College Baseball

Adrenaline Boost: Music is more than a soundtrack for sports

Answers to the Riverfront Times 2012 News Quiz

In January Riverfront Times published its annual "News Challenge" -- 78 multiple-choice questions testing how well readers paid attention to current events over the past twelve months. Within a week, more than 100 of you submitted your answers to us. A few weeks later a dozen readers e-mailed a simi ... More >>

Can Either Mizzou or SLU Get Past Louisville in NCAA Tourney?

As the NCAA Tournament prepares to kick off, we're in a remarkably exciting position this year here in the Gateway City. Our very own Billikens are getting national hype from all corners as a team with the potential to make a deep tournament run, and just a couple hours to the west, the somewhat con ... More >>

The 13 Best Fat Baseball Players of All Time

So, here's the thing: Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn got skinny during the off-season. Like, really skinny. Well, okay, not like really skinny compared to skinny people, but really skinny compared to Lynn, who, until this year, routinely showed up to spring ball in one of two coatings: Original Reci ... More >>

Arizona Winning, And What It Means to St. Louis

Last night, the Arizona Wildcats won the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, putting an end to the hopes for a third straight national title for South Carolina. It's the fourth national championship in school history for the U of A, their first since 1986, and caps off a magical run that saw th ... More >>

The Cardinals Draft Report, Part One

It's been right about two weeks since the 2012 edition of the MLB First-Year Player Draft; the Cardinals have had time to come to terms with the majority of their selected players already. It was a remarkably interesting draft for the Redbirds, and one I've had kind of a tough time getting my head w ... More >>

A Brief Cardinals Draft-Day Primer

The Major League Baseball first-year player draft is just a few hours away, taking place in New York City and beginning at six pm central. The Houston Astros have the first overall pick, and are expected to take Mark Appel, a right-handed pitcher out of Stanford, with their selection. Appel isn't a ... More >>

The Greatest Baseball Novels of All Time: A Modest Compendium

The blurb by Richard Russo on the front cover of Joe Schuster's new book The Might Have Been declares it "surely destined to join the ranks of transcendent baseball novels." And it is. But what are those other transcendent baseball novels, you may ask? Here are a few, selected by Schuster himself an ... More >>

Knock It Out the Park Like Albert Pujols: Top 25 Wale Sports References

​Wale is Grandmaster of the sports reference. No musical artist brings as much wit, depth and knowledge to the craft. For instance, in the recently released ode to the former St. Louis baseball hero, "Albert Pujols," Wale slangs this gem: "John Rocker, Atlanta Bravest knows that I'm awesome/ Bett ... 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 >>

The formulas work in Moneyball

Reviewing the Cardinals' Draft -- Rounds 36-50

​And so we come to the final push, dear friends. The very last gasp of the draft class. The final group of players taken by the Cardinals for 2011 contains a couple very intriguing talents, including a tough sign from St. Louis who could wind up with as high a ceiling as any player drafted this ye ... More >>

Reviewing the Cardinals' Draft -- Rounds 11-20

​We're starting to get into territory where the names are hard to find and the scouting info thin on the ground, ladies and gentlemen. Of the 10 players the Cardinals drafted between the 11th and 20th rounds, there were only four whose names I had heard before the draft. Which, I'm somewhat sorry ... More >>

Reviewing the Cardinals' Draft -- Rounds 6-10

​When we last saw our red-clad heroes, they were trapped deep in the bowels of the 2011 draft, having just attempted to extricate themselves with the help of a polished sinker-y righthander from Oregon State named Gaviglia. He was the first pitcher taken by the Redbirds, after a truly bizarre run ... More >>

The Opening Day Crystal Ball: 2011 MLB Predictions

I actually dressed up like this to write this post. I predict the itching of this beard will soon drive me to madness. ​Just a bare handful of hours, now, until the Cardinals' 2011 season gets underway. Plenty of ink and bytes have been spilled talking about what the season may bring, lots of it r ... More >>

SBNation St. Louis Launches

Hey, sports fans! As of yesterday, you officially have a new online destination where you can fritter away your working hours. SBNation, a national community of sports blogs, launched its St. Louis site Tuesday, a one-stop repository of news and opinions -- for what value is a conversation about spo ... More >>

Previewing the Padres

commons.wikimedia.orgAdmit it. That's a creepy effing mascot. ​​The Cardinals travel to San Diego tonight to begin a series against the surprising Padres, who sit atop the NL West. Looking over at the other dugout, the Cards just may see a mirror image of themselves, a team succeeding mostly on ... More >>

Last Night: Deadspin Founder Will Leitch Talks Really Fast, Meets with Adoring Fans at Left Bank Books, Gets Beer with Sportswriters

Fast-talker Will Leitch last night at Left Bank Books.​It's just after after nine o'clock Thursday night at Left Bank Books downtown, and Will Leitch is still going strong. The writer-turned-blogger-turned-writer-again is seated at a desk in front of cookbooks and to the left of glossy-covere ... More >>

Lessons From a Busted Bracket

​Well, at least I had Duke. I suppose one could put that squarely in the Good News column. Kind of sparse column, but not entirely empty. The Bad News column, on the other hand, that bitch is full. Overflowing, even. Going into the NCAA Tournament this year, I felt really, really good ab ... More >>

Rams Snatch Defeat From the Jaws Of Victory Against Vikings

Wikimedia Commons​As miserable as the past seven days have been in the St. Louis sporting world, local fans can take solace in the fact that it could be a hell of a lot worse.Take Seattle and their unfathomably depressing 2008: the Mariners lost 101 games, the Seahawks went 4-12, the once-proud Un ... More >>

My Cardinals: Will Leitch, Blogger Superhero

Opening Day is finally here. Winter has loosened its grip on our little corner of the world (well, sort of, anyway), and spring is beginning to bloom. Our annual ritual of renewal and rebirth is a few scant moments away, after the months of waiting impatiently for it to arrive. I could giv ... More >>

The First Baseball Game of the Year at Busch Stadium

photo by Keegan HamiltonIt wasn't played by the Cardinals (you'll have to wait till Monday, when the Pirates come to town to see the Redbirds in action) but by the Mizzou and SLU. The Tigers trounced the Billikens 19-6.If a confused spectator had wandered into the stands, there was zero chance of co ... More >>

Wash U. Bears Return to Div. III Tourney as Reigning Champs

bearsports.wustl.eduCoach Edwards takes Wash U. to another Div. III tourney.With all the noise being made these days about the Mizzou Tigers, Blues hockey and Cardinals spring training, arguably the best sports team in St. Louis is wrapping up its season virtually unnoticed.The Washington University ... More >>

Red-Light Cameras, Cocaine Addiction and Public Radio: 2008's 10 Most-Read Stories

(The eyes have it! Here are the Top 10 most-read stories online, which were published in 2008 by the RFT. After the jump, we also included a few stories that came back from the dead in '08 because of timely news -- earthquakes and college basketball among them. Below, RFT Editor Tom Finkel ... More >>

Last Minute Gift Ideas for Chris Duncan, Richie Incognito, Albert Pujols and Other St. Louis Sports Personalities

It's tough being a St. Louis sporting figure these days. Whether you're calling out your players for poor play, making demands for an $11 million luxury, or just trying to make sense of what you just saw happen to your team, life is flat out hard. But you know what can make it all better? Why, ... More >>

Baseball Card of the Week: How the Cardinals Could Have Drafted Chase Utley of the Phillies

Just for Kicks: St. Louis will field a new professional women's soccer team next spring

It's Time to Jump on the Mizzou Bandwagon

Faster Than a Speeding Rocket Scientist: Cards rookie Brian Barton chooses baseball over aerospace engineering — for the time being.

2008 Cardinals Draft Pick Analysis

A Mathews-Dickey coach does all he can to take black kids out to the ballgame.

African-American ballplayers are getting rarer than a triple play.

Unreal News Challenge 2006

Week of December 21, 2006

See Me, Hear Me, Read Me

Ethical issues take a back seat to synergy and branding in local sports media

Alley Cat

Somebody forgot to tell Emil Williams Jr. that bowling is for fat, beer-guzzling honkies

3 Nights in June

Strategy, heartbreak, and joy inside the mind of a minor-league hitting coach

The Sporting Crowd

No Final Four tickets? No problem -- just grin and bar it!

News to Muse

The Year in Review: A Quiz

Kickin' It

The Street Soccer Cup USA is taking it to the, um, streets

Where's Florissant?

Some Lou denizens feel dissed by Miss USA (but Unreal still loves her!), a Pattonville student is treated criminally, and an 84-year-old grandma praises the Rams in song; plus, we clock local athletes on our gaydar

Bush Strikes Out

Our commander in chief takes to the mound, Missouri gets its very own dinosaur, an Old Kid on the Block remembers when he was New, and Unreal learns a little something about love and basketball

Bouton's Balls

Are chin music for MLB

Know News?

The year in review: A quiz (For answers, see last page)

Worcester Booster

Almost-Blues and faded Stars

Underdogs

Hoop dreams die hard for coach John Campbell and his Sanford-Brown Indians

Foul Ball

Baseball coach Jim Brady has been fighting his bosses in the UMSL athletic department for seven years. And he thought colon cancer was a pain in the ass.

Penalty Kick

Faded soccer glory seen in a U.S. World Cup team without St. Louis talent

The Midas Touch

Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. has a knack for making money without risking his own. Meet the guy who wants you to cough up $250 million for a new stadium.

New Kid, Old School

Francis G. Slay wants to push a troubled city to the future, and he doesn't think "politics" is a dirty word.

1998: The Year in Sports