During a press conference after the third game of the Brewers and Cardinals divison match Wednesday night LaRussa sounded as if he only had half a clue with what was going on. When a reporter asked him about the bullpen's problems with getting guys out in the late innings LaRussa responded, "What the hell does that have to do with anything?! The offense needs to get more runs!"

LaRussa continued to criticize the offense and denied that there was any problem with the pitching staff in the pen. Well, I call out Tony LaRussa......Hey LaRussa.....Who the hell are you watching?!!

Sure, the offense needs to score more runs. I agree with that. However, the offense is also ranked among the top in batting average and have improved in many ways since the beginning of the season. I haven't heard you credit them for that. Still, you fail to recognize the problems in the pen. Is it blindness? Old age? Or pure ignorance?

In this case, if someone fails to make a move or do the job they are paid millions to do, they get fired. I, myself, as an avid Cardinals fan.....one who stayed up 72 hours straight while deployed to Iraq just to watch the Cardinals battle in the World Series in 2006, say shame on you Tony! If you can't recognize the problems, maybe somone should replace you. This team has proven they are brighter than most give them credit for and if there's a fault somewhere, you need to fix it.

This type of play by professionals is unacceptable! A bad day is a bad day. A bad four days sounds like you're "walking" through your job.

     Tony LaRussa's recent prickly response to a reporter's question about the bullpen woes of the Cardinals gave fans a new lesson in LaRussa Speak.  No, Tony said, don't blame losses on the bullpen, it's the offense.  Huh?  Sure, Tony, if the bullpen gives up 20 runs, then I guess it's the offense's fault if they don't score 21!

     Cards' management, we suppose, is supposed to be immune to criticism, for a leaky, weak bullpen.  Not so here, Tones.    We're not buying your twisted logic.  Try taking a look at the stats, or ask just about anyone else in baseball, and you'll see that yes, Birdland, we have a problem here.   Facts are, management's decisions, and probably a continued desire to go on the cheap, are part of the problem.

           The only bullpen guys really earning their salary are Ryan Franklin, Russ Springer, Ron Villone, and maybe Randy Flores.  We'll give Izzy a pass just because he's Izzy, and the effort, if not all the stuff, is still there.  And we don't care how nice it is Kyle McClellan is a local guy, he's not getting the job done.  If you combine blown saves and losses (5), this guy probably is among the league leaders.  Brad Thompson does not belong in any major league's bullpen, much less one trying to win a pennant.

        Jimenez is a question mark.  I would take all the latter names and instead bring back Anthony Reyes, who at least can throw the ball by hitters at times, Mike Perez, who was fair, and maybe Mark Worrell, who at least looked like a relief pitcher. 

         Hey, Tones, pretending you don't  have a problem won't win anything.  Addressing the situation realistically might.

         And dont shift blame to the offense.  Particularly lately, the offense has been a real brightspot.  Anyone but some kind of egomaniac would recognize that.     

OK I POSTED THIS BLOG ON MY BUSINESS WEBSITE & I WAS COMPELLED TO SEE WHAT THE FOX BLOGGERS THOUGHT OF THIS, WHICH I DEEM ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

 THE STORY IS NOW IS BEING REPORTED THAT THE NATIONAL SPORTS SHOW CONVENTION WANTS TO PAY INFAMOUS CUB FAN STEVE BARTMAN $25,000 TO SHOW UP AT A SPORTS SHOW & SIGN JUST ONE AUTOGRAPH.  REMEMBER BARTMAN FROM THE 2003 PLAYOFFS THAT LEANED OVER TO CATCH THE FOUL BALL.

FOR GOODNESS SAKE LEAVE THE POOR GUY ALONE, BARTMAN WHO APPARENTLY HAS BEEN IN SECLUSION THE LAST 5 YEARS HAS DECLINED A STORY, INTERVIEWS & EVERYTHING MEDIA RELATED. WHY TORMENT THIS GENTLEMAN, LEAVE HIM ALONE. LET THE CUBS DO WHAT THEY DO BEST, CHOKE, THEY DO NOT NEED STEVE BARTMANS ASSISTANCE.   WITH THE EXCEPTION OF HIS INCIDENT, WE HAVE OVER 100 YEARS OF PAST TRACK RECORDS & HISTORY WITH THE CUBS BAD LUCK & CHOKING. THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS TO DIG A SKELETON OUT OF THE CLOSET & THEN OFFER HIM MONEY$$$

WHATS NEXT?   CHARLES MANSON THROWING OUT THE FIRST PITCH AT A DODGERS GAME? LOL

STL:

I am always the first to admit when I'm wrong ... and one day into the Glaus - cleanup, Ankiel - 5 hole project I was way off.  Friday night the Cards scored 11 runs for the 3rd time in the last week, and Glaus was 2-4 with 2 runs scored & Ankiel was 3-5 with a run and 3 RBI ... I still don't like the move but it worked and that's all that matters.

So my sincerest apologies go out to Tony LaRussa because I know the first thing he does every morning is read my blog.

See ya,

Charlie Marlow

STL:

If it ain't broke ... don't fix it, I heard that somewhere once.  But, even though Troy Glaus and Rick Ankiel are both on their biggest offensive tears of the season, Tony LaRussa decided to flip-flop them in the line-up.  I don't get it.  Baseball players are creatures of habit, they want to have a defined role that they can carry out day in and day out.  In the last month batting clean-up Ankiel was hitting a homerun just about every other game.  And in the five hole Glaus has 14 homers since the calendar turned to June.  Glaus has even said publicly that he's more comfortable batting fifth.  So I'll say it again, I don't get it.  If the movie Bull Durham taught us anything, besides that you should never throw a punch in a bar fight with your pitching hand, it's that you've got to respect the streak.  Especially with Ankiel because he's proven to be a streaky hitter ever since making it back to the bigs as an outfielder.  When a player's hot, you don't mess with them, you ride out the streak, because it's impossible to be great for 6 months in a row.

The way I see it, Glaus and Ankiel got LaRussa'd.  The last time I saw a manager tinker with his line-up this much was when I was in t-ball, and that's only because every player had to play atleast 2 innings every game (league rule).

I understand that LaRussa knows more about baseball than I do, and he surely knows his players better than I do ... but, still I don't understand this move.

STL: agree or disagree?

Charlie Marlow

The First Was The Best....!!

I miss Sportsman Park.....Not so much the park, but the atmosphere created by the players and the people that attended the games there....... Busch Stadium was ok, but it marked the beginning of  commercializing the game and when new Busch Stadium was born, the game became a full blown business...... At  Sportsman Park I was a little boy that went to the game with his dad and his uncles.....  Got to watch some of the greatest players and usually sat in fantastic seats...... At  Bush Stadium early I was the young man that went with friends and later on I  was the father that watched his son sit there with the glove on his hand hoping for a foul ball and remembering that little boy still lurking somewhere inside me...... The new stadium finds me in my  "( young )" fifties sitting in nosebleed seats...... Due to the now business part of the game the expensive tickets of desire are bought up and resold, or occupied by season ticket holders...... Bleacher spaces have dwindled in lieu of party boxes and the seats are smaller and closer together...... Going to a game for a family of four may cost as much as a weeks wage for some...... Hopefully  the tradition of the game will live on and make more great memories for a lot of little boys..... I wish there was a tee shirt for us old guys that said " Three stadium club member "

I'm sure it would cost at least $30 though......

What's your fondest memory at the ball park....??

STL:

Lots to talk about regarding this year's All-Star break.  First off, awesome display put on by Josh Hamilton in the Home Run Derby.  I was hoping he would actually hit one out of Yankee Stadium (as former negro league star Josh Gibson once did), and for a while it looked like he would.  But, how could Hamilton not win the Derby in the end?  I felt like I was watching the movie Rudy, except at the end Rudy never got in the game.  It's okay, though, because years from now everyone will remember Hamilton's first round laser light show and nobody will remember that Justin Morneau actually won (except for Canadians).

If you haven't heard or read about Hamilton's struggle with drug addiction, you should.  It's pretty incredible.  He talks openly about how he wasted his almost 4 million dollar signing bonus, how he shrunk from 230 pounds to 180 because of an addiction to crack, how he once wrote a $2000 dollar check to a crack dealer that bounced, so he had to have his father in law track down the dealer and pay him in cash.

The guy was out of baseball for almost 4 full years and now he looks like Mickey Mantle.  Dozens of Major League scouts and players say Hamilton has the most raw talent of any baseball player they've ever seen.  It would be neat to see how accomplished Hamilton would be by now if he never had gotten caught up in drugs.  We could be talking A-Rod and Pujols like numbers.  But in a way, Hamilton's legacy may be even more lasting because of what he's overcome.

As for the actual All-Star game, I slept through about innings 6 thru 12.  I thought the ending was pretty decent, and I think the game determining World Series home field advantage does give it some extra flavor.  Question: How can Carlos Marmol be an All-Star and not Kyle Lohse?  Lohse has 11 wins and an ERA of 3.39.  Marmol is a freaking set-up man with an ERA over 4.00, and has been absolutely rocked in the last month.

Great pitching match-up tomorrow at Busch.  The Padres Jake Peavy versus Lohse, I'm looking forward to watching that one.  This is a big week for the Cards, 4 at home with the Pads' followed by 4 at home with the surging Brewers, should be a fun start of the second half.

I'm rooting for the Cards to hold on in the Wild Card race, but I don't think they can do it unless they add a piece to the puzzle, or unless Carp and Waino come back really strong.  C.C. Sabathia is in a contract year and he's got a change of scenery, I think he's gonna be lights out in the second half.  C.C., Ben Sheets and the Brew Crew will be tough to beat, and I think we've seen the best of Todd Wellemeyer.  I wouldn't be surprised if he's a .500 pitcher for the rest of '08.

What do ya'll think.  Cards in the playoffs or a September St. Louis scuffle?  I wanna hear from you.

Later,

Charlie Marlow

Well, could the folks in Yankee Stadium tonight during the All-Star pregame show have been any less enthusiastic as the Hall of Famers were announced?  Unless Fox was able to use some sort of sound filter to block out the excessive noise for the sake of the broadcast, those people were as dull as dishwater.  My God, the baseball history that was standing on that field...some of the fans didn't even APPLAUD!

St. Louis fans would've had the windows rattling in the buildings closest to Busch Stadium, especially when the ex-Cardinals were announced.

The Big Apple?  More like The Big Crabapple!

I know its a bit long but you will enjoy it

Its that week! you know what i mean, all star week, i love every bit of it!

I wanted to say Great Job to Fox Sports network and the whole fox network with the great coverage they r giving us. originally thats all i wanted to say , then i thought of soo much more.

One of the things i thought of is when they were showing all the Hall of Famers and i couldn't notice how many of them were Saint louisens.

All though i must say, i think the all around best baseball player ever, is.... Willie mayes. He could hit run and do jsut about anything.

It is a  very emotional all star celebration at Yankee stadium.

I can't wait till the celebration next year here and St.Louis, and i would LOVE to be there and i would also like for there not to be a gaping hole out in our outfield "ballpark village"

This also reminds me how The national League hasn't one in a long time and i would absolutely love for the national league to beat the American League at the closing of one of the American leagues most popular/important stadium. it would make me feel good.

Another point i feel i should make is how dumb it is that who ever wins the all star game gets home field advantige for the world series. i find that dumb because they started the All-Star game and it still is JUST AN EXIBITION GAME, it should not count for anything that important

My Second point is that i wish we would of gotten the all star game the year we tore down old bush stadium beacause it would be as good and probably better than the one they r doing at yankee.

So i can't wait for next year!

The 2 ladies that was struck by a drunk driver in PA was traveling from city to city to support this home town team.  One has lost her life for supporting the Cardinals and the other is still in a drug induced coma, not knowing what the outcome will be and NOT one word from a spokesperson for the Cardinals.  This is very UPSETTING that this team that these two ladies followed has not even made any effort of sympathy or condolences.  To me, I think that is just WRONG!!!!!

Domino106

I forgot to include this in Friday's news & notes that's just as well because something like this deserves a post of its own.

Last week I received a call from William Palaszczuk (one of the charter members of the Greg Bracey Fan Club) informing me thatthe real Ocho Cinco was released by the San Diego Chargersin May and we somehow missed it until now. 

It is July and time for the

This year's tour has many changes and lots of surprises. After the completion of the first week Team Columbia ( is one of two American sponsored bicycle teams) has the Yellow Jersey - first overall with the best time, the Green Jersey - leader in the most points, and the White Jersey  - the best young rider.
Not bad considering this is Team Columbia's first year.

• First and foremost, Sarah Becking, RIP. I had never heard of Sarah until literally a couple weeks ago when I ran acrossher website and realized what a truly gifted photographer she was and immediately added it to the links to your right. I had no idea she had been battling cancer. I don't know much more about her than what I've read in the past few days but she left behind a husband, daughter and son. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends. 

• The door is now shut and locked on the Keon Lawrence era at Mizzou. I'm glad he's going to be going to school but I worry about how close Seton Hall is to his old stomping grounds. I also don't understand the attitude he gives Mike DeArmond in that story. I thought the local media alwaysportrayed Keon in a positive light even when he was in the midst of a major sophomore slump. But after the past few weeks I'm starting to think there were some attitude problems behind the scenes we didn't hear about. But that's my own speculation so take it for what it's worth and I still hope Keon is successful at Seton Hall.

• Big MO Sports has some more competition from...Chase Daniel?

• Get to know Keith Ramsey! I have to say, I've always hated players who call cheap fouls in pickup games. Nothing ruins a pickup game quicker than one of those guys.

• Our old pal TG3 is sporting a fresh new fro north of the border with the Toronto Raptors summer league team.

• A surge of stories have popped up on espn.com concerning the Mario Chalmers miracle three in the National Championship game including this fascinating story on former Beaker and would be hero Michael Lee (check out Smorgasboard Graves in that picture). A little odd that those are being written over three months after the National Championship game. Maybe it has something to do with them moving the three point line back? Speaking of Chalmers, I hate Kansas more than anyone but I will never understand how so many chumps including J.R. Giddens got drafted before he did. I'm admittedly biased toward players that perform well in pressure situations (I thought Acie Law was a lock to be a great NBAer and so far that prediction hasn't exactly panned out) but give me a break. Giddens?

• This afternoon I was doing some research for a story I'm writing for my internship  and ran across some old columns by former Springfield News-Leader sports reporter Scott Puryear that are wonderfully amusing looking back on them: 1. Remember when everyone loved Pinkel before they hated him and before they loved him again? Now you do. 2. Back in 2003 Pinkel signed a talented high school quarterback named Chase who was going to keep the momentum going once The Great Brad Smith graduated. But his last name wasn't Daniel. 3. Remember that backup punter we had in '06 who wore No. 10 and the cameras used to always cut to him thinking it was Chase Daniel? Bet you didn't realize someone once wrote a column about him.

• The latest from Zou Dave. Would enough Mizzou fans be willing to pool their money to pay Zou Dave to produce these things full-time? We should look into this.

• Just ran across this seconds ago, Sherron Collins, livin' like a National Champ I guess... 

• Just found another Keon update. Turns out he needed to leave New Jersey for two years so he could go and grow up. But now he's mature enough to live at home again. Okay, that makes sense. Glad we cleared that up.

• If you've been in downtown Columbia in the last few months you've probably noticed the new sandwich joint Which Which? (where Shake's used to be). Fantastic place, I'd highly recommend the house chips. When you're eating there you'll also be supporting former Tiger Will Franklin who owns 40 percent of Columbia's franchise. I'm hoping they'll let Franklin put together his own favorite sandwich and market it as "The Helicopter" or something similarly silly. 

• It's official, people outside of Columbia consider Mizzou preseason National Championship contenders. Gotta love high expectations. 

• By the way, I love how the KC Star is having all of their sportswriters put together blogs. Other news organizations take note, this is how blogs can be used effectively by the modern media. Two thumbs up to Posnanski, Flanagan, Mellinger and company.

I’ve played every fantasy league imaginable. Roto, head to head, shallow, deep, football, golf, baseball, hockey.  And first of all, never, EVER, play fantasy golf.  If anyone asks just say no.  So I’ve finished anywhere from 1st, to last.  (Including finishing behind my band instructor, who had no idea how to check his team) But after my 8 year career I have come to the conclusion that there are 8 people you will inevitably run across.

 The Jerk. He’s probably the commissioner.  That means he makes the rules or bends them as he sees fit, but that’s not where it stops.  He will do everything in his power to add the most obscure statistic into the game.  Like a caveat stating you get points for least batters faced.  Or turning double plays.  But on top of all this.  There’s no talking to him. He just won’t listen.  He constantly trash talks, and not funny trash talk, he’s annoying...like Danica Patrick.  Now I used to like Danica Patrick.  But after she started to get “famous,” and I got a glimpse of her personality I was like

NO. THANK. YOU. 

Seriously, every time I see her picture, I can hear her bossing me around.  But I’m not here to talk about Danica.  I’m here to help.

 The Fool.  Fools are in every league.  But one will rise about the rest with his foolishness. The best part of having a fool around is that you can take everything.  Challenges arise in competing with other owners for the fool’s resources.  You should be able to convince the fool to trade away his best player for the stud of the week.  Note: Its best to keep all fools away from the con man.

The Overprotective Parent.  This person will not make a deal to save their life.  You could offer them a glass of lemonade on a deserted island for a bag of sand and they would have to think long and hard about it before finally declining your offer, because the lemonade isn’t 37 degrees and the sand is batting .317 with 12 homers.    

The Midas. I hate the midas.  Because everyone the midas picks become a fantasy beast.  The trick is to wait him out.  Because Midas will no doubt be leading your league for most of the season. However, sometime in august or early September,  all of the Midas players will return to earth and realize that they have been playing well above their heads before soaking the house that Midas built with gasoline and flicking blue tips everywhere. Ex. Todd Wellemeyer  

The Deadbeat.  How you feel about deadbeats depends on the type of league you’re in.  If it’s a roto league, the more deadbeats the merrier!  But if you’re in a head to head league, and one team creams a deadbeat, thus passing you in the standings, you hate him.  The silver lining though, is that eventually you too will play the deadbeat.  Note: its important not to send the deadbeat an email or otherwise remind him about the league.  He’s probably forgotten of its existence all together.  Kind of like the cardinal’s plan for Royce Clayton to be the future.

The Economist.  The economist is a slave to numbers.  You could offer the economist Albert Pujols with a 127 rating for Aaron Miles with a 97 rating and he’ll give you some long drawn out speech about how you need to look at numbers.  Somewhere along the line he’ll no doubt mention Miles’ hitting streak and Pujols' stint on the DL.  The worst part is that the economist doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about.  Which you can use to your advantage.  Find a player who has performed over his head up to this point in the season and you can find yourself on the better end of a Mark Reynolds for Albert Pujols deal.  Trust me, I pulled it off this year.

 Remember, hit the economist fast and hard before he can calculate the damage to his squad.

The Con Man.  My best friend is a con man.  To some extent he’s taught me how to be a con man.  No joke, I traded Zack Greinke for Jake Peavy a week ago.  Straight up.  Wow.  What a fool.  Anyway, A con man leads you to believe that you are screwing him.  He’ll give you the “I dunno” song and dance before finally pulling the rip cord and leaving you with one of those lead filled chinese baby cribs.

And “Milton”  The thing is….Milton is not a fool.  Milton just can’t say no, I got he name Milton from the character on office space.  Milton basically has everything taken from him and puts up little to no resistance.  You could punk Milton into trading you Johan Santana for Chris Duncan.  The Con man probably won’t go for Milton, I mean, there’s honor amongst thieves.  But keep Milton away from the jerk, and in return take his left fielder because you guys are “friends.”

Hopefully I've been of some assistance.  Go out there and dominate your fantasy league of choice! I'm out. -Carter

Lil Wayne quote to meditate on "I told my toolbox, its hammer time."

Vick files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Imprisoned quarterback Michael Vick filed for bankruptcy protection while serving time for federal dogfighting charges, saying he owes between $10 million and $50 million to creditors.

Vick filed Chapter 11 papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newport News on Monday. The seven largest creditors listed in the court papers are owed a total of about $12.8 million.

Vick is serving a 23-month prison sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., after pleading guilty last year to bankrolling a dogfighting ring. He was subsequently suspended indefinitely without pay and lost all his major sponsors, including Nike. He also faces state charges related to dogfighting.

The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback "will seek to rebuild his life and career" upon his release, according to the filings.

The debt includes part of a signing bonus that the Falcons are seeking to recover.

After the plea on dogfighting charges, the Falcons tried to recover about $20 million in bonuses Vick earned from 2004 to 2007. But a federal judge held that Vick is entitled to keep all but $3.75 million of the money paid to him for playing football through the 2014 season.

According to the filings, Vick's other debts include $4.5 million owed to Richmond-based Joel Enterprises Inc., and $550,0000 owed to Radtke Sports Inc. for breach of contract.

In May, a federal judge ordered Vick to repay about $2.5 million to a Canadian bank for defaulting on a loan. The Royal Bank of Canada had sued Vick in September, arguing his guilty plea to a federal dogfighting charge — and the resulting impact on his career — prevented him from repaying the loan.

A default judgment for $1.08 million also was entered in January against Vick and a business partner in a lawsuit brought by Wachovia Bank over a loan for an Atlanta-area wine shop and restaurant.

Cards vs the Cubs game but it was the fifth set @ WIMBLEDON with Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal playing for the Championship.  Normally I root for the underdog which in this case was Nadal but Federer was going for his 6th consecutive win at Wimbledon, which would have either tied him with Bijorn Borg or beat his record.  Anyway, they were tied two sets a piece and they were neck and neck in the 5th set when all of a sudden, the rains came and they covered the courts.  Now instead of the network (not FOX2) showing some of the earlier matches during the rain delay, what did they do?  They switched to the Cards/Cubs game without warning!!!  I'm like hey, what the hecks going on here?  What happened to tennis?  Well, shortly thereafter, they announced that the rains had stopped and they'd resumed play @ Wimbledon so I'm all excited only to find out that when they started rebroadcasting tennis, it was a picture in a picture!  GRRRRRRR...and of course the baseball game had the audio.  I WAS HEATED!!!   You ever try to watch a tennis match on a PIP?  You can hardly keep up with the rallies on a big screen, let alone a tiny one like that!  Oh well, Federer wound up losing to Nadal so his hopes of tying/beating Borg's record were dashed.  Maybe he'll try again next year and if he does, I sincerely hope that whichever network acquires the broadcasting rights to the final matches, they air them entirely...even with rain delays unless they're cancelled.  Now don't get me wrong, I like the Cardinals, but I also enjoy a good Championship tennis match.

On a positive note...the Williams sisters (Venus and Serena) represented the U.S.A. quite well in the Women's division.  They took home the Championship AND the Runner-Up trophies in the Women's singles and the Championship trophy in the Women's doubles matches as well.  A good day for them...YES! ! ! !