Introducing...Baby Eckstein!!!

Monday was just NOT a good day. The Cards were back in New York, which meant I was receiving text message taunts from my Mets friend in Queens and the Cubs were home again after sweeping the White Sox, which meant my neighborhood was even more obnoxious then usual. After dropping two of three to the Phillies over the weekend, the Birds seemed poised to lose another after newly acquired starting pitcher Mike Maroth gave up a third inning home run to Carlos Gomez. Naturally, we didn't disappoint as Russ Springer gave up a walk off home run to Shawn Green in the 11th causing the Mets to perform one of the most bizarre victory routines I've ever seen. Simultaneously, I'm sitting outside Wrigley Field in a beer garden listening to the roar of the crowd as the Cubs pound on the Rockies and achieve an 8-3 lead. This being the Cubs, the bullpen coughed up six runs in the eighth inning, yet uncharacteristically managed to come back and win it via Soriano's walk off single in the ninth. Fortunately, their fans stayed classy as ever and provided a brief respite from the agony when one took offense to Bob Howry's performance and drunkenly charged the mound. It was really the only thing that kept me from deliberately running in front of a cab. After another win last night, the Cubs have won five straight and are officially ruining my life.

Fortunately, the Cards were able to achieve some forward momentum last night in the form of a spry little rookie named Brendan Ryan. (Who I'm pretty sure is David Eckstein's 13 year-old brother.) He capped off a solid all around performance with his first big league home run in the 11th inning to win it 5-3. This is excellent news for me, as I don't think I could have stomached another "GO METS!!!" message from Shea last night. On a smaller scale, it was probably pretty cool for him, too. So, you know...good for him.

Anyhow, Anthony Reyes is looking to improve his sparkling 0-9 record tonight against Mr. Tom Glavine and I for one am thoroughly confident we have what it takes to completely blow it. If not, you know we'll at least give it our best shot. Here in Chicago, Big Z takes the mound for the finale against the Rockies and I sincerely hope he chokes on some pine tar or gets struck by lightening.

It's Opening Day--WEEEEEE!!!

Opening Day means several things. First, it indicates that the bitter Chicago winter is FINALLY nearing its end and that I can officially stop wearing long underwear to work. Secondly, it means the Northsiders are breaking out their Soriano jerseys and gearing up for what I'm hoping will be another agonizing and tortuous season. Best of all, this year it's a reminder that the St. Louis Cardinals are the defending 2006 World Series Championship. After five months without baseball, it's a great excuse to re-live the experience and an even better excuse to start using this as the go-to response to EVERYTHING. "Oh, Zambrano had two-hitter? Yeah, nice World Series." "So, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen are on the DL again? Oh, well. At least we won the World Series!" "A nuclear bomb is set to go off and level every major Midwestern city? Hmm...that's too bad. But at least we've got that World Series Championship!"

However, as I sat down and watched the Mets attack us both offensively and defensively, I was struck with an eerie sense of calm. Obviously, I would like to have seen the Redbirds notch a win against the Mets on their first outing of the season, but for some reason, as the runs built up against us and double play after double play eliminated most of our scoring opportunities, I could hardly muster up the energy to utter an expletive. It wasn't that I didn't care about the win, it was just that the singular importance of the game was so minimal. Keep in mind, the last time the Cardinals played the Mets it was in a do or die situation. This win on Sunday night hardly counts as a moral victory for Willie Randolph & Company considering the relative stakes. I honestly felt kind of bad for them. They could sweep the series and it would still do nothing to eliminate the agony of losing game 7 in the 2006 NLCS. It just doesn't matter.

Now ask me again how I feel when we face them in game 7 of the 2007 NLCS.