Just beileve, kiddo

A few days ago, I was pissed off in this blog about what was about to be one of the biggest collapse in the history of baseball when the Cardinals lost Tuesday’s game against the San Diego Padres in their final game of a three-game set in St. Louis.

Then when the Brewers beat the Cardinals rather soundly, I kept thinking about the threat that my ex said to me when we broke up back in 2005.

“The Cardinals will never win the pennant again.”

And for awhile, I figured that the Curse of the Aquarius Girl was about reappear again as the Cardinals needed to win on Friday night and then Saturday afternoon as well as Sunday afternoon to win the division.

And hope to God that they could get some help from the Braves as they faced Houston yesterday evening.

On Friday morning, I went down through a walking trail in my neighborhood and said a prayer for the Cardinals while I stood on the bridge that is over one of the small streams in my neighborhood.

And the last thing that I said, under my breath, was that if there is a guardian angel or whatever higher forces there may be, hopefully they’ll be on the Cardinals’ side on Friday night.

And in one evening, a game that was seemngly set for disaster and the death knell for the Cardinals’ season, the Cardinals with the help of Mr. Pujols restore faith in the Cardinal Nation.

Of course, before today’s game even started, I said again the same thing about today’s game, in which a Cardinals victory would shrink the magic number down to one and put added pressure on the Astros as they played later tonight.

That whatever guardian angel I might have or whatever higher forces that are working now, let’s hope that person or force is a Cardinals fan this weekend.

Since I had to leave for my normal routine down at Galloway, I couldn’t stay and watch the game.

But in an eerie situation, the screensaver on my computer cycled to the picture of the chocolate cutie, myself, and my two goofball friends from this past season down at Autozone Park.

Of course, I didn’t make much of it as I headed out the door.

I knew what that picture meant for me, the Cardinals’ chances of winning the division title was pretty much shot.

While I was discussing the Tigers-Vols game with a few people who attended the game and talking about the possibilty of having a book published within the next year or so, I told them that I was a Fan Radio broadcaster for the Redbirds and I repeated that quasi-famous home run call while I was eating my cheeseburger.

And apparently magically enough, Scott Spiezio hits a 3-run triple that gave the Cardinals lead in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Right after I said that quasi-famous home run call to the people I was talking to.

With one out to go and the tying run on first, I kept thinking to myself the same doubts and fears that I had this summer.

I know how these things end for me.

You size people up and they throw you on the heap.

You start believing in things and it all goes to shit.

Not this time.

The 27th out of game 160 for the Cardinals restored my faith in this season.

And this team.

Doubts aside, the doubting and fearing that I had on Thursday night and Friday morning was all gone when the Cardinals shrank their magic number to one and possibly the 20th postseason appearance in the history of the team.

When the game was over, there was one thing on my mind.

Wherever or whoever my guardian angel is or are (not sure if it’s correct grammar or not), they’re on the Cardinals’ side.

I guess.

You’re giving me a hard time, cutie pie, but I don’t mind

On Friday, while I was at Office Depot on Union and South Manassas shopping for a new MP3 player (one that didn’t look like a piece of shit that I could buy at a dollar store in my neighborhood),  I was given a hard time by a very cute girl that worked there at the place.

Now if you’ve been in Office Depot, especially the one in Downtown Memphis, you know that the cases that are filled with stuff like memory cards and MP3 players are always locked in hopes of keeping people from stealing out of the store, which would be very difficult to do anyway.

So while I was looking at the MP3 player I wanted, I asked for assistance and the nearest person that was in the area of the store I was in was a very cute girl that was getting trained in the store.

Of course, thinking I was one of them bums that always seem to hang around the outside of the store in the parking lot, she asked me was I going to buy the MP3 player that I said that I was going to buy the week before in my blog when I went over to the corner of South Manassas and Union Avenue to see what other shit that Da Pimp got himself into last Thursday.

I politely told the girl, “Yes.”

For about two minutes, I stared aimlessly at the case of the MP3 player that I was going to buy while she went and got the key to open the case where the MP3 player was in.

Out of the blue, I asked her what was her name, simply because she kinda caught my eye amidst the hard time I was getting about the Mp3 playerI was trying to get.

Apparently, she was like, “Can you read?”

And remembering that I was for a period of time, a protege of the Good Reverend Doctor Hardin for a year and a half, I remembered that there was a song called “Janay” by Freddie Jackson (which was the girl’s name) so I told her about the song, a song she told me that she never heard and one that I myself hadn’t heard in maybe ten years.

After I got the MP3 player out of the case, the girl was doing everything in her power to flirt with me while I was trying to check out and get something to eat from Yum’s on Poplar Avenue.

While I was in line she was actually watching what I was going to do and the guy who was at the cash register was also getting a hard time as well as I said to him, “I appreciate you helpng the mentally challenged.”

But at the same time, I was trying to see where she was and I almost dropped my change on the counter.

That’s when my  logicial thinking kicked in.

She’s with a customer.

Magic number’s 2, sis

Well, so much for that presumed curse that I wrote about in this morning’s entry about the possibilty of the biggest collapse in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals franchise.

On tonight, the Cardinals seemed to be clicking on all cyclinders as they pummeled the Milwaukee Brewers 10-5 to shrink their magic number down to two games with two to play (possibly three because the Cardinals could be playing a makeup game on Monday because of the rainout on Sept. 17th in St. Louis).

And to make things better for the Cardinal Nation, the Astros lost to the Braves earlier tonight to fall a game and a half back of the Cardinals in the loss column with two to play against the Braves. Should they win those games and the Cardinals win their games on tomorrow and Sunday, it pretty much will give the Cardinals their 20th postseason appearance in franchise and the game against San Francisco might not be needed after.

Tomorrow, Jeff Suppan will get the start for the Cardinals and on Sunday, Chris Carpenter will get the ball for the Cardinals in the regular season finale.

Magic number:3

With the Astros’ loss to the Braves, the Cardinals’ magic number is down to 3 games and could shrink down to 2 with tonight’s possible win over Milwaukee.

Curse of the Aquarius could doom the Cardinals

The rapid descent of the Cardinals brought back the threat that my ex-girlfriend said to me on the night that we broke up after a nasty fight on the phone in the summer of 2005, when the Cardinals were pretty much kicking ass and taking names in the National League Central.

If I broke up with her, the Cardinals would never win the pennant for as long as we were separated or something like that.

Of course at the time, the whole idea of some silly little curse because I was trying to start out as a sportswriter and the girl was calling 40 times a day and I ignored her was nothing more than a load of bullshit to me.

That is, until 24 hours removed from talking to my friend Kasi at the exact moment when Albert Pujols silenced the entire city of Houston with a dramatic homer into the Houston night, the Astros would win their first National League pennant in their history and close out Busch Stadium.

Okay, the Astros had Andy Petittie and Roger Clemens pitching on back-to-back days, so there was no proof that the Astros were inferior to the Cardinals last year.

So there’s no need to say anything about a curse in the Cardinal Nation.

We’ll get it next year, I said to myself as I turned the television off and stared at the ceiling to figure out what went wrong for the Cardinals in the NLCS.

Then the shit hit the fucking fan.

The whole thing of a curse was brought up when I was on the phone with Dr. Chris on August 22nd when the Cardinals were playing the Mets and I angrily said to Dr. Chris that I was not infatuated with the chocolate cutie at the ballpark.

And a split-second later, Carlos Beltran hits a homer to beat the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth.

A week later, I said again that I was not infatuated with the chocolate cutie and when I returned home from work, my computer was flat-footed toasted.

And to top it all off, the Cardinals lost that very same night to the Florida Marlins.

Okay, there’s no need to panic then because the Cincinnati Reds were playing horrible baseball and this division will be wrapped up by the middle of the month.

Wrong.

On September 15th, I began counting the magic number for the Cardinals to clinch the division on this very same blog and when it seemed like I was going to be writing about a division title for the Cardinals in this blog, the shit once again hit the fan.

The Cardinals went on a very long losing streak that ended one month to the day that I called my final game of the 2006 season down at the corner of South Third and Union.

And eerily while I had my screensaver on in the bottom of the eighth inning the picture of the chocolate cutie and myself appeared on the screensaver right before the God Hitter himself hit a ball that hadn’t even landed yet in St. Louis.

But that didn’t solve anything about my theory of the Cardnals’  recent descent.

Come to find out that both my ex-girlfriend and the chocolate cutie are the same Zodiac sign and the curse that my ex put on the team back in 2005 may or may not have been transferred in some way to the next Aquarius girl that I talk to.

But the thing with the chocolate cutie and myself during the summer, was that it was nothing more than a summer fling.

Not a relationship.

So there’s no need to think of the Curse of the Aquarius.

Or is it?

Best of Memphis, meet the Hot List

On yesterday, I picked up a copy of this year’s “Best of Memphis”, brought to you in part by the good people at the Memphis Flyer while I was eating lunch at my favorite lunchtime hangout, the Bon-Ton Cafe on Pimp Avenue near Autozone Park.

While reading the Best of Memphis issue in the Flyer, an idea hit me while I sank another bite into my cheeseburger and took a sip from my sweet tea.

Why don’t I come up with a list of the hottest things that, in my opinion, happened this year to both myself and my friends?

Of course, this won’t be the final time that I do this for the blog, because I still have to compile the 200 things that made 2006 great.

But without further ado and no more laments about snubs and other crap, I would like to present to you the 2006 Hot List.

Hottest Place to Get a Burger Meal For Under $10

1. My personal favorite-Bon Ton Cafe on Monroe Avenue (They have their daily cheesburger special for $6.00, a welcome treat for anyone who has only seven dollars in their pockets lol)

2. Murphy’s on Madison Avenue and South Avalon Street (I haven’t tried their $5.50 cheeseburger special, but I’m pretty sure that it’s about as good as the Bon-Ton Cafe’s special)

3. Sam’s on South Main and Madison Avenue (When I first got to Southwest in 2004, this was where I would hang out at for lunch after classes let out before starting my patronage at the Bon-Ton a block south. The lunchtime crowd is very excellent and the guys there let you put your own toppings on the burgers you purchase)

Hottest MySpace Profile Layout

1. Dr. Joye (Even if she didn’t change her profile layout this past week, it would have won hands down again. Very cute and attractive if I might add)

2. Shan (When I do leave a comment on her page, it’s not filled all that crap you have to scroll down to before you leave your piece on your page. And of course, the page’s colors are very earth-toned)

3. Keldrick (Glad he got rid of the DragonBall Z crap and put a Jimi Hendrix layout on his page, which makes his profile layout stand out because of its indivuality)

Hottest Soap Opera Moment Involving Da Crew

1. Da Pimp’s a baby daddy (Of course, there’s no truth to the fact that his potential baby mama got an abortion, but that’s his problem)

2. The aftermath of Angela’s visit to Autozone Park (The greatest collapse in the history of Memphis professional baseball)

3.The Witches at the table (Some of them need to be placed in nursing homes, not college cafeterias)

Hottest Redbird Moment That Did Not Involve Miss Candy

1. Kelly and Michelle’s horrible camp sing-a-long during the Kids’ Camp (A good reason why I should download Ace of Base’s Greatest Hits before I head out of town)

2. Erica’s a Redhot (Which renewed my long-standing questioning of the intergrity of the Redbirds organization)

3. Michelle and Sharika’s misadventures (Oh, good grief)

Hottest Food Not Bombs Moment

1. My drunken appearance at Galloway on May 20th (That’s what a bottle of Jack Daniel’s can do to you after you finish celebrating your friend’s birthday in the streets of Memphis)

2. Adam and Kelsey’s bootleg wedding that never happened (They were going to get registered at Yum’s on Jackson Avenue)

3. FNB Myspace Churches (We preach the teachings that were bestowefd to us by Rev. Alex Richards and the Rev. Doc Hancock)

Hottest Musical Acts

1. While I Breathe, I Hope (I wished I had gotten their album when it came out in June, it would have made a great addition to my growing rock collection)

2. Yo Gotti (Big splash indeed for the “Mayor of North Memphis”, loved the single “Got ‘Em”)

3. Nakia Shine (Hell, even two year-olds are wearing stunna shades these days)

Hottest Redbird Moment That Did Involve Miss Candy

1. The “Doc and Miss Candy Show” (Enough said.)

2. My ice-breaker on June 4th (Almost worked out, didn’t it?)

3. The spook to end all spooks on July 20th (Where’s that flask of vodka?)

Hottest TV newswoman

1. Syan Rhodes (A good reason why I watch the news when I’m at home on Saturday nights)

2. Shay Harris (My friend Brandon would probably kick my ass if I didn’t include her on the list)

3. Nicondra Norwood (Well, she’s from Louisiana)

I’ll have more of my hot list on tomorrow morning as I have some more things to come up with in this blog.

For now, just a large canteen of water and cool off.

Magic number?4

The Cardinals at long last brought their magic number down to 4 as they beaat the Padres 4 to 2 a few minutes ago in St. Louis. Mr. Pujols hit homer number 47 to give the Cardinals a win and snap their seven-game losing streak with four more games to play against Milwaukee beginning Thursday night in St. Louis.

In Pittsburgh, it’s still a tie score in the bottom of the 12th inning as Pittsburgh and Houston are tied at 6. Jose Castillo is batting for the Bucs and Nieve is pitching for the Astros at PNC Park.

Should the Bucs win tonight, the Cardinals’ magic number will reduce to three games and should the Astros lose tomorrow and the Cardinals win tomorrow, the magic number will be one going into Friday’s game.

Lawd, you gotta be kidding me

If there was a time when all conception of being a St. Louis Cardinals fan meant something, it would be now.

We Cardinals fans make light of the historic collapse that the Chicago Cubs had in 1969, a scant 15 years before I was even born and the Yankees’ Shakespearean-like fall from grace in that glorious pennant-winning year of 2004 when the Red Sox pulled off the improbable comeback in the American League Championship Series that year.

But you don’t think that after 114 years of baseball, nine World Series championship, 16 National League championships, Hall of Famers like Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Bruce Sutter, Rogers Hornsby, et. al., that one of the most storied franchises in baseball would be prepared to deal with something that Cardinals fans like myself don’t experience.

A choke.

A few weeks after  I started counting the magic number for the Cardinals to clinch the division, I’m now trying to figure out how and what and why this is all happening all of a sudden to the Cardinals.

Of course, I’ve stated in previous posts that since the Izzy Man is on the shelf for the remainder of the season, regardless if the Cardinals make the playoffs or not, the bullpen hasn’t been up to par.

And the middle relief of Randy Flores, Josh Hancock, and Tyler Johnso have in the last three days have taken their share of lumps due in this series against the Padres, who last time I checked, were playing in the only division that the Cardinals have excelled against during the season.

The National League West.

And the Cardinals have one of the best records at home, 46-29 entering Monday’s game against the Padres.

So this was supposed to be set up for the Cardinals to win the division and go into the playoffs with some momentum since they were closing out the season at home against a possible playoff-bound Padres team and a horrible road team in Milwaukee, who lost last night in Chicago to the Cubs in the first game of their series at Wrigley Field.

But it could end up in a Shakespearean-style way in which those words I remembered reciting when I was 10 years old in a performing arts camp.

“Our revels are ended. These are our actors.”

In this case, the actors play baseball.

Lookin’ sharp, Carp

Cardinals are leading the Padres 5-2 in the top of the sixth inning. Adrian Gonzalez just hit a single out to left-field for the Padres’ seventh hit of the night.

In Pittsburgh, the Astros are leading the Pirates, 6-3. Craig Biggio has 3 RBIs on the night and Jason Bay and Jose Bautitsa both homered for the Pirates as well.

Down in Miami, the Reds are leading the Marlins  5-2 in what could be the final games for manager Joe Giraidi of the Marlins.

A Cardinals win would lower, folks, the magic number down to four. If Houston lose to Pittsburgh, the magic number will be at three with two more against San Diego and three against Milwaukee.

So stay tuned, folks.

It’s getting serious

Attention, folks

No longer will I update this blog in the afternoon because of the overwhelming popularity of this blog, which so far today has 66 hits and could pass the record set on Sept. 18th, when it had 66 visitors.

This blog will be updated each morning with the same things that everybody’s been reading over the last month and a half will still be here, including game alerts from the Cardinals’ push for the playoffs and should the Cardinals make the playoffs, game wraps will be posted as soon as the game is over.