The Cy Young Shutout

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Cy Young agrees with me. It's a shame his namesake award didn't go to a Cardinal. Hell, he even played for the Cardinals for awhile! If anything, I'll bet he's even MORE pissed than I am!
Sigh. 

What? Oh, no. Nothing. No, I'm fine. It's just... no, never mind. 

Well, I mean, it's just that, well, see, there's this award, called the Cy Young, and each year it's given to the best pitcher in his respective league. What? Oh, no, they just have a bunch of people who vote on it. Yeah, it does sound like a pretty cool award, huh? 

Why am I so sad, then? Well, I mean, I know I shouldn't be, but see, there's this pitcher. Actually, there's these two pitchers, and I really like them both, you know? But even though both of them probably could have won the Cy Young, yesterday the voters gave it to this little stoner skate punk kid from San Francisco. I know, right? So yeah, I mean, I'm just a little bummed, you  know? 

St. Louis Blues Forward David Perron is Just Like the Rest of Us: He Loves Lady Gaga





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And there you have it. Read the rest of the interview with the Blues forward at InsideSTL.

Breaking Down the Blues' Slow Start

Sadly, it's become an annual tradition here in St. Louis, it seems: the Blues' Slow Start. Happens every year, right around this time, when we look at the record of our beloved boys in blue and notice they aren't doing so hot. 
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This year, though, this seems a bit different. Oh, sure, they were way worse than this a couple years back, but we didn't expect that team to be any good. I have it on good authority several of the Blues' players during the 2006-07 season didn't have their own skates and had to use rentals. But this team? We all thought 2009 was going to be the Blues' season, the year they took that next big step forward and became not just a playoff team, but a legitimate contender to play deep into the spring. 

Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet. The Blues' record currently stands at 6-8-4, good for a rather dismal 16 points and a last-place standing in the Central division. Worse yet, they're an absolutely miserable 3-7-1 at home. It seems some nights like the Blues left all their happy thoughts back in Stockholm. 

The thing is, the Blues have plenty of talent. So why are they struggling so badly again this year? 

The Best Headline Ever, And a Possible Solution to a Very Tough Problem

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This soooo totally helps my plan.
So yesterday Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch writes an article about Mark McGwire, the day when he will finally have to Talk About the Past, and the way the Cardinals plan on trying to handle the potential reaction of the fanbase. 

And then, someone did something really great to that article. I'm assuming it was an editor, going off how things work around here, but I could be wrong. Regardless of who it was, they gave it the best title I think that article could ever have had. 

"Cardinals Wrestling with McGwire's Coming Out." Seriously. Is that not the best title you've ever read. Someone had to have realised the social overtones of such a statement. 

Then again, it also got me thinking, and I think we may have stumbled on a way for McGwire to avoid talking too much about his steroid usage. 

Mark McGwire needs to come out of the closet. 

7 Coaches Who Should Replace Charlie Weis at Notre Dame

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Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis could be out at the end of the season. But who should replace him?
As we near the end of another college football season, one of America's favorite subjects rises again: What happens to Notre Dame?

Why is this non-story a story? Yu don't have to look far -- whether in St. Louis or in any other part of the country -- Notre Dame fans, however obnoxious or uppity, are everywhere.

Since Lou Holtz left the Irish after the '96 season, the national relevance of the program has diminished almost as much as Holtz's relevance as an ESPN analyst. Notre Dame has no trouble being relevant to fans or the media because it's, well, Notre Dame. But the program isn't the problem, it's the coach. When Charlie Weis was brought in five years ago, it was because he was an alumni and he had credentials as the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl-winning dynasty New England Patriots. It seemed like a logical choice, right?

Memphis Basketball Fans Watched the Birth of the Pastner Era Last Night in St. Louis

Last night at the Scottrade Center, University of Memphis basketball fans watched the birth of the Josh Pastner Era.

Memphis played Kansas in the regular season game (and rematch of the '08 NCAA championship), with the Kansas edging the Tigers 57-55.

Kansas was supposed to crush a scorched Memphis team, which has no John Calipari as head coach, no bench-depth and no big-name talent with a no-name coach. But the end of the game, Kansas head coach Bill Self had nothing short of relief in his eyes, as his team edged out Memphis and its wonder-boy of a coach in Pastner.

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Image Via
Josh Pastner

Gold Gloves: Cheers, Jeers, and Snubs

The baseball awards season is in full swing now, with Rookie of the Year just having been announced (and by the way, Andrew Bailey, who won ROY in the AL, wasn't even the best rookie on his own fucking team), and Cy Young and MVP coming in the very near future. It's always interesting each year to look at who wins the awards, because it gives you a good idea of just how divorced the awards often are from the reality of the game. 
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Perhaps no award more perfectly embodies this idea than the Gold Glove. Every year, players receive Gold Gloves based on reputation, the occasional highlight reel play, or the quality of their bat. It's exceedingly rare that a Gold Glove winner actually turns out to be the player who is the best defender at his position.

So with that in mind, I thought I might look at this year's Gold Glove winners and see which ones the voters got the rightest, and which they got the wrongest. Oh, and which players should be the most pissed off about being ignored, too. 

Game Notes: Saints 28, Rams 23 -- The Great Leap Forward

Okay, Rams fans, now you should be excited. 
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Two weeks ago, after the Rams beat the Detroit Lions for their first victory in over a year, I played the role of buzzkill, trying to explain why it wasn't all that encouraging the Rams won. Sure, it was nice to finally erase that big ugly zero from the win column, but there wasn't really anything in the game which made me think the Rams were really starting to turn it around. The Lions are one of the worst teams in football; the Rams are essentially their peers. Of course the Rams should be able to beat a team that bad at times. Play a real team, look good, and get back to me was the message. 

This, though, this was.. something else entirely. 

On Sunday, the Rams took on one of the best teams in all of football, the New Orleans Saints, who look like the reincarnation of the Greatest Show on Turf most weeks, and guess what? They gave the Saints everything they could handle and had a chance to win the game on the final drive. 

Maybe this thing really is headed in the right direction. 

Blurring the Lines of Dis- and Over-Abled

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Here we see Steve Austin training for the next Olympic games. But will he be allowed to compete?
There's an outstanding article over at Gizmodo right now everyone, and I do mean everyone, should read. It's an article by Aimee Mullins, whose name you may not be all that familiar with, but you should be. She's an athlete slash model slash public speaker slash writer who also just happens to have two prosthetic legs, and therein lies the focus of the article in question. 

Blues' TJ Oshie Will Eat at the Drunken Fish, Wear Flip-Flops on the Ice

Blues fans love TJ Oshie, and to satisfy their hunger for more Tiger Beat-esque facts about the 22-year-old phenom, Kevin Lorenz of InsideSTL caught up with Oshie after practice recently for a proper-sit down interview.

Here's our favorite excerpt; the player's diet:

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