This is an interesting use of Twitter-tracking (called “Pulse”) that I found integrated into the boxscore/wrap review of Game 1 of the NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and the LA Dodgers. The Redbirds unfortunately lost, and this timeline-graph shows a correlation between game highlights and spikes in activity on Twitter tracking the game; the other spikes were probably due to non-highlight pressures like loaded bases, pitcher-hitter matchups, defensive plays, etc.
Does the team that Twitters the most, win? It’s an interesting thought.
A good lookin’ bunch of boys they are (boys? Heck. They could sire me! I can’t believe I’m older than most of these youngins!)
And it’s true, we currently are the Best team in baseball. Boston could tie us with another win but we’re better than everybody else by at least one win or one loss. That’s good enough for me. I really do like our chances. I’ve liked Greene since before they acquired him (he just needs to hit a little better, and commit fewer errors); the Ludwick/Pujols combo is a force to be reckoned with, both are power hitters who can small ball when the situation calls for it; Duncan seems to be improving his patience at the plate; Molina, nuff said!; I’d like to see some control improvement from Wellemeyer and when we get Carpenter back in mid-May watch out! And will someone just give Franklin the closer-ball already! He’s been my Fantasy closer for four bloody months now.
So I’m working on my laptop early morning style, sitting on the balcony (it’s the only place to get WiFi for some reason) and I left the television running on CNN because it’s the only English station (with Hungarian commercials) and I hear the ‘Play of the Day’ in “World Sport”. It’s Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals! He went deep twice and made an amazing catch in the 8th (after his two homers, proving offensive and defensive maneuvers!).
Hopefully Ankiels’ return will give a morale boost to the Redbirds and we’ll see the NL Central heat up a bit. First we need to get to .500, but with plenty of games left and only 6.5 games behind the Brewers, and 5 behind the Cubs, August and September could prove very interesting.
In other Redbirds related news, two evenings ago I saw the SKAtalites play at the World Music stage at the Sziget festival, and there in the crowd on an island of 40,000+ people, I found the lone other Cardinals fan:
[full-size on Flickr]
revenge can be sweet I admit. Wait, revenge? Justice? Ah let’s just have some fun!
The Cardinals current series in Oakland sure has been exciting thus far – and it ain’t over yet! (game-time today 4:05 EST)
Everybody knows the Athletics are good. The second-lowest team-ERA in the majors (after the Padres) means they are likely to shut down the opposing team’s hitting game, even if they themselves aren’t a high-scoring team. One run difference is all it takes (speaking of the Padres, take their ninth-inning home run against Zambrano yesterday on a 3-2 count with 1 out for a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs – in total only a 4-hit game! Oh and p.s. Soriano is a primadonna).
But these haven’t been one-run games, coming from two of the lower-scoring teams in the league right now! And other exciting factors have trickled in:
the opening game saw what looked like an aggressive offensive Cardinals lineup scoring against a pitcher with the lowest ERA, Dan Haren, a previous Cardinal himself. Haren entered the game at 1.58 and the Cardinals scored 3 runs off of him in the first three innings; this guy thus far had only allowed 10 runs in the first three innings all year! He now holds a 1.64 ERA.
but after those 3 runs the Cardinals wouldn’t score again and in fact the A’s rebounded with multiple 6-run innings, and closed out with a 14-3 victory. Ouch!
Perhaps because of those excessive numbers, or perhaps to give his bullpen some relief, or perhaps just for the sheer novelty of it, Tony La Russa put in Scott Spiezio to pitch the bottom of the 8th! Yes, Spiezio! La Russa of course won a world series ring with the A’s in 1989 and Scott Spiezio broke into the majors in 1996 with the A’s, so the fans were loving it! And for those that don’t know, Spiezio is NOT a pitcher – he’s a field position player! So this was exciting!
Spiezio opened with a strike and pitched a no-hit inning, walking one. During his warm-up he was all smiles, and left to a standing ovation! Ahh the spectacle of baseball!
Spiezio’s grip Spiezio’s delivery
Here’ see for yourself: [UPDATE: unfortunately Major League Baseball had YouTube delete my video. Sorry everybody. That thing had over 1,300 views in three days too, dagnabbit!]
[UPDATE 2: for those still coming round these parts, I put a Quicktime mov file online of Scott Spiezio pitching. I'll leave it online for a month or so. Grab it now while you can. SPIEZIO QUICKTIME MOV - (right click 'save file as')]
The following evening though our Cardinals would enact their revenge: Taguchi had four hits, Encarnacion drove in 3 runs (and now has a sixteen-game hit-streak, best for the Cardinals this year), and Duncan had a pinch-hit grand slam in the fifth, the first of his career, and part of a 10-run – yes, 10-run! – inning that would propel the Cardinals to a then 15-3 score! The A’s would bounce back with a 3-run home run the bottom of the same inning, and while both teams would be scoreless the rest of the game it was a rollercoaster – the A’s had 14 hits but only 6 runs, that tells you how many LOBs they had. Final 15-6. WOW!
Interleague play continues!
ALSO, Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there!
There are a lot of issues to talk about revolving around this years World Series championship by the St. Louis Cardinals over the Detroit Tigers. Some things statistical, lots of things magical. Where do we begin?
The Cardinals were more than just the underdog. They came into the post-season with the worst regular-season winning average of all time, at .516! But even as such, they never gave up hope. They, of all teams, know that statistics like this don’t mean diddlysquat! After all they lost in 1987 to the .525 (previous worst!) Minnesota Twins and in 1985 to the .562 (tied for previous fourth worst!) Kansas City Royals, both Midwest teams.
And here we were against the Tigers, undoubtedly one of the best and most-feared AL teams, especially throughout the first half of the regular season. Again, both Midwest teams. And while at the beginning of the playoffs everybody was talking about a Tigers vs Mets or even a repeat ‘subway series’ of Yankees vs Mets, I was pushing the notion of a Midwest World Series. How great would that be! And now, after the series, is something even the likes of Bob DuPuy, MLB’s President and chief operating officer mentioned:
To have them win the World Series for the 10th time with the great players they have and keep the championship in the Midwest — in the heartland — is a great thing for baseball.
And most things defied the odds, but worked! Jeff Weaver came from nowhere to go 1-1 this World Series (and probably would have been 2-0 were it not for cheatingKennyRogers and the “Dirtgate” scandal, more later); Molina hit above .300; Wainwright had to step up as closer to replace Isringhausen and showed what he was made of, shutting up both Carlos Beltran and Brandon Inge, on potentially game-winning at-bats; and Eckstein, you little squeaker, you deserve the MVP!
While the Tiger’s pitching staff will be remembered for committing an unprecedented five errors by four pitchers in five consecutive games, which undoubtedly led to runs for the Cardinals, it also must be remembered that the Cardinals pitching staff shut down the Tigers offense, who batted the second lowest in World Series history, at around .190! If you were to tell me the 95-win Tigers would bat below .200, including Placido Polanco going 0 for 17, I would let you know in Gnarls Barkley fashion, “Well, I think you’re crazy! I think you’re crazy!”
But also, crazy, “just like me“! Like otherfans, I grew out my playoff beard, or stubble in my case; I wore a St. Louis t-shirt underneath all my October layers that I didn’t take off or wash in nearly three weeks (I STANK!); and for every World Series game I wore – and never took off – a Cardinals hat that my friend Ashley Sell gave me a couple of months back when I visited my hometown and saw a couple of Cardinals games at the new Busch Stadium (did I mention they won the Championship in the first year of their new stadium? Cmon, that’s pretty fucking magical!!).
But perhaps most magical is the ‘Sea of Red’ effect. This is a phenomenon I have been trying to explain to non-fans and fans from other cities for some time now. I went to a Mets game at Shea Stadium in September, after they had already clinched their division, which was probably why there weren’t a huge number of fans in the stands, but worst was the fans who were there were barely representing their team colors, blue and orange, two great complimentary colors! Whereas Cardinals fans are especially known to wear red no matter the weather or the situation. For our own players we give them something to revel in (from Flickr); for the opposing team we overwhelm them (from Flickr) with the Sea of Red:
I don’t want to hinge on our only loss to the Tigers, after all I never wanted a sweep, but I do want to keep a few things in perspective. Okay so Rogers joins an elite few with 20-plus scoreless innings pitched; but as has already been pointed out, he had this questionable ‘dirt’ on his palm as early as game 3 of the ALCS (from ESPN, pretty reliable source!) against the Oakland Athletics. So 7 of those 23 innings came after he washed his hands after the first inning of game 2 of the World Series, but who knows how many of those previous 14 innings were streakless from cheating? My prediction, or perhaps how I would like to see history avenge Rogers’s work ethic, is that Kenny Rogers will never again reach the postseason, and so his scoreless streak will end full stop at 23. Any pitcher who says this is a blatant liar:
I didn’t know it was there. They told me about [the substance], but it was no big deal.
How the hell do you not notice a “big clump of dirt” (Rogers’s words!) on your PITCHING HAND? That would be like a welder not realizing they are wearing 3D glasses instead of a standard welder’s mask! It’s just plain ridiculous! Your pitching hand is your main tool, and it’s filthy!
You are a cheater Kenny Rogers! And you committed your acts live on television in front of 18.2 million viewers:
the Cardinals won game 1 of the NLDS; now they’re up 2-0 in game 2, outhitting the Padres 7-2 (after 5 innings). i’m predicting the future now: we win tonight, win game 3 in St. Louis; rest up Carpenter; then we win the World Series. see, wasn’t that simple!
