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After Thursday’s day off…
7:15 p.m.
LHP Matthew Liberatore (1-2, 3.60) vs. RHP Chad Patrick (1-1, 2.11)
FanDuel // KMOX // WIJRMaybe Milwaukee will just put a bottle of stool softeners on the mound for this one.
We can hit the ball off a tee, lol.
This will be a CCFF. For the uninformed that’s Cardinal Catfish Fiddlers Friday. We didn’t have one last Friday as it was Easter and the place was undoubtedly packed.
Hopefully Liberace can continue his good pitching and we can win two of these three. Next week it’s off to Cincinnati for a four game series with the Reds at Crosley Field.
Whatever we do, we do NOT want to fall 8-9 games back. This team couldn’t recover from that. And Marmol wouldn’t recover either.
r/Esteemed Rat
I’m nowhere near to declaring the Cubs as a superior first-rate baseball team, but they look to be good enough to create some substantial separation in what seems to be an inferior division. The Cardinals are already 5.5 games off the pace so, it wouldn’t be at all implausable to guess that if the Cubs were to hit stride for a week or two the Cardinals could very well be buried at 10 or more games off the pace in the NLC before it’s time to serve up a Mother’s Day brunch. If they are, I can’t imagine this team erasing that sort of deficit, so I’d have to guess the season’s over before the middle of May.
CBS sports recently ran a piece of Arenado. The gist of it was that if he keeps playing well, and the Cards keep losing, he will probably get traded at the deadline. If we lose that glove and bat, what will happen to our winning percentage in Aug and Sept?
Off topic and random, but hey, it’s baseball…Anyone ever see the photo of Frank Howard holding Freddie Patek on at 1B?…Haha!
CBS sports recently ran a piece of Arenado. The gist of it was that if he keeps playing well, and the Cards keep losing, he will probably get traded at the deadline. If we lose that glove and bat, what will happen to our winning percentage in Aug and Sept?
If we can lose games with him we can lose games without him.
I’m nowhere near to declaring the Cubs as a superior first-rate baseball team, but they look to be good enough to create some substantial separation in what seems to be an inferior division. The Cardinals are already 5.5 games off the pace so, it wouldn’t be at all implausable to guess that if the Cubs were to hit stride for a week or two the Cardinals could very well be buried at 10 or more games off the pace in the NLC before it’s time to serve up a Mother’s Day brunch. If they are, I can’t imagine this team erasing that sort of deficit, so I’d have to guess the season’s over before the middle of May.
I’m sure you thought the same thing last year after May 11th last season. They ended up with the same record.
You could very well be right but it’s a little early. Pitching has to be better especially the pen and the offense needs another guy or two to step up. Difficult but not impossible. We shall see.
The Cubs are currently the only NLC team with a winning record but what concerns me about them is that a majority of their games have come against legit teams like the Dodgers, Padres, and Dbacks. Imagine what their record is going to look like when they start playing the dregs of the NL? They are good no doubt about it.
The green stuff has moved past the St. Louis area and is about to move out of the SW Indiana area now. This game should be played with no delays tonight.
Time to go go to the store, get some groceries, and then head to the Amish restaurant for some Catfish Fiddlers. It is a CCFF, ya know…:)
r/Esteemed Rat
I haven’t seen that Frank Howard – Freddie Patek photo. But there was a similar one from a Dodger spring training camp in the early ‘60s that had Howard together with Maury Wills.
Speaking of Frank Howard, I still remember well that stretch in 1968 when he hit something like 9 homers over an 8 game stretch. I recall my dad saying, “At least somebody is hitting.”
Sadly, no catfish and consequently no fiddlers available around here. Had to settle for Toulouse sausage and beans for Friday night din-din. No comparison of course.
The photo of Big Frank holding Little Freddie close at 1B in the IF dirt cutout at Municipal Stadium is one that will produce both a hearty laugh and a sentimental smile from almost any baseball fan. It’s a classical study in stark contrast and a genuine reminder that one of the countless things that make the game great is that anyone and everyone qualifies for a tryout. If you can play, we’ve got a spot on the team for you. I saw much more of the diminutive Freddie Patek during my time as a baseball fan than I did of the massive and powerful Frank Howard and little Freddie was one of my favorite Big League baseball players during the time that he manned up at SS for the KC Royals. The tale of the tape said 5-5, and 145 lbs. but Patek walked on to an IF with more heart and grit than you could load into a large dump truck. If Billy Martin were still around he’d tell you that the Yankees couldn’t get that little so and so out during either the ’76 or ’77 ALCS…Haha!
#ForTheLou pic.twitter.com/LGghVIg2Bk
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 25, 2025
I lived in Kc at that time Dom. That’s why I saw them. I couldn’t get enough baseball as a kid. I was 14 at the time.
The Royals teams of the late 70’s and early 80’s were quite good. I watched a lot of their games. I remember walking into one of my high school classes with a toothpick in my mouth and my very stern math teacher saying, “who do you think you are, U.L. Washington?”
In fact my first ever MLB game in person was at Royals Stadium in 1976. They played a DH against the Red Sox and I remember seeing Yastrzemski.
Yeah, KCB, the Cardinals were similar then to the sort of team they’ve been for the past 2 or 3 seasons and were normally relegated to insignificant status by the time high summer rolled around. I adopted the Royals as my go to AL team during that nice run that KC had with Whitey’s Royals featuring McRae, White and the emergence of the great George Brett. I clearly remember those fight to the finish 5 game ALCS Royals/Yankees battles of ’76 and ’77 that were similar to a war of attrition that was fought in the trenches instead of a playing field. I was really rooting for the Royals and recall being almost as downcast when those Yankees emerged as winners as if I would have been if they’d eliminated the Cardinals. In any case, those were some really good Royals teams and I probably enjoyed watching Patek more than any other player on the field. Like I mentioned, he may have only been 5-5, but he was gigantic in both of those ALCS. Little Freddie played for keeps!
Rat will be happy to know that U.L. was stylin’ the toothpick long before Dusty ever copied that fashionable look…
I grew up < 2 miles from the stadium. But the Cardinals were already my team. I adopted them in the years between Charlie Finleys exodus and the expansion Royals. They broadcast the Cardinals on radio. Those are some of my best memories. Our garage was used like another room in the house. We didn’t have air-conditioning. My dad built a screened wooden frame insert and we would raise the garage door, open the back door, and put a big box fan in the doorway to pull a draft thru. My grandma and grandpa lived with us, and every night after dinner, we all sat out there and listened to the Cardinals. It was the grandest of times, and I’ve never let go of them.
I’ll be darned, KCB. My dad smoked cigars like he was mad at them and my mom wouldn’t allow it in the house. So he spent half his life in the garage which was his domain. It was well equipped with a fridge, TV, radio, fans and old chairs and couch. It was the place to be to watch and listen to the games. My kid brother and I also liked to hang out there with him. Especially when our uncle and cousins came over to visit. Mom liked to see us out there because we couldn’t get anything dirty or break anything of value in dad’s garage…Haha!
The Cubs are on the verge of another win. They lead the Phillies 3-0 in the last of the 7th at Wrigley Field.
We better start stringing some wins together or before long we are going to be 8-9 games behind and that will be pretty much the 2025 ballgame.
Our local SABR group has about 8 Cub fans, and only about 3 Cardinal fans. Those Cub fans are crowing right now the way their club is playing.
They looked good coming in, but I have been surprised how well they are doing against what should be some of the better teams in the league.
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