Cards News and Notes
Coach Ozzie?
Ozzie Smith has denied any interest in coaching or managing as recently as this year’s All-Star break. The Wizard has been content staying busy with his family, charity commitments, speaking engagements, and working with the Hall of Fame’s Education program. Smith has stayed in the public eye since retiring from the game and he still has the same love for the game. Smith spoke in Iowa at the Cards Quad Cities affiliate Sunday and helped with a youth clinic. Coaching came up again and this time Ozzie was singing a different tune.

With a pair of tightly contested 3-2 victories, the Milwaukee Brewers completed a quick two game series sweep of the Cardinals in St. Louis. In a series dominated by pitching, the Cards came out second best. The Brewers have had tremendous struggles with their rotation this year, but starters Dave Bush and Randy Wolf were able to keep the St. Louis bats in check for the most part. The Redbirds managed only four runs on ten hits in the series, and they fell behind three nothing in both games. To make matters worse, they were a combined one for ten [...]

Adam Wainwright threw another gem to complete the Cards sweep of the Reds yesterday. Wainwright moved to 17-6 on the year with a 1.99 ERA. He’s the best pitcher in baseball right now in a year chock full of dominance on the mound. Wainwright’s year gets better with each start and it’s the best we’ve seen in St. Louis since Bob Gibson was piling up wins. While his best year was 1968, the well-documented Year of the Pitcher, Gibson had a career full of amazing achievements.
On this day 40 years ago, Gibson threw one of the most memorable games of [...]

Cincinnati was once the center of the baseball universe. The Big Red Machine was one of the best teams ever assembled. Its exploits are well-documented in baseball’s history. Sparky Anderson was at the controls and ended his career in the Hall of Fame. Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez all joined him in Cooperstown and there was Pete Rose, too. The all-time hits king and crazy man was the leader who played with reckless abandon and played to win. The great players pushed each other higher and higher. And the Reds won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. [...]

Pedro Martinez is not coming back but Cole Hamels did his best impersonation Thursday against the St. Louis Cardinals. Hamels struck out the first five batters he faced, an impressive feat that had shades of Pedro’s electrifying All-Star Game performance in 1999.
The lefty’s day on the mound only got better. He pitched eight innings and allowed only one hit in a masterful performance.
The Phillies needed him to be near perfect to get a much-needed win. Hamels set the tone for the bullpen to keep the Cardinals off the board into extra innings until Placido Polanco came through with a solo [...]

Adam Wainwright won 19 games last year and finished at the top of voting for the Cy Young. It was a special year for the young pitcher. He finally came into his own and at the same time joined the elite hurlers of the generation.
The best young arms have only improved and grown in numbers since then. The stellar pitching on the mound that has resulted in pristine ERAs, plenty of strikeouts, fewer home runs, and a couple of no hitters, is making 2010 one for the history books. In the revamped version of the Year of the Pitcher, Wainwright [...]

Adam Wainwright is already dominating opposing hitters this season. He is 13-5 with a 2.11 ERA. The guy has it all. He throws a hard fastball, a big hook, and a cutter-slider hybrid that can break any bat. Throw in command of every pitch and a desire to win and it’s almost not fair. The past two years, he has been among the top pitchers in baseball and this season he has the chance to top 20 games and take home the Cy Young. You would think all he needs to do is stay focused and healthy for the rest [...]

The National League trailed the American League 1-0 heading into the seventh inning Tuesday night in Los Angeles. The Senior Circuit was running out of chances to win its first All-Star Game since 1996. Derek Jeter looked cool and confident on the bench and it seemed destined to end 1-0 in a year dominated by pitching.
And then, the division cursed by mediocrity since 2007 took center stage. The NL Central sparked the comeback to give the league a big 3-1 win.
The NL Central. Home to the Pirates, Reds and Brewers. Home to the Cubs who won the division in 2007 [...]

Adam Wainwright grew up rooting for the Atlanta Braves. The kid from Brunswick, Ga., cheered on the boys in Fulton County Stadium before Atlanta became a power in the National League. Then, he watched Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz dominate on the mound – mesmerized and inspired to do the same.
When the Braves drafted him in 2000, it felt like a dream. He went to Spring Training with Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz and watched from up close, taking notes and working hard so one day he could live up to the legacy of pitching greatness.
He learned that pitching [...]

The St. Louis Cardinals have been frustrating in an up-and-down first half of the 2010 season and at times embarrassing according to one St. Louis baseball expert.
The All-Star Game selections were a surprising highlight for this struggling Cardinals team. St. Louis tied the Atlanta Braves with five selections for the most in the National League. Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina were voted in by the fans as starters. Pujols led the league in voting for the second straight year despite a ho-hum first half. It will be his ninth consecutive All-Star appearance. Molina, hitting .231, benefited from fan voting and his [...]