October 30, 2004
Speechless
by Paul Brown
How should Cardinal Nation feel about the 2004 Redbirds? Angry? How can we be angry with a bunch that was an afterthought in the pre-season, then won 105 regular season games, beating back the Cubs & the Astros in the dead of summer when there was no pressure on those overrated opponents? Did they choke? The fell behind 2 games to 3 in the NLCS, then forced a decisive Game 7 vs. a HOF pitcher with WS experience that they had never beaten. They then proceded to come-from-behind against The Rocket to win the NL Pennant. Skeptics among us knew it would not be easy to win the WS from a Boston team that had just won 4 straight against the mighty Yankee$. Our guys tried everything: sluggers bunted, slow runners challenged the reputedly poor fielding Beantowners, our manager changed catchers, left fielders and the batting order. But we were never really “in” a single game! {Game 1 got tied only because of walks & Bosox errors}. The Red Sox never gave us a lead and outplayed us in every aspect {pitching, hitting, baserunning} and made the defensive plays necessary to win.
We can take losing. We have a past full of excuses: in 1985, Dan Denkinger blew a call and our leadoff man got run over by a tarp. In 1987, half of our infield was disabled just prior to the WS. But we have no excuses for playing so badly this time. The Braves, Dodgers, and Astros could have better represented the NL in this Fall Classic. How does an entire 25 man team collapse in the WS after fighting so hard in the NLCS? The pundits said that St. Louis lacked the starting pitching to win it all. In Game 4, the telecasters demonstrated that they had not seen Marquis pitch this year by vilifying his performance. Actually, he pitched no better nor worse than he did all season in compiling his 15 wins: 6 innings, 3 runs, 100 pitches. Typical outing for him. The same can be said for Suppan in Game 3. Usually, their teammates closed the door (they did) then scored 4 runs by the ninth (they didn’t). They won with this formula all season & post-season. Why didn’t it work against the Red Sox? Are they so good? If so, why could they not even win their division?
It is hard to digest this one. In 1987 and 1985 one could feel that fate had cheated us. In 1968, it was too much Mickey Lolich. But this was inexplicable. When people ask: “Hey, what happened to your Cardinals?” What do we say?
