Watching the 2019, and probably 2020, St. Louis Cardinals just became a lot less fun. The announcement on Monday afternoon that Cardinals relief pitcher Jordan Hicks had suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament. While no timetable was announced for his recovery, this is almost always a sign that a pitcher will miss the remainder of…
It is hard to overstate how lucky the St. Louis Cardinals were to draft Albert Pujols. Famously, Albert Pujols was not a coveted amateur prospect, and in 1999, the Cardinals drafted the pudgy amateur third baseman out of Kansas City's Maple Woods Community College with the 402nd overall pick. Every team in baseball passed on…
For years, "St. Louis is a baseball town" was used in a largely complimentary way. It was a thing that those involved in baseball said to speak highly of the passion for and knowledge of the sport in the St. Louis area. It didn't really have any tangible benefits--mostly, it meant ESPN announcers would compliment…
There is nothing like a Game 7. The finality of a winner-take-all game with a championship on the line is indescribable. My biases in favor of Game 6 of the 2011 World Series as the greatest baseball game I've ever seen aside, I think the objective answer for greatest game ever has to be a Game 7.…
Do you remember October 10, 1996? On that day, the St. Louis Cardinals evened their National League Championship Series tilt against the Atlanta Braves at one game apiece. A huge seventh inning, capped off by a Gary Gaetti grand slam, allowed the Cardinals to defeat Greg Maddux (!!!) on the strength of a strong start…
One strange element of St. Louis Cardinals fandom, to me, is pointing out how the team has won 11 World Series championships. There is, of course, the "we won 11 rings!" obnoxiousness, which implies that I, a fan, had anything to do with such jewelry acquisitions, but additionally silly is that I, and most Cardinals…
The St. Louis Cardinals are 25-24, and while most baseball markets would dream for a .510 winning percentage to be considered a devastating step back, St. Louis has certainly seen better from the Cardinals. The start to the season is made especially more disappointing given how much confidence there was in the Cardinals to start…
Fernando Tatis Jr. is very good and is probably soon going to be the best shortstop in the National League for the next decade, as long as he remains in the National League. The 20 year-old San Diego Padres phenom entered Major League Baseball this season with extremely high expectations and a consensus top-three prospect…
In the mid-2000s, a teenager from Oakville High School in suburban St. Louis had a dream. While some disputed his long-term athletic upside, he imagined a future in which he would guide the St. Louis Blues, the preferred hockey team of his youth, to postseason glory. And no moment has more tension parlayed into more…
Four years ago, everything was looking up for the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs, who in 2014 had won just 73 games, improved by 24 games in 2015. While their 97-win season was only good enough to finish in third place in the National League Central, the Cubs vanquished the 98-win, second-place Pittsburgh Pirates in the…
St. Louis Bullpen 