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Read Everything That Dunks Must Converge

Read Everything That Dunks Must Converge
by Bryan Harvey

Truth & lies in Pixar's 'The Good Dinosaur'

Truth & lies in Pixar's 'The Good Dinosaur'
by Bryan Harvey

A world of child soldiers & cowboys

A world of child soldiers & cowboys
by Bryan Harvey

To their own devices: Pablo Larrain's 'The Club'

To their own devices: Pablo Larrain's 'The Club'
by Bryan Harvey
Showing posts with label St. Louis Cardinals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Louis Cardinals. Show all posts

His Name is Pujols. . .

October 23, 2011

and although the exact definition has been lost in translation, the meaning has been written on our faces.



When Belief Becomes Bankable: The Rays Uprising

September 30, 2011


Carlos Pulido
Josh Spilker is a Tampa Bay Rays fan, and he's written here before about that and other things. He also has a novella out now (digital), which you should definitely check out (hard copy...scroll to bottom), but he's here today to talk about baseball, money, and miracles. Enjoy:

At this dinner meeting with people from church, with a small smoky fire, bratwursts and italian sausage, pumpkin bread, it was fall, near the end of September and the whispers of October hum on the horizon. Things turn inside and then wrap up, and the St. Louis Cardinal fan/homeowner turns on the television. St. Louis taking care of business, Braves stumbling, Boston in a rain delay and the Rays left for dead. A Red Sox fan looks at the TV-- “Call the game,” he says and “Yankees killing the Rays.” There may/
may not have been a high-five and I fell back into a recliner. The recliner sunk and sighed; relieving itself.

MLB 2010 Preview: Integration Era

March 23, 2010

For our 2010 MLB preview, we're lumping teams into the eras we feel they most resemble. This will cause our rankings to look more like Power Rankings than Divisional rankings, but, like most things at LCB, I wouldn't take any of it too literally. Enjoy, comment, critique, lambast.




As Jackie sprinted from third to home, one could hear the ice cracking on the corn stalks from the friction of his feet on the chalk line that was now blazing like DeLorean tire tracks.  Stealing time, he stole history, and the slow motion of the pitcher's windup looked stiff as a Kansas fence post.  When Jackie went into his slide, the umpire dropped his jaw in bewilderment and tasted the upturned dust and dirt like a cyclone.  We weren't in Kansas anymore.  We weren't even in the same time continuum.  The game we'd known, from its records and statistics to its faces and characters, was now on fire like a stack of Third Reich books.  Baseball sprinted out of World War Two, not even bothering to look over its shoulder, and the taut muscle and sinew of the modern industrial complex sprawled through the rosters like suburban housing treks.  Welcome to a world of Technicolor.  The teams below are the authors of history, who play by their own rules, and not only shape the future but alter our memories of the past, so that we not only see the game differently but forget how absurdly quaint it once was:

Boston Red Sox
Key Additions: John Lackey (SP), Adrian Beltre (3B)
Key Losses: Jason Bay (LF)
Storyline to follow: The Sox have the pitching to beat anyone.  The quandary is will they have the offense.  It's also worth mentioning that the only doubt about whether they have enough offense is because they're in the same division as the Yankees and didn't quite replace Jason Bay's production.


Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (California)
Key Additions: Hideki Matsui (DH/LF), Joel Pineiro (P)
Key Losses: John Lackey (SP), Chone Figgins (3B), Vladimir Guerrero (DH/OF)
Storyline to follow: The Angels are going for their sixth AL West title in seven years.  As the Angels continue to win while losing more and more of their 2002 World Series nucleus, their consistency despite a changing cast of characters deserves the same amount of attention usually heaped on east coast ball clubs.


New York Yankees
Key Additions: Curtis Granderson (CF), Javier Vazquez (SP), Nick Johnson (1B)
Key Losses: Johnny Damon (LF), Melky Cabrera (OF), Hideki Matsui (DH/LF)
Storyline to follow: What other story is there other than the Yankees chasing another World Series title?  It's the sitcom formula that every MLB season relies on carrying the night.


Philadelphia Phillies
Key Additions: Roy Halladay (SP), Placido Polanco (3B)
Key Losses: Cliff Lee (SP), Chan Ho Park (P), Pedro Martinez (SP), Pedro Feliz (3B)
Storyline to follow: At a glance, the Phils appear destined for another World Series; the Halladay move gave them that kind of offseason buzz, but they lost Cliff Lee in the process.  Also, history is not on their side; World War Two was still being waged the last time an NL team won three pennants in a row.  The Phils doing so will highly depend on which Jimmy Rollins shows up this year.


St. Louis Cardinals
Key Additions: Brad Penny (SP), Felipe Lopez (2B)
Key Losses: Joel Pineiro (P)
Storyline to follow: The Brad Penny resurrection is intriguing.  Mark McGwire as the hitting coach begs for analysis. Will Tony LaRussa join Bobby Cox this year in farewell tour calls for our attention, but all of these storylines pale in importance to watching Albert Pujols be Albert Pujols.

Cubs-Cards: Play of the game

September 11, 2008

At first glance, this is not that special of a play. That is, until you find out who laid out Yadier. Its Ted Lilly, and he straight-up demolishes Molina at the plate.

The knee to the thigh did the damage, forcing Yadier to leave the game along with missing a couple upcoming games. Lilly also managed to pitch eight good innings en route to a 4-3 win over the Cardinals.



For me the best part is how casually Lilly walks to the dug-out.
 

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