World Series: Cardinals vs. Tigers - Game 2

FOX Broadcasting Team:
Play-by-Play: Joe Buck
Analysts: Tim McCarver
Reporter: Chris Meyers

Lineups
Cardinals
David Eckstein SS
Scott Spiezio DH
Albert Pujols 1B
Scott Rolen 3B
Juan Encarnacion RF
Jim Edmonds CF
Preston Wilson LF
Yadier Molina C
Aaron Miles 2B
-------------
Jeff Weaver

Tigers
Curtis Granderson CF
Craig Monroe LF
Placido Polanco 2B
Magglio Ordonez RF
Carlos Guillen 1B
Ivan Rodriguez C
Sean Casey DH
Brandon Inge 3B
Ramon Santiago SS
-------------
Kenny Rogers

Taking a look at the pitching matchups, it should be noted that Jeff Weaver is a former Tiger. Kenny Rogers was knocked out by the Cardinals back in June during interleague play, a game the Cardinals would have won had it not been for Isringhausen's hip condition. In two career starts against the Cardinals, Rogers has a 9.72 ERA with no wins in only 8.1 innings pitched. In Weaver's career against Detroit, he is 1-2 in three starts with a 2.53 ERA. From 1999-2002, Weaver played for the Tigers where he accumulated a 14-24 record with a 4.01 ERA. However, neither have fared so well in the World Series being that Rogers pitched only two innings when the Yankees faced the Braves in 1996. Weaver is 0-1 in only one inning pitched (2003 Game 4). In this year's postseason, Weaver is 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA. Rogers is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA.

Lineups are up. I don't like the idea of Jimmy batting in the 6 spot. He needs to be batting clean up.

Kenny Rogers was most definitely using pine tar. Or some other substance. The umps have spoken with TLR, Leyland, and KR. No idea why he has not been ejected yet.

Wow, what a late inning comeback. It just was not meant to be. I just watched TLR's press conference. He doesn't want to talk about it.

St. Louis 1, Detroit 3
Losing pitcher - Jeff Weaver (0-1)

Joy in Gotham?

David Boaz at the Cato Institute takes a moment from his regular policy-bloggin' to offer this gem. Boaz is a Western Kentucky native ... and is therefore morally bound to his allegiance to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Finally, the media gives us respect

Gregg Doyel at CBS Sportsline thinks the Cardinals might need the brooms ready for a celebration after Game 4 at Busch Stadium III.

This is big and bold and blunt, but so was what happened Saturday night at Comerica Park. There it was, so here it is: Detroit cannot beat this St. Louis team.

Now, look. I didn't say Detroit can't beat any St. Louis team. But Detroit cannot beat this one. Not the one that got all its offensive weaponry together in time to detonate against Tigers ace Justin Verlander.

The St. Louis team that showed up for Game 1 of the 2006 World Series got MVP-like production from the three MVP-caliber players in the middle of its batting order, and used that production -- and some surprisingly good pitching from rookie starter Anthony Reyes -- to hammer the Tigers 7-2.

San Diego didn't see this St. Louis team in the National League Division Series, but the Padres lost anyway. The New York Mets didn't see this St. Louis team in the NLCS, but they too were eliminated. There are reasons for that. Whether its offense is going or not, St. Louis is going to get Gold Glove defense from catcher, center field and third base -- and solid defense from everywhere else. Whether its offense is going or not, St. Louis is going to get decent starting pitching and a better bullpen.

But if St. Louis' offense is going like Saturday night? In that case, the experts will turn out to be correct: This could be a short series. Just not in the way the AL-loving seamheads have led us to believe.

On paper and on the back of a baseball card and, most importantly, in the batter's box, the heart of the St. Louis order is better than the heart of the Detroit order -- and it's not close. Don't give me that Placido Polanco nonsense. He had a great AL Championship Series, but he's still more likely to be confused for Third Tenor Placido Domingo than for great third batter Placido Polanco. Magglio Ordonez, a No. 5 or No. 6 hitter in a good lineup, hits cleanup. Carlos Guillen, a quality No. 6 hitter in a good lineup, bats fifth. Detroit didn't get here by bludgeoning anyone, is what I'm saying.

St. Louis, on the other hand, can bludgeon -- and did on Saturday night.

Anthony Reyes irons his bill and shows off the socks.

“I’m not a real stylemaster,” Reyes’s manager, Tony La Russa said, “but that style is not that attractive. I don’t think it’s going to be copied widely by the kids of America.”

Reyes also wears his uniform pants high, old style, so that his socks show.

“The socks I’ve had up since Little League,” said Reyes, a 25-year-old right-hander. “I saw no reason to change now.” And the cap? “It helps me see better; I see the signs a little better.”

One more fashion note: The bill of the cap is flat, unlike other players’ bills, which are stylishly curved. “It comes out of the box flat,” Reyes said. “I just don’t bend it.”

Reyes’s cap and socks became topics of discussion last night because he pitched brilliantly in the St. Louis Cardinals’ surprising 7-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers in the opening game of the World Series.[...]

The Tigers drafted Reyes in 2002, but he didn’t sign with them. The Cardinals drafted him a year later, and he signed with them.

“I came off an injury in college when they drafted me,” Reyes said of the Tigers, “so I just figured, take the summer off and just heal up and try to go back to my last year of college.”[...]

The Cardinals have experienced a constant turnover of starting pitchers, economically motivated moves.

Two of the four pitchers who started for the Cardinals the last time they were in the World Series, only two years ago, are gone. None of the nine pitchers who started the Cardinals’ 162 games in 2003 are on this year’s World Series roster either.

The turnover rate has been high, not only among pitchers but among position players as well. Only eight players who played in the 2004 World Series roster were on the roster last night. Yet the Cardinals continue to win division championships — they have won four in the last five seasons — and sometimes get to the World Series; they have gone twice in the last three years.

They do it with skillful signings in their orchestration of the annual turnover, which is prompted largely by economic necessity. But they also do it by retaining the core of their team. Both facets played prominent roles last night.

By comparison, Scott Rolen, Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds are long-time members of the team, and they provided the punch that produced the outcome.

Rolen and Pujols each slugged a home run, accounting for three of the Cardinals’ first four runs. Edmonds singled home the fifth run and Rolen added a double that led to two more runs.

•“We’ve managed to keep our core players, which are very important to our club,” General Manager Walt Jocketty said. “The key is our core players and finding the right guys to fit around them.”

Four starting pitchers can become free agents next week: Jeff Weaver, Jeff Suppan, Mark Mulder and Marquis.

“We decided in spring training we were going to go through the year, and at the end of the season we’d decide who we wanted to sign,” Jocketty said.

Whichever pitchers they sign, the Cardinals will have Reyes back.

Walt Jocketty is not keen on the idea of the All-Star game deciding the home-field advantage for the World Series.

"I don't think it's right. I'll probably get reprimanded for saying that, but I don't care," Jocketty said before Saturday's Game 1. "I didn't think there was anything wrong with the way it was (alternating each year). It was more fair."

Move Along

I've been told that this song by the All-American Rejects is the playoff anthem for the St. Louis Cardinals during the 2006 postseason. I've been playing this and several others, including all the Paul Harris songs, in my media player since the postseason began in early October.

Go ahead as you waste your days with thinking
When you fall everyone sins
Another day and you've had your fill of sinking
With the life held in your
Hands are shaking cold
These hands are meant to hold

Speak to me, when all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know you do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through
Move along
Move along

So a day when you've lost yourself completely
Could be a night when your life ends
Such a heart that will lead you to deceiving
All the pain held in your
Hands are shaking cold
Your hands are mine to hold

Speak to me, when all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know you do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through
Move along
(Go on, go on, go on, go on)

When everything is wrong we move along
(Go on, go on, go on, go on)
When everything is wrong, we move along
Along, along, along

When all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know you do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through
[x3]

(Move along)
(Go on, go on, go on, go on)
Right back what is wrong
We move along

Mayor Francis Slay bets against Kwame Kilpatrick

It's the custom of the mayors of the two cities in the championship game of any sport to make a friendly bet.

Detroit's mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, doesn't believe St. Louis's team can stand up to his. The Tigers won seven straight games leading up to the World Series.

Mayor Francis Slay from St. Louis said his city is in a frenzy. The Cardinals' recent win against the New York Mets has every fan pumped.[...]

Though the Cardinals are coming into the World Series as the underdog, Slay believes they can stay strong.

Kilpatrick sees the Tigers as emblematic of a rejuvenated Detroit: like the city, the team has struggled before but is now succeeding in ways no one could predict.

"It's a serious energy here. We have pent up demand for a champion in baseball," Kilpatrick said. "Everyone in the region can remember their grandfather or grandmother talking them to a game where they were a kid."[...]

Slay offered to send Kilpatrick a case of Budweiser beer, a product of Anheuser-Busch, headquartered in St. Louis, along with Twinkies and other baked goods.

Kilpatrick countered with a case of Vernor's ginger ale, famous to Detroiters. He also threw in local potato chips and Sander's hot fudge ice cream topping.

Both mayors agreed to send a picture of themselves wearing the opposing team's jersey, should their city lose.

Of course, with two cities and teams rearing to go, neither could contemplate anything but victory.

World Series: Cardinals vs. Tigers - Game 1

FOX Broadcasting Team:
Play-by-Play: Joe Buck
Analysts: Tim McCarver
Reporter: Ken Rosenthal

Lineup
Cardinals
David Eckstein SS
Chris Duncan DH
Albert Pujols 1B
Jim Edmonds CF
Scott Rolen 3B
Juan Encarnacion RF
Ronnie Belliard 2B
Yadier Molina C
So Taguchi LF
-------------
Anthony Reyes P

Tigers
Curtis Granderson CF
Craig Monroe LF
Placido Polanco 2B
Magglio Ordonez RF
Carlos Guillen 1B
Ivan Rodriguez C
Sean Casey DH
Brandon Inge 3B
Ramon Santiago SS
-------------
Justin Verlander P

That's a winner, and the St. Louis Cardinals have won game one of the World Series. One down, three more to go.

A stellar performance from Anthony Reyes. One can only wonder what in the world Steve Phillips is thinking. Rememember him? He's the GM that got fired by the New York Mets and now he's a talking head on ESPN.

Tonight's victory was not just a victory for the Cardinals but a moral victory for the National League given that the NL had not won a World Series game since the 2003 World Series when the Florida Marlins (who had Braden Looper and Juan Encarnacion) defeated the New York Yankees (who had Jeff Weaver) four games to two.

But you know what? I feel good about tonight's victory. We're up 1-0 in the series and even though it's still anyone's game, we've got Weaver on the mound tomorrow, and he's been superb as of late.

St. Louis 7, Detroit 2
Winning pitcher - Anthony Reyes (1-0)
HR: Scott Rolen (1), Albert Pujols (1)

Keep the Faith

Baseball is America's favorite past time and just like March Madness, anything can happen in October. You saw it the past two years when Boston and Chicago won the 2004 and 2005 World Series, respectively.

Look at ESPN's so-called expert, no one thought the Cardinals would be in the World Series. This is a team that only won 83 games when they were expected to win 100 games this season. There were many times that the Cincinnati Reds were trailing us by one or two games in the standings. When we had that bad stretch against the American League in interleague play, fans thought that the Cincinnati Reds would take first place but the National League did terrible in the American League this summer. At the end of the season, the Cincinnati Reds started fading and the Houston Astros were starting to make a comeback at the end of the season. The Cardinals did not clinch the division until the final day of the regular season when the Atlanta Braves defeated the Houston Astros.

No one thought Gary Bennett would be MVP of the series against the Cubs of all teams when Yadier Molina was injured with a sore throwing elbow.

No one thought that the Cardinals would get to the World Series with not one, not two, but THREE seven-game losing streaks that had us at the edge of our seats each time that we watched, listened to, or followed a Cardinals game. Sure, I'm an optimist but I had no idea that we'd actually beat the New York Mets. After the year we had, I thought it would have been a 4-0 sweep. Oy, was I sure wrong.

Who would have thought that Jeff Weaver would play a big role in getting the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series? Certainly not me. No one thought that Ronnie Belliard or Preston Wilson would be on the Cardinals when they won the NL pennant this past Thursday.

Nobody expected Mark Mulder and Jason Isringhausen would be lost for the season.

Nobody thought that the Cardinals would go without Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols, David Eckstein, Mark Mulder, Scott Rolen, Jason Isringhausen, Chris Carpenter, etc. for weeks at a time due to them being placed on the DL for injuries....and still win the NL Pennant.

Nobody expected that Tony La Russa would trust a rookie pitcher, Adam Wainwright, to close games in September and October after Jason Isringhausen was shut down.

I have faith in my Cardinals. I hope you do, too, because we're going all the way!!

If these trends continue ....

From Cardinals Diaspora:

1934
World Cup Champ: Italy
World Series Champ: Cardinals

1982
World Cup Champ: Italy
World Series Champ: Cardinals

2006
World Cup Champ: Italy
World Series Champ: ??

Sounds a little like Jevons' theory of sunspot activity and economic cycles, but I'll take it!

World Series Starting Rotations

MLB has the starting rotations up, which could change with a rain out.

Saturday (at Detroit) - Anthony Reyes vs. Justin Verlander
Sunday (at Detroit) - Jeff Weaver vs. Kenny Rogers
Tuesday (at St. Louis) - Chris Carpenter vs. Nate Robertson
Wednesday (at St. Louis) - Jeff Suppan vs. Jeremy Bonderman
Thursday (at St. Louis)
Saturday (at Detroit)
Sunday (at Detroit)

Position Analysis

Jim Molony of MLB.com takes a look at the World Series and analyzes each position.

In short, here are his picks:
CATCHER: Ivan Rodriguez

Molina doesn't provide much offensively, although he did hit .444 (4-for-9) in the three-game series against Detroit at Comerica Park back in June.

FIRST BASE: Albert Pujols
SECOND BASE: Placido Polanco
THIRD BASE: Scott Rolen
SHORT STOP: Carlos Guillen

Guillen, one of the better all-around middle infielders in the game, hit only .188 in the ALCS.

LEFT FIELD: Craig Monroe
CENTER FIELD: Jim Edmonds
RIGHT FIELD: Magglio Ordonez
DH: Alexis Gomez, Marcus Thames, Omar Infante
BULLPEN: Tigers

Jason Isringhausen is out for the year following hip surgery and the Cards' youngsters have had to learn on the fly. Thus far, right-handers Adam Wainwright and Tyler Johnson and lefty Randy Flores have done a better-than-expected job.

BENCH: Cardinals
MANAGER: Even
INTANGIBLES: Tigers