mjohnson71

And the rumor going around down here is he also peed his pants while in the cop car going to the station.

Old news from last week but I find the mugshot hilarious. http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/article_b67270f9-e8b4-59a7-9f0a-6cee62b06c75.html http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/b/5b/fc5/b5bfc5b0-ac6d-11df-9d4d-0017a4a78c22-revisions/4c6e9bfad88b9.preview-300.jpg Does explain why he's gained a lot of weight and his face is always red.

You can just hear the crying in Bristol at ESPN.

Might as well be. Blagoyevich pretty much ran the state from his offices here and don't get me started on King Richard II. Does anything south of I-80 really matter?

This. Having spent almost a year here I've really come to appreciate St. Louis. Get past the Cardinal fans and there's a lot of good neighborhoods and things to do. When you compare St. Louis to other metro areas in the 2 to 3 million range St. Louis is a much better place. Yeah, their downtown is "meh" and they took a big hit with the Great Recession. And yes, Chicago has a lot more to do: but we're also 4 times bigger. I still take living in Chicago 9 times out of 10. But if you show me that list of smaller cities, I'd always pick St. Louis.

Note for anyone caming to St. Louis this weekend. Saturday night there will be both a pre-season Rams game and the Black Eyed Peas concert downtown. Parking and traffic should be much worse than usual so have some patience. Plus it's about a billion degrees down here. Stay hydrated with water and pace yourself.

Step away from the crack pipe please.

If somebody kicked you in the back with metal spikes you might be upset for a couple days. If that's your definition of being "a little bitch" then I guess you're right. If that garbage happened to Dempster this board would be melting down right now. But Carpenter plays the Cardinals: this a Cubs forum and the rules are different.

I think there's something to that. The biggest tantrum was still the litte exhibition that Carpenter put on the night before. Because yes, kicking like a little kid < taking your flake of a shortstop down the tunnel to chew him out.

I think there's something to that. The biggest tantrum was still the litte exhibition that Carpenter put on the night before. Carpenter was still pissing and moaning about it today. Granted Phillips looks stupid today because the Reds got swept, but St. Louis has done nothing but prove his comments right. I made the same point here at work. When I came back from lunch someone had printed the division standings out and taped them to my monitor with the Cubs highlighted in light blue and the Cardinals in red (at the top). D*mn it sucks being in Cardinal country.

...I see. Based on this knowledge, my question still stands, why didn't Cueto get hit hard until 5 innings after the fight? Molina did come right back and hit a home run in the 2nd, but I see your point. No one will ever know if Cueto gassed out or lost his edge later in the game because of brawl. But I think it's very possible. His legs probably got tired. All that kicking like a 4 year old having a temper tantrum can wear a dude out.

LaRussa will not be managing most of this weekend.

Rain delay bottom of the 7th with the Cardinals up 6-0 and two out. They actually have the game on the radio here at my work which is supposedly a no-no. However the boss okay'd it. *sigh*

4-0 Cardinals in the 6th with Wainwright pitching. Does not look good.

Rolen was holding Carpenter back. He needs to back it up with some action and stop going 0fer. Plus Phillips might have gotten the Cardinals fired up enough that they'll win the division. So yes, good going Phillips.

You flip aroound the channels and there seem to be a more empty seats at a lot of ballparks. IMHO I think baseball is pulling a fast one when they claim attendance is even or up and mpst places. Even with teams that are playing above .500 in good markets you're seeing fewer people attending. Even down in St. Louis with the Best Fans In Baseball you're seeing more ticket availability. With Wrigley I honestly think the Cubs have priced ticket prices too high with a "meh" team and the continuing economic recession. Plus some of this could be an effect of the Blackhawks being in the Stanley Cup and drawing sports entertainment dollar away.

How soon before he parlays this into a spot on a reality show?

Good. Teach stupid little punks from Philly a lesson.

It took 1 hour 33 minutes for one of my Cardinals fan coworkers to come into my cube and give me cr*p this morning. About 10 minutes later this was followed up by someone else. If one more person comes by I'm going to hide in a conference room.

So does this mean he spends hours in the locker room telling the players about the days when he played baseball?

I've been to multiple Blackhawks/Flyers, Bears/Eagles and Cubs/Phillies games and never came close to be concerned for my safety. Maybe you're just a paranoid wimp. Yes, yes I am a paranoid wimp. The best thing at that game was when a Flyers player pulled an Alex Ovechkin and crosschecked a Blackhawks player from behind into the boards. The crowd cheered like mad but then started booing like it was a bad call when they gave him a 2 minute minor. While he was being escorted to the penalty box I clapped a few times. So Flyers fan sitting by us stood up, pointed at me and told me to shut the hell up and said I didn't have the right to cheer for my team in HIS building. Uhhh, okay. Then later during the break I was going to go to the bathroom so I left my coat in the seat. One of the ushers told me to take it with me since 1) it will be taken or trashed 2) I should wear it on the concourse as a cover up and "for my own good" I could understand the hatred if I was sporting Penguins or Rangers gear. Buch a Blackhawks jersey: we're not even in the same conference.

One of the sports radio talking heads here in St. Louis pointed out the Astros had 14 runs so far and Albert Pujols alone has 15 RBIs.

Dad/Mom/Kid combos are uncommon at Wrigley Field? Never heard that before. I'm not saying you never see families at Wrigley. It's that other ballparks are more accomodating to families and as a result they're more common. You ever taken a 18 month old to Wrigley and had the misfortune of sitting down the 3rd base side in the 300's? The only family restroom is down in the first aid area on the other side of the ballpark. Or have you ever tried to get a pee-shy 5 year old nephew to urinate in a trough? Plus high ticket prices make taking most kids to the ballpark too expensive. I've been to games at SBC/PacBell/AT&T, old Yankee Stadium and Shea where I've noticed the lack of families. But on the upside Wrigley doesn't have all that kid friendly stuff that ends up meaning you miss three innings because your kid is playing in the XBox Lounge or waiting in line for the Pepsi Batting Cages. I've taken kids to the ballpark, and I see plenty of families there. You are probably misinterpreting the full house where families just blend in. Either way it makes absolutely no sense to claim familes at Wrigley are an uncommon sight. Maybe un common was the wrong term and not as common should have been the right one. I'll still assert that there are fewer kids at games at Wrigley. And like I said that might be a good thing because you're not wasting time and money in some funtime kiddie party zone instead of watching the game. When I was a kid in the 70's my dad would take me to Cubs games and I would be perfectly fine with a comic book before the game, keeping score during it and a box of Cracker Jacks was my one treat. Todays kids are so overstimulated they need a Nintendo DS, iPod, a HD jumbo screen in center field to keep them entertained and three snacks during the game.

Dad/Mom/Kid combos are uncommon at Wrigley Field? Never heard that before. I'm not saying you never see families at Wrigley. It's that other ballparks are more accomodating to families and as a result they're more common. You ever taken a 18 month old to Wrigley and had the misfortune of sitting down the 3rd base side in the 300's? The only family restroom is down in the first aid area on the other side of the ballpark. Or have you ever tried to get a pee-shy 5 year old nephew to urinate in a trough? Plus high ticket prices make taking most kids to the ballpark too expensive. I've been to games at SBC/PacBell/AT&T, old Yankee Stadium and Shea where I've noticed the lack of families. But on the upside Wrigley doesn't have all that kid friendly stuff that ends up meaning you miss three innings because your kid is playing in the XBox Lounge or waiting in line for the Pepsi Batting Cages.

OK. IHP mentioned he thought the ballpark was beautiful though. His complaints seemed more driven by the antics of the fans and the music being played than anything, unless I misread what he was saying. I can see a city like Cincy needing to be a little more budget-minded than some other places. I think it's understood they have a little more trouble drawing fans than some other places around the league -- and that it likely won't change until they go on a playoff run. That said, I'd still like to see a ballgame there. Heck, I've been wanting to see a game in KC too. And that place is probably a little on the sparse side too, in terms of number of seats taken. I just went to KC on Friday for a bachelor party and was mighty impressed. I've been to the Dome, Wrigley, the cell, Oakland, Pac Bell, Chase field, and Angels stadium, and outside of Wrigley this was probably tied with Pac Bell as far as experiences go. I saw SF play Pittsburgh last year and Tiny Tim threw an absolute gem so that was pretty darn neat. Friday they gave Grienke his CY award and that was pretty cool. Even for a Friday game, against Boston, the place wasn't all that full. But the fans were knowledgeable and seemed respectful, and only once did they play any stupid music to get the fans going (I think it was when Soria was laboring to get Pedroia out to end the game). Overall a really neat stadium and one worth the 5 hour trip for me again this year for sure. Kaufmann is a nice place to watch baseball but I haven't been there post-renovation. I went there a couple of years ago and had a good time as I guess the Twins/Royals are big rivals. Even then the place was still only 2/3 full on a nice summer weekend ngith. The one thing I really noticed is it was a lot of families. Even though it wasn't a kids promo night there was a lot of dad/mom/kid(s) combos. That's an uncommon sight at Wrigley. Though the big difference is Kaufmann is in the middle of a huge parking lot and there's nothing close by to pre/post party. It's the antithesis of Wrigleyville.