(Get) A Sporting Life

 If you have been trying to watch the St. Louis Blues attempt to play hockey of late it would be hard to believe the word optimism could ever be in play. The losses continue relentlessly, often in the "never in the game" style, but increasingly in a "lose from winning position" flair which is enough to make someone turn on the news for an upbeat change of pace. (Wow, plane crashes and LUNACY!) This team still can't score with the regularity needed to win consistently in this league. The coaching staff knows they have precious few natural goal scorers (one is precious few), so they attempt to make up for it by getting what I call "process" goals, i.e. goals scored by virtue of constant pressure, crazy bounces, accidental deflections, etc. Basically, any goal you can get from a player who doesn't have the knack for scoring them on their own. The Blues are something like zero for their last 12-15 breakaway chances, and zero for their last 25-30 2 on 1...

 It maybe trendy YOLO nonsense, but as I get older I have taken to "experiences" more than I used to in the past. Do not get me wrong, I still love stuff, and I am not unaware that having cash at my disposal opens up the range of possible experiences. However, I must say my mood is often "I'll try anything once," as often as not.  To that end I recently became a part owner in three racehorses. Through the website MyRaceHorse.com I have purchased ownership shares in three horses, 1 share each in an as yet unnamed colt and unnamed filly, and 2 shares in a colt named Munny Problem.  All of these horses are 2-year-olds who are just beginning their lives as potential racehorses. I say potential because there is no guarantee any of them will ever make it to the starting gate of an official race. The race game is a tough one and plenty of well-bred horses don't make the cut for various reasons; they can get injured, they don't take to the training, they turn ou...

 The St. Louis Blues have not had many out-of-character results so far this season. For the most part they have been handling the teams they usually handle and doing nothing against the teams that seem to always have their number. There is some solace to be had just knowing that you are going to probably beat Calgary, and will probably lose to Columbus, just as the sun will most likely rise in the East tomorrow. Granted that isn't an ideal set of affairs for a sports team, but Blues fans have learned to take what they can get. Which is why it is fair to say last night's victory over Utah was unusual. The Blues do not play well against that collection of players. Ever. So, any victory would be noteworthy in this matchup, but the resilience they showed last night was an added bonus. The Blues still have crappy puck luck, but last night they didn't let it get them down and, miracle of miracles, the puck luck evened out for the game. For a change the PK wasn't always runnin...

There are few things harder to keep track of than an MLS side in their off-season, at least for me. Despite the fact it takes place roughly during the time the MLB Hot Stove season is in full swing, it is nowhere near as easy to follow along with as baseball. Part of it is how disconnected MLS is with the international soccer calendar. St. Louis City SC is still digesting the moves it made last summer even though those players have already played important games for the club. It is all weird and disjointed, and I always feel like I am playing catch-up. Happily, the moves made in the off-season this year were not numerous.  German Timo Baumgartl comes over from Europe as an option at center back, which is good because that was a position that was a little rocky for City last season. Given his own troubles over the last few seasons (cancer and uneven play in the aftermath of that), a spell with City can give Baumgartl a chance to have a re-set. Given his pedigree and the fact City si...

 Hockey seasons will have their ups and downs. For whatever reason, be it injuries, a challenging schedule, an inexplicable loss of form, it is difficult for teams to maintain a good level of compete for an entire season. The good teams just limit their funks. The St. Louis Blues, however, are not a good team. They are a poor team, and poor teams sink under the weight of "here we go again" night after night.  I will admit I only watched the first two periods of last night's 5-0 loss to a Colorado team that had been scuffling of late. Two periods were more than enough to get the gist of it. It was also enough to lead me to a diagnosis as to what ails the team. It isn't that they are young and are going through growing pains. No, the reason the Blues are so bad is that the veterans who are being paid to be the backbone of this team are not doing their jobs. I'm talking about Schenn, Buchnevich, Faulk, and even Binnington and Parayko. Over $30M of the salary cap is b...

 For a moment there I thought something big might be brewing. Word was Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad were absent from practice (where Monty was evidently pushing them hard after last night's dismal showing,) and there was to be press availability from Army after the practice. Immediately my mind was filled with happy thoughts of the Blues General Manager fleecing another NHL team of valuable pieces for an on-again off-again Buchy and the desiccated husk of Brandon Saad.  Sadly, it was not to be.  Instead, we learned that Saad had been waived because the Blues couldn't find a trade partner willing to give anything up to acquire him. If no one puts in a claim for him Saad will report down to Springfield to clog up their lineup for a change. Army also emphasized there was no intention of recalling anyone interesting from Springfield to take these roster spots (Saad's and the recently traded Scott Perunovich's.) So, for Blues fans what you see is what you get. That will...

 I have to say I am not terribly impressed by the St. Louis Blues moving Scott Perunovich to the New York Islanders for a conditional 5th round pick. I felt this season Perunovich was scapegoated a little bit by the Blues. If you look at his advanced metrics they actually were among the best of all the Blues defensemen, but he simply couldn't crack the lineup as the Blues continued to prefer the aging Suter.  Don't get me wrong, Suter isn't a complete dumpster fire, but when he has a bad game he is a terrible liability out there. Perunovich at least offered a skill set moving the puck that the Blues could use more of, especially on the power play. Indeed, the Achilles heel of this team is the generally awful state of their special teams. In the limited play he got on the second unit Perunovich showed a little something, but, once again, lack of consistent playing time kept the unit from clicking. (It didn't help the Blues have had so few PP opportunities this season.)  ...

The idea here is to have a place I can record my thoughts on the current outlook for my exasperating but beloved St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Club. I also want to track things over the course of the season, to watch my peaks and valleys as the team lurches to what promises to be another missed MLB postseason. A good reason why the Cards are on track to miss the playoffs again is the seeming lack of interest in the major league club by the front office. The majority of the Cards efforts this off-season have been to improve the minor league side of the operation. Efforts on the major league side have been largely limited to waving goodbye to departing free agents. No multi-year contracts were given to any arbitration eligible player, though there was speculation about a couple (Helsley and Donovan in particular.) No move has added a player onto the 40 Man Roster who wasn't already in the organization except for Bailey Horn ("Bailey who?") The biggest change to date has been...

Shit gets you down. A lot of shit gets you way down. And sometimes sports doesn't give you a break from shit, it only piles it higher and deeper. Granted my shit baseline is pretty deep these days. I've been unemployed for ten months and, if employers are to be believed, I'm simply unemployable unless 'you'd like fries with that' becomes my career path. So, you can imagine how "helpful" it is to me to sit down and watch Adam Wainwright blow out his Achilles tendon, or to hear the news last autumn about Oscar Taveras. And then we get to the St. Louis Blues. There is no way I can do a post-mortem because I simply cannot stand it or them anymore. They have mattered so much to me since I was a 10 year old kid that they have used me up. It turns out 36 years of futility is my limit. It is impossible for me to believe someone could be a fan, and I mean a real fan, and last longer than I did. Every year they trot out some Cubs "fan" who claims 70 ...

It goes without saying that every team wants to win. It also goes without saying that every team has fans that are crushed when their hero's fall short time and time again. So, as far as it goes and all things being equal, every team needs to win championships. However, all things are not equal. There are some franchises whose dry streaks just scream out a little bit more insistently because of their history or their place in their respective sports hierarchy. So, I'll be giving you my perspective and ranking these extra needy franchises starting at the 10th most needy and ending with the most terribly needy franchise. Oh, the places we will go! #10) Seattle Sounders - MLS "Wait. What?" many of you are saying. It seems incongruous that a team that has only been in the top flight of American soccer since 2007 should be on this list. However, the Sounders are in many ways the model MLS franchise and a poster child for what the league always hoped the sport could ...

...just took the worst penalty kick in the history of bad penalty kicks. I'm pretty sure a dead goalie propped up into a standing position also would have made the save, as would a box of newly born kittens. No more Espindola penalties please.

One thing I am enjoying about the baseball landscape these day is the ability to get to know something about the prospects going into the draft. Ten years ago the draft just happened and you got a blurb or two in the paper the following days. Now it is possible to get some feel for the players likely to go in the first couple of rounds. Granted, that "feel" is a little cursory, but at least it gives baseball fans more of a rooting interest. That being said, here are a few players I'm rooting for the Cardinals to select with one of their four selections in the first 72 picks. (The Cards select 27, 34, 69 and 72.) Note this is not an attempt at a "mock draft" ordering. Trying to do that past the Top 10 selections seems a bit of a fool's errand. There is just too much volatility for mock drafts to be all that worthwhile (though they are fun.) The only thing I am doing is removing some of the big names from consideration as it seems unlikely, for example, that...

I have nothing to really add here except to note how easy-goingly mediocre the Cardinals have decided to be this year. To say the Cards lack a sense of urgency would be putting it mildly. I do realize its still early but it is a fine line between calm, cool and collected and downright apathetic. I'm just not certain this team is on the correct side of that line.

It looked dicey for about 15 minutes, but Notts County was able to secure a 1-1 draw against Oldham.  It turned out Tranmere wound up losing 2-1, so it didn't matter too much. Though there was a moment in the second half when Tranmere was up, Crewe was up, and Notts was down. At that point I needed a sedative. All's well that end's well. So they say.

So, it has all come down to this in League One. Notts County need one point, one measly little point, to assure survival. (OK, OK, technically  they could be caught. But Tranmere would have to win thier game by 14 goals. I'll take my chances.) The games that matter: Oldham v. Notts County Crewe v. Preston Tranmere v. Bradford Crewe and Tranmere are both at home, and Notts is one the road. That's bad. Notts has the far superior goal differential. That's good. In the early minutes Crewe and Tranmere have gotten early leads. That's bad. In the early minutes Notts and Oldham are still tied. That's good. It's gonna be a long 90 minutes or so.

It's now or never time. And, my God, do I hate the fucking moneybags Red Sox.

When it comes to the Blues I've decided I have to look forward. Looking back is only a recipe for acid indigestion. The trouble is there is almost no way to accurately look forward with this team. However, I'll do my best by mixing my predictions with my preferences. Say Goodbye To St. Louis These are the unrestricted free agent players that should be moving on: Andy McDonald Scott Nichol Jamie Langenbrunner Jeff Woywitka Andrew Murray McDonald was the highest paid forward on the Blues this season, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this team's inability to score. Nichol never found his way back into the lineup once the chemistry of the CPR line asserted itself. The other three? Thanks for the memories. With Restrictions Here is where things get dicey. The Blues have some players who are restricted free agents that they will need to take care of but they can't be profligate. Alex Pietrangelo should get pretty big money. H...

If the Blues lose tonight, which seems only too likely, do not expect to see a post mortem from me for a few days. It's always too fucking painful to think about at first. I can get away with that shit because I ain't getting paid.

Here is a pitching line I can get behind. 9 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 13 K That is some serious shit brought down on the Rockies by rookie Shelby Miller. If nothing else goes right tonight, and I'm not very hopeful, at least St. Louis fans can take some solace from the good prospects for the boys of summer. The Cards have the chance to be very very good.

Long will fans, writers and historians of the game discuss the epic long awaited battle between the Padres and the Rays. I myself am all a twitter,