West Coast Games can be Frustrating

West coast games can be rather frustrating for those of us that live on the Eastern Seaboard. Even though I subscribe to the St. Louis Cardinals postgame alerts, I don’t like seeing the words LATE when there should be a score for the game in the paper when I wake up.

The Cardinals have been spending time on the road this week. This afternoon, they are finishing up the series against the San Francisco Giants. Yesterday,

was the hero but if I didn’t stay up late, I wouldn’t have known until the morning. It is nice, though, that he snapped out of a 0-17 slump although he’s not quite out of it yet if today’s box score is any indication. He’s still hitting a respectable .280 for the season but ideally, it’s nice to see a third baseman with a higher batting average. I’m not one to complain about that.

After hitting four home runs in all of April, Yadier Molina saw his bat quiet down this month until today’s 8th inning home run against the Giants. Molina is still batting over .300, which is impressive for a catcher.

What is there to say about Rafael Furcal? From May 5th to May 16th, Furcal was on a hitting tear, making contact in 19 of his 41 at bats. Six of which were multi-hit games. The shortstop had 8 multi-hit games in April and so far this month, he has had 9 multi-hit games. It totals 17 multi-hit games on the season but 9 of those are for 3 hits or higher. Nine 3-hit games in the first 40 games of the season ties a club record as Derrick Goold notes on Bird Land. Goold does bring up the fact that the Cards have only played 37 games this season. I guess 38 if you count today. To set the new 3-hit record against his former club this weekend would be an interesting story line.

I don’t mean any disrespect for the west coast but the Los Angeles viewing market alone is one of the reasons why so many big postseason games, like the World Series, are not allowed to start until 8:30 PM at the earliest. It can be a pain for those of us out east that have to work in the morning the next day.

Sunday evening will see a nationally televised game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers on ESPN. For fans like myself that live outside the viewing area, it’s nice to watch the Cards on TV. The same goes for May 24th as well when Bob Costas returns to the broadcast booth for the MLB Network to call the game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

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