Baseball

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Goodbye, Stan

Published January 20, 2013 by LS Murphy

Yesterday started off great. I celebrated the release of Reaper and held my first book signing. The day ended in sadness when the St. Louis Cardinals announced the passing of Stan Musial. Instead of my intended post with photos from the event, I want to talk to you about Stan.

There is a reason my blog is called Banshees, Books, and Baseball. I like all things paranormal, will read any book, and I adore the game of baseball. It’s not unknown that my favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals. Stan “the Man” Musial was the greatest Cardinal of them all.

Anybody can look up his stats to see what a phenomenal player he was during his 22 year tenure with the Cardinals. Yes, Stan played his entire career for one team. That is unheard of these days. Players go where the money is as Cardinal Nation learned the hard way after their World Series run in 2012. Stan was loyal to his team and to this city. That means more than his stats.

Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote a column last year about Yadier Molina. He called Molina the soul of the current roster. While Yadier Molina is the soul of this team, Stan the Man was the soul of the franchise.

Every Cardinal fan knows of his contributions on and off the baseball field. Even if they occurred before we were born. Musial retired several years before I was born, but my father regaled me with stories of his favorite Cardinal. My four-year-old daughter knows who Stan is, even if she doesn’t understand who he truly was. Musial was one hell of a baseball player, and he was a kind man. Stan cared about his fans and this city. He loved baseball. He loved his family. He loved life.

We can all learn from someone like Stan Musial. He was a hero because of his skills, but he was a legend because of his heart.

Rest in Peace, Stan. And thank you.

Unassisted Triple Play

Published May 11, 2012 by LS Murphy

Baseball fans know that the hardest play in the game is the unassisted triple play. The last time this happened in MLB was August 23, 2009 when 2nd baseman Eric Bruntlett of the Philadelphia Phillies caught line drive, touched 2nd, and tagged runner in the bottom of the ninth to end the game.

Well, watch this little league shortstop pull off the amazing feat known as the unassisted triple play:

2012 Winter Warm Up Preview

Published January 10, 2012 by LS Murphy

The Annual Winter Warm Up is less than a week away and fans in St. Louis will be lining up to see their favorite players past and present. While plenty of people are aware that the Cardinals franchise player for the last decade will be absent for the next decade (or longer), there are still plenty of autographs to be had. And it ALL goes to Cardinals Care, one of the most notable charitable organizations in St. Louis.

There are some great bargains to be had if you’re an autograph seeker. BUT a lot of the tickets are already sold out. Yes… SOLD OUT.

Crazy? Maybe, but Cardinal Nation is strong even without the faces that have been associated with the team for last sixteen years. So if you missed your chance to plop down the dough for Lance Berkman or David Freese, don’t despair. You can still get in on the free autographs and hear the baseball chatter as we wait impatiently for Spring Training to start.

Head downtown to get into the baseball spirit this weekend. I promise you won’t regret it.

The following players will be signing free autographs and will not require an autograph ticket.

CURRENT PLAYERS

Matt Carpenter
Zach Cox
Brandon Dickson
Mark Hamilton
Pete Kozma
Shane Robinson
NEGRO LEAGUE PLAYERS
Jesse Rogers
DeMorris Smith
Sam Taylor
FORMER PLAYERS
George Altman
Alan Benes
Andy Benes
Glenn Brummer
Jerry Buchek
Danny Cox
Mike Crudale
Boots Day
Ken Dayley
Chuck Diering
Jim Donohue
Chris Duncan
Cal Eldred
Neil Fiala
Curt Ford
Phil Gagliano
David Green
Tom Henke
Rex Hudler
Dick Hughes
Mike Jorgensen
Tom Lawless
John Mabry
T.J. Mathews
Ed Mickelson
Wally Moon
Tom Pagnozzi
Ken Reitz
Kerry Robinson
Stan Royer
Ted Savage
Jason Simontacchi
Bob Sykes
Lee Thomas
Mike Tyson
Bill Virdon
Ray Washburn

Yadi’s Bad Call

Published August 4, 2011 by LS Murphy

Jeff Passan, a well-known hater of the St. Louis Cardinals, wrote a column yesterday about the issue of player-umpire relations. While I agree with Passan that more needs to be done to fix this problem, I found it interesting that he waited until a St. Louis Cardinal, in this case Yadier Molina, made a dramatic show of arguing a called third strike to write the article.

Of course, Passan likes to rile up Cardinals fans so that may be why. It also bothered me that the Yahoo! Sports Minute showed the clip with the commentary from the Brewers broadcasters and not the Cardinals broadcasters. Yeah, like the Brewers announcers are going to say that Yadi had a point. They aren’t stupid. Their market is Brewers fans, not fairness to any situation.

It’s a point of contention with Cardinals’ fans that the national media ignores our team or just shove it to the side with such blatant lack of real journalistic ethics. If Yahoo had any journalist ethics, they would have used the commentary from BOTH teams. But I digress….

Back to Passan’s column.

Did Yadi spit on Drake? Maybe. I know that when people are yelling that spittle flies. Happens to the best of us, after all. Regardless, it’s an unfortunate situation and he does deserve a punishment.

But what about the umpires?

Really? In situations like this where a call is blown, what punishment to they get?

The most famous blown call in Cardinal history came in the 1985 World Series. Cards fans know this one by heart. In case you don’t know the story, Don Denklinger blew an easy call at first during the eighth inning of game six. The Cards lost momentum and eventually the championship. While Denklinger dealt with the ire of fans, what punishment did he receive from MLB?

None.

Then there was the blown call last year that didn’t cost a championship, but it cost a player something almost as hard to achieve: a perfect game. Armando Galarraga lost el perfecto when umpire Jim Joyce pulled a Denklinger. Joyce and Galarraga handled the situation with more professionalism than any bank CEO has. Still, other than being added to the list of Worst Calls in MLB History, what punishment did he receive?

None.

Players make mistakes. Umpires make mistakes. They are human. It’s part of the game. Yadi deserves whatever fines/suspensions he gets. He lost his cool. BUT shouldn’t the umpires be fined for making the bad calls that make things like this happen? Shouldn’t umpires be held to the same standard of MLB players?

Maybe if there was equal ground, there would be equal respect…

 

Colby & the TRADE

Published July 28, 2011 by LS Murphy

World Series rings are not won based on a player’s potential. Neither are League championships, Division championships, or even single season games. It’s that simple.

While I appreciate that Colby Rasmus has incredible potential, it was time for him to move on from St. Louis. He wasn’t happy here. He never would be either. A player that asks for a trade two seasons in a row, doesn’t want to play for that team anymore, no matter how much smoke (or money) you blow up their a$$.

People are screaming for LaRussa’s head. People are screaming for Mozeliak to stop catering to LaRussa. So instead of looking at it from a baseball perspective, look at it from a standard employee/employer perspective.

As an employer, you have an employee who doesn’t want to work for your company. He’s not living up to your expectations. You can’t fire him because he hasn’t done anything wrong. The employee just doesn’t fit with the whole of the company.

As an employee, you feel like your boss is always picking on you. Your coworkers are on your rear about how to do this and how to do that. Then you have your father telling you how to do your job as well.

The best solution for all involved is for the employee to move on.

This is what happened when the Cardinals traded Colby Rasmus to Toronto. I wish him well. I hope he lives up to his potential. And I hope he grows some balls and tells his father to butt out of his career. He’s 24 not 14. He can vote, buy booze, and go to as many strip clubs as he wants. Why does he need his father to hold his hand as he figures out his career?

Good Luck, Colby.

Robbing with Machete?

Published February 22, 2011 by LS Murphy

When I read this story yesterday about a man robbing a 7-11 with a machete, the first thing I thought was Jason Vorhees was on the lose in South St. Louis. I was totally flabbergasted. Who walks into a 7-11 with a freaking machete?

And, to make this even more interesting, the clerk finished his shift!

I’m sorry, but if someone robs me and threatens my life in the process, I’m not going to work the rest of the night. Nope, not going to happen. Probably another reason I don’t work in the convenience store industry and never have.

And this is just another reason why St. Louis gets a bad rep.

Thankfully, we have an awesome baseball team. Go Cards.

 

Ferris at Wrigley

Published February 8, 2011 by LS Murphy

Spring Training is right around the corner. Can I get a WooHoo?

Anyway, besides checking for news of an Albert Pujols contract extension, I read Yahoo Sports to keep up on any baseball happenings. Especially those in the NL Central.

And then I ran across this little gem by David Brown, which lead me to the actual blog post by Larry Granillo about what game Ferris Bueller actually went to in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. To be honest, I never thought about whether or not they filmed during a real game. It didn’t really matter either, since it was the Cubs. I took it for what it was at the time. AN AWESOME WAY TO SKIP SCHOOL (when I got older of course. I was still in single digits when the movie came out. No lie.)

But now, thanks to some serious investigative reporting and twenty something years, we know. You’ll have to click on the link to see above to see it. I’m not giving it away. I will say it’s pretty interesting.

Especially since Cardinal Fans know that the footage in another film was so sadly real.

But I will give you this clip (Yep the same YouTube clip that is up on Yahoo. It’s there for a reason.)  The game begins about 2:30 into the clip, but why not watch the ENTIRE movie! (Really, though, see it if you haven’t.)