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Cardinal baseball, from the girls
Each day during the month of February, the United Cardinal Bloggers fire off an email roundtable discussion about all things baseball – from serious talk of lineups and rotations to the lighter side of the game such as wishlists for musical acts during the 2011 World Series at Busch. If you missed some of the fun, check out the full list of roundtable questions and responses at http://www.unitedcardinalbloggers.com/.
This weekend, it was our turn to come up with a question. And since we gals love our babybirds, we decided to focus on the youngsters. We asked our fellow bloggers to predict how the Cardinals’ Sophomore class would fare during the 2011 season.
Angela threw the topic into the ring with this email question:
“Let’s focus on a less threatening question today and look at all of the sophomores on the Cardinals roster. Who of these players is due for a big season, and who is in for a sophomore slump? Your choices: David Freese, Jon Jay, Allen Craig, and Jaime Garcia.”
Bill Ivie (I-70 baseball)
I look for Jon Jay to have a bit of a slump as he adjusts to being a part time player most of the time this year.
As for breakout years, as much as I have said the opposite, my gut and hope is that Craig is due to show that he belongs in the bigs. My mind tells me that is not going to happen and we have a better shot of a solid year from the glass ankles of David Freese. I would look for Mr. Freese to put up a solid .280/20HR/85RBI season and be considered a solid option at third for a few years
The sophomore slump will have to go to Jon Jay, although that’s not altogether fair. The lack of consistent playing time will hurt him somewhat. Add to that some expectations from last year that are unrealistically high, he will have the perception of slumping.
I do believe that Jaime Garcia will defy all of the projections and have a terrific year. Every once in a while a player comes along that just doesn’t fit the model, and I believe Garcia is that player.
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Waino no bueno? *tear* h/t @MatthewHLeach |
I sat, stunned, as I saw twitter explode with the news that Adam Wainwright was heading to St. Louis with elbow trouble. My fears were realized when another explosion occurred in my little corner of the internet with the sad tale that Waino was going to be shut down for the year to have Tommy John surgery. I then became horrified when I heard of Jonny Gomes’s comments about the matter.
So what I’m here to talk about today is this – class. Some people have it, others need it, and others need it defined for them before they can figure out how to get it.
*ahem*
What happened with Gomes frustrated me. The cover-up/spin put on it by the Reds organization/media made it seem all the more ridiculous that people allow themselves to say things like that without realizing that yes, your voice is being heard, and your words will be spread to the masses by lunchtime thanks to twitter, blogs, and the like. If you’re looking for amusing thoughts on the situation, head over to Pitcher’s Hit Eighth… Dennis did a better job injecting some amusement into the situation than I ever could.
I could handle the Gomes thing to a certain extent. At least someone was bright enough to tell him that he should probably apologize. He’s in the spotlight. I definitely hit the eject button this afternoon though when I spotted a comment awaiting moderation from a Reds fan. It was posted on Erika’s goodbye to Jason LaRue from back in September. I did not publish said comment due to the fact that it used no less than six words that I would not be allowed to speak at my grandmother’s dinner table, much less publish as representation of a website that I belong to. What sparked such heinous comments months after the fact is absolutely beyond me. All I could think to say was, “Stay classy, Reds fans.”
This morning I was directed to this post written by none other than Adam Wainwright himself. I was mesmerized while reading it. I already had a tremendous respect for Adam as a player, person, and Christian, but what I read in that post made that admiration grow exponentially. If I were him, I would have felt devastated with the news that my body had broken down on me at such a high point in my career. Instead he is looking at it as an opportunity, a way to spread God’s love to others through his actions and words off of the diamond. He won’t be gone though, as evidenced by this thought:
I absolutely hate the idea of missing this season with teammates. I think we have a real good shot to win the World Series. The group we have is really special, and I’ll have my pom pom”s out in full force. But here’s the deal. This injury, the one that makes me miss an entire year of baseball, has allowed me to stop missing what is right in front of me. I am blessed with an amazing God. A God who continues to teach me lessons in mysterious ways.
I love that! Waino’s got class. He will be back. I hope Cardinal fans take after him, instead of spending their time firing dumb comments into the atmosphere in retaliation of what others say about our team.
I know that there are about three of you out there that have been waiting for this post, but I hope the rest of you enjoy it as well…
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Stan’s corner, complete with a TV showing his enshrinement into the hall (he played his harmonica!) |
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Main Cards section, including lots of momentos from the 2006 World Series |
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Branch Rickey |
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Rogers Hornsby |
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Jack Buck |
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Stan Musial (of course) |
These stories aren’t about baseball. They’re about life. They just use baseball to tell the story.
I couldn’t agree more. One of the best things about this conference was the discussion feel of it. We weren’t there to be lectured at, but to be chatting about the game we all obviously loved.
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Oh, this is what happens when I’m left unsupervised with baseball history all around me. You know, in case you were wondering… |
Drumroll please?
Our three winners of CDD’s first ever giveaway are:
Diane Schultz
Bryan Felker
and Debra Pearlstein
If you are one of our lucky winners, please send your mailing address to cardsdiamonddiary@gmail.com to claim your book.
*winners have until February 11th at 5pm to claim their copies. If not claimed, a new drawing will be held from among the original entries.
Big thanks to all of you who took the time to enter. We found all the kissing up fun and creative entries extremely entertaining! 😉
And thank you again to Thomas Nelson Publishers for allowing us here at Cardinal Diamond Diaries the chance to spread some baseball joy with the free copies of their new book, Pujols: More Than The Game.
Want a copy for yourself?