Tag: St. Louis Cardinals

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Sports Legacy Award: Ozzie Smith

photo by Taka Yanagimoto

Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith is one of four 2024 recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum’s Sports Legacy Award. Along with Alex English, Calvin Hill, and Renee Montgomery, Smith will be saluted before and during the Memphis Grizzlies’ game against the Golden State Warriors on Martin Luther King Day.

Congratulations on the Sports Legacy Award. You’re only the second baseball legend (after Willie Mays) to receive this honor.

I guess I’m treading in tall cotton. Any honor you get from outside your sport or business . . . I feel blessed and honored. To be included with people who are doing something outside of what they’re known for.

You were born in Mobile, Alabama, and you were in Los Angeles as a child during the Watts Riots. What comes to mind when you think of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement?

Dr. King and so many others — Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy — had the courage to stand up and allow us as African Americans to achieve the things we were able to achieve. The fight continues today. It hasn’t ended. There’s a lot of whitewashing going on right now, as we speak. I think of the trials and tribulations: the water hoses, dogs, the pain. Everything the people who came before us had to suffer to get us to this point . . . I take my hat off to people who are willing to continue the fight. Though we’ve come a long way, we still have a long way to go.

Do you have distinct memories of April 4, 1968? You were 13 years old when we lost Dr. King.

When you have a leader like that, his impact was so powerful. Anytime you have a leader like Dr. King succumb to assassination, it has a profound effect on your life, from that point forward. You have visions of where it happened, how it happened. I’ll get the chance to walk in that space [this weekend]. I’m sure it’s very touching.

Memphis has been Cardinals country for generations, but officially since 1998 when the Triple-A Redbirds began play here. Do you get to the Bluff City at all? Have you visited the National Civil Rights Museum?

I’ve been to Memphis, but I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the museum. This will be my first time.

You’re currently president of the PGA REACH Gateway Foundation. What can you share about that program?

I retired in 1996, and for anyone who plays sports for 20 or 25 years, you’re looking for that next challenge. There’s a competitive void in your life, and I gravitated to golf. I fell in love with it so quickly. Growing up in Southern California, I never had the opportunity to pick up a golf club. It was always baseball, basketball, or football. When I was asked to be president of the St. Louis chapter [of PGA REACH], I didn’t know what that entailed.

Exposing kids not just to the game of golf, but the business of golf is a great way for them to learn discipline in life, honesty. It was through that prism that I could give kids opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have. 

We’ve also taken on the challenge of giving veterans their lives back. As I look back on my career, the thing you miss the most is camaraderie, being with the guys. I think it’s the same thing with soldiers: you miss the people you’ve spent the majority of your time with. A lot of these guys have PTSD. PGA HOPE helps give them their lives back, and that’s just as important as giving young kids a new experience. We’re in the process of building a facility near the grounds of the old Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. I’m very proud to be a part of this. 

There are much fewer Black players in Major League Baseball today than when you debuted in 1978. Are there steps baseball can take to better engage young Black athletes?

It will take the work of a lot of people. Most of the [development] focus these days is in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the islands. There’s not as much red tape. We have programs here, trying to get more [African-American] kids interested. But there has to be a lot more money to get it back to the level it was in the late Sixties or early Seventies. I don’t have all the answers, but there has to be a lot more interest to get it back to the level it should be. HBCUs may be the way. Get the numbers back up. There are talented African Americans, but they don’t have the guidance or vehicle to elevate [their skills].

The Cardinals finished in last place in 2023, the first time in over three decades. What must the club do to regain its footing and return to the World Series?

It’s a real challenge to get back to prominence. You gotta pitch, you gotta hit, you gotta throw and catch. I think analytics have had a lot to do with some teams forgetting what is the heartbeat of the organization. The minor-league system has always been a big part of success for the Cardinals, the Dodgers. We need to get back to refurbishing the minor-league system, so it becomes that lifeline, allowing young guys to learn the game, and be ready when they reach the big leagues.

You’re generally considered the greatest fielding shortstop in baseball history. If there’s one fielding tip you had to share for posterity, what would it be?

I actually learned this through golf: stagnation is a killer. A baseball player can’t get started until the pitcher releases the ball. That’s where the hitter finds his rhythm, as the pitcher goes into his wind-up. As a fielder, you don’t want to be in a stagnated position. You want some type of movement, be it left, right. Some type of swaying movement that allows you to get into the flow for a ground ball or fly ball.


Ozzie Smith won 13 Gold Gloves over his 19-year career with the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals. He played in three World Series for the Cardinals and won the 1982 championship. His uniform number 1 was retired by St. Louis in 1996 and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.He is one of nine former Cardinals honored with a statue outside Busch Stadium.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Redbirds to the Rescue?

Photo courtesy Memphis Redbirds.

Dark days have fallen upon the St. Louis Cardinals. A team favored to win the National League’s Central Division in March is languishing in last place, staring at the franchise’s first losing season since 2007, and only its second this century. The Cardinals’ pitching — both starting and relief — has been dreadful. Stars have come up short of past standards, and prospects (not long ago in uniform with the Memphis Redbirds at AutoZone Park) aren’t making the impact expected or forecast. The toughest part about three months of bad baseball is that three months of the 2023 season remain. Can the Cardinals rediscover their flying wings? And will the Redbirds play a part?

There are four players who have spent most of the season with Memphis who could help ease the Cards’ pain, either short-term or long.

• Luken Baker (1B/DH) — Begging for the nickname “Kong,” Baker (6’4”, 285 lbs.) has dominated the International League, slamming 22 home runs in 64 games and posting a jaw-dropping slugging percentage of .664. In a late-May game at AutoZone Park, Baker clubbed a baseball over the leftfield wall despite shattering his bat. In an age where batting average isn’t supposed to matter, Baker was hitting .319 for the Redbirds when promoted by St. Louis on July 3rd. As large as he is, Baker is soft with the glove at first base, a better-than-adequate fielder. But with Paul Goldschmidt (the 2022 NL MVP) entrenched at that position for St. Louis, Baker may become a premium trade chip. Power is the coin of the major-league realm these days, and Baker’s purse is bursting.

• Ivan Herrera (C) — Catchers who can hit have been a rare breed since the first player donned “the tools of ignorance.” Herrera’s slash line for Memphis (.308/.432/.557) makes those of both Willson Contreras (.240/.334/.419) and Andrew Knizner (.227/.254/.418) look silly. And those are the Cardinal players from whom Herrera aims to shave some playing time. The 23-year-old native of Panama was promoted to St. Louis last week when Knizner went on the 10-day injured list. Similar to Baker, Herrera could be auditioning for 29 other franchises as the August 1st trade deadline approaches. Or he could convince the Cardinals’ front office that their catcher of the future is much less expensive than the 31-year-old Contreras.

• Michael McGreevy (P) — The Cardinals will contend for a 12th World Series crown when their starting pitching again excels. A franchise icon (Adam Wainwright) has struggled mightily in his final season. A once-and-future ace (Jack Flaherty) leads the National League in walks. A top prospect (Matthew Liberatore) posted a 6.75 ERA before returning to Memphis last week. Could McGreevy be among the rescue team? The 18th pick in the 2021 draft, McGreevy was solid at Double-A Springfield last year (6-4) and leads Memphis this season in innings pitched while posting a 5-1 record. Noted for his control, McGreevy has posted an ERA of 3.73 for the Redbirds, a figure that would be the envy of most Cardinal pitchers these days.

• Dakota Hudson (P) — Hudson was the 2018 Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year with Memphis, then led St. Louis the next season with 16 wins. But injuries and control problems had him back at Triple-A this season, where he went 5-4 with a 6.00 ERA before getting the call from St. Louis last week after Wainwright went to the injured list. Hudson will be pitching with a chip on his shoulder, which may be precisely what the 2023 Cardinals need right now. Can he survive five innings per start while keeping St. Louis in games? It’s not a high bar to leap these days.

More perspective on the Cardinals’ current mess? The franchise has had only two losing seasons (1999 and 2007) since its Triple-A affiliate moved from Louisville to Memphis in 1998. The Cardinals are staring at their first 90-loss season since 1990 and only the club’s fourth since 1917. Dark days indeed for a proud organization. Perhaps Memphis can provide some light.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Redbirds Welcome Jordan Walker

(Credit: Springfield Cardinals / PJ Maigi)

The St. Louis Cardinals have demoted prize prospect Jordan Walker to Memphis and there’s a sniff of panic in the air. The Cardinals are off to the franchise’s worst start in half a century, having lost 16 of their first 25 games. (The 1973 Cards opened with a 5-20 record and somehow finished the season break-even, at 81-81.) St. Louis pitchers are getting clubbed (ERA of 4.45, ninth in the National League). St. Louis hitters are not clubbing (32 home runs, ninth in the National League). So their solution is to demote a young man who set a franchise record by opening his career with a 12-game hitting streak? Cardinals Twitterverse, do your thing. Yikes.

The fourth-ranked prospect in baseball according to Baseball America, Walker turns 21 on May 22nd, exactly 20 days after his debut at AutoZone Park. How young is 21 in the career of a baseball player? Consider the Cardinals’ two current superstars. Paul Goldschmidt — last season’s National League MVP — had a season of Rookie League ball behind him on his 21st birthday. Nolan Arenado — owner of 10 Gold Gloves at third base — turned 21 in Double-A. And yet there are citizens of Cardinal Nation screaming that Walker is being punished, vanquished to the land of Triple-A for not having what it takes to carry the St. Louis Cardinals right now.

This is silly. Walker made headlines by starting his big-league career with that hitting streak, a record first achieved by a player his age in 1912 (Eddie Murphy of the Philadelphia Athletics). And this may have been the worst possible development for the Georgia native. Walker earned the Cardinals’ Minor League Player of the Year award in 2022, but his first game with the Redbirds last week was also his first above the Double-A level. Players who skip the highest tier of the minor leagues and make an immediate impact in the big leagues are few and far between. The last such player in the Cardinals’ system was one Albert Pujols, and that was 703 big-league home runs ago.

With St. Louis, Walker found himself in a five-man battle for three outfield positions. And this is a crucial component of his recent demotion. Walker was drafted (in 2020) as a third-baseman, and spent the majority of his first two professional seasons at the hot corner. With Arenado entrenched at the position for the Cardinals, Walker is tasked with learning to play right field. The innings he puts in defensively with Memphis will be as important to Walker’s long-term success as his plate appearances.

There’s one more factor to consider in Walker’s change of scenery: classroom culture. The Cardinals are in their second season under 36-year-old manager Oliver Marmol, but their first in 20 years without franchise icon Yadier Molina, who retired after the 2022 season. And something’s amiss in the St. Louis clubhouse. Stars aren’t starring. Role players aren’t filling their roles. Meanwhile in Memphis, the Redbirds are playing their fourth season under 41-year-old Ben Johnson, a relentlessly positive skipper who has overseen the two longest winning streaks in franchise history (one of 15 games in 2021, then a 12-gamer just last month). 

For a young man of college age, atmosphere is everything. At least for the time being, Jordan Walker is likely better off in the Memphis “classroom” than he would be in a confused, turbulent Cardinals setting. The irony, of course, is that the long-term beneficiary of Walker’s baseball growth will be the St. Louis Cardinals. Triple-A exists for a reason: the final test for a player with a lengthy big-league career in sight. It should be fun watching Jordan Walker hit the books in Memphis.

Walker homered in his second game with the Redbirds, a Friday-night loss at Durham.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Catcher and I

photo: Taka Yanagimoto/St. Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina

My father and I shared an inning of baseball with Yadier Molina. It was the top of the ninth inning, actually, near the end of Game 3 of the 2004 World Series at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. That game — played on October 26, 2004 — began with hope and optimism for Cardinal fans like Dad and myself, even with the Boston Red Sox up two games. The first World Series game in St. Louis in 17 years had luminaries in the stands — Dad’s hero, Stan Musial, threw out the first pitch to another Cardinals legend, Bob Gibson — and boys spending time with their fathers, now both men.

Molina began the 2004 season with the Memphis Redbirds but, after merely 37 games at Triple-A, got his call to the big leagues. He spent the better part of five months backing up Cardinal catcher Mike Matheny. But the 22-year-old Molina entered Game 3 of the Fall Classic as a defensive replacement and would actually start Game 4 for St. Louis. The Cardinals, you surely know, lost both games and were swept by the “destiny” Red Sox, ending an 86-year drought for the American League franchise. Dad and I watched Game 4 from my living room here in Memphis, not far from the Central Gardens neighborhood where Dad grew up. It wasn’t a happy night, but we’d made it to the World Series(!) together, and surely the Cardinals would get ’em next year.

My dad, alas, was gone before the 2005 World Series. He died suddenly and at an age (63) I see as younger with every passing year. The Cardinals won the World Series in 2006 (and again in 2011). Dad was with me for those championships, but not in the way I’d prefer, either at Busch Stadium or in my living room. I’m left to celebrate our favorite team for Dad as opposed to with him. His granddaughters have played a considerable role in this endeavor.

But one player — only one — has been with us (“us” being the Cardinals) ever since Game 3 of the 2004 World Series: Yadier Molina. For more than 2,000 games now — and the most playoff games of any man in National League history — there’s been a single player who my dad would find familiar were he able to visit for a single ballgame. This is the singular bond I’ve shared with Yadier Molina since my dad died almost 17 years ago. And it’s why I’m having some emotional difficulty facing Molina’s retirement when this Cardinals season — his 19th with the franchise — comes to an end.

The emotions aren’t all sad. There’s far more to celebrate about Yadier Molina’s career with the Cardinals — he’s played for only one team with a losing record — than regret. The ratio is absurd. He has been a distinctive character on top of his talents as a nine-time Gold Glove winner and owner of more than 2,000 hits. My daughter Sofia says he’s the only athlete she knows who has a smile that melts you like a teddy bear along with a glare that could drop a professional wrestler to his knees. Would you rather hug Yadi or join him for an alley fight?

I met Molina briefly before a Cardinals exhibition game at AutoZone Park in 2015. He hit a home run during another exhibition game two years later, on my mother-in-law’s birthday, with my mother-in-law in the stands. Those were not easy planets to align in late March. But it’s a Yadi Moment my father would appreciate.

In the near future, a statue of Yadier Molina will be unveiled outside Busch Stadium, not far from the statue of Rogers Hornsby that Dad and I saw unveiled in 2000. I’ll pose for pictures in front of Yadi’s replica, and always with a smile. I’ll pose with my wife. I’ll pose with my daughters (one now a student at Saint Louis University). And I’ll pose in front of that statue with my dad. He and Yadi know each other well.
Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer. 

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Redbirds Wrap-Up

Matthew Liberatore (Credit: Memphis Redbirds)

Every baseball season leaves memories. At the Triple-A level, those memories come wrapped with a layer of hope for the future. Here are a few impressions from the 2021 Memphis Redbirds season that may prove lasting.

• A quiet phone. A season’s top highlight for a Triple-A player isn’t a game-winning home run or a complete-game shutout, but “The Call,” a first invitation to the big leagues. There weren’t a lot of these in 2021 here in Memphis. Infielder José Rondón was promoted by the St. Louis Cardinals after only 21 games with the Redbirds, but has seen limited action (primarily as a pinch-hitter) with the big club. Outfielder Lars Nootbaar hit .308 in 35 games for Memphis before his promotion and has become somewhat of a cult hero in St. Louis, chants of “Noooooooot!” rising from Busch Stadium with the rookie’s every appearance. Nootbaar made a sensational catch to prevent a home run in New York against the Mets earlier this month and hit two homers in the Cardinals’ 14th consecutive win last Friday night in Chicago. His impact hasn’t been merely a fun surname.

• Twin prospects. The Cardinals’ top two prospects — pitcher Matthew Liberatore and second-baseman Nolan Gorman — made significant strides toward the majors in 2021. Pitching for the first time above Class A, the 21-year-old Liberatore has posted an 8-9 record with a 4.15 ERA (through Sunday). Not impressive numbers. But Liberatore has hurled 121 innings against Triple-A hitters, many of them with experience in the majors. Expect him to compete for a Cardinals rotation spot next spring, St. Louis having gone through cases of duct tape to keep its starters competitive this season. As for Gorman (also 21 and a childhood pal of Liberatore’s from Arizona), a spot on the Cardinals’ roster in 2022 is all but certain after he hit .276 with 14 home runs in 74 games for Memphis, and after slamming 11 homers in 43 games for Double-A Springfield. With power from the left side and versatility on the infield, Gorman could represent what Matt Carpenter once did on the Cardinals roster.

• Streakers! The Redbirds fell to 21-36 when they lost the first game of a doubleheader at Louisville on July 9th. It would be their last loss for two weeks. After taking the final two games of that series with the Bats, Memphis swept six games against the Norfolk Tides at AutoZone Park, then swept seven games back at Louisville to set a new franchise record with 15 wins in row. The streak shattered the previous mark of 11 set by the 2017 Pacific Coast League champions. “We kept winning ballgames,” reflects Gorman, “so we started saying, ‘Let’s see how far we can take this.’ Every game meant something. We had a lot of fun with it. We’d go down 2-0 or 3-0 in the fifth inning, but we never felt like we were out of it. We knew we’d pull it off in the end. It happened quite a few times. There was a lot of confidence in the clubhouse. It was fun to be a part of.”

• Hidden gem. It’s not all about the prospects. First baseman Juan Yepez was not among the Cardinals’ top 20 prospects at the beginning of the season, but the case could be made he was the 2021 Memphis Redbirds MVP. After a strong start (five homers in 19 games) at Springfield, the Cardinals promoted Yepez to Memphis and he will finish the season as the team’s leader in home runs (currently 21), slugging percentage (.575), and OPS (.790). With Paul Goldschmidt entrenched at first in St. Louis, Yepez may not have a long future with the Cardinals. But the way he’s hit in 2021, the 23-year-old appears to have a future somewhere in the big leagues.

• A bobble and bombs. Now and then, the connection between AutoZone Park and Busch Stadium can feel surreal. Such was the case on September 18th, a Friday night. The Redbirds distributed Dylan Carlson bobbleheads to the first 2,000 fans at the game, one in which Memphis came from behind to beat Louisville. Up the river in St. Louis, Dylan Carlson — the Cardinals’ rookie rightfielder — hit a home run from both sides of the plate, the second one a grand slam, in a victory over the San Diego Padres. Coincidence? Probably. A reminder of the happy baseball marriage between Memphis and St. Louis? Absolutely.

The Redbirds (58-67) host the Charlotte Knights (Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox) Wednesday through Sunday at AutoZone Park to conclude their 2021 season.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

“The Other Nolan”

Nolan Gorman (courtesy Memphis Redbirds)

When the calendar turned to 2021, Nolan Gorman knew he would spend the year as one of the St. Louis Cardinals’ top two prospects (along with pitcher Matthew Liberatore, a childhood pal from Arizona and now a teammate with the Memphis Redbirds). What Gorman didn’t know was that by February, he would be merely the second-best third baseman named Nolan in the Cardinals’ system. 

With the acquisition of perennial All-Star Nolan Arenado from the Colorado Rockies, the Cardinals secured what they hope will be their third baseman for the better part of a decade. They also added a twist to “the other Nolan’s” development. Gorman now spends most nights playing second base for the Redbirds. By the looks of his production at the Triple-A level, he may soon join his namesake in that Cardinal infield.

“The biggest difference [at Triple A] has been the pitching,” says the 21-year-old Gorman. “They go out there with a game plan to face me. And they execute better than guys at Double A. A bunch of them have big-league time. It’s a good challenge: learn to adapt as quickly as possible to get to the next level.”

Since his promotion from Double-A Springfield on June 29th, Gorman has hit .278 with 10 home runs and an OPS of .796. (His numbers over 43 games with Springfield: .288 average, 11 homers, .862 OPS.) “I make mechanical adjustments [to my swing] in the offseason,” explains Gorman. “I tinker with stuff, here and there, during the season, but nothing drastic. It’s been more mental. Less is more . . . not trying to do too much. This game will humble you quickly if you think you have it figured out. You have to trust yourself, not try to hit a home run every time.”

The adjustment to a new level of professional baseball has coincided with Gorman’s adjustment to a new position. He’s looked comfortable at second base, even when turning the double play (not an act that always comes naturally to a longtime third baseman). “It’s been fun,” he says. “I had a lot of help during spring training from [Cardinal coaches] Jose Oquendo and Stubby Clapp. Just put in the work. They’ve made it as easy as possible. It’s probably easier for a third baseman to move to second than it is to go from second to third. I’ve enjoyed turning double plays, and being involved in so many plays. On an off day, I’ll be pacing the dugout, not knowing what to do with myself.”

Now a minor league instructor with the Cardinals, Oquendo famously played all nine positions (including pitcher) during the 1988 season with St. Louis. Gorman emphasizes Oquendo’s influence — especially during 2020, when the pandemic shut down the minor leagues — in much the way generations of Cardinals credited their development to the late George Kissell. “He has what you’d call the ‘it’ factor,” says Gorman. “He understands the game at a different level. It’s special. To be able to sit and talk with [Oquendo] about the game, to see how it should be played . . . it’s been really good to hear that at a young age. [Baseball] is changing and evolving, but there’s a right way to play the game. There are a lot of chess pieces to keep an eye on.”

In reflecting on the “lost season” of 2020, Gorman sees a silver lining, one that may actually benefit his development and get him to the major leagues quicker. “I went to the alternate [training] site and I was able to really hone in on things I needed to improve,” he says. “I enjoyed how much work I got in. It put me in a leadership role for younger guys. [Oquendo] did that, I think, to build my leadership skills, to focus on my career and how to get better. [The shutdown] could hurt players or make them better. It’s the mentality, what you did with it. How you spent your time.”

Ten days after he first donned a Memphis Redbirds jersey, Gorman and his teammates embarked on a franchise-record 15-game winning streak. They remain well outside playoff contention (48-54 through Sunday), but nothing teaches an athlete to win like actually winning games. With his big-league debut drawing near (major-league clubs can expand rosters Wednesday), Gorman hopes to find similar growth spurts a few hours north and just across the Mississippi River. “You gotta be consistent at the big-league level,” says Gorman. “You gotta produce to win ballgames, or someone will replace you. Find consistency. Have a game plan every day, and trust it.”

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Birds and Buds

Last Saturday, I took a buddy of 38 years(!) to Busch Stadium for his first visit to the nest of the St. Louis Cardinals. Had the opportunity to introduce a long-distance traveler to several former Memphis Redbirds, in my happy place. Audie Artero didn’t grow up a Cardinals fan as I did (third generation), but he grew up a teammate of mine (basketball and soccer, in addition to baseball). We were small-town partners, and not just in the outfield for Northfield (VT) High School. We tended to travel as a tandem, at least when not on a date or scouting foreign turf (perhaps a party “way up” in Montpelier).

Ours is a cosmic friendship, of a sort, as the odds of the two of us ever crossing paths were astronomical. I was born in Tennessee and found my way to a small hamlet in central Vermont via California (among other family stops). Audie was born in North Carolina and found his way to Northfield via Texas (among other family stops). Our connective thread: Our fathers were hired, a year apart, by Norwich University.

Audie is now a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, and has called Guam home for more than two decades. This makes the days we actually share a room — or baseball stadium — a little more significant than visits across a time zone or two. We tend to make the most of them, and we’ve managed to get together the old-fashioned way every odd year since 2009. (I trail Audie by a few ocean-widths of air travel.)

Qualities in a friend you keep on the other side of the globe? It starts, of course, with our high school experience. We “shared our morning days,” as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it. But I’ll note a couple of Audie’s shining traits. I’ve never witnessed him act cruel, in the slightest, to another person. (Except on a basketball court. He introduced himself in a pickup game and swatted my first shot with malice beyond the reach of most 14-year-olds.) This is a guy who excuses himself when someone takes his place in line. And Audie has virtually no ego, despite an abundance of smarts and talent. (There was no Mutombo finger-wag after that block. He took possession of the ball, and scored.)

Senior year in high school, I entered an essay contest in which we were tasked with writing about three people we admired, past or present. I wrote about Thomas Jefferson, Mohandas Gandhi, and Audie Artero. Took second place. Good friends, it turns out, make for inspired writing and good reading.

Audie and I have each been blessed with happy marriages for more than a quarter century. We’ve each raised a pair of daughters. (Like mine, Audie’s got his mother’s good looks.) Our friendship would make a decent Hallmark movie were it not for a few minor laws broken along the way. (In a small town, you can often answer the blue lights with a sincere apology.) The long distance component — Memphis is 7,500 miles from Guam — would be the tear-jerker, but our story has been packed with so much laughter, audiences would be too exhausted from the happy to waste any energy on the sad.

We followed our night at the ballpark with a Sunday tour of Anheuser-Busch. Audie and I have contributed to the company’s profit margin over the years, so a view of the Budweiser barrels, you might say, was overdue. It was one of those experiences, we often agreed, we’d enjoy someday. No need to write such plans down, or create a list, not even with 7,500 miles part of the equation. It’s funny. When “someday” arrives with a special friend, no matter how long it takes, it feels right on time.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Redbird Reinforcements?

Alex Reyes (Courtesy Memphis Redbirds)

The 2019 Memphis Redbirds season began with Tommy Edman on the infield and ended with Dylan Carlson in the outfield. Two years and one pandemic later, both players can be found in the St. Louis Cardinals’ batting order on a daily basis, key components to any World Series aspirations for the Redbirds’ parent club. If we go back to 2018 — a season that ended with a second-straight Pacific Coast League championship for Memphis — we recall AutoZone Park memories of Randy Arozarena, Luke Voit, Adolis Garcia, Jack Flaherty, and Dakota Hudson, all now rising stars in the major leagues (though not all still in the St. Louis system).

Back to the present, though, and it’s hard to envision current Redbirds making the kind of impact so many of their predecessors have before, during, and now near the end of the worldwide health crisis. Among the Cardinals’ current top 20 prospects (as ranked by MLB.com), only two have been with Memphis since Opening Day in May, and both are pitchers: Matthew Liberatore (the number-one prospect) and Zack Thompson. Liberatore (acquired in a trade that sent Arozarena to Tampa Bay) has an especially high ceiling and could occupy a future spot in the Cardinals’ starting rotation, but he’s pitched in only six games above Class A. Remember, minor-league baseball went dark in 2020, a lost season of competition and development for rising stars like Liberatore. You might say he’s currently pitching on a “Double-A-plus” level, only in Triple-A stadiums.

Among position players, who among the 2021 Memphis Redbirds might enter the mix in St. Louis? Outfielder Lars Nootbaar missed 20 games with an injury to his right hand, but has put up an eye-popping slash line in his first season at Triple-A: .329/.430/.557 (through Sunday). With the Cardinals’ offensive numbers among the worst in baseball — among 30 teams, St. Louis ranks 27th in on-base percentage and 22nd in slugging percentage — any Memphis hitter with numbers like Nootbaar’s is like a peacock on parade amid a gaggle of geese.

 Jose Rondon leads the Redbirds with six home runs and this is telling, as the infielder has been with the Cardinals since being promoted on May 29th. The Memphis lineup is not stocked with bashers, and Rondon’s impact with St. Louis has been minimal (six hits in 13 games). As the season’s midpoint nears, the Cardinals (and Redbirds) need to maximize production from now-familiar faces. Until Double-A Springfield infuses the upper levels of the system with new blood, the I-55 pipeline may be traffic-free.

• The best story this season among former Redbirds on the current Cardinal roster is that of Alex Reyes. The 26-year-old pitcher made his big-league debut in 2016, when he struck out 93 hitters in 65 innings for Memphis as the system’s top-ranked prospect. But a series of injuries limited Reyes to a total of seven innings over the next three seasons. He pitched out of the Cardinals’ bullpen last year, but his workload was just shy of 20 innings in the abbreviated season.

Here in 2021, though, Reyes has assumed the role of closer for the Cardinals, walking the ninth-inning tightrope as though he’s been there before. Through Sunday, Reyes has posted a miniscule 0.82 ERA and earned 17 saves, good for fifth in the National League. The riddle for St. Louis, big picture, will be whether to keep Reyes in a role that limits him (typically) to one inning per game, or to return his powerful right arm to the starting rotation, an area that’s been compromised this season by the injury-related losses of Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas, and most significantly, ace Jack Flaherty. Whether in the ninth inning or the first, Reyes should be a difference-maker — if he can stay healthy — for many years to come.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Tigers Tested, Sweet Lou, and the NBA

The coronavirus, college football, and math. You can choose two, but you can’t have all three.

The average reproductive number for coronavirus infection — the number of people a person carrying the virus infects — is between 2 and 3. Some carriers of the virus won’t infect anyone they encounter, but some will infect more than 10. It’s the nastiest “bug” in recent human history, precisely because it’s so easy to share but so hard to detect.

Take this math and apply it to a college football game. Two programs on a field, each with a minimum of 100 people sharing a sideline. The idea of one of those teams playing as many as eight games this fall and keeping that reproductive number at zero is really bad math. It’s ludicrous. The Memphis Tigers and the program’s followers learned this after but one game, their season-opening beating of Arkansas State. With multiple members of the program testing positive for COVID-19 (as announced last Friday), the Tigers’ next game — scheduled for this Friday against Houston at the Liberty Bowl — has been postponed. At least.

So pandemic football comes down to the frequency of COVID tests within each program, and how those tests are reported. Were Tiger players and staff infected with the virus during their game against the Red Wolves (six days before the positives were announced)? Arkansas State played its game at Kansas State last Saturday, but several players on the depth chart were sidelined. And there was plenty of finger-pointing — toward the A-State program — over social media throughout the weekend. It stands to reason, if I understand contact tracing, that if one team had infected players during a football game, the opposing roster would be compromised (as potential carriers) a week later. It’s ugly math if you’re a football fan. And no game on your favorite schedule should be written in ink.

• For the third time in eight seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals are wearing a patch commemorating the life of a legendary player, one whose statue stands in front of Busch Stadium. The greatest Cardinal of them all, Stan Musial, died in 2013. Five years later, Red Schoendienst joined his former roommate in that great clubhouse in the sky. Then on September 6th, Lou Brock passed away at age 81. It seems especially cruel that a man whose number 20 has been retired by the Cardinals for more than 40 years was taken from us in the already-plenty-dreadful year 2020.

Brock’s 3,000th hit (in August 1979) is my earliest distinct memory of the Cardinals. I got the chance to meet Mr. Brock twice — once at Tim McCarver Stadium and once at AutoZone Park — and both times he treated me like I was the first fan he’d ever met. Like fellow Hall of Famers Musial and Schoendienst, Brock was somehow better at being a human being than he was at playing baseball. He also happens to have been one of the most competitive men to ever set foot on a diamond. (Brock is the only player Sandy Koufax acknowledges having hit with a pitch on purpose. Brock was that disruptive upon reaching base.) The world needs more Lou Brocks. I’m grateful we had him as long as we did.

• Nine months into the most unpredictable year of our lives, it’s nice have the NBA playoffs nearing completion. When it comes to the NBA Finals, what you expect is typically what you get. Since the turn of the century, only three teams seeded lower than third have reached the Finals. And all three — the 2006 Mavericks, the 2010 Celtics, and the 2018 Cavaliers — lost the championship series. The fifth-seeded Miami Heat could become the fourth “surprise” entry if Jimmy Butler and friends can knock off the third-seeded Boston Celtics. More than likely, the de facto Finals will be played in the Western Conference, where we could see a “Battle for L.A.” (unless the Denver Nuggets crash the party): both the Lakers’ LeBron James and Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard are aiming to lead a third franchise to a title. The NBA doesn’t exactly welcome Cinderella to its dance, but a clash of familiar champions — even in new uniforms — might be just the right vitamin for a 2020 sports fan.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Your 2020(?) Memphis Redbirds

CREDIT: Taka Yanagimoto/St. Louis Cardinals

If the Memphis Redbirds play a 2020 season (granted, a tremendous if these days), it’s bound to be successful. Sure to have moments we’ll remember a generation from now. And almost certain to culminate with a playoff appearance. Why such optimism in such uncertain times? Well, the history books don’t lie. And Memphis baseball loves the start of a new decade. Check this out:

Taka Yanagimoto/St. Louis Cardinals

Dylan Carlson

• In 1970, the Double-A Memphis Blues (a New York Mets farm team) finished only two games over .500 (69-67) but won the Texas League’s Eastern Division.

• In 1980, thanks largely to the pitching of Charlie Lea (9-0, 0.84 ERA), the Double-A Memphis Chicks (Montreal Expos) went 83-61 and won the Southern League’s Western Division.

• In 1990, despite going only 73-71 in the regular season, the Chicks (then the Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals) burst to life in the playoffs and won the Southern League championship.

• In 2000, sparked by a back-flipping second-baseman named Stubby Clapp and an epic walk-off home run by Albert Pujols, the Memphis Redbirds (Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals) won the Pacific Coast League championship in AutoZone Park’s inaugural season.

• In 2010, Lance Lynn won 13 games and led the PCL with 141 strikeouts, enough to fuel another division title for the Redbirds. (Memphis lost to Tacoma in the league championship series.)

Five straight decades of Memphis baseball with a playoff season to get things started. And there’s every reason to believe a 2020 Redbirds club would be armed with the tools to make it six in a row.

Outfielder Dylan Carlson earned Texas League Player of the Year honors last season with Double-A Springfield, where he posted an .882 OPS and slugged 21 home runs before a late-season promotion to Memphis. He’s the Cardinals’ highest-ranked hitting prospect (10th on the Baseball America chart) since the late Oscar Taveras, the last Cardinal farmhand to win POY in the Texas League (in 2012). Based on his stellar play in spring training, the 21-year-old Carlson may end up in the Cardinals’ outfield. Should he appear at AutoZone Park, he will be the Redbirds’ ringleader.

Even minus Carlson, though, Redbirds manager Ben Johnson should have some thunderous lumber at his disposal. Third-baseman Elehuris Montero (like Carlson, 21 years old) endured an injury-riddled 2019 season, but drove in 82 runs and hit .315 with Class-A Palm Beach and Peoria two years ago. If he mans the hot corner for Memphis, he’ll have to hold off another Baseball America favorite, Nolan Gorman. Playing as a teenager in Class-A last year, Gorman posted a .765 OPS and hit 15 homers. He’d all but certainly start the season no higher than Springfield, but Gorman could find some at-bats in a playoff push come August. Catcher Andrew Knizner hit .276 with 12 homers in 66 games for Memphis last season and should be a middle-of-the-order presence for the Redbirds unless he’s called up for reserve duty in St. Louis. (The ageless Yadier Molina will be the Cardinals’ Opening Day catcher for the 16th season in a row.)

It’s the pitching mound where the 2020 Redbirds could separate themselves from the rest of the PCL. Lefty Genesis Cabrera (23) was dominant at times last season, once striking out nine straight batters in a game at AutoZone Park. Zack Thompson (22) — a 2019 first-round draft pick, another southpaw — will be in the mix for a rotation spot, as will yet another lefty, Matthew Liberatore (20), Baseball America‘s 42nd-ranked prospect who came to St. Louis in the deal that sent Jose Martinez to Tampa Bay in January. Jake Woodford (23) started in last season’s Triple-A All-Star Game and again hopes for a top-of-the-rotation role with the Redbirds.

Needless to say, this is roster speculation in its purest form. Here’s hoping Memphis does get professional baseball in 2020. Whenever the new decade does arrive at AutoZone Park, it will feel special in ways we never fully appreciated before.

The Memphis Redbirds’ opening game — originally scheduled for April 9th — has been postponed indefinitely during the coronavirus shutdown.