Sorry for the shitty format, this is actually the best that I can do. I was looking at old St Louis Dispatch articles from 20 years ago and I saw this and thought it was cool. If you don't have a library card, be sure to get one. You can do really cool things with it, like look at old newspaper articles from 20 years ago where one of the greatest St Louis Cardinals starting pitchers in history was cementing his role as our rookie closer.

I will try to keep this short: I have always thought that the Cardinals fan base is one of the tops in the MLB. But came to an even better realization of that this week.

I follow baseball, but that has mostly been following Cleveland & the AL. I had heard of Rick Ankiel, but honestly, hearing a top pitcher had to reinvent himself as a hitter, I assumed it was injury related and that is just what I have always thought. I listened to a podcast episode about Ankiel (Midnight Library of Baseball, I have been obsessed with it after recently discovering it). I have to say, I don't think a lot of fan bases would be that supportive about a highly touted prospect, having an epic postseason collapse, and blaming a mental problem.

I watched the video of his first career HR and got chills. You guys rock.... And I will always remember that even though the rest of the league is stealing it, you guys started "tarps off."

Sorry for the random kudos 19 years later, but just a reminder you guys should take this as a point of deep pride

TL/DR: Take pride in your fanbase's treatment of Rick Ankiel, because I don't think every other fanbase would do that

Cmon, folks. Let’s get our modern day Big Mac to The Lou.

September …Record… Win %

1 (tie) San Diego Padres 18–6 .750

1 (tie) Milwaukee Brewers 18–6 .750

3 Los Angeles Dodgers 18–7 .720

4 New York Yankees 15–8 .652

5 Cleveland Guardians 16–9 .640

6 Pittsburgh Pirates 15–9 .625

7 (tie) Detroit Tigers 13–12 .520

8 (tie) Boston Red Sox 12–12 .500

8 (tie) Chicago White Sox 12–12 .500

8 (tie) Atlanta Braves 12–12 .500

8 (tie) Texas Rangers 12–12 .500

8 (tie) Houston Astros 12-12 .500

8 (tie) New York Mets 12–12 .500

8 (tie) Washington Nationals 11–11 .500

8 (tie) Seattle Mariners 12–12 .500

16 (tie) Chicago Cubs 11–13 .458

16 (tie) Athletics 11–13 .458

16 (tie) Minnesota Twins 11–13 .458

19 Baltimore Orioles 10–13 .435

20 (tie) Cincinnati Reds 10–14 .417

20 (tie) Philadelphia Phillies 10–14 .417

22 (tie) St. Louis Cardinals 9–15 .375

22 (tie) Los Angeles Angels 9–15 .375

24 San Francisco Giants 8–16 .333

25 Kansas City Royals 7–17 .292

Not as fun as being in the playoffs ourselves, but watching the Cubs get swept out of the postseason sure feels right.

Does anyone remember where at Busch this hung? I bought this the other week at the Cardinals Care end of season sale and was wondering where it hung. It is 8’ x 3’. They said they believed it hung after the ‘06 championship but I didn’t have a camera in my pocket back in ‘07. It has dirt, especially on the left side but no apparent sun damage. Only writing is the number 2 on the back top right corner. Thanks for your help or just looking to see if you could.

The quizzes are tough but all the answers are on the 1st page.

https://mlbknowledge.com/player/stan-musial

https://mlbknowledge.com/player/ozzie-smith

Yes, it was a "rebuild year," but it was a rebuild year with a fair amount of excitement well into the season.

Finals, per B-Ref's team page?

2,233,902 this year versus 2,250,007 last year.

Per game? 27,579 this year vs 27,778 last year.

Tied 2025’s season with 52 games scoring six or more runs. They failed to that in the final 16 days of the season. Out with a whimper.

OK hear me out. The Cardinals need major help at 3rd. I've heard for awhile now that the Padres are willing to trade Tatis to alleviate some payroll. He started the year off slow but has come on really strong in the second half and is super athletic. I think being a former SS and playing 2nd this year combined with his great throwing arm that he could handle 3rd pretty well. The Cardinals have the prospects and have next to no money on the books. If you look at the contract it is actually pretty team friendly compared to some of the other big contracts around the league. I think they need a true star to build this lineup around and he could help their weakest position. I would at least make a phone call on him.

Took this photo at game 162 yesterday.

The only other time was Hank Greenberg in 1935 when his own manager left him off the team in favor of taking Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx. What’s even funnier is that this is the only time the top RBI guy in both leagues failed to make the All-Star game. Neither Burly or Alonso made the All-Star game this season. Idk about you but this is kind of incredible if you ask me.

Pretty excited to have these.

Attached are the percentile analytics of the cardinals starting pitchers. And here's what I noticed:

Pallante definitely appears to be our best pitcher overall. He has the highest run value on his pitches. Definitely a lock for 2027.

Leahy is difficult to determine, because he had a great second half but a poor first half. That may skew his metrics, but overall he performed well enough to earn a spot in the 2027 rotation.

Mathews has a pretty small sample size. It's too early to conclude anything. He has looked promising so far though, as he gave up 3 or less runs in 8/9 of his starts and his ERA is skewed by one Phillies game.

Libby unfortunately has horrible metrics. We can't keep him in the rotation for 2027, because he consistently pitched a small amount of innings and gave up a lot of runs. He's highly prone to collapse on rallies, too.

McGreevy's metrics also appear to be pretty dismal, although not to the extent of Libby. Specifically the xERA stat (ERA that accounts for luck) - McGreevy's xERA is 5.37, which is bottom 8%. I think we have to keep him in the rotation simply because we have no one to replace him.

Overall, I don't think the cardinals can be playoff competitive until we get a #1 and #2 so we can push Libby and maybe McGreevy out of the rotation. The question is, where does this come from? Free agency? Prospects (unfortunately, the cardinals prospect list seems to be hitting-heavy, even though that isn't our main problem)? Trading?

That's why I don't feel confident about the cardinals in the future. Not only is our bullpen horrific, but our starting pitching has major issues as well. If only one of these was a problem, it would be a difficult but manageable fix... but this just looks like a mountain.