Commentary

What do you have in common with the St. Louis Cardinals?

Answer: You are watching the World Series from the same place they are: your living room couch.

It’s early November again, and the Cards are preparing for an exciting off-season of trades, vacation and arbitration. Why does it seem like every fall this is the same feeling that permeates St. Louis?

It is the same feeling because every year the Cards make an early exit from the playoffs. Yeah, I know, some people are going to say, “Well, at least they made the playoffs.” But honestly, does it really matter? Every team in Major League Baseball except one finishes their season on a losing note.

The team that wins the World Series is the only team that has the right to talk trash. Everyone else should just accept the simple fact that they lost.

Moving on to a more pertinent question: Why do the Cards end each season on a losing note? The answer to the question is simple: bad managing.

For some reason Tony LaRussa must have a mental breakdown every October. His decision-making capabilities go right down the drain. What is worse is that his coaches become simple-minded sycophants. They allow LaRussa to make stupid decisions that cost the Cards games.

A few weeks ago, the Cards were returning to St. Louis tied 1-1 with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Division Series. Darryl Kile was taking the mound in game three, and things were looking great for the Redbirds.

In the sixth inning, Kile was rolling along with a 2-1 lead. For some reason, however, Kile was taken out heading into the seventh . and that’s when the wheels came off. A 5-3 defeat later, and one is left asking: “Why?” To be honest, I have no idea, and I don’t know that anyone else does either.

The only factor for the Cards that was questionable heading into the playoffs was the bullpen. No one knew how the pen was going to respond to a playoff environment. Thus, the first major collapse by the Cards came from, you guessed it, the bullpen.

Kile goes out, Mike Matthews comes in and it was like throwing gasoline on an open fire. The Cards’ hopes in game three went right up in flames.

In game five, it was another LaRussa decision that cost the Cards the game and also the series. Heading into the ninth inning, with the game tied 1-1, LaRussa brought in Dave Veres to start the inning, the very same Veres that pitched half as well as he did last year, if even that.

Veres went on to walk the lead-off hitter in the ninth, a mortal sin in baseball. To make a long story short, not even the Cards’ fireman, Steve Kline, could keep the Cards in the playoffs.

The sick thing about the Cardinals’ demise was that the Cards had a ballclub that could have gone deep into the playoffs. The pitching was there, the hitting was there, but the managing was nowhere to be found.

If you look at the Diamondbacks, who are now in the World Series, the one thing that manager Bob Brenley has done is ride the horses that got him there. If the series goes to seven games against the Yankees, Brenley is going to give the ball to his big two, in five of the seven games. Brenley is letting his best players decide the series. Not to knock Matthews or Veres, but they are simply not the Cardinals’ best players.

This offseason, LaRussa ought to take some notes on what Brenley did to get the Diamondbacks into the World Series, and if he doesn’t have the time he can always tape it-from the comfort of his own living room.