*Note: at the time of the writing of this article, Adam Wainwright had just completed a four-hit shutout, which provided a tremendous boost to an overused St. Louis Cardinal bullpen and a huge step towards Waino reaching the consistency he desperately longs to regain. He struck out 9 and walked only 1 and said “..that might be the best feeling I’ve ever had pitching…I’ve done some things that are pretty fun, but I can never remember feeling that emotional after a game”. Huge news in Cardinal Nation, but not a topic I want to delve into in this  space…however, rest assured that weighs easy on this writer’s mind as we deal with a tougher topic here…

Lance Berkman.

He is one of the guys that reminds me that baseball is ultimately a game people play because they love it, or at least at one point in time they did.  Berkman is one of the few guys that does not give “jock-talk” interviews, but actually speaks openly and honestly with the media. He stands up and takes the heat when the team does not play well. He is refreshingly honest about what he is good at, and what he is not. And he is also a dang good baseball player.

2011 postseason heroics aside (which will always be revered in Cardinal Nation), Berkman revitalized his career after a very disappointing and injury marred 2010. For the season, he played in 145 games, hitting 31 HRs 94 RBI and a slash line of .301/.412/.547. He was, in my opinion, unquestionably the first half MVP last year, putting up 24 HR and 63 RBI by the All-Star break. He did all of this after rehabbing a knee injury that greatly hurt his 2010 performance. Many doubted at 35 years old, he would be able to return to “the Berkman of old”, and that the Cardinals were throwing 8 million dollars down the drain last season.

We all know how that story ended. Berkman was a key piece of the 2011 World Series title, felt he could still contribute at a high level, and wanted to stay in St. Louis. Speaking openly with the club and the media, he said his services should be worth 12 million for the 2012 season, and the Cardinals agreed. Contract signed. Full speed ahead in the attempts to defend the crown.

Then come the injuries.

Berkman had just returned from the DL when he re-injured his right knee last weekend against the Dodgers, on a seemingly routine play. An MRI Monday revealed a tearing of the meniscus and cartilage responsible for cushioning the knee. Berkman is undergoing surgery this week, which will be his fifth knee surgery. Early prognosis is he will be sidelined a minimum of six weeks.

I bragged on Berkman’s honesty earlier, and will again. He is just not sure he wants to go through the grinding rehab one more time to get himself back to playing at an elite level at 36 years old. I can not say I blame him for feeling that way. It would be a terrible way for him to go out, but reality is, he may never play again. There is some time needed to figure out what the rehab process will look like following surgery, but I began to run through the “what-ifs’ regarding a Berkman retirement…and not from the standpoint of replacing his production on the field, but figuring out a way to keep his leadership, toughness, and knowledge within the organization.

The Cardinals have shown a trend towards hiring former players as coaches in recent years. Jose Oquendo has been third base coach for a long time, Mark McGwire the hitting coach the last two seasons, and John Mabry was brought into the fold as assistant hitting coach this season. Why not make Berkman an offer to stay on as a coach if he finds out his playing days are done? I realize there is not an open slot at this moment, but the organization should make a commitment to him, just like they did Mike Matheny, and give him a chance to scout or coach.

Of course, there is a great chance he would say no. He may want to return to his ranch in Texas or even rejoin the Astros organization. I just hope Mozeliak would make his best effort to keep Berkman in the mix after his playing days are over. The organization would be much stronger for it.

Maybe it only makes sense that the Kansas City Royals would have to overcome a 12-game losing streak before making their first playoff push in 27 years. After all, this is a franchise that overcame 3-1 series deficits not just once, but twice in 1985. In fact, they are still the only team to ever do that in both the LCS and the World Series.  Before that, the Royals lost to the New York Yankees in the ALCS 3 straight seasons (’76-’78) before finally breaking through in 1980 and making their first World Series appearance. What does that tell us about 2012, probably nothing…other than this team has never done things the easy way.

The 12-game losing streak to seemingly end the Royals’ season in April was disheartening for many reasons. Obviously, the “Our Time” campaign didn’t help, nor did Ned Yost’s apparent confusion over which league he manages in. The fact that most of the games were close at the end made no one feel any better, especially after a sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers left the Royals 6 games back just 12 games into the season. What made things worse for some though was the team’s denial that they were that far away. Despite the in-game evidence that Ned Yost was clearly panicking, he and the players said all the right things to the media and gave the impression that their confidence in this team’s ability had not been shaken.

Wednesday, April 25 was the day the streak died and the Royals looked like everyone had hoped they would from the start. Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, and Eric Hosmer all homered. Luke Hochevar threw 6 1/3 innings and gave up just 2 runs. The bullpen was lights out, shutting down the Indians on one hit to seal an easy 8-2 victory.

Thursday, April 26 the bullpen was even better, giving the club 4 shutout innings preserving a 4-2 win and a series victory over the Indians. While fans joked that the club was only 5 games out of first (and third), the mood was still somber when it was announced that long reliever Everett Teaford would start in place of Danny Duffy who had elbow soreness. This came less than 24 hours after it was announced that Lorenzo Cain had a setback on his rehab assignment. Two measly wins could hardly offset the cloud of injuries that was beginning to settle over this ball club.

Friday, April 27 may be the day we look back at as the true turning point in this 2012 season. Teaford was ineffective at best, but after 4 innings the offense had kept the team in the game at 4-4. Alex Gordon had blasted a bomb to right field, and brought back a home run himself. Billy Butler was responsible for the other 3 runs, including another 2-run shot. Over the next 5 innings the Royals combined clutch hitting, incredible defense, and a little good fortune to piece together a 7-6 victory, and the beginning of a winning streak. Alcides Escobar was wizardly…Jeff Francoeur made an incredible diving catch and then doubled in his next at bat…Everything the Royals needed they got. The Tigers and White Sox even lost again to pull the club within 4 games of second place. That’s right, the team that started Friday playing to get out of the cellar could be playing next week for second.

A rainout on Saturday could halt the club’s momentum, but as Earl Weaver once said “Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher” and staff ace Bruce Chen will be on the hill on Sunday. A win would put the club at 7-14 and guarantee a winning road record in the month of April. A difficult schedule in May leads to one of the easiest June schedules I have ever seen.

The point? Even after a 12 a game losing streak…even after injuries to their starting catcher, centerfielder, 4^th starter, closer, set up man, (and 5^th starter?) this team is not out of it. They’re fighting, it’s starting to turn around, and before this year is over it may be “Our Time” after all. We may be down 3-1 in a seven game series, but we’ve been here before.

For the first time this season, I will be in attendance for a St. Louis Cardinals game at Busch Stadium.

This Sunday, April 29, the Cardinals will take on division rival Milwaukee and I will be in attendance with a group of school kids and Angela Weinhold.  Why should you care?  Well that is simple.

Last year I started a tradition of carrying a messenger bag with me to all games that I was in attendance for.  You see, over the course of the almost two years that we have run the site, I have collected a fair amount of items that have been given to the site in one form or another for means of promotion.

Books, t-shirts, can coolers, and many more products have been sent in to the site to give away at various events.  Companies ranging from RinaWear Clothing company to Fox Sports Midwest have asked us to distribute cool gifts on their behalf, and we have happily obliged.  So before each game, I fill my bag with as much as it will hold and reward anyone who happens to come up to me and either recognize me or identify i70baseball.com with something from it.

This year, it gets better.

On Sunday, if you recognize me and mention i70baseball.com, I will have my normal bag of fan-centric stuff to reward you with.  If you are one of the first to come up to me, however, you are in for a treat.  In my bag this weekend will be one each of the following:

A BluRay/DVD Combo of the newest addition to the A&E Home Video Greatest Games set.  The newest addition?  Game Six of last year’s World Series.

“But, Bill”, you say, “Game Six was outstanding, but there was so much more to the World Series than just that game.”  You’re right, my friends.  Because of that, I will also have a box set of the entire World Series, also from A&E Entertainment.  This set is a massive eight discs and contains every game from the World Series and a ton of extras.

I will have plenty more to give away at the game Sunday.

Winning is simple:

- Follow me on Twitter (@poisonwilliam) as I will tweet updates on my location, my attire, and pictures to help you find me easier
- Find me at the game on Sunday
- Mention that you read i70baseball

See you at the ballpark!

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.

As I wrote last week in this space, everything was rainbow and lollipops in Cardinal Nation after such a fast start out of the gate, beating up on division foes.  The St. Louis Cardinals were the first defending World Series champions to win their first six series of the season since the 1922 New York Giants. That, as you know by now, came after a season of incredible turnover and uncertainty heading into 2012.

Going into Opening Day, this was the talk, “Yes this team has talent, how will they respond without Pujols, Duncan, and LaRussa?”  “Can the team hold up through injuries with so many veterans?”

Then something happened. The team started winning in convincing fashion. And subtly, expectations became reset.

A tremendous start to the season. Heading into the Chicago series, the Cardinals led the NL in almost every offensive category and in run differential (second only in the league to Texas Murderer’s Row Rangers).

Then the first two games against the Cubs happened. Both 3-2 losses. Both 2-1 leads given up by the bullpens in the 9th inning. Now the team is 11-7 and only two games out in front of the Brewers. Now the team is dealing with the bats cooling off. Now they are dealing with fighting through blown calls by umpires and the bullpen giving up leads. They are dealing with multiple injuries that test not only their depth but their resolve. In a word, for the first time of the Mike Matheny era, they are dealing with significant adversity.

Making too much of a simple two game losing skid against Windy City Rivals? I am not so sure.

There are 9 more games in a row against the NL Central. As I have written many times before, these games are crucial. Even if they go 5-4, the fast start would ensure a 16-11 record, which is nothing to make light of. Personally, I think the team should be shooting for 17-10 or 18-9 through the NL Central start of the schedule. They still have the opportunity to run out to a good lead in the division, but it will depend on their ability to push through adversity, to push through a lack of run support for pitching over the last four games, the bullpen shaking off a couple of tough losses and blown saves.

This is the moment a lot of Cardinals fans have been waiting for. To seem what the team is truly made of. As my UCB co-host Dathan Brooks often says, every win in April is a win you don’t have to get in September. These April games really matter because they are all against the Central. And these next nine games will show us how the team handles its first bit of adversity on the young season.

It sure would be nice if they could give Wainwright a little bit of support as he is trying to get back to form. So far, he has had zero, that’s right zero, run support in his first four outings. That will change. His stuff still is not what it once was, but that is to be expected at least for a couple more months. He showed last night he will fight to make pitches and get outs with less than his best stuff. It is a move in the right direction. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Waino doesn’t go for another four games.

The first battle to get back on track and further the division lead is today at Wrigley Field at 1:20 Central Time. Can the Birds shake off a couple tough losses, and show the resolve and grit their new manager preaches? Or will they allow the sting of the last two nights to carry over and leave them in a division dogpile?….

It sure will be fun to watch and find out.

The St. Louis Cardinals might have a new manager, pitching coach and offensive stars, but their results have been the same as the 2011 team during its run to the World Series championship. The games have also been less stressful to watch, thanks in part to new manager Mike Matheny.

The Cardinals started the 2012 season with two of the cleanest wins a baseball team can have, especially to begin a season. They beat the Miami Marlins 4-1 Wednesday before traveling to Milwaukee and beating the Brewers 11-5 Friday.

Sure, they got beat in starting pitcher Adam Wainwright’s return Saturday to the tune of a 6-0 shutout, but Brewers starter Zack Greinke pitched a brilliant game. He was also the third elite pitcher the Cardinals had faced in as many days.

Overall, the Cardinals have shown early signs that they will play a much cleaner game than they did while Tony La Russa was the manager. It’s foolish to say La Russa’s teams didn’t play good baseball. His team’s won a lot of baseball games, but they also maintained an edge to their game that was never completely comfortable to watch. They could certainly come back after falling behind several runs early in a game, but just as well could let a similar lead disappear.

A good bullpen is certainly a major factor in how those situations play out, but La Russa’s heavy use of his bullpen played a role. His theory of using several relievers in one game was meant to keep them available night after night without wearing down one particular pitcher. But, that always left opportunities for one of those pitchers to have an off-night and blow the game.

Although it’s very early, Matheny hasn’t shown any tendencies to take a lot of risks. His decisions have been calculated, and have not tipped the game for or against his team. Those moments where his decision wins or loses a game will surely come, but his approach is a smart one for a new manager with an experienced team.

Matheny’s has also made judicial use of his bullpen. It helps when his starters pitch deep into ballgames, but he has not made pitching changes just for the sake of making pitching changes. Matheny has a good understanding of the rhythm of a baseball game, and has shown a more gentle touch than La Russa.

Matheny is no teddy bear, by any means. He will fight with his team to the death just as La Russa would have, but Matheny will likely trust his gut instinct rather than what the numbers say in the matchup book.

That will be a stark change for Cardinals fans who have grown to fear a righty-lefty matchup simply because the pitcher and hitter don’t have the same dominant hand. The hand a pitcher throws with is sometimes less important than how the pitcher is throwing that day.

Even if a pitcher, particularly a reliever, was cruising along, La Russa would yank him simply to play the matchup game. Matheny appears to be more likely to let a pitcher who is dominating go ahead and work a full inning regardless of who comes up next in the order. This certainly won’t always be the case, but it will be nice to watch a game that doesn’t include at least six pitching changes every night.

Also, the team’s baserunning has been much better. Former first baseman Albert Pujols was often more of a factor in this problem than La Russa. Pujols was a very aggressive baserunner, but he would also run himself into an out because of that aggressiveness.

The 2012 Cardinals might not be the most explosive team in Major League Baseball, but if the first week is any indication, this should be a very fundamentally sound team that could win a lot of baseball games.

Having a manager who fosters that type of a team will certainly help.

We have arrived at the regional finals in the All Time Cardinals Team Tournament.

The winner of this round advances to the Final Four, to be held at the official site of the United Cardinal Bloggers.

Following along with the finals can pay dividends.  Enter now in the All Time Cardinals Team Tournament Contest and win a copy of A & E’s Complete World Series DVD Set. Details here.

Our bracket has worked all the way down to two teams from the sixteen we began with.  While some of the lower seeds held on for just a while, it ultimately came down to the top two seeds in this region, the 1942 team vs the 1985 team.  Who wins is entirely up to you.

You have read about the teams as we have went along, but here’s the tale of the tape in this regional championship match:

1942		1985
1	Seed	2
106	Wins	101
61	Losses	48
World Champs	Finished	Lost World Series
Enos Slaughter .318/.412/.494 13/98/100	Best Hitter	Willie McGee .353/.384/.503 10/82/114
Mort Cooper 22-7 1.78 ERA	Best Pitcher	John Tudor 21-8 1.93 ERA
Billy Southworth	Manager	Whitey Herzog

Now it’s up to you.  Tell us who moves on by placing your vote below.  Is it the I-70 Namesake from 1985 or the franchise’s most winning team from 1942.  You decide.

Voting closes at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 29th

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After nearly a full month of handwringing about starting pitcher Chris Carpenter’s health, the St. Louis Cardinals received the bad news this week that Carpenter will start the season on the disabled list, a list that is all too familiar for Cardinals pitchers.

Courtesy of Erika Lynn

Just like last year when Adam Wainwright blew out his elbow on the first day of Spring Training, the Cardinals will start the season without one of their two best pitchers.

Although it will still take quite a while for the shine to fade from last year’s world championship, there hasn’t been much good news for Cardinals fans.

Manager Tony La Russa retired just three days after winning the World Series and first baseman Albert Pujols signed with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in December. With all of that change and losing one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game, more was going to be asked of the Cardinals pitching staff this year.

Unfortunately, news of Carpenter’s injury is another shot to the gut to a fan base that has seen this happen seemingly year after year. Seemingly every time the Cardinals are set to open a season with a pitching staff that, on paper, should be one of the best in the league, something like this happens.

Going back to the early years of the La Russa era in 1996 and 1997, the Cardinals had a young group of terrific pitching prospects that included Alan Benes and Matt Morris. Both pitchers had the potential to be consistent all-stars and would lead the team for years to come.

Well, Benes missed the entire 1998 season due to injury and Morris followed with a similar injury for the 1999 season. Not surprisingly, the Cardinals finished third and fourth in the National League Central Division those two years. Morris came back to win 22 games in 2001 and had several successful seasons afterward, but Benes never won more than two games in a season after his injury and retired in 2003.

Even during the Cardinals successful years of the last decade, pitchers such as Woody Williams would pull an oblique or Mark Mulder would have shoulder problems that kept them off the mound for extended periods of time.

Granted, injuries are something that each team has to deal with to some extent, but the Cardinals always seem to have vital members of the pitching staff get hurt. And when they get hurt, they are on the disabled list for a long time.

That will likely be the case with Carpenter’s latest injury. General Manager John Mozeliak did not put a timetable on when Carpenter might come back, but as is the case with nearly every Carpenter injury, it looks like he will be out for quite a while.

Given Carpenter’s history of serious injuries that have caused him to miss significant portions of the 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2008 seasons, the likelihood of a return even before the all-star break would be optimistic.

As always, the Cardinals will battle on without a star pitcher. They have a capable backup in Lance Lynn, who worked out of the bullpen last season. Lynn likely won’t set the world on fire, but he should at least fill the same role Kyle McClellan filled a season ago to replace Wainwright.

Still, it is tantalizing to think how good the Cardinals would be completely healthy pitching staff.

The St. Louis Cardinals received good…bad…news regarding the status of Chris Carpenter today. The staff ace is experiencing nerve irritation affecting his neck and throwing arm that has shut him down indefinitely, though as of now he will be treated with rest and strengthening exercises and surgery is not being discussed.

It could be worse. The worst-case scenario would be losing Carpenter for the entire season and having the continuance of his career be in jeopardy. That is not the case; however the Cards still have no timetable for his return and have to proceed as though they have no idea when he’s coming back.

While the situation is not ideal, it places the Cardinals in a familiar position: dealing with losing their best pitcher before the season even gets underway. In one sense, it is kind of amusingly ironic. In another, it toes the line of cruel and unusual punishment for the Cards and their fans. The team is the defending World Series champion, but could they possibly have a smooth start to that title defense? Of course not.

This has been coming for a while, and recently I lamented the possibility of the Cardinals going back to Kyle McClellan as an interim starter while Carpenter recovers. Thankfully, that option is off the table. Instead, Lance Lynn has been given the green light to assume the fifth spot in the rotation. I have mixed feelings about this move. On the one hand, Lynn only relieved for a short time in 2011 and has been a starter the rest of the time. “Converting back” to the starter mentality and routine should not be near as taxing on him as it was on McClellan through the first half of last year. Consequently, if Carpenter is able to come back sometime mid-summer, Lynn may be able to seamlessly transition back to the bullpen and not drastically surpass his recent innings totals. But for as well as Lynn looked as a reliever with the Cards in 2011, he had mixed results in his two starts at the major league level and was not able to complete six innings either outing. Yes, that is a really small sample size. But it just goes to show that Lynn is still an unproven rookie, and with that comes a whole new set of questions. What if he struggles initially, or even perpetually? What if Carpenter returns and Lynn can’t transition back to the bullpen effectively?

And what if the bullpen suffers without Lynn? Perhaps the Cards can get back the production from McClellan they got in 2010 when he was, by many measures, the best reliever on the team. That would certainly help. But the beginning of 2011 was a prime example of what can happen to a team when their bullpen falters, and the run at the end of the year began in large part because of dominant bullpen work from Lynn, Jason Motte, Fernando Salas, and the late additions of Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski. Dotel is gone, of course, so McClellan presumably replaces him. Who replaces Lynn?

Still, it is really hard to think the sky is falling today after we saw what happened last year in the absence of Adam Wainwright. It is relatively safe to assume that, no matter what, the Cardinals will make whatever moves are necessary to keep this team in contention for the entire season. It just would have been really sweet to see a healthy Wainwright and a healthy Carpenter at the top of the rotation for the entire season. And who knows; maybe Carpenter comes back at 100% in a few months and takes some of the heat off of Wainwright so he doesn’t get overexposed being just one year removed from Tommy John surgery.

But that is just wishful thinking. The reality is, the Cards are in a tough spot for the start of the 2012 season. Let’s hope this team is as good at battling adversity as the 2011 team was.

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

The four regions of the All Time Cardinals Team Tournament have pared their individual groups down to four teams, creating the Sweet Sixteen of this tournament.

The Musial Region is hosted on Pitchers Hit Eighth, who developed the idea for this tournament and invited us to join in.  We were joined by fellow UCB Team Blog Of The Year, Aaron Miles Fastball, who hosts the Gibson Region of the tournament.  Rounding out the group is the Godfather of the UCB himself, hosting the Smith Region over at C70 At The Bat.

The Buck region?  That’s right here on i70baseball and we are down to the last two rounds before the Final Four moves to the official UCB Site.  Head over to that site and learn how you can win an entire 2011 World Series DVD set while following along with the tournament.

There are two matches for you to decide today, and they promise to be some good ones.  Here’s a look at the Buck Region Bracket as it currently stands:

Our opening match-up features our Number One seed, and the Cardinals team that won more games than any other in history, the 1942 World Champions.  

The team featured the top two finishers in the Most Valuable Player voting.  Enos Slaughter, in his final season before serving military service for three years, would finish second in the voting after leading the team in Home Runs (13), Batting Average (.318) and Runs Batted In (98).  The offensive presence was not enough for Slaughter to beat out Mort Cooper, however.  Cooper would post a 1.78 Earned Run Average, 22 wins, ten shutouts, and a 0.987 WHIP in route to the MVP Award.  Cooper’s success did not carry over into the post season, however, as he was roughed up in two starts against the mighty Yankees, taking the team’s only loss in the Fall Classic that year.

Up against the top seeded team is the only “underdog” left in the entire tournament.  While every bracket features their first through fourth seeds, the five seed in the Buck Region is trying to fit their foot into Cinderella’s glass slipper.  The 2005 Cardinals played their way to the National League Championship Series and creating a whole bevy of memories for fans before bowing out to the Astros.

Led by their superstar Albert Pujols, the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2005, the team was an offensive juggernaut.  Pujols would post a .330/.430/.609 slash line while hitting 41 home runs, driving in 117 runs and leading the league in runs scored with 129.  Backed by names like Jim Edmonds and Larry Walker and an injured Scott Rolen, the team was a new-century’s murder’s row.

The team was not without pitching, however, as ace of the staff Chris Carpenter would win 21 games, post a 2.83 Earned Run Average, seven complete games (leading the league) and 213 strikeouts, all good enough to bring home the Cy Young Award.  Carpenter was backed by Jeff Suppan and Mark Mulder, both winning 16 games each, and a strong bullpen led by Jason Isringhausen and his 39 saves.

The choice is yours.  Does the underachieving 2005 team (100-62) continue the quest for upsets?  The 1942 team carries the best regular season record in team history (106-48) and a World Championship, is that good enough to move on?  Vote right here:

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The bottom branch of the Buck Region brought very little surprise.  The second and third seeds advanced the way most would expect and now face off for the right to compete for the Regional Title.  This game’s top seed is the number two seed of this bracket, the reason this site exists, the 1985 Cardinals.

You remember that team.  101 wins, Whitey-ball, speed on the base paths and heartbreak in the World Series.  The highest ranked non-championship team in the tournament, this team was responsible for creating a bevy of Cardinal fans.  The team built on speed had it’s bopper in Jack Clark, but it was the center fielder Willie McGee that would be the National League Most Valuable Player that year.  A .353 batting average, 82 runs batted in and 56 stolen bases will do that for a guy.  Combined with 216 hits and 114 runs scored, McGee was a big part of why this team went as far as they did before being derailed by the Kansas City Royals in seven games in the Fall Classic.

A pair of 21 game winners would finish second and fourth in the league’s Cy Young Award voting, but gave the Cardinals a one-two punch that was formidable all season long.  John Tudor would post a 1.93 Earned Run Average, 14 complete games, 10 shut outs, and strike out 169 hitters as the ace of the staff.  Meanwhile Joaquin Andujar would keep pace in wins while posting a 3.40 Earned Run Average, 10 complete games, 2 shutouts and strike out 112 in support.

The namesake has it’s work cut out for it against the 1944 Cardinals, however.  Holding the number three seed based solely off of their draft position in the layout of the tournament, this group was a virtual mirror image of the 1942 crew that sits as our number one selection.

The team would bounce back from it’s 1943 World Series loss to post 105 wins and another World Championship.  Stan Musial would continue his meteoric rise onto the scene in the 40′s with an impressive slash line of .347/.440/.549 and hit 51 doubles, 12 home runs, drive in 94 runs and finish fourth in the league Most Valuable Player voting.  The following season would see Musial spend a year in the Army fighting for his country, but 1944 he fought for his team and proved why he would later be called “The Man”.

Mort Cooper continued his dominance from the mound, winning 22 games and posting a 2.46 earned run average, throwing 252.1 innings over 34 games.  This time, Cooper had the support of Max Lanier (17 wins), Ted Wilks (17 wins) and Harry Brecheen (16 wins).

Do the 1944 World Champions advance to face off for the Regional Title?  Can 1985 cause fans to continue to “Go Crazy, Folks!”?  It’s up to you, our fans.  Vote below for your favorite.

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Share it with your friends, pile up the votes, it’s time to name the teams for the Regional Title game on the path to deciding the All Time Cardinal Team.

There is a famous line in the film A League of Their Own where Tom Hank’s character says, “Crying… Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball.” I have always remembered that line. For some reason, a slight variation of that popped into my head when I read yesterday’s Post-Dispatch article about Mike Matheny. “Sleeping…Are you sleeping? There’s no sleeping in baseball”.

Matheny was too excited to sleep before his first Grapefruit League game as a manager. He decided to pop out of bed at 3 am and was at the park a little after 4 that morning. It reminded me the St. Louis Cardinals went from the game’s most experienced manager to its least within a few weeks of winning the 2011 World Series. While it is too early for any kind of “spring training report card”, I do want to make some early observations regarding the Matheny era, and pose some questions as to what Cardinal fans should keep on their radar early in the season. After all, a two-year contract does not leave a lot of time for learning on the job.

I have generally had good feelings about the Matheny hire. Mozeliak had been grooming him for the position, and Mozeliak certainly has earned the benefit of the doubt on big decisions like this. Matheny seems to be doing all the right things early on in the job; consulting the right people, reaching out to the players, reaching out to former (and estranged) Cardinal legends. He has provided a smiling face to the media, which is certainly a welcome change.

He faces a lot of challenges as well. As previously alluded to, he does not have a lot of time to earn his stripes – losing will not be tolerated with the Cardinals 2012 roster. If the team is hovering around .500 at the All-Star break, you can bet there will be some fans calling for his job. Despite losing Albert Pujols, Dave Duncan, and Tony LaRussa, the general consensus in Cardinal Nation is that the 2012 team is better on paper than the championship 2011 team due to the addition of Carlos Beltran and the return of Adam Wainwright. There is a lot of pressure on Matheny.

Something I have encouraged people to keep a close eye on is the Cardinals first twenty-seven games of the 2012 season. After Opening Day with the Marlins, the Cardinals play twenty-six consecutive games against the NL Central (ranked the worst division in baseball). The schedule is kind to Matheny this season, as interleague play pits the Cardinals against the second weakest division in baseball, the AL Central. While that seems to be an advantage, I put a lot of importance on the early games for so many reasons, not the least of which is Matheny setting the tone for his managerial reign.

Here are a few early observations.

1. Matheny runs a tight ship. The practice schedule runs on airport time. Matheny does not round to the nearest five minutes. If you are a pitcher you better be ready for you session to start at 9:38 am, because that is when the skip has it scheduled.

2. Matheny puts emphasis on player development in spring training. Look at the number of at-bats and innings pitched already for the younger prospects in the first two games of the spring. More than that, I was intrigued at how Matheny worked the prospects into the hitting and pitching groups during the first two weeks of spring training. LaRussa seemed to have a more “show me what you can do” approach in spring training, where he got his key guys a lot of reps and let everyone else try to earn a shot. Matheny is putting a bigger emphasis on the organization’s responsibility to develop the next wave of players that can contribute at the major-league level. Could you imagine LaRussa putting Tyrell Jenkins in Chris Carpenter‘s throwing group on the first day of camp?

3. Matheny is a “hands-on” manager. LaRussa would typically watch Grapefruit League games from just outside the dugout. Matheny is inside the dugout, working and instructing the team. Matheny is out on the field throwing batting practice.

Some intriguing questions to be answered.

1. Game management

How will he use his bullpen when the games really count? What kind of pitch count will the starters be on? Will he bunt and steal? I hear mixed reports. On the one hand, I see where he is working with the team on better base running and stealing, and that he wants to better utilize the bunt and hit-and-run. On the other hand, I hear how he is going to use advanced metrics much more than LaRussa did. In Sabermetricville, bunting is a crime unlike any other….never, never, never give up outs. How will Matheny manage moving runners over in traditional sacrifice situations.

2. Handling veteran players

This, in my opinion, is his greatest challenge as a manager. He is not only managing a lot of guys close to his own age, he is managing some former teammates as well. Will he command the respect of the clubhouse or be a “player’s manager”? Is it possible for him to be both in his first year? Will the veterans show him the same level of respect they showed LaRussa. It is hard to move from a friend and a peer to a boss.

Yadier Molina‘s quote yesterday about Matheny getting to the park so early, was very interesting to me. He said, “It’s OK if he gets a little nervous. I get nervous, too, every time”. I certainly could be reading too much into that, but that is not a comment I would make about or to my boss. Again, I know it is a stretch to read anything into that one comment, but it got me thinking about the relationship between Matheny and the veteran players. If they ever get the sense that Matheny is just Mozeliak’s puppet, he could have a very hard time keeping control of the clubhouse.

With all of that being said, I do expect Matheny to be successful. I want him to be successful. He is a great baseball mind, a hard worker, a man of great integrity, and someone that cares deeply about carrying on the Cardinal Way. He seems to have enough fortitude to handle criticism and the constant questions regarding his experience.

Watching the first two games of spring did cause me to think a lot about the new manager and his role. It really sunk in that someone new is calling the shots from the dugout, and we do not quite have a blueprint for their game management style. While there is uncertainty still in so many areas, one thing is for sure…Matheny is not sleeping on the job.