The Last of the Killer B’s

Maybe it was the barrage of the number 12 yesterday or the realization that the Houston Astros will never again be competing for a National League Central title, but I found myself feeling nostalgic the common thread that was shared between these teams, Lance Berkman.  Berkman leaves the Cardinals after spending an extremely short period of time here, and yet still it is difficult for me to think of him as anything other than an amazing player.  Could there be any higher praise from someone who spent most of his formative years wishing that Berkman would just take the day off?

Berkman spent parts of 12 seasons with the Houston Astros after being drafted in the first round in 1997.  During that time, he batted .296 and was the center of an offense that was good enough to meet the Cardinals twice in the NLCS in 2004 and 2005, series that went 7 and 6 games and ended with each team winning one pennant.  During his tenure with the Astros, he basically played an entire season against the Cardinals.  In 154 games, Berkman batted .313/.415/.601 with 39 HR’s and 118 RBI’s.  Only the Reds allowed more Berkman HR’s and RBI’s (although it was in 20 more games and in games that over the course of his career meant much less to any playoff races).  And then there was the postseason where Berkman hit .292 with 3 HR’s and 9 RBI’s over 7 games in 2004 as well as .286 with another HR and 3 RBI’s in 6 games in 2005 against the Cardinals.

With all of this destruction left in his wake, I still found myself respecting the hell out of Lance Berkman as an Astro, making the transition much easier when he signed with the Cardinals.  I know that this last season was a rough one for the Big Puma, but the truth is that his legacy as a Cardinal had already been written.  His 2011 season was enough to make me forget all of those homeruns he hit against the Cardinals for so many years in Houston.  He provided the perfect combination of veteran leadership and offensive prowess that the Cardinals desperately needed in order to make it into the playoffs that season.

And then there were the playoffs.  I know that 2011 will go down as the year of David Freese and rightfully so.  Freese had an amazing postseason, but while Freese was getting the headlines and highlight-worthy moments, Berkman was the man behind the scenes, allowing the younger Freese the opportunity to succeed.  Look no further than Game 6 of the World Series.  Everyone remembers the triple and the walk off homerun by David Freese, but it would be purely neglectful to skip over Berkman’s 3 for 5 night including 3 RBI’s and 4 runs scored.  In that game, Berkman had 3 RBIs with two outs, (one more than Freese had) including the most exciting single I have ever seen in the 10^th inning to retie the game after Josh Hamilton all but ripped the breath out of every pair of lungs in Busch Stadium.  I remember not being able to sleep after that game, and I still find chills run down my spine whenever I watch the highlights or even think of the game.  It really was the most exciting and amazing moment in Cardinals’ history, and the man in the middle of all of it was the same man who only a few short years earlier had been destroying the Cardinals at every turn for their biggest rivals. 

Berkman not only was amazing on the field, but he brought a sense of humor and looseness to the team that was so often lacking under Tony LaRussa.  Who could forget the post-game interviews after Game 6 when Freese brought up Jim Edmonds’ homerun to win a game in the 2004 NLCS, only to have Berkman add in his self-depreciating humor to remind everyone that he had been at that game too, on the losing side.  Since Berkman’s joining of the Cardinals, we have seen ugly sweater days and an interview with LaRussa after an NLCS game where he referred to a fictional Tortie and a Squirrel in the same sentence (and no, hell did not freeze over).   

Berkman’s career has had some bumps in it, mostly due to injuries, but we will always remember the extremely high level he performed at for so many years.  My lasting view of Berkman will not be him going down with a knee injury or any of the numerous big hits he had as an Astro to break my heart as a teenager.  The memory that I will always hold onto for the Big Puma is going to come from him after the last out of the 2011 World Series.  I can still see the bearded Berkman raising a stunned LaRussa into the air with an embrace strong enough to break ribs and the words “Can you believe it?”  I couldn’t at the time, and I still can’t believe it.  Lance Berkman, the last of the Killer B’s, a Cardinal forever. 

The Drive

Sam Bradford has not had too many defining moments in his career so far.  In fact, he has probably had more moments he would rather forget than moments  he would like to hold onto.  Against the Buffalo Bills, he had one to hold onto, and it was amazing to witness.  Coming into this season, Sam Bradford had put together exactly 1 game winning drive coming against the Cleveland Browns last season according to pro-football-reference.com.  This season, Bradford has already engineered three of these game winning drives including today’s and another drive in San Francisco to score a touchdown and put the Rams ahead before the 49ers answered with a field goal and forced overtime.

In his first game winning drive, Bradford threw only one pass for 7 yards and benefited from a Browns’ special team fumble before Josh Brown converted a 34 yard field goal.  Hardly the type of drive to be impressed by, but it was a start.  This season, Bradford has engineered an 80 yard drive against the Redskins although most of the drive was completed in the third quarter without the pressure of the clock winding down.  Then there was the drive in the first 49ers game where Bradford drove the Rams 81 yards for a touchdown with 1:13 left in the 4^th quarter which relied on a 19 yard completion from punter John Hekker and only 50 yards passing by Bradford.  Although this game obviously didn’t end up in a win, it could be seen as the start of things to come.

Against the Bills today, Bradford graduated to quarterback of a full blown clutch drive to win the game.  When the Rams received the ball on their own 16 yard line, Sam Bradford had only 141 yards passing in the game before that time, not exactly the type of performance which seemed indicative of what came next.  Sam Bradford drove the team 84 yards while throwing for 68 yards on 5-of-8 passing including 2 3^rd down conversions and a 4^th down conversion before Bradford threw an 11 yard touchdown pass to Brandon Gibson which ended up being the winning score.  During the drive, Bradford threw to 5 different receivers and benefitted from an amazing catch by Chris Givens to convert the 4^th and 1 play, but he showed more than enough poise and ability to be impressive. 

Sam Bradford still has a long way to go before he will be compared to Joe Montana, but we have been watching the evolution of a quarterback who could be able to be counted on at the end of a close game.  There are going to be many more opportunities for Bradford to grow and expand his talents if the Rams are going to continue to win games.  It is exciting to see a young and talented player grow, and who knows, if his offensive line could hold things together (and Rodger Saffold could manage to be carted off the field less than two times a quarter), this team could actually go somewhere.  It should at least be exciting to  watch.

Post Mourning 2012 Cardinals Wrap Up

I know this is pathetically late analysis, but in order to avoid little more than a long string of expletives being my thoughts, I felt it was appropriate to wait a little while before writing about the end of the 2012 Cardinals’ season.  In the time since, I hope that I have gained greater piece of mind and perspective compared to the hatred I was feeling for Pete Kozma after breaking the wrong way on a groundball up the middle.  Yes, it was a painful end to a frustrating season, but I guess that was how 2012 was destined to end for this team.

The more I look back at this season, the more I wonder if this team actually over performed, although this does not make the final result any less difficult to swallow.  When you really look at it, the 2012 Cardinals made it within one game of the World Series with a starting rotation that was anchored by Kyle Lohse who had a solid season, but as we saw during the playoffs last season, he does not possess the type of swing and miss stuff to consistently get good hitters out the second and third time through the lineup.  They were also relying on Lance Lynn whose Nuke LaLoosh like million dollar arm comes with a ten cent head that gets in the way all too often.  On top of this, the team needed their co-aces to perform even though Chris Carpenter’s arm was only recently cut into in order to remove a rib, and Adam Wainwright was well beyond the recommended number of innings for a pitcher coming off of Tommy John surgery and looked like it at times.  They had already lost Jamie Garcia for the postseason with a shoulder injury, and they were reliant on a shortstop which had never had significant Major League playing time.

Even though all these factors seemed stacked against this team, the Cardinals had a chance to advance to the World Series and even looked destined to do so after taking a 3 games to 1 lead in the series.  And then it was time for Game 5.  I remember being almost giddy with excitement as I watched Lance Lynn blowing Giants hitters away with a dominant fastball and wondering just how good this guy could be.  He seemed confident and ready to take the next step forward as a pitcher capable of rising to the occasion of a big game.  On top of this, the Cardinals seemed ready to break through against Barry Zito in these early innings.  I mean, just how many times can the Cardinals get runners in scoring position and not score right?  The answer, unfortunately, was answered far too many times over the next three games as Barry Zito’s 84 mph fastball was made to look like it was 98.  Unfortunately, this was the closest the Cardinals would come for the rest of the season.

While a finger could be directed in any direction when trying to assign blame for the collapse of the Cardinals, there were a couple issues that seemed particularly glaring.  After a few clutch performances in the NLDS, it became evident that Pete Kozma was in completely over his head.  His defense was shaky, and his offensive approach left me wanting to tear my hair out as he seemed to be swinging for a homerun in situations with a runner on third base and less than two outs.  Then there was Matt Holliday who hit only .200 in the World Series with 2 RBI’s.  As the veteran leader and third batter, this was completely unacceptable.

And then there was Mike Matheny’s management of the bullpen.  In Game 7, Matheny found himself in a pretty difficult spot.  In the 3^rd inning, the game was in danger of being lost and it eventually was.  There was one move in particular that had me screaming, though.  Matheny had found a combination that worked for him.  I really can’t blame him for that.  His go to move was to bring in Joe Kelly first and then go with Rosenthal to fill the innings before eventually getting to his Mujica, Boggs, and Motte.  This combination had been shown to work, but Matheny cannot be inflexible in a Game 7 of the NLCS. 

When the Cardinal’s manager took out Lohse, the bases were loaded with 0 outs and the Cardinals already down by 2 runs.  In this situation, the Cardinals were desperate.  Any more runs allowed could turn out to be disastrous, and eventually it sealed the fate of the 2012 Cardinal season.  It does not take an inspired baseball mind to recognize that in this situation, the Cardinals needed at least one strikeout, and luckily for Matheny, he had a pitcher in his bullpen who would end up striking out 15 batters in 8.2 playoff innings including 4 strikeouts in two innings in this game.  Of course, this guy was Trevor Rosenthal, and of course, he was not the pitcher that Matheny elected to go with.  Instead, Joe Kelly was brought in, and the rest is history.

As with any team that loses a series that it was up 3 games to 1 in, there is definitely enough blame to go around.  We can only hope that this team can learn some things from the experience and improve in the future, especially the relatively inexperienced manager who will be trusted to make these types of decisions going forward.  The Cardinal front office has hopefully realized that it needs a more experienced and capable shortstop if they are going to make deep playoff runs whether that is Furcal or someone else.  And hopefully, the Cardinals offensive players can learn how to be consistent as opposed to the boom or bust unit that the Cardinals have seen far too much of this season.  2012 was an exciting year for the St. Louis Cardinals, and even though it ended in frustration, it was one heck of a ride.

Brand New Rams?

The San Francisco 49ers are among the best teams in the National Football League.  They were one win away from making it to the Super Bowl just last season, and they were more than one expert’s choice to make a similar run this season.  The 49ers have a defense that dominates and the type of power running game that should have been able to churn out yards against the 2^nd worst team in the league last season against the run.  After tying the Rams earlier in the season, the 49ers were coming into St. Louis motivated for revenge and ready to play.  They had just promoted their dynamic new quarterback, Colin Kaepernick who had already beaten the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints.  There was no reason to believe that these Rams, the same team that lost to both the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets this season, should have any chance at beating the vaunted 49ers right?

Recent Rams teams would have not only lost this game, they would have been lucky to make it close.  But something is different about these Rams.  Yes, you could say this is a new team because they won the game, but it goes deeper than that.  The Rams won a close game down the stretch by making clutch plays against a team that is much better seasoned to win games like these.  The Rams defense was able to put points on the board when the offense could not, and instead of shooting themselves in the foot with bad penalties and consistent lapses in concentration, St. Louis actually had fewer penalties than the 49ers.

            

This is not the first time Rams fans have been teased by this team, however.  We have seen them finish at 7-9 in 2010, which was sadly enough for optimism, only to watch the Rams earn the second pick in the 2012 NFL draft.  I guess there is no way to know this for sure, but could this be a sign of actual change for this team?  I think it could be, and the reason behind this is Jeff Fisher.  With all due respect to Steve Spagnuolo and the rest of the coaches the Rams have had over the past few years, it feels good to have a legitimate NFL head coach for a change.

          

Just look at how Jeff Fisher has taken control of this team.  Perhaps the best examples of this is the two players that he benched for the first game the Rams played the 49ers.  The troubled Janoris Jenkins was sat down for a game and since he has scored 3 touch downs in the last two games.  That’s pretty impressive considering he plays on the defensive side of the football.  Then there is the Rams wide receiver, Chris Givens who has had 20 receptions in three games since being sat down by Fisher.  These may be chalked up to pure coincidence, or it could be signs of two young and extremely talented players buying into a coach’s system that has been proven to work in the past.

            

There have been a few grumblings about even making a run at a .500 or better record this season and even the possibility of a wild card berth.  I don’t think the playoffs are in the cards for this season’s Rams team, but to be honest, they don’t have to be.  As a Rams fan, I am simply looking for signs pointing to improvement which there have been multiple so far this season not the least of which came with the 49ers games.

The past few seasons, I have found myself rooting for the Rams to lose so that the team could fall into a better draft pick.  There was hope that the Rams could continue to get more talented players in hopes that this would solve all of the team’s problems, but there are only so many top draft picks a team can get before they need to produce.  After a while the team becomes little more than a collection of talent that has no idea of how to play together and win games.  In a game like football, talent only gets you so far as we have seen for a the past few years (although some of the draft decisions have left us wondering just how great the talent truly is).  This season has meant something else for these Rams.  This is the season that they start to build a winning culture, not just put another talented name on a roster.  In this case, change is so sweet.