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Just a quick shout out of thanks to BW for hanging these game times and broadcast info up on the board for an entire season’s worth of action. I’ve grown to depend on these thread titles in place of my trusty shirt pocket sized folding schedule that I snag from the gas station before the season starts in March…Haha!
The last week of the season. And the last chance to stay up late and watch games from the west coast. And there are no less than six (6) late games this week. Cards/Giants, Brewers/Padres, Doyers/DBacks, and some others. And some of these games are still important.
After this week it will be back to watching Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Perry Mason, etc, etc.
r/Esteemed Rat
Rat brings up a fun aspect of the game. Ever since I was a kid, I had the habit of associating male television personalities with fielding positions of our great game. For example, for the actors that Rat listed above, here’s where I had them positioned:
Karl Malden – Manager
Michael Douglas – 2nd baseman
Cannon – Catcher
Perry Mason – 1st basemanHere’s a few others:
Gilligan- SS
The Skipper(Alan Hale) – No, not the manager, but rather the 1st baseman.
Thurston Howell III – Team Owner
The Professor- Middle reliever
Andy Griffith- 3rd baseman
Don Knotts- SS
Opie – Batboy
Otis – CatcherLars Nootbaar (L) LF
Iván Herrera (R) DH
Alec Burleson (L) 1B
Nolan Arenado (R) 3B
Thomas Saggese (R) SS
Pedro Pagés (R) C
Jordan Walker (R) RF
José Fermín (R) 2B
Victor Scott II (L) CFWith this being a late game out west and the fact that the Redbirds are out of it I suspect there will be very little activity in this game thread.
Yeah, and the silence will be compounded by the fact that there’s only 2 other games slated for tonight. Not many people show up to a tavern that only serves potato chips and warm beer.
One of the weirdest inning ending double plays I have seen to end the Cardinals second. Should have been a dead ball off of Walker’s foot but none of the umpires saw it. It also wasn’t reviewable so double play wasn’t overturned.
Tied 1-1 bottom of the third.Whether or not the umpires got it right is eclipsed by the fact that Walker dogged it on the play. In fact, he double-dogged it…
It is baffling that he slowly jogged toward 1B after he felt it hit his foot. If he stays at home plate the umps probably make the correct call.
4-2 Giants after 4.
Cards clinging to a 6-5 lead after 6 in what has turned into a battle of the bullpens.
Going to have to check the score in the morning to see who wins because it’s past my bedtime.The revised edition of the BRM has caught the Mets for the final NLWC so it’ll be interesting to see how the Mets respond tomorrow in their upcoming 3 game series at Wrigley. Meanwhile, the Reds are at home for 3 games with the Pirates. I’d say that it’s right there for the Reds and if they fail to take advantage of the very favorable conditions in order to knock off the Mets, I’ll be disappointed.
The Cardinals win and are still, technically, in the running for a wild card spot. I believe their elimination number is 3. The Reds face the Pirates and the Brewers. The Mets face the Cubs and the Marlins. The Diamondbacks face the Dodgers and Padres. We are currently 3.5 games out of the wild card with 5 games to play.
Thank you for your comments, 1td.
The fact the Cards will not be officially eliminated until this last week will likely come up in the team’s messaging about how close they supposedly are.
Put aside the also fact that they need to go 5-0 to finish with a winning record and they are 18 games worse than the Brewers. They are officially worse in 2025 than in 2024 (though not as bad as 2023).
This is what most see. The bottom line shows no progress in 2025.
The logic of using “we were so close to being in the playoffs” narrative just makes the ownership look like they care about money more than winning. (Which most of us agree is true.) Because if they were that close, spend an additional 10-20 million and boom…you are a wildcard team.
What insee is a team that regularly sports six starters with an OPS below ,700, and has some with an OPS below .600.
Bill shaved 43mil this season, from last seasons budget. This is not focusing on winning. His focus is on keeping his money. Just sell to someone who cares about the roster.
The Cardinals still being ‘in’ the playoff hunt just shows how bloated the current # of teams that get in is.
It would not surprise me if WC 4 and WC 5 are added along with the upcoming league expansion.
If that happens it will be possible for entire divisions to be ‘playoff teams’ and being 82-80 would almost certainly get a team in.
Pfffft.
As we’ve discussed, they are in a multi-year cycle.
Team plays worse.
Fewer fans watch.
Revenues drop.
Expenses are cut.
Fewer good players play even worse.
Fewer fans watch.
… and the downward cycle continues…The only ways to break the cycle are:
1) Spend more money and take a bigger loss short term. – or –
2) Wait for the player development pipeline to deliver more lower-cost good players.(A third option could be to try to trade their way upward, but I don’t believe they have the assets to accomplish this.)
The current ownership will not do #1. BDWIII actually believes that improving the “game day experience” will bring the fans back. Goold recently seemed to agree. Maybe the casual fan cares about this, but most just want to see a better product on the field.
So here we are…
My option #1 would be your option #3, jj, if there was a different owner. He would still have to be willing to lose money short term to move ahead more quickly. Think Steve Cohen with the Mets, for example.
I doubt that BDW Jr would sell the team. It’s possible that it could happen when he’s gone and BDW III takes over, but we will see. It’s also no guarantee that a new ownership group would be significantly better than the current one. As my Pirate fan friends know…once you enter the poor house, it’s very hard to get back out. The only real difference between Pittsburgh and St Louis (as cities to) has been fan support of the MLB franchise. With that waning year over year, it’s hard to tell how far the franchise could fall.
Circa 2013, who would have thought that would be the last WS appearance? Indeed, that they would have one NLCS win in the following 12 years (and not much hope for the medium term future). That’s not one NLCS series win…one NLCS GAME win?? Sigh.
Spending to improve can work. Tex went from 94 losses (2022), to a world series trophy (2023). It cost a 50mil+ budget raise that 22-23′ offseason, but their investment was rewarded. It was a 96mil EOY difference (22-23′) when they popped the corks. Cots.
Won’t always work (Cohen), but many teams will still TRY.
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