Let the games, and travel begin.  Hopped a 6am flight to Philly in time to land in the City of Brotherly Love this morning.  My coming here to Citizens Bank Park is the equivalent of a transplanted St. Louisan returning home and seeing the new Busch Stadium.  I spent the first 13 years of my life in Philly going to games at Veterans Stadium.  Yes, the place was a dump, but it was my dump.  I'm not suggesting Busch was a dump.  It was much better than the Vet, but the Vet was al I knew.  This was my first time back since it has been knocked down, and it felt weird not seeing the old stadum.  Fortunately, the gate attendant here at the Park eased my pain by offering me up the greatest tasting soft pretzel in the world.  This actually is a great city when they are not throwing batteries at J.D. Drew.  Of course they know how to boo, as the fans just did when the public address announcer called out the Cardinals lineup and the loudest bos were reserved for Scott Rolen. 

No surprise on LaRussa's lineup card.

Eckstein

Encarnacion

Pujols

Edmonds

Rolen

Taguchi

Molina

Miles

Carpenter

 

We'll have a full recap tonight on Midwest Sports Tonight at 6:30 and the Midwest Sports Report at 10.  I had a chance to catch up with Abraam Nunez who is at 3rd or the Phillies today, as well as St. Louis native Ryan Howard.  It's also always fun to hear from guys taking part in their first big league opener, like Skip Schumaker and Josh Hancock.  We'll have it al later.  For now, enjoy the game and the season!

Cards-Dodgers at 1pm Eastern.  Here's the Cards lineup:

 

Eckstein SS

Duncan 1B

Rolen 3B

Edmonds CF

Rodriguez RF

Gall LF

Molina C

Miles 2B

Suppan P

Very cloudy, mild day here in Vero Beach at this ancient ballpark.  The visiting clubhouse is worse than an old high school locker room but it's still cool to think about all the Hall of Fame Dodgers who played here back in the day.  Here's to hoping the rain holds off.  I'll check back later.

Anthony Reyes, Carmen Cali, Tyler Johnson and Michael Hernandez have been sent down to the minors.  Adam Wainwright is still up and will pitch out of the bullpen and compete for a spot there.  Sidney Ponson has been named the team's fifth starter and will take the hill against the Cubs on Sunday April 9th in a night game at Wrigley. 

Tony LaRussa told us the morning that four guys will batle for the final two bullpen spots.  With Izzy, Looper Thompson, Flores and Rincon set, that leaves Wainwright, Brian Falkenborg, Jeff Nelson, Josh Hancock, Alan Benes and Juan Mateo still here.  Mateo will not make the team and is "in limbo" according to the manager, meaning, as a Rule 5 player, the Cubs have the right to re-claim him before the Cardinals could send him to the minors.  That leaves five, although LaRussa said four.  He told me to interpret that however I want.  I think I have a better chance of learning Japanese.  Benes and Wainwright are in the pen today.

Here's today's lineup vs Washington.  The Dominicans are back and playing.

Eckstein-SS

Schumaker-CF

Pujols-1B

Rolen-3B

Rodriguez-LF

Encarnacion-RF

Molina-C

Spivey-2B

Marquis-P

Edmonds has a sore elbow, will be checked out today.  The team is still waiting medical results on Bigbie's foot. 

Got to go talk to Frank Robinson about Soriano.  Will check back later.

 

Nothing like getting thrown back into the mix.  With the Cards completely off on Tuesday, we needed to do two days worth of work today so we are not left empty handed tomorrow.  In the middle of all the interviews, I noticed a few things down here of interest.

I'm not sure what Tony LaRussa, Bill Parcells and Lou Brock were talking about in the manager's office, but that's some serious Hall of Fame talent in one small room.

And speaking of the Hall of Fame, we had a good debate going on in the media room about John Smoltz's credentials.  Rick Hummel says he needs to hit 200 wins to have a shot.  He's at 177 with 154 saves.  He's 12-12 with a 2.66 ERA and 4 saves in the postseason.  Jason Marquis once told me that Smoltz is the best athlete he's ever seen.  I interviewed  Smoltz today after his five inning, two hit shutout of the Cards.  We will run the interview Tuesday night after the Blues game.

Larry Bigbie is expected to join me Wednesday night live at 6:30 as a co-host of Midwest Sports Tonight.  We'll talk about his spring and answer phone calls.

One of the beautiful things about Spring Training for fans is the access to players.  It's really neat to see a little kid walk away with an autograph, although sometimes the demands on the players get a bit crazy.  Here is a little bit of what I heard today when Edgar Renteria was signing for dozens of fans.  "I came from Canada.  My Dad's name is Edgar.  Does that help?"  How about this one?  "Can you sign number three for old times sake."  Renteria wears number 11 now.  "Can you sign on the sweet spot."   All three of those demands came from adults.  I understand that there are honest collectors out there who are not trying to make a buck, but shouldn't this be for the kids?  Heck, when I was little, it made my day just to get to the front of the line and get the Philly Phanatic to sign something.

When I left to go back to St. Louis March 3rd, I assumed the Cards would more answers about the second base job by the time I returned March 20th.  No such luck. They'll get back to looking for answers Wednesday.  I'll be back here then.

Here we go again.  Feels like Groundhog Day.  Same flight, same rental car company, same hotel, and same weather.  Actually, a little bit warmer than it was when I left two and a half weeks ago. 

I had computer problems the last four hours, plus spent an hour and a half trying to track down Edgar Renteria of the Braves for an hour and a half.  Nothing like waiting 90 minutes for a 30 second interview.  Anyway, for those who have not seen the Cards lineup yet today, here it is:

Eckstein 2B

Duncan RF

Rolen 3B

Edmonds CF

Spezio 1B

Taguchi LF

Molina C

SPivey 2B

Reyes P.

Game is going on right now.  Weird to see Brian Jordan leading off and playing 1B for ATL.  Will have more with him tonight on MSR.  I'll have more here later. 

 

 

Talk about deadlines.  A week's worth of work done, and time to race to the airport.  I'll be back on March 20 when hopefully we'll have more answers on left field.  In the meantime, we have all kinds of stories running tonight, from the bullpen, to 19-year old Bryan Anderson, to my favorite story of the week, a profile of So Taguchi.  Such a fun guy, who has come so far with his baseball and English.  I hope you'll check it out tonight at 10:30 after the Valley basketball tournament on FSN Midwest.

Suppan had a very good description of his performance, telling me he was primarily going to throw fastballs and changeups today and work on those pitches while throwing in a few curve balls.  He said if you're not hitting your spots, you get stubborn and try to keep going and going trying to locate the fastball.  Hitters see primarily fast balls in BP and the Mets were sitting on them today.  Soup was up and down the middle a lot.  He called this a working start-good to get out there, and now it's time to progress toward the next start.

You can hear more of Soup tonight on Midwest Sports Tonight and the Midwest Sports Report.  Also, Bigbie on the left field job, Encarnacion on leaving for the WBC, game highlights and a profile of Cards prospect Travis Hanson.  I'm off to watch more and to put together the show.

Jeff Suppan gives up 4ER, 5H in the first.  I never read much into early starts, but well talk to him after the game and see if anything was up.  These guys typically are just working on different things. 

Eckstein led off with a walk, and stole a base on the next pitch, but was stranded on the basepaths.

I walked into the Cardinal clubhouse a little while ago and saw their white game jerseys hanging from the lockers.  It's a sight that gets the baseball juices flowing.  So does the appearance of a hall of famer.  A few of us were busy typing away in the media room when we heard the words, "You guys ever work?"  I looked up and there was one of the greatest, and nicest Cardinals of all time, Lou Brock.  It's always fun to see him down here.

Here is the lineup for today's opening exhibition game vs the Mets.

1. David Eckstein-SS

2. Junior Spivey-2B

3. Albert Pujols-1B

4. John Rodriguez-DH

5. Juan Encarnacion-RF

6. Larry Bigbie-LF

7. So Taguchi-CF

8. Yadier Molina-C

9. Hector Luna-3B

Suppan starts on the mound.

A new rule this year allows teams that would not usually use a DH to agree to have one in spring training games, and that's what the Mets and Caridnlas have chosen to do today.  You have Luna and Spivey both playing.  Rolen won't play for a week, so Luna gets ABs at third, but the fact that Spivey is at second confirms what most of us believe.  That it's his job to lose.  Left field is more interesting.  With Edmonds nursing a sore foot, and the DH in place, Bigbie, Taguchi and J-Rod all play.  Game begins in 2 hours.  Should be fun!

I just talked to Ricardo Rincon and he said he will pitch for Team Mexico.  He told me he will leave for the WBC Friday after throwing to hitters here at the Cardinals complex.  Rincon threw well this morning to Brian Daubach, Jim Edmonds and Scott Spezio.  Edmonds was impressed with his arsenal of pitches that include a very good sinker.  Rincon says he just talked to LaRussa about pitching for Mexico a few minutes ago, and that it is now 100 percent  that he will go.

I'm not sure who's day was worse on Tuesday, Rick Ankiel, or the FSN Midwest crew.  As you may know by now, Ankiel went to get an MRI on his left knee and will be sidelined with a strained patella tendon in his left knee.  Cardinals say 10-14 days out of action for Ankiel.  Our baseball analyst Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch is fearing it's more serious, and I trust Joe.  But hey, Ankiel's always injured.  What about the FSN Midwest crew?  I walked out to the hotel parking lot Tuesday morning and saw my photographer Jim Kelly standing by our van, with three cops around him.  Uh oh!  I said to myself, "I hope the camera's not gone."  Fortunately, every good photographer in this business knows to keep a camera by his side at all times, and Jim had it in his room the night before.  You can't risk leaving such an expensive piece of a equipment unattended for this reason.  Our van was one of four vehicles broken into overnight, but the thieves only took loose change and a gas card.  So, we were late getting over to the Cards facility, but still in time for Tony LaRussa's morning media address.  TLR is adamant that second base is still a competition between Spivey, Miles and Luna.  No one's believing it.  If Junior stays healthy, it has to be his job.  We heard the same thing about Tony Womack and Mark Grudzielanek.

Fun to watch Sidney Ponson and Anthony Reyes throw live BP on the same field back to back today.  Ponson was alright.  Reyes looked awesome. 

Gary Bennett caught both, and it looks like he's going to provide great leadership behind the plate.  I suspect LaRussa will have much more confidence in his new backup than he did in Einar Diaz.  Impressive to watch Bennett tutor Reyes.  Reyes is working on a two-seamer and Bennett was helping him with his release point.

Ponson walked off the mound, turned to three of us media types and said, "You guys make me nervous."  He was kidding, I think!

Nice to meet Dennis Tankersley today.  St. Charles native trying to hook on with his childhood team.  The former 38th overall pick in the draft is 1-10 lifetime in the majors and pitched in the minors for the Royals last year.  He has an outside shot at a bullpen spot.  No one would wear the Birds on the Bat with more pride. 

Well, Brian Daubach would have the same sentiment.  The Belleville, Illinois native is also a long shot.  He will be by guest at 6:30 PM central on Midwest Sports Tonight Wednesday.  This will not  just  be a quick one on one interview.  He will sit in with me for the full half hour and talk Cardinals and answer questions about baseball, football, basketball, and whatever else comes up.  Should be a lot of fun.

Finally, one of the funniest sound bites of the year.  Adam Wainwright doing a perfect impression of John Rodriguez.  He has the accent, the mannerisms and J-Rod's confidence down pat.  We ran it tonight and will do so again Wednesday.  It's worth watching, and of course we talk about Wainwright's attempt to beat out Ponson and Reyes for the fifth spot, too.  Hope you'll watch at 6:30 and 10. 

Ricardo Rincon is here and was slotted to throw on the side Monday, but he was ready enough to throw live batting practice to a group of Cardinals that included Albert Pujols, Juan Encarnacion and David Eckstein.  Will he play for Mexico in the WBC?  That's the question.  He told the print media this morning there was a 50 percent chance he woud play.  He told me later in the afternoon 60 percent.  We know that much, but not much more because all of us in the media struggled to understand Rincon's English.  Friendly guy who warned me that he did not speak well.  So he smiled, sort of answered my questions, and I sort of understood some of his answers.  Defintely less than 60 percent of them.

A few other observations.  There's a great Rick Ankiel buzz going on from some of the other media members who have been in Jupiter all of camp.  I'm not saying he can't make this team, but I have a hard time believing it. 

What were Encarnacion and So Taguchi laughing about at the cage?  And was the joke in Spanish, Japanese or English? 

Nice to see Jim Edmonds sharing some of his wisdom on the field today with Larry Bigbie and John Gall. 

Also nice to watch Aaron Miles and Junior Spivey talk strategy in a corner of the clubhouse today considering they are batling each other for a starting job at second.

Walt Jocketty said he has no plans right now of upgrading the outfield.  But he has the pitching depth to pull it off if need be.

Tyler Johnson has some serious velocity on his fastball.  But can he control it?

Nice chatting with Jeff Suppan and Brian Daubach for a while in the clubhouse today.  Suppan is just one of the great guys to sit down and shoot the breeze with.  Daubach is a true St. Louis sports fan.  Cool to talk Billikens basketball, Kevin Lisch, and the Midwest Sports Report with the Belleville native. 

More on Tuesday as Ankiel starts in center in an exhibition with Florida Antlatic University.

 

 

Day one at Spring Training for me.  I follow up Jim Hayes with the second shift down here, and people are saying it's chilly.  Feels pretty good to me.  About 65 degrees and sunny.  Perfect day to see Ricardo Rincon put on the Redbirds uniform for the first time. 

The flight down got me excited about baseball.  A few Cardinal fans, plus Darryl Strawberry in first class.  I checked out baseballreference.com when I landed to look at his career stats.  The site wrote that he was most similar to Reggie Jackson, Jose Canseco and Roger Maris between the ages of 23-32 but compared his overall career to the stats of Jeromy Burnitz, Jay Buhner and Eric Davis.  What a waste of a potential hall of fame career.  We're fortunate here, because when all is said and done, I believe Albert Pujols will be one of the greatest ever.  He won't waste his opportunity like Strawberry did.  And what about Edmonds, Rolen and Carpenter?  Maybe not hall of famers, but we're seeing some special players.  That's the beauty of baseball.  The long season, the stats, the debates, and oh, the great Spring Training weather.  Got to go put on my jacket. 

Nearly 1,000 miles of driving, and finally a payoff.  Between Jim Hayes, producer Dan Nacrelli, myself and three photographers, the FSN Midwest crew spent a lot of time on Interstate 70 the last five days.  So did media outlets from both sides of the state.  Each time we drove to Columbia for a possible Quin Snyder news conference, we were shutout with nothing more than written statements, fan interviews or predictable  player responses.  Tuesday was different.  Most coaches would get up and say all the right things for five minutes, and move on.  Snyder spoke last night for nearly 50 minutes, and left the University with a memorable performance.

I have always thought Coach “Q” was a masterful speaker, when he chose to talk.  He’s intelligent and eloquent.  Is he a good coach?  I’m not so sure but he can hold an audience at the podium. How does a guy that was seemingly forced to resign answer questions with class and dignity and show no bitterness?  Better yet, how does he manage to throw Athletic Director Mike Alden under the bus?  Snyder just told his side of the story, and let us figure out the rest.  By the time the news conference was over, President Elston Floyd was sending in a written statement to distance himself from Alden.  Quin Snyder is done as a Tiger.  And the man who allegedly sent the messenger is under fire.  I guess we better put more gas in the FSN Midwest van.

I was told by someone at the Coyotes skate this morning that Phoenix Head Coach Wayne Gretzky gave his coaching and video staff each $40,000 cars for the holidays.  Oh, the life of someone working under the greatest hockey superstar of all time.  The flipside is the life of some of the athletes I covered last night.  Guys with names like Beauregard, Belanger, Duhart and Bouchard.  The United Hockey League held its all-star game in St. Charles in front of about five thousand fans and FSN Midwest taped a broadcast to air this weekend. 

I would usually not use up this blog space to ask you to watch, because we have talented promotions people to handle that, but I’m going to throw in my pitch as well.  Most of us in this business typically don’t get overexcited about the events we cover.  We go to a lot of games, we love it and would not trade places with anyone, but it is work and part of our daily routine.  So it is rare to hear a broadcaster or a member of the technical crew raving about a game(of course a Pujols home run to extend a playoff series will always be talked about).  You wouldn’t think an all-star game for a relatively unknown minor league would excite an experienced crew, but everyone who worked the UHL game last night was just thrilled.  The UHL gave us unrestricted access to everything and for me that meant standing on the bench and interviewing players and coaches while the game was going on.  I####uy scored a goal, we talked to him as he was skating off. 

Some of the highlights:  The alumni game beforehand which is aired during intermissions featured our analyst Darren Pang wearing a microphone while playing goal.  Great commentary and fun trash talk between the former Blackhawk goalie and the old Blues.  Bob Plager threw a crowd pleasing hip check on radio personality Andy Strickland in that same game.  And we wired players during the all-star game, providing incredible insight and humor.  Backup goalie Rod Branch said three minutes before playing that waiting to go into an all-star game as a goalie is like anticipating your execution. 

So check out FSN Midwest Friday night at 7:30 or Saturday at 8pm.  You may not know the names Littlejohn, Konkle, Daigle or Bootland.  I certainly didn’t, but the unprecedented access we were given will give you an appreciation of the hard work and fun these guys have.  Oh, none of these guys make a lot of money, and  the MVP did not  win a 40 thousand dollar car, but tell Mr. Gretzky these passionate players all deserve it.