Bird Land » Bird Land Latest Blog Posts |
Add as Favorite
Claim Blog 
|
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/bird-land - Derrick Goold's riffs on St. Louis Cardinals news, notes and anecdotes, from first pitch to hot stove.
We're gathering posts from Bird Land » Bird Land, but they need votes from our members (or links from other blogs we track) to make it to the homepage. Click on the "hype it up" button next to any of the posts to get it started.
If you're the owner of Bird Land » Bird Land, claim your blog to unlock additional tools and reports.
SOUTH GRAND — When he got up from having the nerve in his right elbow relocated, the pressure that had been such a problem was gone. There was no ache, no odd crowded sensation when he bent the joint. His elbow felt … normal.
“I woke up from surgery feeling like I was a ...
Tags:
MLB
Albert Pujols
St. Louis Cardinals
Kyle McClellan
Chris Carpenter
TOWER GROVE - The bountiful stats Ryan Ludwick put up this season, the career-high wins for pitchers like Kyle Lohse and even the radar readouts from rookie Jason Motte – as big as those numbers were, the digits that continue to define the Cardinals 2008 season are these: 31.
Everyone ...
Tags:
MLB
Chicago Cubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Ryan Ludwick
Kyle Lohse
Jason Motte
Albert Pujols
TOWER GROVE — A “transition” year by any definition implies not only the integration of younger, less-experienced and prospect-like players, but also those players abilities to construct a bridge to the next season, one where they will be better and, thus, the team will be ...
Tags:
MLB
St. Louis Cardinals
Brian Barton
Kyle McClellan
Chris Perez
TOWER GROVE — In hindsight, the Cardinals have realized they based a lot of their expectations of success in 2008, particularly when it came to pitching, on hope.
Hope was inconsistent, at best, and was recently diagnosed with impingement.
The Cardinals expected no fewer than three ...
Tags:
MLB
St. Louis Cardinals
Mark Mulder
Matt Clement
Chris Carpenter
Rick Ankiel
1
0
1
TOWER GROVE — As Los Angeles Dodgers manager
Joe Torre describes it: A few weeks, at Coors
Field, he pulled his shortstop, Rafael Furcal , into a meeting to discuss whether or not the switch-hitter’s body would cooperate and let him be a ...
Back in 2007, with the Cardinals fresh from the 10th World Series championship in team history, the Post-Dispatch , ahem, dispatched Gary Hairlson to Jupiter, Fla., to capture spring training on video and beam it back to the fans. One morning, he caught up with the spring training fixture, the ...
Tags:
MLB
St. Louis Cardinals
Detroit Tigers
Sparky Anderson
SOUTH GRAND — It remains one of the most inside-baseball anecdotal tidbits of the Cardinals’ 2008 season: Outfielder Ryan Ludwick was a National League All-Star before he was an everyday player.
On his way to a career year in every column and row of his baseball card, Ludwick ...
Tags:
MLB
St. Louis Cardinals
TOWER GROVE — A few hours after pitching coach Dave Duncan agreed to a contract for the 2009 season, I asked him if the biggest question facing the Cardinals pitching staff this offseason was the ninth inning, and just who was going to handle it.
“I think so,” he said.
As ...
Tags:
MLB
St. Louis Cardinals
Dave Duncan
Tony La Russa
Jason Isringhausen
Jason Motte
Chris Perez
1
0
DOWNTOWN — Back in 2005, Cardinals instructor George
Kissell , widely regarded as one of the authors
of what manager Tony La Russa refers to as the “Cardinal Way,” returned after a year’s absence to Jupiter for his 65th spring ...
SOUTH GRAND — The League Championship Series (serieses? seri?) are set, October is full speed ahead and it’s long since time to dust off the mailbag and restart PostCards for the offseason.
The Cardinals have already started what promises to be an intriguing offseason with a ...
Tags:
MLB
St. Louis Cardinals
Adam Kennedy
Jim Edmonds
Chicago Cubs
Ryan Howard
Busch Stadium
TOWER GROVE — What he’s already earned for his arm, former Cardinal Dizzy Dean may now get for his voice. The Gas House Gang’s ace and Hall of Famer is one of 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award, given annually by Cooperstown for excellence in baseball broadcasting.
The ...
Tags:
MLB
Dizzy Dean
Hall of Fame
TOWER GROVE — Around about the time the Los Angeles Dodgers took a lead Saturday night at Chavez Ravine, I received an email from the director of the Cubs documentary, “We Believe”. He wrote, in short, that his “Hollywood Happy Ending is in jeopardy!”
Well, at ...
Tags:
MLB
Chicago Cubs
1
0
TOWER GROVE — Adam Wainwright’s final start of
the season did more than give him a 5-0
dash to the end of the season since his return from the disabled list. It rounded out a tidy total of starts for the young righthander, a group of ...
TOWER GROVE — Now that he’s free from a season spent neck deep and road-tested with the Kansas City Royals, former Cardinal TV stalwart Joel Goelberg has his shoulder in a sling — long story — and plenty of free time. That got him thinking.
When the Cardinals signed ...
Tags:
MLB
Kyle Lohse
Kansas City Royals
St. Louis Cardinals
1
0
SOUTH GRAND — A few years, the biggest
challenge to Albert Pujols’ MVP candidacy was a slugger
in the National League East who had big numbers in home runs and RBIs, but couldn’t quite match Pujols when it came to just about ...
1
0
TOWER GROVE — It doesn’t take much more
than a box score or a glance at the
season-ending statistics to know that if the Cardinals reduced their late-inning drama — some would say trauma — they are in contention until the ...
4
0
Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse will miss his scheduled
start Sunday to undergo an exam that could be
the harbinger of a contract extension with the team for the pending free-agent pitcher, officials and sources said Sunday morning. Lohse was ...
1
0
DOWNTOWN — Less than two full seasons ago,
outfielder Daryl Jones was a one-time, blue-chip football prospect
struggling to hit .200 at Low-A baseball for the second consecutive summer. He didn’t waver from his choice to slog through the ...
TOWER GROVE – By not playing at all or only seeing limited duty as a pinch hitter this weekend, Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones will almost certainly avoid what happened to him a year ago.
Barring one memorable weekend by Albert Pujols , that is.
Last season, Colorado’s Matt ...
Tags:
MLB
Albert Pujols
Colorado Rockies
Houston Astros
Cincinnati Reds
Tony La Russa
Busch Stadium
1
0
DOWNTOWN — If it weren’t for his career
path, he’d likely be a third generation season ticket
holder. He was brought up on Cardinals baseball. Attended his first game and saw his first October before he could walk. Back in college, ...
The player to watch in the NLCS