Fishing With Chris, and Roy, and a Boat, and a Snake.

We are at the end of the year 2011, the year of the Magical Mystery Tour a/k/a the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals baseball season, and we end it as we always do, with Hot Stove stories and reminiscences of past glories.  Cardinals win the World Series?  Check.  Tony LaRussa retires and Mike Matheny is hired?  Check. Albert Pujols defects for greener pastures?  Check. Cardinals sign Carlos Beltran? Check.  All of these stories and many others have been discussed and dissected across Cardinal Nation.  So, as my last post for 2011 I am going to tell you a Fish Story.  No, really, I am going to tell you a story about fish, literally.  A story about Cardinal pitching ace Chris Carpenter and fish, peacock bass specifically.  Like he caught one. On a fishing trip in Brazil.  With Roy Halladay.

Now, I can’t really tell the story myself, because of course, I wasn’t there.  I can however, direct you to the story via people who were there, or talked to people who were.  First there is the direct, first person account from Skeet Reese, who was there.  His blog post tells the story.  Then there is the second person account by blogger Kevin Gray, who spoke directly to Chris Carpenter.  He has a story plus a cool picture of Chris with the fish in question.   Derrick Goold of the Post Dispatch also got in on the fun, with an article about the excursion.  Plenty is there to peruse to get an idea of just how much fun was had by all.

In addition to catching the fish in question, Chris Carpenter managed to injure his toe when a boat made contact with the appendage.  He also shot an alligator like animal called a caiman.  His fishing buddies, the aforementioned Skeet Reese and pitcher Roy Halladay, rescued a man who had been bit on the uh, posterior end, by an anaconda, which is a large non-venomous snake found in South America.  The Amazon.  Lots of trees.  Birds, monkeys, alligators, snakes, fish, well you get the picture.

What exactly does this have to do with a baseball blog about the Cardinals, you ask?  Well, Chris Carpenter plays baseball with the Cardinals.  Baseball is a sport.  Fishing is a sport.  I am a writer at this blog, and I also fish. Peacock bass in Brazil are a little out of my league, I am more of a small-mouthed bass out of a Missouri lake kind of gal………..digressing…….   It’s my post and it is the end of the year, and all the other big stories have been taken by other writers, and well I like this story and I like to fish, and, so there.

Enjoy the tale, Cardinal Nation.  Have a Happy New Year.

P.S.  The winner of my World Series DVD Set never contacted me, so I have a DVD Set to give away to the first person who reads this and emails me at mrlyngreen@aol.com with their shipping information.  I won’t respond to all the emails, so if you email me and don’t hear from me, you will know you didn’t win.

You can follow Redbird Rants on Facebook by “liking” us here .  You can also follow Redbird Rants on Twitter at@FSRedbirdRants  and you can follow me at @Marilyncolor