the National League. The only worse teams defensively are Houston and Chicago, who have combined for 154 errors and 123 losses. Not the best of company to be keeping.

Of the Cardinals 66 errors, they’ve allowed 42 unearned runs to score. That’s a 63.6% clip, and averages out to nearly 1 unearned run every other game. Further translation: that’s 1-2 unearned runs every series… and with 9 series remaining against the Reds, Brewers, and Pirates, many of those runs are certain to come back to bite the Cardinals.

So what can they do about it? I don’t really think there’s an answer. It’s not like a series of trade deadline moves will be geared towards shoring up the defense when the bullpen is as rocky as it is. They might just need some better luck. The good news is: The Cardinals have made it this far, playing the way they’ve played, and they’re still in the thick of the NL Central race.

The Cardinals travel to the north side of Chicago to rekindle a rivalry that fans everywhere support. Cardinal fans hate the Cubs. Cubs fans hate the Cardinals. The teams always find a way to be competitive and to challenge each other despite the standings or the individual records.

The series will start Tuesday night and take on a intense side almost immediately as Chris Carpenter and Carlos Zambrano take to the mound. The two hurlers are some of the most hot-headed pitchers in recent memory. From hit batters to fights with water coolers, these two pitchers are listed in the dictionary under “intense”.

The problem here is not that Chris Carpenter is intense, it is that it has become the only thing that he is. Carpenter is still a solid pitcher and a guy that can carry a team through some rough patches, but most of his games have turned into a debate over two questions: Who is going to get hit by a Carpenter fastball and What will piss off Carp this time.

In his last outing against the Florida Marlins, tempers flared as the game was played, to be honest, the way it should be played. A potential double play was broken up with a hard slide that caused Yadier Molina to throw a ball into right field. Hanley Ramirez stayed near the plate after the play to check on the Cardinal backstop and Carpenter took exception. After words were exchanged, it appeared that our first question would be muttered and the second one had been answered.

Later in the game, on a play at first, Carpenter took exception to the umpire’s call of safe and turned to argue. This produced Tony LaRussa from the dugout, presumably to take up the argument for his starter. I am not sure I have ever seen a manager come to the field of play and simply say one or two sentences to his pitcher and turn and go back. I cannot tell you what was said, but it seemed to be along the lines of “the call was right, go pitch”.

Carpenter is a veteran pitcher that has brought home championships and Cy Young awards to St. Louis. He has always been a tough competitor and always been a pitcher that would stand up for his team. Recently, however, it seems that he is more focused on the unwritten rules of the game than he is on keeping the ball low in the strike zone and getting the ground ball outs that makes him successful.

The downside to all of this is showing up in his record and his consistently high pitches this season. A pitcher that has made a solid career in pitching low in the zone and inducing ground balls, Carpenter is surrendering more fly ball outs and struggling to keep his pitches low in the zone to get the ground balls that make him successful. His counterpart in Tuesday’s game is a glaring example of what can become of a pitcher that allows his emotions to run his game. The emotion can capture a player and become the focus of every moment of the game.

There becomes a real problem when fans, writers, opponents, and teammates start focusing on something other than the athletic ability of the player in front of them. Carpenter is still a talented player on a winning ball club. He is dangerously close to becoming a distraction for a team that is playing well above anyone’s expectations at this point, despite some needed adversity.

What does it take to get Chris Carpenter his first win and what advice should be given to the Cardinals starter? I think it’s simple:

Shut up and pitch.

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.

It’s not often that I put too much emphasis on one game. Baseball is a long season. I’d like to come up with a better cliché than: it’s a marathon, not a sprint. But that is what the baseball season is. However, Wednesday night’s ball game between the Royals and Indians was a great microcosm of what I believe this season will be like as a Royals fan.

Photo Courtesy of Minda Haas

Luke Hochaver comes out of the gate in puts the Indians away on 5 pitches in the first inning. Alex the Dominator continued his dominating by hitting a triple and then scoring a run. The Royals jump out to a 2-0 lead against a pitcher who has given up 3 runs all season. As the game goes on Hochaver is dealing, and eventually gets into the 6th inning having retired every hitter he’s faced. If you go back to his previous start, he’s retired 31 consecutive batters. That’s 10.1 innings of perfect ball. Hochaver is finally pitching like a number 1 draft pick who held out for money.

As fan I’m watching Hochaver dispatch the Indians in the 5th. I don’t even care what the Royals do in the bottom of the inning. I think we’re really watching something special. Then the wheels fall off. Hochaver gives up his first hit, and then pitches like the fifth starter for the Ft Worth Cats. Hochaver even committed 2 balks, doubling his total for his professional career. You couldn’t even blame the balks on every fans favorite umpire to criticize; Joe West. Hochcaver eventually ends up giving up 6 earned runs, on 5 hits. And the Royals eventually lose 7-5.

Luke Hochaver pitched 10.1 IP of perfect baseball

Over the last two weeks, the writers at I-70 Baseball have shared their perspectives on the 1985 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals. It was an amazing time for both organizations, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the I-70 Baseball series, especially from the perspective of the Kansas City writers and those too young to have experienced it firsthand. No coverage of that great Series would be complete with a discussion of Don Denkinger’s call in Game Six. If you have not already done so, please read Aaron Stilley’s outstanding article, 22%: Quantifying the Denkinger Call. Whether or not you can put the call behind you, as Bill Ivie suggests, one area where we can all find agreement is that there have been other controversial calls in baseball’s history. What you may not know is that one such call by a future Hall of Fame umpire had a similar impact on the outcome of the 1968 World Series. Here is story of October 7, 1968.

Game One

For fans of pitching, Game One of the 1968 World Series was one of the best in the history of the game. It featured two of the most dominating pitchers of their era, Bob Gibson and his 1.12 ERA versus the 31 game winner in Denny McLain. The two did not disappoint. Gibson pitched one of the best games in his career, striking out a record 17 batters on the day, including seven Tigers the first time through the order. Gibson had all of his pitches working – fastball, slider, change-up (yes, a wicked change-up) and a completely devastating curveball that Gibson won’t even acknowledge to this day. While Gibson breezed through the Tigers batting order, McLain struggled early. He fought Tom Gorman, the home plate umpire from the National League, all afternoon. Gorman refused to give McLain the high strike he had been getting in the regular season, and the big right hander was slow to adapt to the smaller strike zone. The Cardinals started exploiting McLain’s troubles in the third inning, finally breaking through in the fourth with three runs on a pair of walks and two RBI singles. McLain would exit the game early, turning the ball over to Pat Dobson and Don McMahon, who both pitched well. The only blemish was a solo home run to Lou Brock off Dobson. The Cardinals would win the game 4-0 behind the record setting performance of Bob Gibson. What the box scores don’t tell you is that even though McLain struggled, he nearly matched Gibson for the first half of the game.

Games Two, Three and Four

After a brilliant pitching duel in Game One, the respective offenses were on display for Games Two, Three and Four – or perhaps it was the vulnerabilities of the two bullpens. Because of Nelson Briles inability to keep the ball in the park, the Tigers were able to get into the Cardinals bullpen in Game Two, and bad things happened rather quickly. After surrendering his third home run of the game, all solo shots, an infield single by Willie Horton ended the day for the young right hander. Manager Red Schoendienst would go to his bullpen for the big left hander, Steve Carlton. Lefty would get hammered, giving up two more runs to the bottom of the Tigers batting order. Side armer Ron Willis was not any more effective the next inning and the Tigers had opened a huge lead. It is all Mickey Lolich would need as he shut the door on the Cardinals with a nifty complete game.

Fortunes would change for the Cardinals as the series moved to Detroit. Veterans Ray Washburn and Earl Wilson would do battle in Game Three. The Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Al Kaline took Washburn deep in the third inning. There is no shame in giving up a long ball to the Detroit slugger, and Washburn limited the damage to just two runs. The Cardinals would get to Wilson and reliever Pat Dobson, taking a 4-2 lead in the fifth. Washburn would give one of those runs back when Dick McAuliffe hit a solo homer. Schoendienst would again go to his bullpen, calling on Joe Hoerner who had been victimized badly late in the previous game. This time, Hoerner was solid as a rock, earning a save in 3 2/3 innings of nearly perfect relief. Meanwhile the Cardinals would again get to the Tigers bullpen on their way to a 7-3 victory.

The Tigers bullpen would again be torched in Game Four. While Bob Gibson was cruising to another dominating victory, the Cardinals bats lit up starter Denny McLain and relievers Joe Sparma and John Hiller. When the dust, or maybe more accurately, the mud settled, the Cardinals won in a 10-1 laugher. More importantly, they had taken a 3 games to 1 lead in the World Series while making the Tigers bullpen throw a lot of innings.

This brings us to Game Five, the pivotal game of the 1968 World Series.

Game Five

This last game in Detroit featured the starters from Game Two, Mickey Lolich for the Tigers and Nelson Briles for the Cardinals. This time it was Lolich that had trouble with the long ball, and early. The Cardinals would jump out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning on a lead-off double by Lou Brock, a single and stolen base from Curt Flood and a two run homer off the bat of Orlando Cepeda – a bat that had been far too quiet for most of the 1968 season. Lolich would bear down and limit the damage, pitching effectively against the bottom of the Cardinals batting order.

On the other side of the diamond, Briles was cruising along, as he had done throughout most of the 1968 season. A couple of hard hit balls in the home half of the fourth inning caused a bit of trouble for Briles as Mickey Stanley and Willie Horton both tripled and scored in the inning. At least the ball was staying the field of play this time around. Like Lolich in the first, Briles settled down and limited the damage by retiring Bill Freehan to end the inning.

With the Cardinals holding on to a slim 3-2 lead and just 15 outs from their second consecutive World Series Title, we now proceed to the fifth inning, and the “other” blown call of the World Series.

The play

After Nelson Briles leads off the inning by striking out, Lou Brock nearly hits the ball out to left field. A great play by Willie Horton holds Brock to just a double. This defensive gem would become significant when Julian Javier singles to left field on the next play. Willie Horton comes up firing and throws a strike to Bill Freehan, who was blocking the plate. Brock actually beats the the throw to the plate, and unbelievably, Hall of Fame umpire Doug Harvey calls Brock out. A huge argument breaks out, involving the on deck batter, Curt Flood, Lou Brock, coach Joe Schultz and manager Schoendienst. Through all of this, Harvey remained resolute on his call, and the inning would eventually come to an end with Cardinals still nursing a slim one run lead.

After the game, Brock would defend his decision not to slide into home plate, as everybody expected. With Freehan blocking the plate, the only way for Brock to score would be to run through the Tigers catcher, which he did. What Harvey missed was Brock’s foot clearly on home plate before Freehan was able to turn and tag the speedy Brock. In his post game interview, Harvey even admitted to turning his attention away from the tag, calling it inevitable.

The best comment came from Bill Freehan, prior to Game Six in St. Louis. The Tigers catcher said, “After the game the other day, the writers came up to me and everybody wanted to know if Lou Brock had touched the plate or not. I told them I had to be the worst person in America to know because I was trying to catch the ball and couldn’t see a thing.” The grin on his face suggested otherwise.

The Implication

Had Harvey called Brock safe, the Cardinals would have had a two run lead at 4-2, instead of 3-2. They would also have had a speedy runner at second in Julian Javier. With only one out and the heart of the order coming up, the fifth inning in Game Five might have been a huge inning for the Cardinals. St. Louis had trouble with Lolich in Game Two, but he had not been particularly sharp thus far in Game Five. The momentum shift of a Brock run might have been all it took to rattle the Tigers lefty. The actual call had the opposite effect – Lolich toughened and the Cardinals would never really challenge him again.

The second domino to topple would happen in the bottom of the fifth inning. Trailing by two runs, with Briles crusing, Tigers manager Mayo Smith might have lifted Lolich for a pinch hitter. That would have put the game back in the hands of the Tigers bullpen, who had just been torched in the last two games. Down only a single run, Smith gambled, leaving Lolich in the game and that turned out to be the right decision as Lolich would be the one who cruised to the complete game victory, not Briles.

And we’re not done with the implications quite yet. With a two run lead, Red Schoendienst might have stayed with young Briles a bit longer when he got into trouble again in the bottom of the seventh inning. Down to just 8 outs for another championship, Schoendienst went to his bullpen, again calling on lefty Joe Hoerner. The Tigers ripped Hoerner just as they had at the end of Game Two, taking a 5-3 lead before the Cardinals reliever could record a single out. Ron Willis would finish the game, but the Tigers would go on to win this pivotal game.

The Outcome

The record books tell us how this story would end. In Game Six, the World Series would return to a soggy St. Louis. Denny McLain would shake off his early World Series troubles and pitch a dominating complete game. Cardinals starter Ray Washburn would not be so lucky, giving up five runs before leaving without getting a single out in the third inning. Larry Jaster, Ron Willis and Dick Hughes would follow Washburn in the third inning, and would also be hit hard. The game was not even an hour old and the Tigers had an insurmountable 12-0 lead. They would go on to win Game Six in a laugher, setting up a decisive Game Seven.

Not even Bob Gibson could salvage this series. He pitched well, but a late defensive miscue by the always dependable Curt Flood led to three tigers runs in the top of the seventh inning. That proved to be the difference in the game, and ultimately the series as Lolich continued his domination of Cardinals hitters, winning his third game and earning the 1968 World Series MVP award.

When looking back at the 1968 World Series, many historians will point at the Jim Northrup fly ball that Curt Flood played into a triple in Game Seven as the turning point. If you are willing to take a closer look, the controversial call by Doug Harvey in Game Five was just as devastating as Don Denkinger’s now infamous call in Game Six of the 1985 World Series. The difference is that Harvey’s call happened in the middle of the game, in the middle of the series.

Here we are, at the end of our 10-day-long look back at the 1985 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals – the only time the two teams have met in postseason play. Over the course of the past week and a half, I-70 Baseball has reminisced, rehashed, recapped and replayed that series game for game.

By now, you know the story: The Cardinals, the clear favorites in the series, won the first two games and split the next two, claiming a seemingly-insurmountable 3-1 series lead. No baseball team had ever come back from 3-1 to win the World Series. The Royals won Game 5 at Busch Stadium, pushing the series back to Kansas City, and forcing a Game 6.

Everyone remembers Game 6 for “The Call,” a controversial but, ultimately, not that critical bad call in the bottom of the ninth (it was quantified by Royals writer Aaron Stilley here, and yesterday, on the 25^th anniversary of Game 6, by Bill Ivie here and Adam Shupe here). Few fans still remember that the Royals were hosed on a call earlier in Game 6 when Frank White was called out on a stolen base attempt. But here was the difference: Royals manager Dick Howser moved on and focused on the rest of the series, while Cardinals skipper Whitey Herzog chose to focus on the bad call and hang the Cardinals’ ultimate loss on it. I’m not saying Whitey Herzog is a bad manager – he’s a former Royal, and a Hall of Famer, for crying out loud. But in that seven-game stretch in 1985, Whitey succumbed to the pressure and was out-managed by Dick Howser.

The Royals, of course, won Game 6, and forced a Game 7.

Many fans say the Cardinals simply rolled over and gave up in Game 7, while others claim the Cards lost because infamous umpire Don Denkinger was behind the plate that game. It’s hard to argue, though, with two facts: first, the Royals’ offense put up 11 runs against Cardinal pitching, led by Hall of Famer George Brett, and second, Royals ace Bret Saberhagen pitched a brilliant complete-game shutout to secure a victory by the score of 11-0.

To this day, the end of Game 7 – Saberhagen and Brett embracing on the pitcher’s mound – is undoubtedly the greatest moment in Kansas City Royals history.

And Royals fans should be proud of that. Some franchises haven’t won a single World Series title, while others won their last long before 1985.

While we should be able to look back with pride at 1985, fans should also be asking: When will we win another one?

(Even fans of the Yankees, a franchise that has won an astounding 27 World Series titles, or more than a fifth of all the World Series trophies ever awarded, ask that question.)

Since 1985, the Royals have taken a long and often heartbreaking journey to rock bottom.

In the late ‘80s, the Royals were a good, and often great, baseball team. They contended for a title every year, and posted a winning record every season except 1986. Then, in the early 1990s, five events occurred, which I believe helped lead to the Royals’ downfall:

1990: Eight-time Gold Glove winner Frank White retires

1990: General manager John Scheurholz leaves, taking his winning tradition to the Atlanta Braves

1991: The team trades two-time Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen to the New York Mets

1993: Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett retires

1993: Team owner Ewing Kauffman dies

The Brett and White retirements are not, in themselves, bad things – both players were at the end of great careers, and keeping them on the roster would have made the team worse. But losing the two most recognizable players in team history weas detrimental to the Royals’ culture. The Royals should have tried to do more to hang on to Scheurholz, and his departure was a major blow to the team. Perhaps Scheurholz doesn’t trade away their best pitcher in a feeble attempt to improve the offense.

The biggest blow of all was Kauffman’s death. Ewing Kauffman wasn’t a perfect owner (he allowed Scheurholz to leave, after all), but he was the heart and soul of the Royals, and the lifeblood of Kansas City. The effect of his death, and the team’s subsequent sale, is immeasurable.

The Royals produced mixed results in the early 1990s, posting winning records in ’91, ’93 and strike-shortened 1994. But after the strike, the Royals completely fell apart.

Since 1994, the Royals have had fifteen (!) losing seasons, including four seasons with 100 or more losses. And since 1994, the Royals have had one winning season.

One.

And that season, 2003, under manager Tony Pena, is largely considered a fluke.

I was born in 1979. Some of my earliest memories are the Royals winning the 1985 World Series, including Saberhagen’s Game 7 gem. By the time I was really old enough to understand what baseball meant, the Royals were on the downhill slide.

For two-thirds of my life, my favorite baseball team has been terrible.

But I still remember fondly the title we won in 1985.

And am I hopeful for the future?

You bet I am.

By many accounts, and not just in Kansas City, the Royals have the best minor league system in all of baseball. We also have a general manager in Dayton Moore who has not had success at the major league level yet, but he is largely responsible for building that farm system.

And under whom did Dayton Moore learn the game? John Scheurholz.

You bet I’m hopeful.

The Royals have some impressive young bats and arms coming up through the system, bats and arms that could make an impact on the big league level as soon as next year, bats and arms that will be in Kansas City in full force by 2012 and 2013, and bats and arms that will continue to come up beyond that.

The Royals are in a position to be the strongest team in the AL Central in a few years.

My team won the World Series in 1985, twenty-five years ago, and since then they have appeared in the postseason a grand total of zero times.

But I have hope. I have all the hope a fan needs. This team is going to be good. In a few years, this team could even be great.

And until then, we’ll always have 1985.

Matt Kelsey is a Royals writer and the content editor for I-70 Baseball. He can be reached at mattkelsey@i70baseball.com.

Twenty-five years ago today, the Cardinals lost the World Series, and bragging rights for the state of Missouri, because of one call made by a first base umpire.

Wait, what?

Allow me to break away from my Cardinal brethren and stand out on the limb here and say that the opening statement of this article may be the biggest lie in Cardinal Nation.

Cardinal fans will always remember that call. The call at first base is emblazoned in my mind. The images, the commentary, the arguments and the replays play vividly in my memories. I was angry when it happened. I am still angry now. I think it is time for fans of both teams to live in reality here.

First of all, it was not a deciding out. It is not like “The Call” would have ended the game and handed the Cardinals the championship. The Cardinals had every opportunity to finish that inning, produce in the next inning, or show up at all for game seven of the series. They failed.

Secondly, the Cardinals were a young ball club, and they were subject to the mistakes on the field causing things to unravel. If that play would have ended in an error, would they be so adamant about that being the turning point in the game? Would any player on that field be put through the scrutiny that the umpire, Don Denkinger, was?

Finally, the Royals seized a moment in time to overcome adversity and put together a win. That, by definition, is what a championship team does.

Perhaps it is time to bury “The Call.” It is time for Royals fans to embrace a World Series win and continue to remind Cardinal fans that, when it came down to a Championship, they had a better team in 1985.

Cardinal fans can take solace in the fact that other than 1985, their team has been better since the existince of two teams in the state of Missouri came in to being.

When it comes down to it, Jeffery Maier, Steve Bartman, Don Denkinger and countless other bystanders on the baseball field should not be held responsible for the loss or win of a baseball game. Ultimately, it comes down to the players on the field being able to produce the results a professional is paid to produce at the end of the day.

After all, we all know that the Cardinals lost the World Series in 1985 because of a freak accident with a tarp in the National League Championship Series. Rookie of the Year Vince Coleman would have made all the difference.

But I could probably go on for quite a while with multiple excuses.

It is time to simply congratulate the Kansas City Royals on a phenomenal 1985 season.

Outside the city limits of Kansas City, the 1985 World Series is primarily remembered by a single play: “The Call.” Anyone reading this blog knows the well documented history of Don Denkinger and how his safe call in the bottom of the ninth of Game Six altered baseball history. The magnitude of the play was documented in this archived MLB.com article on the fateful October 26^th.

“One call, that’s all. When fans reflect on the all-Missouri World Series between St. Louis and Kansas City in 1985, first base umpire Don Denkinger is certain to be a focal point in the conversation.”

Emotions ran wild that night. I’m not sure anyone involved could predict how fresh the passion would still feel a quarter of a century later. This offseason the St. Louis Cardinals held a Baseball Writer’s Banquet, with Denkinger in attendance as a guest, seated next to Todd Worrell. I can only imagine what that conversation was like.

Joe Posnanski was in attendance and recalled the scene in a Sports Illustrated article, “When he was introduced at the banquet, he was booed. I suppose an announcer might call them “good natured boos.” I’m not a boo-ologist. They sounded like regular boos to me.

“There was quiet while Denkinger spoke and the quiet followed by polite applause — everyone could admire the man for appearing. But as Denkinger walked out of the Hall, I heard this exchange:

“It’s nice that he came.”

“Whatever. He still blew the World Series for us.”

The fact is throughout history the fans and media have searched for scapegoats to give salvation to their favorite players. What is truly lost when depicting a seven game series on one call are the managers, players, and plays made.

Throughout the years fans have attempted to quantify just how costly Denkinger’s mistake was. Fellow I-70 Baseball blogger Aaron Stilley produced a well researched and interesting piece about quantifying “The Call.” For everyone involved though, it seems a play like this can’t be put into numbers. It’s an unquantifiable spark; I’m not sure how to measure momentum or confidence.

Momentum is a huge factor in every sport. Baseball provides a unique tension in between plays, in between pitches, which especially in the postseason can’t be matched. It allows everyone involved to reset and hold their breath in anticipation for what’s to come. The great thing about it, is just when you think the tension, or anxiety, is about to boil over the top, somehow it is delayed. The pitching coach takes a quick scamper to the mound, a batter steps out with dust in his eye, a pitcher steps off the slab to compose himself.

Ballplayers are taught from an early age the importance of hustle. “It’s a game of inches,” they say. The best players, or at least most respected, are those who always run out a ground ball and always back up the play.

Game Five of the 2010 ALCS between the Rangers and Yankees provides us a perfect example. The Rangers trailed the Yankees 3-2 in the top of the sixth. Nelson Cruz is on first with one dead. Ian Kinsler hits a deep fly ball to center field, forcing Curtis Granderson to range deep into the gap. Cruz tags at first and easily beats Granderson’s throw, a fairly unnoticed play by those in attendance and watching from home.

In reality, it resulted in ‘the spark’ I spoke about previously. Next, Joe Girardi calls for an intentional walk to left-handed David Murphy, who had taken A.J. Burnett deep earlier in the year. Bengie Molina steps in and torches Burnett’s gas can with a dinger landing in the left field seats. It put the game out of reach, maybe the series.

Who’s to blame?

Surely Yankees fans blame Burnett. The New York media will second guess Girardi’s decision to walk Murphy and leave Burnett in to face Molina. Molina will get all the praise in Arlington, but in reality none of it would have ever happened if Cruz hadn’t tagged up.

The fact is a baseball game, even more so a series, can’t be measured on one play. Baseball is a game of constantly moving parts. So many elements go into a single play. When those plays are intertwined with the aspects of the play’s before and after the exercise in second guessing becomes futile. It is an infamous pastime for fans and the media alike, but any ball player will tell you playing the “what if?” is a sure path to an exit from the game.

This sort of perspective shift is what drives fans and the media. A devoted passion to the ballclub is what creates these scapegoats. Fans have invested their emotions so much when things don’t go their way; someone is needed to take the blame (see Steve Bartman, Jeffery Maier, Bill Buckner). These feelings go against everything players are taught.

You constantly hear coaches or broadcasters talking about how players who have made an error ‘need to move on, because the next one is coming to them.’ It takes me back to an adage I always remembered thinking about as a hitter. One’s for me, one’s for you (the pitcher), and one’s for Blue. In other words, I’m gonna get three strikes, one will be a pitcher’s pitch, one will be a boarderline call from the umpire, and one will be a pitch to hit. Obviously every at-bat is different, but this was something which helped keep my mind right as a hitter.

Human error has always been a part of the game; this is one of the things that makes baseball great. ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines’ conducted a study of 184 games from June 29 to July 11 this season and reviewed every call made. They determined, “Of the close plays, 13.9 percent remained too close to call, with 65.7 percent confirmed as correct and 20.4 percent confirmed as incorrect.” Although it is a small sample size, this research suggests umpires miss one out of every five bang-bang plays, or an average of one and a half per game.

Denkinger may have missed the call, but odds are it wasn’t the only missed call in Game Six, let alone the entire series.

What we are left with 25 years later, is a World Series cadaver to dissect. Even though the series lasted seven games, statistically the Royals dominated. Kansas City outhit the Cardinals 68 to 40, outscored them 28-13. The Royals swiped five more bags and had an OPS over 200 points higher.
Meanwhile Royals hurlers walked ten less batters, resulting in 14 less earned runs allowed than St. Louis. Kansas City posted an insane WHIP at 0.935 over the series compared to the Cards’ 1.565, all while using five less pitchers than St. Louis needed.

So who deserves the accolades or the blame?

Royals fans will tell you the reason they won the Series was starting pitching headlined by Bret Saberhagen and timely hitting.

Cardinals fans will blame Denkinger.

Willie McGee went off in 1985 (.353/.384/.503, 26 2B, 18 3B, 10 HR, 56 SB), earning the NL MVP. McGee led off in the series, followed by Ozzie Smith and Tom Herr in Whitey Herzog’s lineup. Smith hit .276, with 54 RBIs, 70 runs, and 31 SB, while Herr produced a .302 batting average with 110 RBIs, 97 runs, and 31 Sb. A formidable top of the lineup which was good enough for 101 regular season wins.

In the ’85 Series the three combined for only 13 hits, five runs, two RBIs, two stolen bases and one home run. The lack of production from the hitters the Cardinals relied on all season was obvious. Why not blame Willie, Ozzie, and Tommy?

Todd Worrell was the pitcher who got tagged for the infamous loss. Worrell had Jorge Orta in a 0-2 hole, but failed to put him away. Instead he caught too much of the plate which allowed Orta’s ground ball to Jack Clark. Worrell went 0-2 to the next hitter, Steve Balboni, as well. Once again Worrell made an 0-2 mistake and allowed a single to center. Eventually, Worrell fell behind Dane Iorg and gave up another rocket to right to seal the deal. Why not blame Worrell?

During the bottom of the ninth first baseman Jack Clark had a play on a foul pop-up, but misplayed the ball. Clark later admitted it was a play which he should have made. He was still seething from Denkinger’s call a few moments prior. Later in the inning with runners on first and second base, catcher Darrell Porter mishandled a Worrell delivery, causing a passed ball. The runners moved up to second and third, forcing Whitey Herzog to intentionally walk Hal McRae. Why not blame Clark and Porter?

John Tudor, the Cardinal’s ace, pitched well in his first two appearances in the series. In his Game Seven performance though, he couldn’t make it out of the third inning. Tudor walked four and gave up five earned runs, including Darryl Motley’s two run dinger in the second inning. Why not blame Tudor?

Whitey Herzog was the Cardinals’ beloved manager who had turned them into an aggressive base stealing machine. With the game on the line in Game Six, though, Herzog opted for Worrell, a 25 year old rookie who had only 21 big league innings under his belt. He also decided the best option for Game Seven was Tudor making his third start in the Series. Why not blame Herzog?

While the Royals rotation got most of the publicity for the Series, the Cardinals provided a stellar staff. St. Louis had two 20 game winners, Tudor and Joaquin Andujar. Andujar threw 269.2 innings going 21-12 with 112 SO during the regular season.

In Game Three of the World Series though, Andujar couldn’t make it past the fourth inning, giving up four runs on nine hits. This was the only start for Andujar; he didn’t see the field again until Game Seven was already out of reach. Why not blame Andujar?

During the World Series, the Cardinals were without one of their most potent weapons, NL Rookie of the Year Vince Coleman. The speedster swiped 110 bags in the regular season. On an overcast night during the NLCS though, Coleman was nearly swallowed whole by the automatic tarp at Busch Stadium.

Cardinals’ third baseman Terry Pendleton stated, “I was just turning around [when] I heard this scream and the thing just swallowed him up.”

Tito Landrum was responsible for taking over in left field. He hit .360 for the series, but couldn’t provide the spark on the base paths like Coleman could. Why not blame the killer tarp or its operator?

One play, one decision, will never decide a game, or series. Even if fans wanted to point to one play which defined the game, Denkinger’s call wouldn’t be it. Stilley concluded in “Quantifying the Call” Orta’s single caused a 22% swing in WE (win expectancy). According to Baseball Reference using WE, Orta’s single wasn’t even one of the top five most significant plays in the game. The list reads as follows:

1. Iorg’s line drive single to right field for the win.

2. Brian Harper’s single in the eight to give the Cards the lead.

3. Darrell Porter’s passed ball.

4. Jim Sundberg’s sac bunt.

5. Steve Balboni’s single to center in the ninth.

In the end, the life threatening voicemails and letters Cardinals fans provided Denkinger were uncalled for. Since then, the Cardinals have continued their storied baseball history, making nine postseason appearances and relinquishing the title in 2006. The Royals haven’t sniffed the postseason since the I-70 Series. Dwelling on one call 25 years ago is a fruitless endeavor. Cardinals fans should enjoy their past and present successes, while Royals fans deal with ‘The Curse of Don Denkinger.’