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In The End, It Was a Good Year

Posted by Jeff White on October 26, 2012 in Baseball

I was among many local bloggers and or writers that picked the St. Louis Cardinals to go to the World Series.  I believe most of them did it with a biased heart.  They were filled with hope.  Call me maybe a little guilty of that myself.  I thought there would be little drop off.  That was before injuries hit the team.  Many others felt that the Cardinals would just finish somewhere in the middle and be respectable after a Championship season.  I remember very few that thought the Cardinals would fall to let’s say Cubs level.  Whew, glad they were wrong.

From Chris Carpenter to Lance Berkman to Rafael Furcal getting injured it looked gloomy for the Cardinals many times this season.  I would have laughed if last year at this time Lance Lynn would have been an All-Star and Pete Kozma would be our starting postseason shortstop.

Let’s face it, the Cincinnati Reds ran away with the division.  By mid June that was apparent.  Tip of the cap to them for a great season.  But they lost to the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS.  Too bad, so sad.  How about those Atlanta Braves who last year missed out on the Wild Card on the last day of the season?  Well, our Cardinals beat them in their house in a one game Wild Card playoff game.  See that full story here.  What about them Washington Nationals?  They had that Stephen Strasburg ace and the phenom Bryce Harper.  Oh yeah, Strasburg was shut down and Harper slowed down late in the season and the Cardinals beat them in the NLDS.

I believe the San Francisco Giants should have an asterisk over whatever they accomplish this season.  This is because of Melky Cabrera.  I don’t even believe the National League should have gotten home field advantage in the World Series because he was declared the All-Star Game MVP.  Yes, he was suspended 50 games, but what about all the games he played illegally?  When was the last clear test he had?  I think the Giants should have to forfeit any wins that happened during that time no matter if it was 4 or 50.

Ok, back to the Cardinals.  I am proud to be part of Cardinals Nation.  I am proud to be a Cardinals fan.  I was lucky enough to attend two playoff games.  I believe that one should not go to a playoff game unless you have followed the team all year.  I am not a fan of fair weather fans.  I have good friends who fall into this category.  It irks me to no end that real Cardinals fans let these people get tickets to the games.  I can’t afford to go to a lot of games, but geesh, I am a true fan.  No fair weather here.

This was a good year.  Cardinals Nation is spoiled with their team’s success.  I am not saying anything new here.  Just remember that one of these years when they finish under .500.

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That Wacky Wild Card Friday

Posted by Jeff White on October 6, 2012 in Baseball

It started with two pitchers each playoff rookie manager trusted.  It ended with some interesting actions by one team’s fans, a player retiring, and one quoting scripture that sounds like he probably won’t be coming back to that team.

The commissioner’s office got what they wanted. I heard someone call it a WWE title match atmosphere combined with baseball.  This was the first time managers got to play with their rosters to have just 2 starting pitchers, a bunch of relievers, and role players galore.  There is some talk of having this roster flexibility in September games sometime in the future.  I personally am not for it in September, but it sure would have been fun to see Tony Larussa and Bobby Cox go at it with those rosters.

Should Cody Ross been granted time that late in a pitch?  Probably not, but he was because it is a judgment call.  Should the hit that Pete Kozma let drop been called an infield fly?  I decided to put a link in here to the infield fly rule.  I believe Pete Kozma would have caught that ball if the Umpire would not have screamed infield fly.  He clearly thought that was Matt Holliday calling him off.  I was kind of shocked how many baseball fans on Twitter last night didn’t know some of these rules.  I get it.  They are fans, and these thoughts do not concern them unless it affects their team.   I know I will probably have to explain the rule and the protest situation many times in the future.

Let’s move on.  I will have the pleasure of being at Sunday’s Cardinals home game.  I believe the Cardinals will beat the Nationals in 4 games.  They took two out of three games last weekend and I think that kind of smacked the Nationals around.  Davey Johnson has been there many times before as a manager but the players are the ones who have to perform, they have to step it up, they have to make the plays.

I also think the San Francisco Giants will beat the Cincinnati Reds in 4 games.  I don’t see this series really being that fun to watch.  I expect long games.  I also think it will be the Detroit Tigers in 4 games over the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees in 5 games over the Baltimore Orioles which may end up being the best series of this round.

I feel for Aldrelton Simmons.  I hope he recovers from the nightmare night he experienced.  From errors, to running out of the base line, to being the guy who hit the infield fly, I hope he will have a bright future.

Atlanta Braves fans should be ashamed of themselves by disgracing their local temple for baseball.  They should feel even worse for doing it in what was Chipper Jones’ last game.  Maybe he wanted to stand on the field for 15 minutes and applaud the fans after the game.  Maybe he wanted to run around the field and shake everyone’s hand.  He never got the chance.  It was not safe for anyone to be on the field after the game.  Heck, the fans didn’t even stop and give him a standing ovation until he tipped his cap during his last at bat.

I also feel sorry for Josh Hamilton.  The Texas Rangers fans booed him in his last at bat.  To me, there would be little reason to come back there after that.  It left a bad taste in his mouth.  He paraphrased Matthew 10:14 after the game when he said “If they don’t receive you in your hometown, shake the dust off your feet and move to the next.”  That does not sound like a player who will be sticking around in Texas.

But remember, this is what Major League Baseball was trying to create.

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Season’s Reflections and Post Season Preview

Posted by Jeff White on October 5, 2012 in Baseball

Well 162 games are down the drain and Major League Baseball is down to 10 teams in the playoffs.  This season had a different feel for me with my beloved St. Louis Cardinals.  There was some interesting high expectation and I think the Cardinals finished about where I thought they would by making it into the Wild Card play in game.  Many thought the Cardinals would win the National League Central with ease, but those thought might have been by some of those that bleed Cardinals Red.

The Cardinals came into this season without their manager from a World Championship team that qualified as the Wild Card in 2011 and without arguably the best player in baseball for the past decade.  That left them using a former Major League Catcher who never managed at any level higher than 11 year old Select.  Mike Matheny is very familiar to Cardinals fans so they trusted Upper Management’s judgment to bring in the rookie.  They also brought in aging star Carlos Beltran.  Who knew what he would bring to the table?

Well, as we now know, Beltran was a first half star.  Matheny did a pretty good job with the team.  I think many wish they knew the deeper meaning behind some of his moves.  But that’s ok, because they are in that Wild Card play in game against the Atlanta Braves.  Funny thing is that if this was the playoff scenario for last year, the same two teams would have met.  The Cardinals would have hosted last year and the Braves get to host this year.

Where would the Cardinals have been without Yadier Molina, Lance Lynn, and Allen Craig?  In my opinion, Yadi is the National League MVP.  Adam Wainwright may be the National League Comeback Player of the Year and Kyle Lohse will get paid in the offseason as the Cardinals will not resign him unless there is something we all don’t know.

I am going to stick with my preseason pick of The Detroit Tigers to win the World Series.  As I told a Tigers fan friend just this morning, their bullpen and the ability of Prince Fielder to step up are key.  This should be a fun time in lots of cities.  Who would have thought that Washington, Baltimore, and Oakland would all have teams in the playoffs six months ago?

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My UCB Weekend Fun

Posted by Jeff White on September 18, 2012 in Baseball

Many of you realize that I am a member of the group called ‘United Cardinal Bloggers’. (1)  Well the weekend of September 8th and 9th we had what we call ‘UCB Weekend’.  It consisted of an event on Saturday night and the St. Louis Cardinals game on Sunday.  It was actually way more than that.  It was an extremely cool weekend and my wife commented that you better keep doing this cause this was really cool.

Saturday night’s event was held at Patrick’s in Westport Plaza about a mile or so from my house.  I commented that I could have walked there.  It was an opportunity to meet other Cardinals bloggers and fans from literally across the country led by our leader Daniel Shoptaw of C70.  (2) The group from Any City Sports Fan (3) provided appetizers and told us about their cool new website designed to help fans meet other fans wherever you are in the country.  I will write more about them later down the road.  Also presenting was a group from Chicago called Burton History Trees. (4)  I am really excited about these guys because they asked us to help with the design and product of the St. Louis Cardinals tree.  My son Josh found a print error pretty quick so we are excited to sit down this week and go over the project with a fine tooth comb.  This was a good chance to mingle with the group and get to meet this great group of bloggers in real life.

Sunday morning at about 11:30 a.m., we were ushered up to the Cardinals main conference room, told to get some beverages and we were treated to a presentation from the Cardinals, led by Ron Watermon, head of the Cardinals Public Relations Department.  He thanked us all for coming and then Bill Dewitt III and John Mozeliak took some time with our group.  Mr. Dewitt talked about why the Cardinals are still excited about Ballpark Village including a rooftop viewing area for the stadium, and that there will be a groundbreaking ceremony in mid November with an expected opening of Spring 2014.  He also stated that the Cardinals plan to have a bigger presence in social media.  We also learned the he and his father despise the Designated Hitter.

Bill Dewitt III and John Mozeliak

Bill Dewitt III and John Mozeliak

General Manager John Mozeliak talked the most and answered the most questions.  He was concerned about how bloggers are being ‘cannibalized’ by mainstream writers and wondered how we felt.  I have a copyright on the bottom of my page and one of my wife’s best friends is a lawyer is all I am saying. J He mentioned that age has been the ‘Achilles heel’ of the Cardinals this year, but he believes that someone will step up.  To me that looks like it has been Allen Craig more than others.  He has taken over for Lance Berkman who as Mo put it ‘we won the lottery on for 2011 and lost it all in 2012.’  He also noted that depth is a strength of this organization.  This has shown brighter recently as the Springfield Cardinals have just won the Texas League Championship.  Mo believes that if we prepare the young guys ‘the Man’s way’ they will be prepared in the long run and will understand the pressure that comes with winning in the Cardinals organization.  He will reengage in the offseason with the Baseball Operations staff to revisit the status of the team.  Mo was kind enough to give the group an update on Dave Duncan and his wife Jeanine.  He stated that Dave is where he is supposed to be at this time.

Executive Chef Jessica Helms then talked to us about the food options we would have available in the suites during the game.  There were your standard nachos, brats, and hot dogs and then they added some more for us.  One suite had a Build a Mac station.  This was macaroni and cheese with added extra nacho cheese and pulled pork.  There is actually a kiosk for this in the stadium where you can choose other flavors, but this was the one they offered to us.  The other station they offered was my favorite, bacon wrapped hot dogs.  I have bought these at the stadium before so to get another one with a nice cold Budweiser made it extra special.

Lou Brock Suite Plaque

We got to watch the game from the Jack Buck and Lou Brock suites.  These suites were perfect for me.  Both of those Cardinals greats I consider as heroes.  It was a good game with more socializing and the Cardinals won.  They are 2-0 on the blogger events.  The Cardinals treated us well.

Jack Buck Suite Plaque

A big thanks also goes out to Lindsey Weber of the Social Media team of the Cardinals for treating us really well all the way around.  St. Louis can be proud to say that they will be a great spot for baseball for many, many years to come.

My Happy Family

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1 Year Anniversary of Born Bleeding

Posted by Jeff White on September 1, 2012 in Life

Today, September 1, 2012, marks the one year anniversary of my first post (1) on Born Bleeding.  When I started this blog a year ago, and after over 40 posts I have written, I would never have guessed all the things that happened this past year.

While writing about the St. Louis Cardinals I got lucky enough early on to get associated with The United Cardinal Bloggers (2) during the amazing September and postseason run that led to the Cardinals becoming World Series Champions.  This brought me some readers I never expected, and a few opportunities I would have never guessed.  Life was good this past year and I have been blessed to make it this far.

There have been well over 4,000 page views of this blog with the busiest day of 108 views being on release day one year ago today.  The most read post of the past year was ‘I’m Disappointed Cardinals Nation.’ (3)  It was about Albert Pujols decision to leave St. Louis.  Readers for 16 different countries have read this blog.  Facebook had been my biggest referral method with about 700.  People have clicked on the United Cardinal Bloggers logo for the most outgoing clicks.

I hope you will stick around for this ride.  I just changed the format for the anniversary.  I will do my best and continue to write about my thoughts, my life and the Cardinals.  Remember, I write an opinion blog.  So please feel free to comment and give me yours as you see fit.  I would appreciate the feedback.  You can also like Born Bleeding on Facebook (4)  as it has its own page or you can follow me on Twitter @jeffbgoofy.  (5)

I thank you all for reading, God for blessing me, and my friends for support.  But, thanks most of all to my wife and son.

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Baseball America

Posted by Jeff White on August 29, 2012 in Baseball, Life

Over the past year here at Born Bleeding, I have posted over 40 blogs.  With the one year anniversary coming up on Saturday, I thought I would ask my friend and fellow blogger, Aimee Whetstine from Everyday Epistle to write something for me.  Aimee is no baseball expert but after reading what she wrote, she did an outstanding job with the baseball assignment I gave her.  I hope you all enjoy.

Why do we call baseball the great American pastime?    

baseballs close up

Baseball was invented in America. At least according to Albert  Spalding.

There’s no debate about basketball. It was undisputedly invented in America in 1891 at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts by instructor James Naismith, a Canadian. But we don’t say “as American as mom, apple pie, and basketball.” We say baseball.

I’ve lived in three proud baseball towns so far. 

The first was Detroit. I was too young to remember the Tigers. My father, however, remembers. He tells stories of a time long gone. A time when Tigers fans would walk to games at Tiger Stadium or “The Corner” from their neighborhoods the way fans in Chicago walk to Wrigley Field.

Chicago was my second baseball town. All good Cardinals fans know who plays there.

batter up

My husband and I lived in Chicago during a very good time for Chicago sports. Michael Jordan and the Bulls dominated the NBA. From our apartment, we heard guns firing across the city the night of their sixth consecutive championship. By summer, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were duking it out on the diamond in their Home Run Race.

We took the Red Line to Wrigleyville for games. The neighborhood feel of Wrigley Field made major league baseball accessible to me. It was like sitting with a few thousand of my neighbors watching the home team play. Authenticity trumped glitz and the result was magical.

But what do I know? I enjoy baseball, same way I enjoy soccer, basketball, football, swim meets, and the Olympics. I’m not a hardcore, rabid fan, but I can cheer with the best of them.

And cheer I did. When in Rome for Sosa and the Cubs. Then, when we moved to St. Louis, for McGwire and the Cards. First in the old Busch Stadium and then in the new Busch Stadium.

We arrived in St. Louis in time for Kurt Warner and the Rams to win the Superbowl and left after the Cardinals won the World Series. Notice a pattern?

The secret to guaranteeing your major league sports teams win championships is simple: offer my husband or me a job we can’t refuse and we’ll relocate. Like lucky charms for hire.

silver glove

When my son was old enough, we rode the train to the stadium and stopped to admire Stan Musial’s statue, even though there wasn’t a game that day. Then last year, I saw Mark McGwire pumping gas into his car at the same place in University City where I filled up my car. No words I could write will do the moment justice.

“There he is!” I said to my son who was with me. “There’s Big Mac!”

Apart from the scandal and grand juries, Mark McGwire is still beloved by the Lou. Despite the trades and tiffs, so is Albert Pujols.

See, it’s like family, the fans and the teams. We squabble among our own, but we pull together to fight competitors. There are heroes and villains. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Memories and legacies to pass to children who sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame as soon as they can speak.

One, two, three strikes you’re out at the old ballgame!

What could be more American than that?

my game = t-ball, my helmet = pink

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! Psalm 133:1 NLT

Put me in coach I’m ready to play today… Centerfield by John Fogerty with classic baseball footage you’ll love. I promise!

Who’s your team? Who’s your favorite player? What’s your best baseball memory?

Thanks again Aimee.  Please remember to go visit Aimee over at everydayepistle.com

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Jake Westbrook Dominoes

Posted by Jeff White on August 22, 2012 in Baseball

The first thing that I thought when the St. Louis Cardinals announced they agreed to pick up the option for Jake Westbrook for next year and have a mutual option for 2014 was what about the rest of the Cardinals starting pitchers?  I mean they have Adam Wainwright, Jaime Garcia, Westbrook, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, and that other ace Chris Carpenter under contract or control for next season.  They also have future studs Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal sitting down in Memphis about ready to explode onto the scene. And don’t forget about Carlos Martinez dominating AA Springfield.

Jake Westbrook

I am ok with the terms of Westbrook’s deal.  It is $8.75 million for 2013 with the $9.5 million mutual option for 2014.  This includes a $1 million buyout.  I am happy for Jake and his family to get a sense of security for another year and possibilities for another.  He earned this deal.  He came to spring training slimmed down and worked real hard at perfecting even further his wonderful sinker.

Yeah I know, Chris Carpenter may never pitch again.  Kyle Lohse has pitched himself out of the Cardinals price range for next year, so he will not be coming back.  So what are the options then?

Adam Wainwright back as the ace.  Jaime Garcia back as the lefty who keeps getting better.  Jake Westbrook as the veteran with the knowledge and consistency to get batters out while hopefully eating innings.  Those are pretty much a given.

Lance Lynn is the young hard thrower with a year of starting and some postseason experience under his belt.  Joe Kelly has impressed in his limited run as a starter and has become a crowd favorite.  I think Shelby Miller has forced himself into the rotation for next year.  He struggled early in AAA but has figured it out.  I hope they don’t take the conservative approach and make him start in Memphis as the 6th starter and insurance in case someone in the majors gets hurt.  I would understand that, but as a fan I would not like it.  Trevor Rosenthal could be destined to the bullpen where he has been for his cups of coffee in the majors.

I just think someone may be traded in the offseason.  Lance Lynn probably has the highest value right now.  So that is my guess.  I am not one who wants to break a team up, but who knows what his value is to other teams out there?

One signing means a bunch of things for many players in the Cardinals organization.  Now to sit back, wait and see what happens in real life and with front office madness.

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Back to Life, Back to Reality

Posted by Jeff White on August 13, 2012 in Life

No I am not thinking of the old Soul II Soul song here. (1)  I am talking about coming down from the two ‘mountain top’ experiences I have had recently.  For those of you that don’t know, a ‘mountain top’ experience is when a Christian has an amazing week that is devoted to God thru fellowship, teaching, or whatever gets their juices flowing.  Well, I am back in the real world and the past week or so I have not been motivated to write much.  The one constant has been Lyn, and I thank God for her every day.

As soon as we got back into town, my wife and I needed to finish dealing with Josh’s free agency period in baseball.  Well, after another day of waiting for one team, and never hearing from others, Josh decided to play with the Missouri Lightning.  One of his best friends plays on that team, so it made Josh’s decision pretty easy.  I am glad that period is over, but we had to buy a few items to match the team uniforms at least partially for fall ball.  Tournaments start up this weekend.

Football started in full force.  Oh yeah, I said football.  Josh gave up soccer earlier this year and decided to play football for his school team.  The Junior Pirates of Pattonville are not looking at a really big winning season, but they should have some fun.  The head coach was not at any conditioning sessions, so Josh is starting from scratch position wise, but he may get a chance to do some kicking due to his soccer experience. We shall see.

School starts this week for him so he is ready to get back to his pattern as much as possible.

The question is, am I?  I enjoy my job.  My most fun time of the year is right in front of me.  I get to talk to hundreds of federal employees about charities and how they can help them.  I get the flexibility to do this collateral duty and I am extremely thankful to my boss for this privilege.  Football will be at least three nights a week and every Saturday til around Veteran’s day, so it looks like most of my fall is planned.  With football on Saturday mornings, that means we could have some s’mores nights coming when there are weekends without baseball.

The tough part of our reality is our church life.  Josh is not happy with the confirmation program he is kind of forced into at our current church.  We are all not thrilled with the connection we have during service and the environment.  The issue is that there are a lot of friends there and I will probably do their men’s ministry study this fall on ‘Courageous’.  (2) If you have not seen that movie, rent it.  What has been our second choice for a church is changing to become its own church plant and this fall will be transition time.  The location is not convenient and the new location is even less so.  We love the pastor, atmosphere, and Josh enjoys the large amount of youth they have there that give him the opportunity to evangelize and share.  Lyn and I also need to find an adult bible fellowship class where we’d fit there.  We don’t want to leave our current small group, as they have become our local family.

There are other options out there.  Church plants are exciting, but unnerving also.  I ask that you just pray for us as we deal with our issues in church this fall.  It is kind of hard to find the Christian love like I had in Covington, Louisiana and we all had at Northern Pines (3) in Green Lake, Wisconsin.

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Cool Anniversary

Posted by Jeff White on August 7, 2012 in Baseball

I was asked by fellow Cardinal Blogger, Chris Jaffe, to look at his blog today since it was a cool anniversary.  I read it and am sharing the link to it as he requested.  So I guess Chris and Hardball Times are my first guest blogger, even though it’s all his writing and I am helping him out.

Today is the 40th anniversary of a game the Cardinals won in the 13th with an inside-the-park homerun.  Read it, comment, and let me know if you like this blog sharing.  I always have been in favor of free sharing so feel free to share my blog whenever, just let me know.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/40th-anniversary-13th-inning-inside-the-park-walk-off-home-run/

Stay tuned to more from Born Bleeding soon.

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My View While at Northern Pines

Posted by Jeff White on July 31, 2012 in Life

What if I told you that you could go to a place where you could have the best time of your life for a week?  You would also be making friends from all over the country.  You would get to hear great Christian speakers.  You would be doing all this while discovering the wonderful things God is doing or could be doing in your life.  That is my view of Northern Pines.

For the past four years, my wife, son and I have been attending Northern Pines.  Northern Pines is a Vacation with a Purpose.  This is their 39th year in existence.  We have had the privilege of attending our four years at the Green Lake Conference Center in beautiful Green Lake, Wisconsin.  Dean and Julie Jaderston are the current Executive Directors and our fearless leaders for the two separate weeks that they offer here.

I have been educated here by speakers from Dallas Theological Society, to Pastors from all over, to even a marriage counselor from Canada.  Each one has taught me a different lesson and they have helped me realize how to be a better Christian father, husband, and friend.  Plus they are great people too.

Many people say Northern Pines is hard to explain to their friends back home.  I sometimes think of it as a little glimpse of heaven where heaven was sitting by a lake in Wisconsin.  There are mom’s pushing strollers walking their little ones.  There are couples walking by the beach because someone is watching their kids.  There are people getting ready to play golf, swim, and boat.  I look forward later this week to get the chance to play sand volleyball, to learn more about the friends we sit with, and to see what each family has learned this week in the event known as victory circle.

Once again, I have come to a place where I can meet people from Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and all over.  Northern Pines helps bring them together to help form budding Christian friendships.  Who doesn’t need more friends?  We all need to build bigger support groups because we never know when we will need them.

Social media is wonderful.  Over the past year friends from Northern Pines have let us know that they need prayer while dealing with life.  They have also told us when they think their sports teams are better than ours.  But we do this all with full Christian hearts and knowing that we are at least going to be there in thought although not always in person because the distance is far between us the other 51 weeks a year.

But, for this week in August, we are instantly refueled by the presence of others around us that share in the fullness of the spirit, that share in the willingness to fellowship, and the love of the place that is Northern Pines.

To find out more, please go to www.npines.org or like Northern Pines on Facebook or follow them on Twitter at NorthernPinesNP.

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