Soccer happened last night @ Busch Stadium. 

Real soccer. No juice boxes. No orange slices. Questionable body positions:

Some observations in no particular order:

1) St. Louis brought the heat. In the last 10 minutes.

Wasn't a rowdy crowd. But it was a crowd. And by the last 10 minutes of the game, everyone had kind of picked a side and started rooting for, well, something. Many didn't know what. But everyone stopped staring and started participating. 

2) Someone was impressed, though.

Don't know who. Don't know the end goal of this exhibition other than to sell a ton of stuff and make some big $$$ for the Cardinals when their main attraction is on a road trip.

But SOMEONE had to be impressed at how St. Louis showed up to a soccer game.

3) The scrubs played, but the stars played too.

Tip of the cap to the teams involved for having all the stars at least start the game. I was under the false impression that this was going to be a 3rd string coming out party. 

4) We're getting sponsors on game jerseys real soon. 

I don't know how much Samsung pays to sponsor the Chelsea kits, but it do know that they can justify spending a TON on it because I must have seen their logo 10,000 times last night. And that's not counting the game. 

I know that the NFL has done practice jerseys. But that is a drop in the bucket. Professional owners can't stay away from this pending pile of money much longer. 

5) Yes. Blaming injuries and bad play from field conditions will happen on this site.

We did it after the Dave Matthews concert. We did it after the U2 concert. And we really did it after The Eagles concert. Because, you know...

6) Busch Stadium? Not built like a soccer stadium.

No shit, right? But I'm not talking about the field, but more the entrance and exit of fans into the stadium. One of the big reasons soccer has been getting increased exposure on US TV is the ability to finish a game in 2 hours. Prompt. 

But when you get 45K people coming in and heading out all at the same time, the exit points become choke points. During baseball, people tend to arrive and leave in waves. 

Really, that was the only thing you could complain about. St. Louis and the Cardinals put on a class event and fans from all over came to support it. 

Well done, city.

Tylor Lyons punked the San Diego Padres last night to record his first major league win (and hit). 

It was a performance to behold, but if you thought it was due to talent, luck or other forces unknown, you'd be wrong. It'd be because former ESPNer and current CBSer Doug Gottlieb was in the stands wearing enough Cardinals gear to make the Cardinal Cowboy blush. 

Visual evidence from @RyanPBoyer

Douglas made quite the name for himself nationally this past NCAA tournament when he made a joke on CBS (watch here). But he's been a talk radio staple for years after playing college hoops at Oklahoma State.

Mr. Boyer explained in later Tweets that Douglas is boys with Matt Holliday.

Here's to the newest outed member of Cardinal Nation. Wearing a cap that's not a worn as Jon Hamm's, but not off the rack either. 

The Cardinals have lost Jamie Garcia for the season. They're in the process of losing Jake Westbrook for way longer than the '2 starts' that we were told. And Shelby Miller can't be trusted to work out of his own jams.

None of this was going on 2 weeks ago. So what the...?

Wait, what's that? Sports Illustrated sent someone to cover the Cardinals historically good starters starts?

Well that explains it.

Our friends over at SI Classic Cover sent this week's SI cover over and it it's very nice. And by nice I mean the ONLY reason the Cardinals rotation is falling apart.

I kid. I think. 

Let me get this straight... use new guys that aren't Fernando Salas and Mitchell Boggs and win a bunch of games. Use guys that are Fernando Salas and Mitchell Boggs and lose a bunch of games. 

If you're Mike Matheny, what do you do? What. Do. You. Do?

Let's establish that the Cardinals offense was mitigated by Jason Marquis. (Yes, THE Jason Marquis). 2 runs aren't going to win you many games. Ok, we good here? 

Then let's move to the 6th inning.

1) Shelby Miller gets into some trouble. He puts runners on 1st  and 2nd, but has 2 outs. Pitch count at 107. Perfect situation to leave a rookie in for 1 more batter, let him work out of his own jam and leave the game after six with the chance for the win.

Nope.

2) Matheny pops out of the dugout for... Fernando Salas. Quick, name a Padre batter (LULZ, you couldn't, could you?) Doesn't matter to #TossedSalas. He promptly gives up back to back hits and puts Miller on the hook for a loss instead of a win. Helping Miller's 'Rookie of the Year' bid.

Nope.

3) In the 7th, down 1 on the road, Matheny just can't help himself. If he has Boggs in that bullpen, he's going to bring him to the mound. He's the effing Don Draper of baseball. Boggs is his Sylvia Rosen. At this point all we're missing are the cigarette butts outside the clubhouse door.

Al can barely start slobbering over Mitchell's newfound mechanics before he gets tagged for a HR on his SECOND PITCH! 

He got out of the inning, though, and the Twitter went wild with support:

4) It was 4-2 and the game ended with a whimper. The Cardinals have now lost 5 in a row @ Petco field. 

I thought we were through this Salas Boggs phase. I thought the Cardinals were in a better place. I thought that the GM publicly forcing your hand was lesson enough for the un-tenured manager of the Birds.

Nope. Another bullpen loss.

And you still can't name a Padre.

Let's recap:

1) Chris Carpenter goes down before the season starts to ongoing nerve damage that we and he thought was fixed with surgery last season. He's placed on the 60 day DL and is rehabbing for a return sometime in 2013... just not sure when exactly.

2) Jason Motte doesn't pitch an inning in 2013 after marking over 40 saves in 2012. He's recommended to rest his arm and have it looked at in a month. Month comes and goes, he still needs surgery and the Cardinals pushed back his recovery by 5-6 weeks.

3) Jake Westbrook is put on the 15-day DL. We're told that he'll miss 2 starts and this is a precaution. He's now going to miss at least 2 more starts because the original diagnosis was wrong. 

4) Jamie Garcia is going to be shut down for the season to have shoulder surgery. This is the same shoulder that caused him to miss time in 2012, but rest was prescribed. 

Four very important pitchers to the St. Louis Cardinals. 4 problem laden returns. And this is just since spring training started this season. 

The Cardinals are earning a reputation as a place where often the worst case scenario becomes the norm. Now maybe they've known this information all along and are playing coy. Candidly, I hope this is the case. Because to have the fans predict with greater accuracy the outcome of pitching injuries than the paid medical staff is a bit alarming.

I'm a David Freese fan. You're a David Freese fan. As long as 2011 exists as a year, we'll all be David Freese fans.

Doesn't mean he's making it easy to say such things...

Mr. Freese has played in 27 games in 2013 and taken 91 ABs. He's hitting .209 and has only 7 fewer walks PLUS hits than strikeouts. In short, he's having a miserable start to 2013.

What struck me when I was digging into the numbers wasn't how itsy-bitsy his 2013 line was, but instead, it was just how  his career stats don't really belie his stature with the Cardinals.

Quick: David Freese, replaced at 3B. That's the headline. You think the reaction is muted in St. Louis? Heck no. It's a riot. But over the course of 3 full seasons and parts of 2009 and 2013, you know how many HRs he's hit? 35. RBIs? 181. Runs 150.

Not to be trite, but that's kind of what Pujols did fairly regularly for the Cardinals in a season (maybe a bit longer than a season, but not TOO much longer than 162 games). Yet, Freese has every bit the stature in the community that Pujols had.

Again, I'm a fan. 2011 was awesome. But if you're not a Cardinal fan, I think you're starting to wonder if the past is clouding the judgment of the right now. If he didn't have that 2011 post-season on his resume, what would we be saying?

He's earned the right to work his way out of a slump. His best overall year was in 2012. But baseball history is littered with  'good over one year'. As the Cardinals work into June with the chance to be special, it's still necessary to look at the teams points of weakness.

When one of your hitters is lifted late in a game for a guy hitting .200, that's an alarm bell finally sounding on David Freese's season.

Now, the Friday Links...

The most clever. LINK HERE

Campaigning. Then having the job. LINK HERE

Yelp review of Amy's Baking Company. LINK HERE

Fun at work. LINK HERE

Good kick. LINK HERE

Reverse cotton candy eating. LINK HERE

That's it. That's the week. Enjoy summer, since it's here in STL and not going away any time soon. We look forward to seeing how the Blues do in... oh, wait. Nevermind. 

We love celebs in Cardinals gear.

Honestly, it's even better when you're kind of meh on a dude, then he shows up on Letterman wearing a Whitey Herzog-esque satin jacket.

You do that and you're getting a video embed and the 10's of views that it will provide through this site.

Thursday October 20th 2011.

My real job had sent me to Denver Colorado to conduct some work. The Cardinals were playing Game 2 of the World Series that night. 

Luckily, some good friends of mine live in Denver and these good friends are Cardinal fans. We set out to find the best place to watch the game and settled on Stoney's Bar & Grill on Lincoln Street. Turns out several other Cardinal fans were there. The Cardinals won Game 2, I stayed the weekend, went back to Stoney's with several more Cardinal fans and watched Albert Pujols give us what turned out to be his parting gift. 

Freaking love Stoney's.

So it's with great pleasure I got this pic from my friend this past weekend:

That's right outside the front door. It's become the official St. Louis Cardinals bar for fans in Denver Colorado. And it's in no small part because of those two fateful October days in 2011.

We're proud at The CD to give Stoney's Denver the only 6 STAR rating we've ever given a bar & grill. Because when you fly the flag of Cardinal Nation in the town that has another MLB team, you've got guts (and reasonably priced beer specials).

If you're in Denver, go to Stoney's. And tell them how much you appreciate them adopting our team.

Lots to cover today... let's do some quick hits: 

1) This weekend was poised to be one of the most dominant sweeps in St. Louis Cardinals history (more on that in a minute), but turned into the second most gruesome day of the season (Opening Day fiasco being #1).

Jamie Garcia didn't bear down when he needed and got tagged for 5 runs. Carlos Martinez had his first real shaky outing, giving up 3 and looking like a prospect, not a MLB ready star. And the offense went limp. Again.

2) But the worst news came before the game started when Jake Westbrook was placed on the 15-day DL with "elbow soreness". 

Jake Westbrook is not stranger to surgery. Having procedures done on his right hip, left shoulder and, of course, his right elbow. The latter causing him to miss most of the 2008 season. 

The Cardinals are claiming that this is a precautionary measure and that he's expected to skip his next 2 starts.

Uh huh.

We've heard this before from the Cardinals medical staff. It's almost the kiss of death. 

Jake has been lights out this season, posting a 1.67 ERA that begets his 2-1 record. So at the very least, this is a two week setback. At the worst, a harbinger of bad news for the veteran pitcher. Come the back half of the season, we're going to need Westbrook and Wainwright to anchor this staff.

3) Wainwright looks up to the task, if Saturday is any indication. 

He took a no hitter into the 8th inning before surrendering a single with 1 out. He made Colorado look silly at the plate. and had every single pitch working to perfection.

When Wainwright is on like that, he's the best pitcher in MLB, able to get outs in every imaginable way and intimidating hitters into swinging at pitches they don't want to.

Would have been something we'd probably still be talking about.

4) But Shelby Miller, by at least one account, pitched the best game a Cardinal pitcher ever has. 

He gave up a broken bat single to lead off the game Friday night. Then pitched a perfect game with no walks and 13 strike outs. He showed us his ceiling. And judging by the reaction... his rocky year in the minors during 2012 changed many perceptions about what this kid can become.

Turns out he's got superstar potential.

And he reminded us of that emphatically. He's even turning his starts into must watch baseball and building confidence along the way. Think about the fact that between Miller and Wainwright, the Cardinals set down 50 Rockies in a row without a hit. 

Not one hit. Fifty batters. In the majors.

Hate that Jamie and Co. had to ruin Mother's Day, because FRI and SAT had everyone's pants getting a bit tighter. 

6) John Gast's Wikipedia page has been updated, so he's ready for his first MLB start this week against the incoming Pond Scum of New York.  Let's see what he's got.

14-7 on the road? 

Yup. That'll do. roughly 1/4 of the way through the season away from Busch, the Cardinals are pacing for a record-breaking road record. And when you win on the road, you go to the playoffs. It really is that simple. 

I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to get the feeling that this team could (COULD) be one of the best in franchise history. We're heading into mid-May and there have been 3 games that the Cardinals didn't have a chance at all to win. 

Three.

Out of thirty three.

Even the powerhouse 2004 team that went for 105 wins were out of games more often. Further, the young prized prospects are coming into their own. Carlos Martinez is throwing fastballs through our hearts. Shelby Miller is looking like 20 year old Andy Benes' wet dreams. 

Hell, Jake Westbrook for Cy Young!

Maybe it's Friday. Maybe it's the half-decent weather for the first time in weeks... but this Cardinals team has the makings of a super-freaking-power. And if they start taking care of business at home? 

Yikes. Watch out.

Now, the Friday Links...

Marketers at work. LINK HERE

Printing at the office. LINK HERE

Bad ad placement. LINK HERE

The world's best circle drawer. LINK HERE

Ladies Night. LINK HERE

Celebrity prom photos. LINK HERE

That's it, that's the week. Hopefully the Blues can pull out a GM 6 miracle of their own right tonight. Probably not. Since they're the Blues and you don't get a nickname like that and do awesome things. Although, I am more than willing to be proven wrong.