American League (MLB)

Flying Saucer Draught Emporium: Review Preview

By now you are no doubt aware that Flying Saucer Draught Emporium (900 Spruce Street; 314-932-1456) opened in St. Louis earlier this year. You know that the restaurant serves beer -- a lot of beer. And you might have been aware that only this weekend did a few proud St. Louisans try -- but, alas, fa ... More >>

[VIDEO] Joe Hoffmann, Evil Royals Fan, Wins First Plate at Flying Saucer St. Louis

As Gut Check reported back in March, the opening of the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium (900 Spruce Street; 314-932-1456) was marred by an anti-Cardinals conspiracy launched by one Joe Hoffmann. The plot: Be the first to drink 200 beers and claim the location's first "Ring of Honor" plate in the na ... More >>

A-Rod, Other Athletes, Linked To Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Miami New Times

The talk of sports media this week comes from our sister paper Miami New Times, which has uncovered a South Florida clinic that allegedly gave performance-enhancing drugs to some high-profile athletes, notably Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. A former employee of Biogenesis, the company in question, ... More >>

Earl Weaver Remembered By His Grandson Mike Leahy, aka Clownvis Presley

Of all the reminiscences of former Orioles manager and St. Louis native Earl Weaver, who passed away on Friday, few are more touching than the one posted by his grandson Mike Leahy on Facebook. Leahy is the lead singer for the band 7 Shot Screamers and also the non-jumpsuited alter-ego of Clownvis P ... More >>

Think Tank Ranks St. Louis High in "Creative Class" Output...Not!

The other day a colleague forwarded along a link citing a study in which St. Louis was ranked no. 4 in the nation for our Creative Class* contributions to the nation's greater good. Or so it first appeared. In a short paper titled "Is your Region ... Creative, Innovative, Productive, ... or Just P ... More >>

The Cardinals' Offensively Awesome Offense

So the Cardinals actually managed to finish off the sweep of the Houston Astros yesterday. I have to admit, I'm a little surprised they pulled it off. Not because the Astros are a particularly tough test; they are far and away the worst team in baseball, and the fact Jeff Luhnow has decided to ... More >>

David Freese Wins All-Star Fan Vote, Makes Roster

Local baseball masher and heart-throb David Freese has earned his first MLB All-Star Game berth thanks to overwhelming fan support in the NL Final Vote competition. Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish won the AL slot. This brings to five the total number of Cardinals summoned to Kansas City, with Carlo ... More >>

Joe Kelly Starts Off Strong; Cards Fall to Indians Anyway

The Cardinals have still never won a series against the Cleveland Indians. Ever. Seems weird, doesn't it? To say there's a team that another team has literally never beaten, at least in a series sense? That, in all the history of the game of baseball, the Cardinals have never gone up against th ... More >>

Walt Jocketty's Two Worst Trades, And Why Cardinals Fans Should Still Feel Worse

You may or may not have heard yet, but Josh Hamilton had himself quite a game last night. The Texas Rangers outfielder became just the 16th player in major league history to hit four home runs in a single game as part of a 5-for-5 night that saw him collect 8 RBI and 18 total bases. Bizarrely e ... More >>

Albert Pujols' Cars Well-Suited for Southern California, Even If Slugger Is Not

A lot has been made about Albert Pujols' struggles at the plate this year. After 28 games as a member of the Los Angeles Angels, Pujols is hitting just .196 with seven RBI's. (He did hit a home run yesterday, ending his longest drought without a homer.)Still the questions persist: Is Pujols putting ... More >>

Albert Pujols: Still Great, But Not the Same Guy

There's a really interesting article up right now over at Baseball Prospectus, the venerable analysis site, regarding a subject very near and dear to Cardinals' fans' hearts. What makes it extra nice is the folks at BP have made the full thing available free right out front, rather than sticking it ... More >>

Kyle McClellan Back On the Block?

​For most of the offseason it's been a poorly-kept secret the Cardinals are trying to move Kyle McClellan. They signed him back in January to a $2.5 million contract for the 2012 season, and pretty much from the moment the ink dried on the deal K-Mac's name has been floating around as potential tr ... More >>

High Drama as Pujols Arrives at Spring Training

We journalists pride ourselves on our skill at descriptive writing. It shows that we are poets, not mere hacks. Sometimes we do a pretty good job. Sometimes we get carried away. A fine example of the latter is a very brief story from the Associated Press (239 words total) about Albert Pujols' early ... More >>

Keith Law Really, Really Likes the Cards' System

Get it? 'Cause he's a PROSPECTor? Yeah, I know. I'll try harder next time. Promise. ​Keith Law, prospect guru extraordinaire over at ESPN.com, has released both his top 100 prospect list and his overall organizational rankings over the past few days. The Cardinals, formerly relegated to the lower ... More >>

Albert Pujols Plans to Report to Camp Early

(c) Topps Inc​The presumptive Anaheim Angels first baseman told ESPNDeportes.com that he intends to report to spring training a week earlier than position players are scheduled, because "For the last 12 years I've lived in the city of St. Louis, where it's cold ... I'm going to try to get there (T ... More >>

Roy Oswalt: The Dream That Just Won't Die

​​Oswalt wearing the uniform of his last team, the Phillies. I always thought those two were just a terrible fit for each other. ​I've been very skeptical of the Cardinals and Roy Oswalt as a match for quite some time now. It's not that I don't think Oswalt would be a really nice add for the R ... More >>

Albert Pujols Can Buy a Lot of Wheaties for $254 Million

St. Louis Cardinals fans might still be coming to terms with Albert Pujols' departure for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The marketplace, however, has already responded. Seen today at Schnucks:​(Of course, since this commemorative box of Wheaties Fuel features Albert's handsome mug but no St. ... More >>

The Best of Ron Washington's Foul-Mouthed Pep Talk

Motherfucker loves saying motherfucker.​Today JoeSportsFan.com released the locker room pep talk Texas Rangers' manager Ron Washington gave his team prior to Game 7 of the World Series. Washington may not be much of a motivational speaker (the Rangers went on to easily fold by a score of 2-6 and l ... More >>

Can the Cards Survive the Deadly Ex-Cubs Factor? [UPDATED]

Do the Cardinals need one of these?​Update October 31: It turns out they can! (It was proven in 2008 when the Rays lost to the Phillies that minor-leaguers do count as ex-Cubs.) Which means...if the Ex-Cubs curse has been broken, is the Curse of the Goat far behind? Dare we say -- Cubs in 2012 ... More >>

Miracle Weekend for Missouri Sports: Is God to Thank?

The gift of life and the gift of winning.​October 28-30, 2011, may just go down as the greatest weekend for Missouri sports ever. On Friday the Cardinals won their 11th World Series title in one of the greatest come-from-behind stories ever in sports. On Saturday the struggling Missouri Tigers tra ... More >>

Bush League Fan Songs: Because There Just Aren't Enough Croon-Rap Songs In The World

​With a return trip to St. Louis now a sure thing, the Cardinals are proving more equal to this challenge than some people thought they were. Last week, we brought you a few homegrown theme songs, and today we have the latest installment in our continuing series of Rangers musical face plants ... More >>

Will This Year's World Series Have The Worst TV Ratings Ever?

Black nor white: Cardinals in the World Series doesn't necessarily mean poor TV ratings.​You hear it each time the Cardinals enter the World Series. "Oh, the television execs must be dying! A mid-market team in the series? Ratings will be horrendous!" Yes and no. That dire prediction proved to be ... More >>

The Texas Rangers' Bush League Fan Songs: Volume One

​The World Series starts tonight. The Cardinals, who have been defying expectations for the better part of two months now, have only four wins and one team standing in the way of an eleventh World Championship. That team, of course, is the Texas Rangers, and this is their second straight trip ... More >>

World Series Starts Wednesday at Busch Stadium

The Cardinals are four games away from picking up their 11th one of these.​Wow! What a dizzying game last night. Six home runs in the first three innings?! You gotta be kidding me. And you got to feel bad -- almost -- for the hapless Brewers who committed another four errors last night in Milwauke ... More >>

The Starters Still Suck, But the Cardinals are Moving On

This was the Mariners' bullpen car in 1982, back when baseball still had cool things like bullpen cars. No, this isn't really related to the Cards' current bullpen, but I've been waiting to use this picture forever. ​​The most improbable postseason run I can ever recall isn't ready to end just y ... More >>

Baseball's Best Night Ever

​I really, really hope everyone out there saw at least part of all the important games played Wednesday night, because chances are we may never see their like again. The 28th of September, 2011 should -- and very possibly will -- go down in history as the single greatest night in the history of ba ... More >>

Colby Rasmus' Dad Responds to Trade; Says La Russa "Belittled" His Son

Colby Rasmus is now a Toronto Blue Jay.​Tony Rasmus, the outspoken father of Colby Rasmus, has weighed in on his son's trade yesterday from the Cardinals to the Toronto Blue Jays. (A trade, btw, that RFT's baseball columnist, Aaron Schafer, calls one of the "stupidest, most asinine moves" he's eve ... More >>

Cardinals' Prospect Carlos Martinez Getting Positive Press

​The Futures Game is always one of the most exciting events of the season, for me at least. It's certainly more interesting to me than the home run derby or the pathetic farce the All-Star Game itself has degenerated into. (I'm sorry, but I refuse to say anything nice about the game so long as bas ... More >>

Far more blue-collar than uppity, Quincy Street Bistro is a topnotch neighborhood bar and grill

Cardinals, Royals Dedicate Interleague Play to Joplin Relief

Mike Mezeul​A Cardinals announcement yesterday has added literal meaning to the idea of playing for the home team. In the past couple weeks, RFT has detailed local efforts to raise funds for victims of the Joplin disaster through food and music -- and the city's best-loved pro team will soon ... More >>

Nixon Wants Florida's Sloppy Seconds

Kansas City Here I Come?​The Cardinals are scheduled to square off against the Royals in an interleague series beginning May 2 in Kansas City. Warning to all fans traveling by train: The tracks ain't exactly in perfect shape, and the schedule isn't always reliable. At least that's what Gov. J ... More >>

Cliff Lee: The Sound of a Paradigm Shifting Without a Clutch

commons.wikimedia.orgLee in his first go-round as a Phillie. ​In what can only be described as a rather surprising move, Cliff Lee, aka the "Best Left-Handed Pitcher in Baseball At the Moment," spurned the Yankees' big dollars, as well as those of the Texas Rangers, in order to return to the Phila ... More >>

Five Picks for Cardinals' Rule 5 Draft

Players line up to be fawned over and poked at in preparation for the Rule 5 draft. ​Baseball's Winter Meetings will come to an end today, with the annual Rule 5 draft one of the final items on the itinerary. In case you aren't familiar with the Rule 5 draft, here's a decent overview of how it all ... More >>

Baseball Loses Another Legend: Dave Niehaus Dead at 75

Niehaus. ​You remember several years back, when the whole satellite radio thing was just starting up? XM and Sirius were still separate companies and David Bowie fell out of the sky. It was a crazy time. Well, I happened to be one of the earliest adopters of satellite radio, but not because I ... More >>

What Is Wrong with This Picture? Special World Series Edition!

Let's just say you don't turn to FOX -- or to Joe Buck, who recited this graphic word for word last night -- for the facts. ​

Tyler Florence and Bunches of Grapes Visit Busch Stadium

Ian Froeb​An odd scene unfolded at Busch Stadium Tuesday evening. No, not the Cardinals dropping another game to a sub-.500 team. Sadly, Cardinal fans are growing accustomed to that. This scene began before the first pitch. Food Network star Tyler Florence, host of such shows as Ultimate Tyler and ... More >>

Skip Schumaker Nominated as Worst Player in Baseball

commons.wikimedia.orgSchumaker, almost assuredly grounding out to the right side. ​Joe Posnanski, who every year hands out a Least Valuable Player award to the player who exemplifies the principles of failing to help their team in any measurable way, shape, or form, has unofficially nominated ten ... More >>

Bronx Cheer: George Steinbrenner's dead, but Damn Yankees lives on

Cardinals Botch the Sweep Again: Tale of the Broken Broom Blues

That's 0 for 7 now on the broom, guys. What's the problem? ​It really didn't seem like there should have been any way the Cardinals could have possibly screwed this one up. Six times this season they have won the first two games of a three-game set, only to see their hopes for a sweep go up in smo ... More >>

The Cardinals Draft Preview: Names to Watch

Bud Selig, the man in charge of not only the draft, but all of baseball, in fact. Really inspires confidence, eh? ​With the MLB draft just mere hours away, I thought I might try to roundup at least a few of the names I think the Cardinals just might be interested in calling. These aren't all first ... More >>

Today in Too Little Too Late: Don Denkinger Says Baseball Needs Instant Replay

Image sourceHindsight is 20/20. So is instant replay.​How does Don Denkinger feel about Jim Joyce's blown call at first base last night?Is he depressed because, until Joyce cost Detroit's Armando Galarraga a perfect game, most everyone outside of Missouri had forgotten about Denkinger's own unforg ... More >>

Kit Bond Falls Asleep During Intelligence Briefing

"Kit and I sometimes have trouble staying awake during those boring intelligence briefings."​Seems everyone is asleep at the wheel these days. Oh well, these are troubled and tiring times, after all. We could all use a good nap. Take Ken Griffey Jr., for one. The Seattle Mariner's ce ... More >>

Cardinals Ranked as No. 8 Most-Valuable Franchise Worth $488 Million

Bill DeWitt Jr. as depicted in a 2001 RFT cover story.​It's the Cardinals home opener this afternoon, and if the team's owner Bill DeWitt Jr. were to give a speech today, one suspects it would begin: "The state of Redbird Nation is strong."  The Cardinals have won their first two series on th ... More >>

Cardinals Ticket Prices Up 24 Percent in Secondary Market

​According to SeatGeek.com, a website which compiles data on the costs of tickets for various sporting and music events in the secondary market, the St. Louis Cardinals' overall ticket prices are up 24 percent going into 2010 over the second-half of last year. This should come as no surprise, ... More >>

In Which the Author is Forced to Defend Tony La Russa Against His Will

commons.wikimedia.org​Well, it was inevitable, I suppose. Finally, after years of little passive-aggressive asides and snarky jabs being tossed surreptitiously toward Tony La Russa, someone came out and said it straight up: La Russa doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. Thom Loverro, of ESPN 98 ... More >>

Etch to Scratch

Ladue Me

Ian cheers his lowly team from a high-class sports bar

Being Darryl Strawberry

Baseball's bad boy is now doing the Lord's work in O'Fallon, Missouri. How long will that last?

Ballpark Frank

The lowdown on eats at the new ballyard

Lawn Boy

Grass guru David Mellor tells you how to get your lawn looking like your favorite big-league baseball stadium