The Chris Moeller Archives

Holiday baseball update

Happy Memorial Day weekend. I haven't blogged hardly at all about baseball this season, but it's been a pretty enjoyable season so far if you're a Cardinals fan. At the one-third pole of the regular-season, the club has re-claimed the top spot in their division (at least so far, but I'm optimistic) after surrendering the division crown to Cincinnati a year ago.

The Cards are nine games over .500 despite what should have been a recipe for failure. If someone had told me on the first of February that one of the two pitching aces (Adam Wainwright) would throw out his elbow in Spring Training and be lost for the season, that the second of the two (Chris Carpenter) would be 1-5 with an ERA of 4.58, that their closer (Ryan Franklin) would be 0-3, 1 of 5 in save opportunities, and have a 7.79 ERA, that the Great Pujols would be batting .262 and ranked 45th in the league in slugging, and that the club would be second in the league in blown saves and 11th in in fielding, I would have guessed that the team would be giving away their tickets by now. But they're not. I just had to buy some. Starters Kyle McClellan, Kyle Lohse, and Jaime Garcia are a combined 17-4. As a club, they lead in the league in hitting, are second in runs, and only the Phillies have more wins in the Senior Circuit.

If that's not good enough, the Reds have settled back into their traditional mediocrity, and the Cubs are going nowhere (although Harold Camping reportedly likes "their intangibles.") It could be worse for both these clubs, they could be the Dodgers. Day-to-day management of the National League's L.A. franchise was taken over by the commissioner's office because of "deep concerns" over the team finances in the wake of the team owner's divorce. Also, a fan of the rival Giants was nearly stabbed to death at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day, and last night the stadium started on fire. Oh, you can't beat fun at the ole' ballpark, as Harry used to say.

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Randy Poffo died a week ago in a car accident. He was one of the great professional wrestling artists of the world, but what is less known is that before reinventing himself as Randy "Macho Man" Savage in the ring, he played three seasons of minor league baseball with the Cardinals beginning at the age of 18. His minor league roommate, Tito Landrum, went on to great Major League success, and remembered Poffo this week during an interview on St. Louis sports radio.

The Landrum podcast is worth a listen, if only to catch up with Tito Landrum, but I'm really referencing this story so that I can link this photo from a "Macho Man" memorial.

posted by CM @ 12:50 PM