SHaynes23

Yeah, I don't know what happened to him this year. Thought he would build off last year and have a solid one. On a semi-related note, I was born in the same small town hospital as Jake Arrieta, go figure.

I've heard they have amazing steak restaurants around there, we just stopped by the stadium on the way back to St. Louis though so we just ate dinner at the ballpark and drove straight home after the game was over. I know they have some of the best BBQ I've ever had from the little time I've spent in Kansas City. Watching a game at Kauffman is very cool though, the stadium and scenery is beautiful. With the giant screen and fountains, plus the Hall of Fame out in left field it's a nice backdrop to the game. I'm used to going to games at Busch, and there's not much to look at except the empty lot out behind left field and the skyline, so it was a nice change of pace. Everything just seemed closer and more intimate than it does at a Cardinals game.

So I had a pretty cool week of baseball this week. Me and the girlfriend made the trip to Omaha for game 2 of the College World Series which happened to be the game that Arizona won the national championship in. I've been to a ton of MLB games, and none of them came close to the atmosphere that was there Monday night. We were sitting one section down from the South Carolina parents and family so they were pretty rowdy to say the least. Very rarely do I get goosebumps during an MLB game but they were going pretty strong during the CWS game. The whole fan fest before the game and the experience in general is one of the coolest baseball related things I've ever been a part of, I highly recommend it. Then on the way back to St. Louis we decided to stop by Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City to see the Royals and Rays play. We got there really early so they have this earlybird thing where you get to go right down onto the field to watch batting practice and stuff. It was well worth it because I got to meet James Shields and Jeremy Hellickson and even talk to Hellickson for a little bit. Got to talk about Alex Cobb about him being on my fantasy team and about who I had, pretty cool I must say. Easily the best couple of days of baseball I've ever had as a fan, can't top some of them from when I played, but still amazing.

Come ask that question in St. Louis Was listening to the radio last year, didn't know the Cubs were coming into town for a series. The DJ cut in with a special report that a horrible smell of raw sewage was coming from downtown and authorities were working hard to figure out what it was. I just stopped dead in my tracks and was like what?!? Then he said it was determined that the Cubs had just arrived in town and they were the cause of the smell. Made me chuckle pretty hard. But the Cubs-Cards rivalry is pretty friendly most of the time. We have a good time letting them know that Cubs actually stands for Completely Useless By September and I'm sure they have all kinds of jabs for us but it's all in good nature. I love when a Cubs fan brags to me that they beat us in a series, I just remind them that we've won 11 World Championships since the last time they won one. If you go to Busch or Wrigley for a Cubs-Cards game you will see a mix of the two jerseys, and the fans get along really well, they just like giving each other a hard time.

Don't look now but the O's are 2-8 in their last 10 and the Rays and Yankees are breathing down their necks. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

It's all about getting the cartoon Oriole back as their logo lol. Didn't we have this talk about the Orioles last season too when they started good. I don't see anyway their pitching hangs anywhere close to what it is now to keep them in that division. I'm sure they'll finish better than they did last year, but the Rays have 4 starters that top any Orioles pitcher on most days. They'll only get better when they get Longo back too. I expect them to run away with the division at some point. I'm sure the Yankees will come around at some point, it's not like they are playing horrible. You know they will get some help if they need it too. I think the Yankees will grab one of the wildcard spots. You can never count the Red Sox out either, when they get healthy they are still a very good team. The third AL East team has got to hope that the Tigers don't pick things up though because them and the Indians could both make it in. It's kind of a crap shoot to me if it's the Sox or Jays, I just don't think it'll be the Orioles. I'd love to see them prove me wrong, but they haven't been known for proving people wrong over a whole season lately.

Yeah, that's a big hit. I'd say the Cubs and Astros would be more than happy to listen to offers for Dempster, Garza or Wandy Rodriguez if the Yankees came calling though.

Definitely agree with you about Ozzie being there for reasons that far outweigh his impact he'll have on the team between the lines. Miami is doing a total retool in every way to try to get the city behind them, and they knew that having Ozzie in the dugout would draw much more interest than if Jack McKeon or some other generic coach would. They knew along with the exciting young players they have in that lineup coupled along with Ozzie would make for if nothing else an exciting year. I was listening to Dan LeBatard and he was talking about how this is the equivalent of someone making a homophobic or racist remark in another city, that's how it made all the Cubans in Florida feel. I know Ozzie likes to spout off, but I thought he was smart enough not to throw all the people that follow the team and had their lives impacted by Castro in some way under the bus. While I don't think he should have been suspended for what probably was just a brain fart, he needs to stick to talking about baseball from now on. On the other side the Marlins need to realize that they brought in a lightning rod and if they suspend him for every questionable thing he says through the year he will miss a whole lot of games. They knew what they were signing up for when they went out and got him.

<p>With the season officially starting up Wednesday I figured I'd post my predictions for the season and see if any of you have any. It's fun to go back to the beginning of the year and see how terrible your picks are. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> American League East: Yankees</p><p> American League Central: Tigers</p><p> American League West: Angels</p><p> Wildcard 1: Rangers</p><p> Wildcard 2: Red Sox</p><p> </p><p> National League East: Phillies</p><p> National League Central: Cardinals</p><p> National League West: Giants</p><p> Wildcard 1: Brewers</p><p> Wildcard 2: Dodgers</p><p> </p><p> ------------------------------------------</p><p> </p><p> AL Wildcard: Red Sox d. Rangers</p><p> ALDS: Tigers d. Red Sox</p><p> ALDS: Angels d. Yankees</p><p> ALCS: Angels d. Tigers</p><p> </p><p> NL Wildcard: Dodgers d. Brewers</p><p> NLDS: Phillies d. Dodgers</p><p> NLDS: Giants d. Cardinals</p><p> NLCS: Phillies d. Giants</p><p> </p><p> World Series: Phillies d. Angels</p><p> </p><p> ------------------------------------------</p><p> </p><p> AL MVP: Prince Fielder</p><p> AL Cy Young: Jered Weaver</p><p> AL Rookie of the Year: Matt Moore</p><p> </p><p> NL MVP: Ryan Braun</p><p> NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw</p><p> NL Rookie of the Year: Yonder Alonso</p>

I think it was likely a mistake, but I wouldn't be beyond shocked if it wasn't. Still doesn't change the fact that Harbaugh should have called a timeout to give Cundiff a chance to lineup. I told my GF as it was happening that the kicker was sprinting on to the field, that can't be good for him setting up for the kick.

I don't think it'll be a heel turn. I'd just like to see him change his attitude and be more serious and vicious (like he is when somebody does him wrong). He can be more aggressive and not pander as much and still keep his face status.

I think he is more of a real deal that Dice K is. He looks more like a traditional pitcher other than the guys who brought funky stuff (Dice K, Nomo, Hasegawa). His stats speak for themselves, and if you've seen footage of him in Japan or in the WBC he looks like the type of pitcher who can do really well in America. I'm pulling for the guy.

It's 100% Kane, no doubt. Go to the last second Raw was on the air and he does his signature evil smile, then you can really tell that it is him. Plus, for all you people saying it's Taker, where'd his tattoos go?

Haha, us Cardinals fans get something to be happy about at the end of a bad week. The Brew Crew might struggle for the first part of the season if they don't have Braun and Fielder leaves.

I don't know how many times I've had to hear the athlete's get paid too much speech in the last couple of days from people. While I agree that it's not fair that there is such a discrepancy between the pay of people like teachers and police/firemen and athletes, I think my college economics teacher put it best. Sure I think I should get paid like Albert Pujols, and maybe that day will come when 50,000 people shell out tons of money for 162 days to see me talk about supply and demand. While he's got the whole country hanging on every pitch that he sees, I've got 20 young adults half asleep or playing Tetris on their phones.

Most of my friends have been super angry about Albert leaving. I'm not in that camp. I put this one on the Cardinals. They slow played this thing for the past few years and seemed indifferent. They didn't start pressing until yesterday, and by then it was too late. Plus, I think he felt that they disrespected him by spending 120 million on Matt Holliday before they locked him up long term.

So R-Truth got suspended 30 days. They must have added other things than painkillers and PED's to the suspendable list because the guys getting suspended don't really strike me as roid heads.

Well it's official, the Astros are moving to the AL West for 2013. Guess that means year around interleague play. Not a fan of this at all. I would much rather see MLB even out the leagues with either 28 or 32 teams much more than having an odd number in each league.

I was figuring since they picked up a win over them on Raw last night they'd have the inside track.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="sebsy" data-cite="sebsy" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Evan Bourne suspended for a violation of the wellness policy.<p> </p><p> Bit of a surprise that one. Quite a few of them at it atm.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Guess that means Rhodes and Barrett will be taking the tag titles on Smackdown or Raw next week.</p>

Gotta believe that it's the end of Dave Duncan as the Cardinals pitching coach as well. He's only ever coached with Tony, and with his wife being ill I don't see him coming back. I hope the Cardinals give a look at Jose Oquendo for the manager role, I think he would be really good in it. He's going to be a manager someday somewhere, so why not try to give him a shot here? Hopefully this opens the door for Ozzie Smith to return to the Cardinals in some capacity as well. He and LaRussa had an ugly feud which kept him away, now that's he's gone I really hope Ozzie at least does something with the team.

Holy cow, what a sports weekend here in St. Louis. First the Cardinals win the World Series, now the Rams pull out a win against the Saints. Everybody I talked to was just hoping not to get blown out. It is immediately obvious what Brandon Lloyd does for our offense, it just looked light years ahead of where it looked before we got him. Can't wait to see what happens when he and Bradford are in the lineup together. Hopefully the Rams can start to string a few wins together now that they are off the snide and their hellish schedule is behind them.

Not having a voice tomorrow is well worth that game. Most exciting game I've ever watched. Came down to our last strike twice but somehow managed to come through. Expecting a lot of people calling in around St. Louis tomorrow. I already know multiple people who are. Tomorrow is going to be an amazing day.

I never really got into comic books in my childhood, was too busy with sports and video games to really get into them. Just went out and bought my first ever comic books today. I was reading about the New 52 from DC and it seemed like a good point to jump in since I didn't know hugely detailed backstories for most of the comics. I quite a bit about Batman, but that's about it for DC. I went ahead and started with 4 series, Detective and Action Comics, Batman and Superman. Those four seemed like the best place to start since Batman and Superman are cornerstones of comic books and the two I'd likely be most interested in. I really enjoyed them a lot and am looking to expand to maybe 8-10 of the DC 52. Anybody have any suggestions on any other one's from DC?

Agreed. If his dad would have done this in recent years then they wouldn't have had to dig out of a pretty big hole that they are coming out of now it looks like. There's no doubt Davis was an all-time great owner and a great football mind in his time, but if he wouldn't have trusted the people he hired in the past 10-15 years to do their jobs then the Raiders would be a lot better off when he passed. The man always did what he thought would be best for the Raiders fans though so you can't put him down for that.