Seasons Greetings from Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
’Tis the holiday shopping season and the St. Louis Cardinals are in the mood. Like all things that we covet these days, it comes with a price. The sticker shock being created by some free agents at this year’s baseball Winter Meetings have been frightening.
Not to worry though, the Cardinals have a Plan B. If they cannot get the pitcher they want via free agency, they are more than willing to go the other route — that is a trade. While that too comes with risk, the Redbirds are in no position to wait around and try the old ‘silk purse out of a sow’s ear, i.e. the Sidney Ponson and Junior Spivey experiments. Did I mention Juan Encarnacion? Yeah, they won a World Series in spite of him.
There will be at least nine teams with payrolls at $100 million or higher. Throw in the fact that some teams are just one healthy free agent away from being the 10th and you will have $1BILLION dedicated to baseball salaries. Why didn’t I pay more attention when I was playing Little League baseball with Mathews-Dickey? Then again I grew up in the good old days of flannel uniforms no such money then.
At the winter meetings Major League Baseball also announced that the Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians would play an exhibition game on March 31st in Memphis, the day before the regular season opens in St. Louis. Vice President and Director of Baseball affairs Jimmy Lee Solomon along with Cardinal GM Walt Jocketty and Indian GM Ron Shapiro were on hand for the announcement. The significance here is that the game will be called the Civil Rights Game in commemoration of the Civil Rights movement.
“With Memphis being the place were Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated and were some thought the Civil Rights Movement may have died, Major League Baseball wants to keep that dream alive and certainly reach out to young African American baseball players to get them back involved with the game”, Solomon said.
The irony here is that the Cardinals, who at one time had a proud tradition of great black players from Tom Alston ( the first black Cardinal) to Flood, Gibson, Brock, Savage, McGee, Coleman and Smith, had one African American on the roster this season. Preston Wilson was a late season acquisition who came up big late in the season as well as post season. Wilson will not be back next season.
Cardinal GM Walt Jocketty has directed more scouting in the inner city to find more African American players, but that will be tough considering that the Majors is comprised of just eight percent African American. It’s not a Cardinal thing; it’s a baseball thing. Hopefully, Jimmy Lee Solomon can get this thing going a better direction. More to come later on Jimmy Lee Solomon. He works well under the radar to get things done. Having Sgt. Steve Martin of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department on one side and actress Lynn Whitfield on the other doesn’t hurt either. Sorry BIG Steve, you came in second place on this one if you know what side I mean.
You lost to the Cardinals????
I could not let this one go by without saying something about the Rams. They lost to the woeful Arizona Cardinals. These are the same Cardinals that had won two games this season, had not had a 100-yard rusher since Emmitt Smith retired two years ago and had running back, Marcel Shipp, who had not scored a touchdown since 2002 (he had three on Sunday). Other than that it was just peachy at the dome if you were a Cardinal fan.
Name Names!
Ram Quarterback Mark Bulger refrained from calling out his teammates by name when he questioned their desire to play for the right reasons. Don’t worry Mark, allow me. If Bulger wasn’t talking about tackle Alex Barron and center Richie Incognito, then I don’t know football and we all know that is not true. Barron has regressed since his rookie year. How hard is it to remember the snap count? Barron is good for two illegal procedure penalties each week. When does it stop? Hey Alex, trust your ability, you already have two advantages over your opponent — your physical ability and the fact they told you in the huddle what the snap count would be.
As for Incognito, when does the bad boy image stop? He can’t pass block to save his own life let alone Bulger’s and yet he is the media darling because he is the self anointed tough guy. OK, get tough and quit taking the personal foul penalties. Incognito is on borrowed time before someone badder than he is reminds him on the field that he doesn’t have it like that. Once again Marshall Faulk was smarter than all of us. He saw this mess coming before any of us. And mess it is for now.