Cardinals Trying to Avoid Historic Collapse
 

There have been some epic baseball pennant race swoons in my lifetime. The 1978 Red Sox and 1969 Cubs blew double digit leads in August. The 1995 Angels lost eight in a row in September and then lost a one game playoff to Seattle. Still, nobody choked harder than the 1964 Phillies. Holding a six and a half game lead with 12 to play, Phils manager Gene Mauch panicked, alternating Jim Bunning and Chris Short on two days rest down the stretch, blowing the pennant to the Cardinals.

The 2006 Cardinals seem to be trying to restage the Phils epic collapse. Holding a seven game lead with 13 to play, St Louis has dropped eight out of nine, while the surging Astros have won nine straight. The Cardinals lead has been whittled down to half a game in just about ten days time.

Jeff Weaver takes the mound tonight with his 5.79 ERA to try and stem the tide against Chris Capuano and the Brewers. The Cardinals were crushed by Milwaukee 9-4 yesterday. Brewer starting pitcher Doug Davis yielded eight walks and still got the victory.

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Trust me, even the most die hard of 'Stros fans had counted us out. Ive been watching intently the past week and its just been unreal. Day after day Houston is getting clutch hitting at clutch times while day after day the Cards keep tailspinning further and further.

Whether the 'Stros make it or not, this has been one of the most exciting end of seasons ever for me. Unreal.

And who broke the Coors Field humidor?

The return of football season has heralded the return of football scores at Coors. Just about every game played in Coors in September has sailed over the total. This final homestand saw scores of 19-11, 11-4, 9-8, 10-9, 12-4 and 20-8.

I am a Cardinals fan until August. Then it is football season.

Apparently the Cardinals are taking the same approach this year.

Ouch!
:punched:

Twinkies Are Rockin....

STFU

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Oreno chinko swe!! Madre fans and everyone else.

Im a huge red bird fan, my grandfather and some of my family is from st louis, he drove for bud for over 40 years. But this is bad for us, i hope albert can save our azz because no one else is doing anything, our pitching is sad at the moment.

I reiterate...**** the cardinals!

GO ASTROS!

I have this pic as my back ground, love it!

Excuse me moron? Minnesota has a three game series at home to close the season. You STFU. All Detroit needed to do was play .500 ball and they would be 4 games out dimwit. Talking heads kept talking how Detroit wasn't melting down...they got to STFU...So you STFU.

Ready for another conspiracy theory? Well, too bad, here it comes anyway.

For the last month or so, the Rockies have ditched the humidor in an attempt to artificially inflate the team's offensive numbers. The Rockies offense was anemic for most of the season and fans have been calling for them to go out and spend some money to get a couple of big bats in the lineup. By turning off the humidor, they get some garbage time stats in meaningless games that make the overall numbers look better than they really are. After the season, the Rockies front office and their apologists in the local media will run these numbers out there and say, "See? They weren't a bad offensive team!" That'll be their justification for spending no money this offseason.

I've been day dreaming of Houston making it all the way and Roger Clemens pitching a no hitter in his last ever game to win the World Series!

Field of Dreams for sure, but I'd settle for a WS win whomever is pitchin' for the Astros.

How many games are left?

Let me ask you this, is it a Cardinals Choke or the greatest comeback ever by Houston?

I mean, even with all those losses, it required Houston go on an absolute tear to win the division.

The cards were up 7 games, but not to Houston. They were down 8.5 games to teh Cards, not 7. Further, they had to SWEEP St Louis in 4 games, then play something like 5 road games in 4 cities in 6 days to keep any chance at all alive.

I mean, of all the improbable comebacks in history, Houston (if they manage this incredible feat) will have to tops the list. Yes, it required an incredible choke job on the Cardinals part for Houston to do what they have done, but it ALSO required an incredible run for Houston to even be in the hunt.

Thats a fact!

I would have been cool with that if someone had let me know, so I could have hammered the piss out of the over for the last three weeks.

Not even close.

The 1942 St Louis Cardinals won an incredible 43 of their final 51 games to wipe out a ten game lead by the Dodgers to win the NL pennant. St Louis won 106 games that year. Brooklyn won 104 games, the most ever by a non pennant winner.

The record for most times jumping on and off a team's bandwagon was set by Alec Raenos, a record he extends every time the Astros slump or streak.

His last leap back onto the Astros' bandwagon was described as "a combination backflip/piss shiver" by the people who catalog such events.

speakin of the Dodgers,

What do u think they'll do in post season?
You seem them going far at all?

Well, they're streaky as hell and the National League is wide open, so they probably have as good a chance as anybody.

Think the Mets wish they would have traded for Barry Zito now?

I said that 75 year old one-two punch wouldn't last through the year.

I never got off the bandwagon there Jim. Dint trhink we had much of a chance but this whole season I have kept tabs on them and actually watched more baseball this season than I have the last three seasons combined.

And as for your little "Comeback" story concerning the redbirds. Reducing a 10 game lead in 51 games is NOT comparable to reducing an 8.5 game lead in 15 games.

Thats just a ridiculous comparison and those Cardinals you mentioned, while a noble feat, isnt even close to this comeback by the Astros IF they indeed do pull it off.

At this point I see the Dodgers going deep if their pitching does well. Lowe, Penny, Maddux is going to be a dangerous combo if they pitch well.

St Louis' accomplishment is far more impressive because the team they were chasing didn't tank. The Dodgers went 104-50 on the season. The Cardinals' winning percentage in winning 43 of 51 games was an absoutely ridiculous .843 over the final two months of the season.

By far the most impressive comeback in baseball history.