DoolittleBrothers

It was obviously a morose baseball weekend in St. Louis, but also a very strange one. Following the frustrating 5-3 loss last Friday, Tony La Russa refused to speak with anyone from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He was taking a stand against the paper (which I write for as a freelancer) because of an article it published about why the Cubs would never end their supposed curse. The article was by no means tasteless and seemed to be written with the intention of frivolity, though personally I find the entire concept of a Cubs curse a little tiresome. TLR took a stand, which is admirable up to a point, but in a sense he was punishing fans by not answering baseball questions. Given that he had a major point to make, he may not have an alternative avenue to emphasize his disgust – and the resulting national media coverage of video showing La Russa and Bernie Miklasz heatedly arguing back and forth allowed La Russa’s displeasure to be thrust into the spotlight. I’ve no problem with Tony on this one. Sure, it’s a one-newspaper city, but there are other outlets for news/quotes for fans to access. People don’t realize these types of arguments occur several times during the season and are not unusual; this just happened to gain national focus. The following night the Redbirds were routed 8-1, though I still managed to enjoy my time at the ballpark, given that it was perfect Saturday weather and the Cubs fans were being rowdy. It is an odd realization that Josh Hancock, after throwing 3 innings and 43 pitches, would pass away just hours after I watched him play – but that’s the case. Hancock was in studio at one of the radio stations I work for last October, and by all accounts from my co-workers was really fun to hang out with and very accessible. These themes have been emphasized throughout STL over the past couple of days. Some do not realize that St. Louis is really just a very large “small town.” The sunny, downtown setting on Sunday would have been more than ideal for Sunday’s national rivalry game, yet the park was empty. Odd set of circumstances…

As for other baseball matters, things just are not good. Kip Wells is being blasted by Milwaukee (7 ER on Monday) and the only current bright light is that Chris Carpenter appears on the road back.

My main sports concern, as usual in April and May, is the NBA. What the Warriors are doing is impressive and even historical, but not completely shocking. Baron Davis and Jason Richardson missed over 50 combined games this season because of injuries and Golden State made a 7-player trade in the middle of the season. So they only began to coalesce and peak in early April. Since their chase to end a 13-year playoff drought was a daily grind that went to the season’s final day, the team has been in a playoff mindset for a month while Dallas coasted during that same time frame. I’ve watched every Golden State game over the past 6 weeks and they are my favorite non-Cavs team. Don Nelson gives his players lots of freedom and their games feature 165-plus shots, more than any other team. Considering that Al Harrington (5 ppg, 19% FG) and Monta Ellis (10.3 ppg) have severaly struggled in this series, it seems very possible Golden State has not even played its best playoff game yet. If they do beat Dallas, it would be the NBA”s greatest upset. Especially factoring in the 7-game series format. Great stuff!

For the Cavaliers, it is nice to get past pesky Washington. But Mike Brown should encourage more fast breaks and also use LeBron James in the post more. If Eric Snow and Daniel Gibson are going to play, then let them run! There will always be plenty of possessions for half-court sets and Zydrunas Ilgauskus. The Nets are a tough defensive team but can be run on, so we’ll see how Cleveland approaches that series.

There was the NFL Draft. I guess it’s a big deal, but with 4 months to digest the offseason/draft I just do not understand the enormous media emphasis and/or the urgency to cover this on a daily basis. Guess I prefer MLB/NBA games over breaking down unheard of college players. I may never understand NFL Draft hysteria.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Cardinals, NBA, NFL, Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.