Subject: Sports Stars

• Flotsam and Jetsam

  September 1, 1999

• Kevin Slaten's Head Is About to Explode: The exiled sports-talk radio ranter needs to get some things off his chest

  August 27, 2008

• Ask a Negro Leaguer Column

  Week of April 20, 2006

  April 19, 2006

• Free Ride

  Joe theorizes why the Cards have gotten so many "Get Out of Jail Free" cards.

  September 19, 2007

• Serengeti

  Friday, September 23; the Hi-Pointe (1001 McCausland Avenue)

  September 21, 2005

• Goldfinger

  July 27, 2005

• Her Serena Majesty

  July 18, 2007

• Follow the Money

  Readers call out Paul McKee and Prince Joe.

  July 4, 2007

• Strong Bonds

  June 13, 2007

• Alley Cat

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

  September 21, 2005

• Best Cardinals Player

  Scott Rolen

  September 29, 2004

• Tallboys

  The answer to Larry Bird's prayers for a white basketball savior might reside just off Highway 67 in Poplar Bluff

  September 1, 2004

• Shooting Stars

  Tommie Liddell plays tortoise to Darius Miles’ hare in the annals of East Side High basketball lore

  February 18, 2004

• Best Ex-Cardinal Whose Number Isn't Retired in Right Field

  Willie McGee

  September 24, 2003

• Best Cardinals Player

  Albert Pujols

  September 24, 2003

• The Worm

  The truth about SheBron: There isn't any.

  February 19, 2003

• SheBron's Truth

  Sheila Bronson is twelve years old -- and may be the first player to jump from middle school into the WNBA

  February 12, 2003

• Manny Being Manny, Being Suspended

  The fallout from the suspension of Manny Ramirez is coming hard and fast now. 

  May 7, 2009

• Who Is Anyone?

  June 24, 2009

• Ten Memorable Moments and Five to Forget at Busch Stadium II

  July 8, 2009

• Take Me Out to the Old (and Tarnished) Ball Game: For better or worse, baseball's midsummer classic is a symbol for the state of the game

  July 8, 2009

• "The Most Perfect Player Who Ever Did Live"

  Wikimedia CommonsIf you haven't already read Joe Posnaski and Bill James' Sports Illustrated cover story from last week on Albert Pujols, well, what else are you doing on a Monday morning. Working?In what was probably the best piece of writing/analysis to come out of All-Star week, James makes the claim (then does his best to debunk it) that Pujols is, at this point in his career, the most perfect player in baseball history--statistically speaking, of course.Highlights include this:

  July 20, 2009

• Welcome to St. Louis, Manny

  Ramirez​I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the reception of one Manfred Ramirez. (I wish his name really were Manfred. That would be awesome.) Manny was, of course, quite roundly booed every time up in last night's game between the Cardinals and Dodgers, and really, I don't think anyone expected anything less.

  July 28, 2009

• Sitting Behind Shaq Sucks

  Spotted during the telecast of tonight's St. Louis Cardinals game, the poor guy who gets the seat behind the seven-foot-one-inch tall Shaquille O'Neal.

  August 11, 2009

• Photos: Shaquille O'Neal, Albert Pujols at the Four Seasons

  Photo: Nick LucchesiThe entire press conference was filmed to be included in the television series.​To hype his upcoming reality show Shaq VS., Shaquille O'Neal, the 17-year NBA icon, mixed friendly smack-talk and humble sentiments at the opportunity to face Albert Pujols in a home run derby Thursday afternoon in O'Fallon, Missouri."St. Louis, Michigan, how are you?" O'Neal joked after sitting down at the conference table, positioned on the shadeless rooftop of the Four Seasons hotel downtown.

  August 12, 2009

• Why Ichiro Suzuki is So Damned Awesome

  I have to say, Ichiro Suzuki may be my favorite non-Cardinal baseball player. There are plenty of others I love watching, mostly pitchers. Guys like Dan Haren (though that always makes me sad, too), Tim Lincecum, and Roy Halladay are all fantastic to watch; seeing players lie that ply their trade is just amazing. Ichiro, though, is on another level entirely. He's a master of his craft; no one else in baseball can maneuver the ball around the field the way Ichiro can. But honestly, that isn'

  August 31, 2009

• Cardinals' Dan McLaughlin is Baseball's Second-Biggest Blabbermouth

  Last August, the ever-brooding Jeff Kent, finishing out his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, threw one of his patented hissy fits when a Los Angeles Times columnist had the temerity to suggest that Manny Ramirez's arrival had helped Kent raise his batting average by twenty points. Wikipedia Vin Scully, baseball's chattiest Cathy.​Apparently, it was the legendary Vin Scully, the Dodgers' Hall of Fame broadcaster, who made the seemingly benign observation, thus incurring the sec

  September 3, 2009

• Back In the Saddle (Hopefully, Anyway)

  For the past couple of weeks, I've been feeling really kind of rough. Not sick, necessarily, but just not all that well. Every few days, I would feel a little better, but then the next day it would be right back down. I had a hell of a time mustering the wherewithall to complete much of anything. No energy, kind of just icky, you know? I didn't think too much of it at the time; just the cost of doing business when you've got too many hours worth of work to get into the day.So anyway, I spent the

  October 7, 2009

• Torry Holt Pulls A Brett Favre Versus The Rams

  sportscrzy.wordpress.com/2009/07/Torry Holt did everything but cry when the Jags beat his Rams on Sunday​Finally: a real football game from the Rams. The offense moved the ball, the defense came up big (Leonard Little leaping into the end zone like superman? More of that please), and St. Louis was a coin flip away from its first win in 16 games.The story of this match-up, though, was not a near end to the Rams ineptitude. No, it was Rams legend Torry Holt torching his former team for 101 recei

  October 19, 2009

• Albert Pujols' Comments Lost in Translation -- Again?!

  Wikimedia Commons​Near the end of 2006, a tempest boiled over in the local sports teapot when Albert Pujols, in an interview with reporters in his native Dominican Republic, opined that maybe he, and not Ryan Howard, was entitled to that season's Most Valuable Player award, by virtue of the fact that Pujols' St. Louis Cardinals reached the postseason that year and Howard's Philadelphia Phillies didn't.The thing was, when the story washed up on American shores, the English-language media spun i

  October 19, 2009

• The Year of the Collapsing Closer

  ​When people look back at the Yankees' 2009 World Series Championship (it's going to happen, sadly; get used to the idea), there will be talk of Alex Rodriguez finally breaking through and becoming the clutch genius we all knew he had locked away inside him, or Derek Jeter leading the Yanks to their first title since he took over the mantle of Captain. What will probably be missed, though, will be the biggest reason the Yankees won. The funny thing is, if the Yankees do win, the biggest reason

  October 20, 2009

• Let the Panic Begin: Albert Pujols to Have Elbow Surgery

  Well, we all knew it was coming eventually. Just a matter of time, really. Of course, knowing it was inevitable that Albert Pujols' balky elbow would eventually necessitate a surgical fix doesn't make it any easier to swallow when said inevitability becomes a reality. Albert is going under the knife today to have five bone spurs removed from his troublesome right elbow, and there is a very real chance this may just be the first of many surgeries. (And by the way, make sure you read the comm

  October 21, 2009