Chocolate curse? Not exactly.

The last girlfriend I had said if I dumped her, she would put a curse on my beloved Cardinals and they would (up to now) never win a pennant unless if I get back with her.

That happened in the summer of 2005 when it seemed like the Cardinals were going to win the World Series and end 23 years of no World Series championship in the Gateway City.

Of course, the end to that was when the Houston Astros clinched their first National League pennant in their franchise’s history and closed out Busch Stadium, a day after Pujols rained on the city of Houston’s party by hitting a home run that probably is in some poor little hick town in east Texas.

And now, almost a day after I refuted the story that there’s no way that my denying of liking a certain girl (who happens to be the same Zodiac sign as my ex) has a say in the fortunes of the Cardinals, the Cardinals lose again, this time in a tragic, Shakespearean comedy way.

And starting to believe that in some way, some curse or something is hampering the Cardinals, who are now sitting 3 and a half games up on the Astros with 7 to play and the magic number, unfortunately, sits at 5 games with 7 to play.

Of course, this was the point of my column this morning when on several occasions, the Cardinals have lost in the bottom of the ninth on walk-off homers (Geoff Jenkins, Carlos Beltran, and Luke Scott) and walk-off hits (Tony Graffanino last week in Milwaukee).

All coming on days when I completely denied the whole thing between me and that chocolate cutie to my therapist.

And seemingly strange, when that does happen, the Cardinals some way lose the games on walk-off homers or hits in the bottom of the ninth.

Case in point, when I got some steamy emails from this girl I been talking to, the tone of the game was starting to turn sour for the Cardinals.

In the seventh inning, second base umpire Angel Hernandez called Craig Biggio safe when it was clearly showed on camera that Biggio got tagged by Belliard right after the girl sent me another steamy email.

The knockout blow to the Cardinals was when after I said to Dr. Chris on the phone that this whole curse thing is a joke and that, as I stated this morning in my blog on Blogger, the reason why this is happening is because the Cardinals have done poorly this year on the road like the NL Wild Card-leading Dodgers, who have won 33 games away from  Chavez Ravine this season.

That’s when Aubrey Huff hits a clutch 3-run homer to put the Astros up 7 to 3 and me to look at that picture of myself, the chocolate cutie, Sharika, and Michelle and evaluate my life as an aspiring sportswriter.

The good news about the Cardinals’ chances is that next Monday, they get to make up a game against the San Francisco Giants in St. Louis that was rained out on last Sunday because of storms in the St. Louis area.

So with that being said, the whole thing about a chocolate curse is nothing but a product of my own imagination.

Although I’ve been told that there’s been some weird happenings in baseball.

Very weird things.

Looking for proof in miracles in baseball? These Marlins have the answer

Okay, before this season even started, I said that the Florida Marlins, which could be mistaken for a group of twentysomethings like myself, were going to lose 112 games because of lack of experience.

And I also said that the Marlins were going to look for a new city to call home to because the political leaders in South Florida were not going to foot the money needed to fund for a new baseball-only stadium in Miami.

And I also have said many times this season, that anything can happen in baseball.

Just ask the Florida Marlins.

Going into tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Florida Marlins, a team with a rookie manager in Joe Giradi, a team that is drawing almost the same number of fans you would probably get at Autozone Park, are within shouting distance of the Wild Card lead.

All this after being at one point, 20 games under .500 in April and May.

On last night, what is pretty much on par with the Detroit Tigers’ improbable turnaround season, the Marlins added another chapter to their feel-good story as a pitcher who was just making his 13th start in the big leagues, Anibal Sanchez, threw the majors’ first no-hitter since Randy Johnson on May 18, 2004 against the Atlanta Braves.

In front of 5,500 fans.

Sanchez himself said to the Miami Herald, that he didn’t believe that he had anything special going, until he looked at the scoreboard and saw that there was a zero under the hits column.

And most of his teammates, most notably Dontrelle Wills, didn’t believe anything was happening special until the Marlins rushed out to the field to mob Sanchez after the final out was recorded.

Which goes to show how much experience this kids have.

But after what has happened this season in South Florida, experience is the last thing these Marlins don’t want to hear is the fact that they have no idea what it’s like to be in the big leagues.

After all, they’ve been playing like seasoned veterans this season.

On ESPN Radio this morning, I was reminded that South Florida is not a baseball-crazy part of America like St. Louis or Chicago.

But look what happened in Houston last year and the year before that with the Astros.

There’s a lot of other things to do in Miami.

And the Marlins play in a cavernous stadium.

Which is true.

But will anybody take the time out to realize that the Marlins, in this season of miracles in baseball, will have a shot for their third postseason trip in franchise history?

And they’re doing it with a bunch of twentysomethings like myself who probably haven’t even started shaving?

Well, I have.

Remember, it was not too long ago when a certain writer thought that with a certain girl he had his eye on.

And we know what happened in the end.