Pittsburgh Pirates

Tom Cruise Scores as the Strapping Jack Reacher

Rock Bottom Redbirds

The game last night has to be the low point of the season, right? I mean, it can't possibly get any worse. ...right? I wrote before the series began about the Cardinals having a huge opportunity in front of them, an opportunity to virtually bury one of the teams chasing them for the second ... More >>

Yadier Molina Injured: Part of the Game or Cheap Shot?

So a bad thing happened last night. No, not the Cards losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-0. I mean, don't get me wrong; that was definitely a bad thing. The Cardinals coming out and laying such a magnificent egg in such a big game sucked in a big way, and the fact James McDonald apparently just owns ... More >>

Opportunity is Knocking; Will the Cards Answer?

It is both obvious and cliched to say that any series this time of year is pivotal. After all, you get down to the end of August, and every single out of every game has potential implications, much less entire series. But after taking two of three from the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend (yay! ... More >>

The Cards Take Control of Their Destiny

With their 4-2 win over the Houston Astros last night (and a little help from the San Diego Padres, who finished up a three game sweep of the Pirates earlier in the day), the Cardinals moved half a game ahead of Pittsburgh, into sole possession of the second National League Wild Card spot. This ... More >>

The Cardinals Run a Marathon -- And Come in Second

It took 19 innings, but the Cardinals managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the end. It was, in a very special way, the perfect version of a 2012 Cards game. Coming into this latest series against the Pittsburgh Pirates -- aka the team the Cards are chasing in the standings -- th ... More >>

The Cards' Biggest Game of the Year?

On Friday night, the Cardinals laid a real egg against the Pittsburgh Pirates, getting shut down by James McDonald and losing by the score of 2-1. It was an ugly showing for a club coming in to one of their biggest series of the year; the Cards did exactly what they couldn't afford to do and came ou ... More >>

Another Letdown for The Cards

The Cardinals really needed a win this weekend. Not a win in a game; a win in a series. They needed to take care of their business against a Philadelphia Phillies team that has struggled badly this season, from a variety of standpoints. The Cardinals needed to, in short, play like a team fighting fo ... More >>

Midseason Reviews for Preseason Predictions -- Individual Awards Edition

You know, the All-Star break has come and gone. The second half (I should really put that in quotation marks, but screw it), of the baseball season is well and truly underway. I had a dozen different things I was planning on writing while the break was going on, all kinds of progress reports an ... More >>

Moving Time For the Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals, as of right this moment, the morning of the 29th of June in the Year of Our Lord 2012, right around twenty after nine Central Daylight Time, are a third-place team. That's kind of depressing, isn't it? Particularly after the blazing hot start to this season, I can't imagine ... More >>

The Pythagorean Blues

You know, it hasn't been the easiest season so far for the Cardinals. Don't get me wrong; it hasn't been a really miserable season of nothing but struggles, by any means. But when you looked at this team on paper before the season started, it looked like a team that should have comfortably taken the ... More >>

Chris Perez Tells Off Cleveland -- Twice

You might remember Chris Perez from his time here in St. Louis as a young fireballing reliever with shaky-at-best control. Or, you might remember him as the guy who was traded away for Mark DeRosa. (An ill-fated deal if ever there has been one; DeRosa got hurt and contributed virtually nothing for t ... More >>

Emergency Ticket Giveway to Today's Cardinals Game

King of the RFT retail reps and all-around nice guy Mike Lipel just dropped two tickets in my cubicle for today's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That game starts at 12:45 p.m. today -- short notice indeed. You can win those tickets. You must be able to pick 'em up at the RFT offices today, obv ... More >>

Honus Wagner T206 Card Sells for $1.2 Million in Local Dealer's Auction

Sunset Hills collectibles dealer Bill Goodwin reaped a higher-than-anticipated $1.2 million for the well-graded Honus Wagner T206 baseball card in an online auction last night. Your baseball cards are still comparatively worthless, however, so don't get your hopes up.The Wagner card, which measures ... More >>

Sports Illustrated Picks Reds to Win NL Central; And Guess Who's on the Cover?

​Sports Illustrated is out with its annual baseball preview. And surprise, surprise the cover fronts Albert Pujols and fold outs with comparisons ranking him among baseball greats DiMaggio, Williams and Aaron. SI also picks Pujol's new team, the Los Angeles Angels, to win the World Series.As for t ... 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 >>

Cardinals Make Statement in Pittsburgh, Then Promptly Retract It

​If you're looking for an allegorical representation of the Cardinals' season so far, you could do a whole lot worse than the weekend series against Pittsburgh. After all, it was a series absolutely fraught with symoblic importance, as both teams came in trying to make a statement. For the Pi ... More >>

Last Time Pirates Led Division This Late in Season: 1992

Pirates in first place? Blasphemy!​The Pittsburgh Pirates moved into sole possession of first place in the NL Central on Monday after defeating the Cincinnati Reds. Two days later, the Pirates cling to a half-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals, in first place as recently as ... More >>

Schafer's Talking Pujols on WGEM

In case you were wondering, no, that's not me. I have much better legs. ​Yesterday morning I was a guest on the ESPN affiliate in Quincy, Illinois, with Josh Houchins, the host of their morning drive program. WGEM has some of their audio files archived now, so you can go back and listen if you lik ... More >>

Game Notes: Pirates 4, Cardinals 3, 5/04/11

​You know, it's bad when you play the Pittsburgh Pirates, and they look like the young, energetic, dynamic team, and you look like the tired, poorly constructed and fatally flawed team.Unfortunately, that's not all that far from how things looked last night. It's much too soon to really start worr ... More >>

Look at the Taint on this Team

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. ​

2010 MLB Draft: A Mock Draft You Can Set Your Watch To

It's Christmas in June! ​Finally, Draft Day is here, and I'm as giddy as a small child the day before Christmas, shaking all the packages and trying to figure out what might be in that really big one with my name on it. Unfortunately, no amount of shaking or clever examination of the boxes is goin ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 12.2

​ How to eat healthy at airports. (Washington Post)A remembrance of coffee shops past. (Chicago Tribune)Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher interning with the USDA. (ESPN)Singapore's Satay Man is the last of a dying breed. (The Atlantic)Monsanto draws antitrust scrutiny. (Washington Post)

Akinori Iwamura Traded to Pittsburgh

What? It's a pirate. It's a story about pirates, and this is a picture of a pirate. Totally justified. ​Stuck here in the doldrums of the early baseball offseason, with only a World Series in which I hate both teams to watch, it's nice to have any little bit of news or movement to talk about.  ... More >>

Viva Clemente

Bird vs. Fish

Aaron's Thing of the Week: Inaugural Edition

We here at the Rundown like to think of ourselves as your one-stop shop for a better quality of life. Sports are great, but man cannot live by OPS alone. That's why, as part of my continued efforts to bring you the very best in all of life, I've decided to start a new weekly feature here. I'm going ... More >>

Yovani Gallardo is Better Than the Cardinals

Remember in the first series of this season, when the Cardinals were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates, and we all felt really good? We all thought, "Hey, this'll be great! The Cards can get off to a hot start, sort of pad the old record a little bit. After all, what are the Pirates for?" Well, th ... More >>

Thursday, April 9: Morning's Newz

A few parents in the Ritenour School District are enraged about an incident last week when the bus carrying their children's baseball team was pulled over by the enraged coach of the opposing team. Apparently the coach thought that some players on the other team stole money from the locker room.&nbs ... More >>

Tuesday, April 7: Morning's Newz

It's election day in St. Louis and other locales. Election officials in St. Louis are predicting low turnouts, which should help the incumbent mayor -- Francis Slay -- topple Maida Coleman. Meanwhile, in Town & Country alderman John Hoffmann fights the good fight against incumbent mayor Jon Dalt ... More >>

Pirates Killed by Manatees: Film at Eleven!

You know how every year, just as the baseball season is about to start, you begin sort of making up your predictions, getting them all straight in your head? No need to lie and say you don't do it; we all do. Some of us write them down, some of us discuss them incessantly with our friends (or, if we ... More >>

This Bird's For Your

Baseball Card of the Week: Special Dock Ellis (1945-2008) Edition

Dock Ellis, who in 1970 pitched a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while tripping on acid, died Friday, December 19.In 2005 Ellis was the subject of a very good profile by Keven McAlester in the Houston Press. McAlester's piece begins with this anecdote:Thirty-five years ago, on June 12, 1970, P ... More >>

Cards Need to Go 13-6 From Here Out to Make Playoffs (Maybe)

The Cards Need a Winning Streak. They May Not Get One.

Cards Promotion of Wallace Raises Questions

June Will Be Tough Month for Cardinals

Cards Blog: Out of the Slump and on the Road

Cards Blog: Out of the Slump and on the Road

Cards Blog: A Cautionary Tale for Anthony Reyes

Cards Blog: A Cautionary Tale for Anthony Reyes

And the Top Five Baseball Draft Picks Will Be...

And the Top Five Baseball Draft Picks Will Be...

Stick a Fork in 'Em

Stick a Fork in 'Em

Talkin' Baseball

Matching the playoff-rockin' Cardinals with some appropriate tunes

Who's the Daddy?

Unreal dials a naughty number (hey, we were duped!), cheers on a local strongman and borrows a page from the Post-Dispatch; plus, Bill Haas signs on as Unreal Advice Columnist

Night & Day

May 5 - 12, 1999

Foul Ball

Whitey Herzog takes a vicious swing at money-driven modern baseball, where only the wealthy win -- and the fans always lose