It was only a matter of time before some one tried to shit on the Ankiel parade.

REPORT: Cardinals' Ankiel received HGH from a Florida pharmacy

It looks as though if this did happen it was a long time ago and Slick Rick didn't break any laws.  Also would have happened before MLB banned HGH.  

Hopefully I'm not even going to pay it any more attention than this diary.  I'm not sure I even fully trust the source although ESPN is now reporting it too.  I figured I'd at least put this up for discussion.  I hope this whole thing ends before it even begins, but I'm sure it won't.

On this slow Monday in the NL Central before the last big push for October, I was listening to sports open line on KMOX for a bit on the ride home.  The host, Kevin Wheeler, mentioned two articles that I thought were worth sharing.  

Is Tony Right?

This first article written by Will Carroll at B-Pro questions the old adage that pitchers that work quickly will get better results from the defense behind them, whereas pitchers that are deliberate and take too much time between pitches lull the defense to sleep and don't get the outs.  He actually used the following quote from LaRussa for the basis of the article:

"The pitcher has some responsibility for that when a play doesn't get made behind him. You have to pitch with a good pace and be aggressive so guys are ready for the ball."

Carroll cites a study from earlier this year by Dan Fox where they actually found out that statistically it doesn't make a damn bit of difference.  Unfortunately, the Dan Fox article is only available to subscribers but I thought I'd share the article and get some opinions on what you all think.

National League playoff race draws a crowd

This second article from Bob Nightengale at USA Today has a quick blurb in the enclosed sidebar on the left from Bud Selig dealing with the fact that MLB almost decided to add two additional wild card teams a few years back.  Here's the quote from Bud:

"There was even strong consideration several years ago, Selig said, about adding two more wild-card entrants. The idea was rejected."

"There was a huge push to increase it to four, and I honestly thought we would," Selig said, "but I decided not to do it."

Wanted to see what everyone thought about that as well...

There's a pretty decent article called "The Man Who Changed the Game" about Curt Flood in today's USA Today.  Basically about how he was the first player to really take aim at breaking the firm grip that team ownership had on each player's freedom and how he is barely recognized today by most young players as one of the reasons they have multi-million dollar contracts.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/04/the_man_who_cha.html

I'm not a big fan of USA today after last year's "Tigers in three" crap, but I thought I'd at least let people know the article was out there.

Did anyone else see the picture?  

I tell you what, if that picture doesn't warm your baseball loving heart on a cold winters day, you have no soul.

I saw that on the cover of the St Louis Post Dispatch yesterday and was immediately taken aback. What a cool photo. Looks like it could be a Norman Rockwell painting.

Brian Burwell actually has an article up just about the picture.  Here's the link:

Photo of Red and A.J. sparks sweet baseball memories

From the article...

"Red was decked out in his Cardinal uniform, and A.J. wore shorts, sneakers and a T-shirt. The kid was pounding his glove and smiling. The old man seemed to be smiling, too. They seemed lost in a delightful baseball conversation, the Hall of Fame baseball elder and the wide-eyed son of new baseball royalty.

A little boy dreaming, and an old man reminiscing.

I smiled because suddenly I felt like a little boy, too."

I just found out yesterday that my girlfriend went to elementary school with Ryan Howard.  So we dug out her old class photos and found his picture.  You can check out the photo of lil' Howard over at my blog if you are interested.

He almost looks the same now as he did back then.  He was certainly easy to identify.

Quarter Life Crisis.