Well, there wasn't much for Cards fans to cheer in last night's 2-1 loss to the NL champion Colorado Rockies.
Later today our baseball blogger Aaron Schafer will glance back and look forward to tonight's rematch.
But despite Kip Wells' hanging five zeroes on the Redbirds and Troy Glaus causing the crowd to collectively sigh and think wistfully of Scott Rolen, there were some bright spots.
Local boy Kyle McClellan pitched a fine 1-2-3 inning in relief of Kyle Lohse, who twirled five solid frames himself.
For my money, though, the high point by far was Brian Barton's first major league plate appearance. Barton, as you may have already read, was the Cardinals' Rule 5 draft pick this winter, picked from the pocket of the Cleveland Indians. Under the Rule 5, er, rules, each team gets a shot at their brethren's roster of "unprotected" players; picking Barton cost the Cardinals all of $50,000, but if he hadn't made the major-league club out of spring training, the Indians could have reclaimed him for $25,000 -- and surely would have.
Barton seems the very definition of "happy to be here":
Unfortunately, that video only shows the hit itself; the footage of Barton standing at first base was priceless.
And he was rockin' the sweet stirrup socks!
Posted at: April 2, 2008 4:05 PM