Faceman

Wow That's the internet rumor anyway. . Wow

I think this reads suspended. The voice of reason? It's been fixed. As for the name, sorry all the cool names like "Faceman" were already taken. :roll: Good one. I wasn't picking names based on coolness or creativity - but at least I am really really really really good looking and popular with the ladies, exhibiting the traits of my handle's motivation. I'm surprised your didn't go with "The Modest Faceman." :roll: Give me your email - next time I am joking I'll email you first to make sure you know it. .

I think this reads suspended. The voice of reason? It's been fixed. As for the name, sorry all the cool names like "Faceman" were already taken. :roll: Good one. I wasn't picking names based on coolness or creativity - but at least I am really really really really good looking and popular with the ladies, exhibiting the traits of my handle's motivation. Yours on the other hand. . /sarcasm

I think this reads suspended. The voice of reason?

That's hilarious. You mean he became a better hitter when he stopped pitching? Wow, must be PEDs. . . lol Are you telling me no one in baseball has ever made that jump clean? 11 homers in minor league ball? Priceless. Good point. There's been huge one year jumps in home runs by major leaguers that hadn't previously showed power before (or ever again) - just look at Brady Anderson, Luis Gonzalez, Lenny Dykstra, etc. and no one has ever suspected them of steroids use - other than their own owners, the media, etc. There are so many inconsistencies here. Those were all major league players who had many years of service as hitters, making much larger jumps in home run production. They were all older than Ankiel for the most part, certainly in baseball life, where you don't see as much improvement year over year. Ankiel wasn't a ML hitter for years who saw a huge jump. He was a minor league pitcher turned hitter who had almost no ML hitting history. (although if you do some research, you will see he homered a couple times as a pitcher, was a very very good hitter in his prep days, but whatever those are details you won't care about). Comapring what Ankiel did in minor league baseball to what Brady Anderson did (51 homers) is a grade A joke. A pitiful excuse for a comparison.

you're right...mlb should step in and disqualify the cardinals from the 2007 season because he got hgh shipments in 2005 and some guy on a message board says ankiel allegedly used coke like eight years ago (and because they don't "deserve" it). let's just see if mlb can mandate a division title for the cubs while we're at it. the whining in this thread would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic. Whatever. More of your ultra-sarcastic B.S. I couldn't care less. There are plenty of other things that could be done. How about a suspension, or at least an actual investigation of Ankiel? But hey, don't let that stop you from acting like a dick. come on, a suspension? you're asking for a guy to be suspended now because there's a rumor that he received hgh, which wasn't illegal, three years ago? give a me break. that's ridiculous. if this was a cub player and cardinal message boards were calling for his suspension, we'd all be quoting them here and having a great laugh. The "Natural" received a 12 month supply of HGH just before MLB outlawed it. Do you really think he didn't use any of that supply after HGH was banned from baseball? At a minimum, Blind Eye Bud should conduct an investigation. I believe they said that MLB would look into it. But again, baseball didn't outlaw it, right? Hopefully Ankiel kept a diary of when he used it, past his last purchase. Steve Howe - repeated drug offender. Jason Giambi - admitted to using PEDs. No suspension. Yes, clearly Ankiel should be suspended. :roll:

That's hilarious. You mean he became a better hitter when he stopped pitching? Wow, must be PEDs. . . lol Are you telling me no one in baseball has ever made that jump clean? 11 homers in minor league ball? Priceless.

you're right...mlb should step in and disqualify the cardinals from the 2007 season because he got hgh shipments in 2005 and some guy on a message board says ankiel allegedly used coke like eight years ago (and because they don't "deserve" it). let's just see if mlb can mandate a division title for the cubs while we're at it. the whining in this thread would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic. Whatever. More of your ultra-sarcastic B.S. I couldn't care less. There are plenty of other things that could be done. How about a suspension, or at least an actual investigation of Ankiel? But hey, don't let that stop you from acting like a dick. come on, a suspension? you're asking for a guy to be suspended now because there's a rumor that he received hgh, which wasn't illegal, three years ago? give a me break. that's ridiculous. if this was a cub player and cardinal message boards were calling for his suspension, we'd all be quoting them here and having a great laugh. The real voice of reason.

Mark Mulder? Dan Haren? Don Denkinger? Vince Coleman? Alex Cintron? Chris Carpenter? Darryl Kile? 2007?

I just don't understand how that makes it any better. It's not better. But I hate it when I hear fans talk about certain players. You hear people just rail Bonds. I have a couple Cub fan friends who act like McGwire was the only roider in the game, and he tought everything he knew to Pujols. It doesn't make it right. But don't crucify one player just because you haven't heard about the rest of them. It's not like murder, or dogfighting even - it's cheating at sports. I have no misconceptions about this thing. Nearly everyone was using PED's. And personally I hate Bonds because he is a paranoid, narcissistic, racist SOB. Well said. Bonds personality is why he has been hated for years, well before his home run surge. I don't hate him, don't like him though.

I just don't understand how that makes it any better. It's not better. But I hate it when I hear fans talk about certain players. You hear people just rail Bonds. I have a couple Cub fan friends who act like McGwire was the only roider in the game, and he tought everything he knew to Pujols. It doesn't make it right. But don't crucify one player just because you haven't heard about the rest of them. It's not like murder, or dogfighting even - it's cheating at sports.

I agree with every little bit except the last part. The guys who have a past should get tested more. If he really was on this list, he should be tested each time. Although there really is no test for HGH anyways. Agreed. If you are found to have some type of history (and that term would have to be defined, what "history" means) then yes I agree you should be subject to more testing. What a disaster this is gonna be.

LOL yes you have been calling for this. The 2004 shipments are really starting to take effect! I mean look at him, he's a monster at the plate.

He didn't come back to the majors until early August 2007. All of 2006 he was in the minors. turn on your sarcasm sensor

Let the circus begin. . . When is the general media / fanbase gonna accept that perfomance enhancers were the RULE, not the EXCEPTION, until just a while ago? I mean, does it really make sense that the only guys using were Giambi, Bonds, Palmeiro, Mac and Sosa? Oh and Alex Sanchez? Everybody was using. At least the greater majority. It was part of the lifestyle. He should be tested as much or as little as every other player. And like Haltz said - it probably has zero effect on his game today.

Earlier they made fun of a heavy set gentleman in cubs gear. They are a classy organization no doubt about it. The organization did? The announcers did. After the camera man pulled him aside from everyone else. Cards fans take a beating at Wrigley - I'm not sure that anyone can claim their team doesn't have dirtball fans. Go Illini. I really don't think our announcers single them out and call them losers. One of the Cards announcers called a Cub fan a "loser?" Your hatred is pretty strong. Let it go already.

Earlier they made fun of a heavy set gentleman in cubs gear. They are a classy organization no doubt about it. The organization did? The announcers did. After the camera man pulled him aside from everyone else. Cards fans take a beating at Wrigley - I'm not sure that anyone can claim their team doesn't have dirtball fans. Go Illini.

Earlier they made fun of a heavy set gentleman in cubs gear. They are a classy organization no doubt about it. The organization did?

I don't have any data, but as a Cards fan I'd say quality starts are large. In the early 90's the Cards starting pitching sucked. Then in '96, they brought in Andy Benes, Todd Stottlemyre. Not great pitchers but pretty good and giving the quality start. After a couple down years, the Cards had a rotation in 2000 of Kile, Ankiel, Stephenson, Hentgen and Benes - none were awesome (DK won 20) but the Cards won the division. http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/2000.shtml Look at 2004. Marquis, Williams, Morris, Suppan, Carpenter. Again, none were outstanding. But the quality starts were there. Yes they had the MV3, but again no pitchers that were dominating. Quality starts keep your team in the game and burn through your bullpen. http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/2004.shtml Just my opinion from having watched many Cards teams, only having Carp as a stud pitcher recently.

good lord that is some story. and yes the Juan E. story is just unbelieveably sad. Sounds like he is a real clubhouse favorite / good guy.

Living a few miles out of St. Louis, I hear them non-stop. The only peace and quiet I've had this year is when it looked like they were dead in the water...many of them stop watching games altogether. This resurgence has been more than a little annoying because those same people are now self proclaimed die-hards that never gave up hope. Some even claim that they deserve to win because of all the hardships they've had this year. I keep hearing it's a friendly rivalry, but it sure doesn't feel that way. I'd personally like to see the Cards moved to an open air stadium in Las Vegas. It's only a friendly rivalry if you don't live in the middle of it. Both sides can get quite nasty. There are trashy fans on both sides. The schedule is a non issue. It's baseball, play the game. As for deserving it - I doubt it. They kinda deserved last year's run. This year would be fun but nobody is really remember Hancock through they year - not like when DK died. Now THAT team would have been a team who "deserved" to win it due to some hardship. .

because it's a race between marginal teams. you can argue who is better but none are good and thus none are capable of pulling away.

35 games in 34 days is going to be tough for them. But then again they are the luckiest team in the history of baseball. Let's just take care of business and try not to worry about them. Luckiest? Do I sense some animosity or jealousy? Let's call a spade a spade, shall we. I thought he was being a little generous. He should have said the luckiest team in pro sporting history. Any team as craptastic as last year's Cardinal team that wins the championship can't be considered anything other than lucky as hell. To be fair, there have been other poor teams winning the World Series. . The '87 Twins for example - 85-77 http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/1987.shtml Cards weren't healthy until the end of the year, and they had a TON of blown saves, helping to bring down that record. One could argue they weren't as crappy as that 83 wins would suggest. But yes, they were pretty poor compared to other WS winners. I guess that is payback for winning 105 and 100 wins the two years before and not winning it all. Baseball is funny that way. Finally - 83 wins is only 5 wins short (4 if the Cards make up that game vs. SF last year) of the juggernaut '03 Cub team. It's not as unimaginable as some people like to make it out to be.

For all the talk of Edmonds hot dogging - he gets around the bases pretty fast.

Cards only have 1 run at home vs Florida tonight - need to come to NSBB for some entertainment. a 4 run 8th - right on cue - capped off by a Ludwick homer. *grin*