Some Cards news and notes heading into the weekend:
-Former Cardinals find new homes: Rick Ankiel is on his way to Kansas City; Joel Pineiro is ready to fly with the Angels; Khalil Greene is now on the Rangers roster. Both gave St. Louis great seasons, but it was time for both to move on. Ankiel captured baseball’s imagination with his transformation from wild pitcher to slugging outfielder, although it did lose some luster under allegations of PED use. Pineiro gave the Cards 15 wins and resurrected his career under Dave Duncan. Anxiety issues hurt Greene from fulfilling his potential. He [...]

Coming off one of the worst stretches of Cardinal baseball I’ve ever witnessed, the Redbirds came to my town in hopes of getting back on track against the Marlins.  I was in attendance for all three games of the series.
Game one was a nail biter that ended badly with a walk off homer from Jeremy Hermida off of Jason Motte in the ninth.  The Fish won 4-3.  The loss was the fifth straight for St. Louis.  When would it end?
One of the first things I noticed in game two was a kid in a Marlins jersey a few rows in [...]

Sure it’s the Cincinnati Reds, but the Cardinals couldn’t have drawn a tougher assignment. In a three game series, they had to face three of the better starting pitchers in the National League in Johnny Cueto, Aaron Harang, and Edinson Volquez.  Not an easy task for any team, but the Redbirds gave it a shot, already missing their slugging third baseman Troy Glaus, and now short a power hitting outfielder in Rick Ankiel.
Coming into this series, St. Louis hoped to widen their lead over the rest of the NL Central. Instead, they leave Cincinnati with a record of 20-12, and [...]

After my trip to St. Louis for another exciting (but dissappointing) Opening Day, and being on an airplane during last night’s game, I was pretty excited to watch my first Cardinal telecast tonight. More on my trip in a minute.
The Cards were hoping to get a solid performance from tonight’s starter Todd Wellemeyer en route to a win over Pittsburgh, and at least, an opening series tie.  Instead, the Colonel was roughed up for 5 runs on 12 hits.  He also walked a pair, and needed 93 pitches to get through 5 innings.
Even though he didn’t particularly have a good [...]

I ran across the official music video for Michael Tolcher’s “Speed Feels Better” today, and thought I’d pass it along, because for those who have yet to see it, the video features a few professional athletes, including our own Rick Ankiel.  Enjoy!

First and foremost, welcome to the new site.  And don’t worry about missing out on any of the over opinionated content that you’re used to reading at Mike on the Cards.  Aptly named Redbird Rants will give you all that and more.  I’ve teamed up with another blogger, David Frissell, to help give more ranting and raving about the Cardinals than you can probably stand.  We hope you enjoy the new digs, and visit and comment often.
Now on to baseball.  With just one week of Spring Training remaining, the Cardinals still have several questions concerning the makeup of their 25-man [...]