Carpenter and Gibson; 2011 and 1964

The comparisons between Chris Carpenter and Bob Gibson are not new. Ever since Carpenter joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 2003 and began his incredible run of clutch victories, Cy Young performances, all the while brandishing a bulldog, take-no-prisoners attitude, writers and fans began to nod and murmur. They had not seen pitching performances and guile like this in St. Louis since Gibson wore the Birds on the Bat from 1959 thru 1975.

Now, before we all hyperventilate, it must be noted that Carpenter’s great run in St. Louis truly pales in comparison to Bob Gibson’s hall of fame career here. Gibson is a classic. Gibby was one of a kind. The quotes and stories about him are legendary. Dusty Baker, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds who played against Gibson, once said “Only two people ever intimidated me, my daddy and Bob Gibson.” And Gibson once told his catcher Tim McCarver when he came out to the mound to converse, “What are you doing here? The only thing you know about pitching is that you can’t hit it.” And in 1967, after the great Roberto Clemente smashed a line drive off of Gibson’s leg and fractured it, Gibson pulled himself up and pitched to 3 more batters before finally succumbing to the injury. And finally, Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in 1968, which is still the lowest in history by a starting pitcher for a season, was a big reason that Major League Baseball changed the rules after that season and lowered the pitching mound; to give the hitters more of an advantage. So, when Chris Carpenter or anyone else is compared to Gibson, it is a high complement, but must be taken with a grain of salt.


And the comparisons between this Cardinals team of 2011 with the team of 1964 have been stirred and shaken about during this current club’s amazing comeback run of September and now into October. In 1964, the Cardinals were left for dead, 7 1/2 games out of first place as September began, only to storm back and catch the Philadelphia Phillies on the last weekend of the season. A blockbuster mid-summer trade with the Chicago Cubs that many questioned at the time, brought Lou Brock to the Cardinals for one of their star pitchers, Ernie Broglio. Brock ignited the top of the lineup and led the Cardinals back from the brink. And young Bob Gibson became the late season horse who threw the rest of the team on his back, pitching on short 3 days rest and several times on only 2 days rest, including the regular season and World Series clinching victories.

And then there is this year’s version of the hometown heroes. On August 25th, they were 9 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the Central Division and 10 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the wild card. They traded young superstar-in-waiting Colby Rasmus to the Toronto Blue Jays back in July for pitching depth. That depth (starter Edwin Jackson, relievers Octavio Dotel and Mark Rzepczynski), along with spark plug addition Rafael Furcal, propelled the Cardinals to the playoffs. And when David Freese hit a monster home run to win game four against the Phillies in the NLDS series, it prompted St. Louis writer Bernie Miklasz to proclaim that it might have been the biggest post season home run by a locally grown Cardinal since Mike Shannon’s blast off of the Yankee’s Whitey Ford in the 1964 World Series. Cardinals’ manager Tony LaRussa enabled the Gibson-Carpenter comparisons when he decided to pitch Carpenter on only 3 days rest in game 2 of the series, so he could have a rested Carpenter available for game 5.

And that set up last Friday night’s game 5 matchup between Carpenter and the Phillies’ ace Roy Halladay. I spent the day at work on Friday channeling Bob Gibson and the 1964 comparisons. I brought in my Gibson memorabilia, along with baseball cards and a yearbook commemorating that season and the championship that ensued. Wearing a retro Gibson jersey, and carrying an autographed Chris Carpenter baseball card, I attempted to add some mojo to the upcoming game. Not that Carpenter needed my help. We all know the outcome, as Carpenter did his own version of channeling Bob Gibson, gutting through a complete game 1-0 victory over Halladay and the Phillies. It was a post season classic that will be talked about for years. 1964’s story ended in a World Series victory. This year’s final chapter has not been written. There is work to be done.

If you are hungry for more comparisons, Post Dispatch writer Miklasz wrote this recent story on Carpenter and Gibson. And in Dan O’Neill’s PD article today, he dug deeper into the 1964 to 2011 comparisons. And if you love baseball books, acclaimed author David Halberstam’s “October 1964” is an incredible read. It not only discusses the World Series clash that year between the Cardinals and the Yankees, it goes behind the scenes to portray the racial story of the early 60s and how the social climate played a large part in the construction of those two franchises at the time.


But alas, in 2011, we will have no repeat of the 1964 World Series. The Yankees have been vanquished by the Detroit Tigers. And World Series talk for these Cardinals is premature. The brash and bold Milwaukee Brewers stand in their way, and this must see NLCS matchup of Central Division rivals begins in a few hours. They do not like each other and it will be interesting to see if the scab comes off of the old wounds. There is more time to savor and explore this in the next week. This series is like a juicy steak sizzling on the grill. It smells so delicious, you can taste it already, you know how good it is going to be, and you absolutely cannot wait to bite into it. Game On!

One of These Nights

One of these crazy old nights . . . Well, we went from Frankie Valli to the Eagles in 48 hours. Ordinarily that is a good playlist, but not this time. This is one of those times where I can’t find fault with the Cardinals game even though I want to assign blame in the worst way. Cole Hamels pitched a great game for the Philadelphia Phillies in game 3 of the NLDS, even though Albert Pujols and Ryan Theriot did their best to derail him. Jaime Garcia, pitching for the Cardinals, outpitched Hamels for the first 6 innings, but the 7th inning proved to be his undoing. Probably in 2 more years, Garcia will be to the Cardinals what Hamels is to the Phillies, a pitching stud who can navigate deep into a game while sidestepping any land mines the opposition tries to lay in front of him. But Garcia is not quite there. He is known around these parts as a 5 to 6 inning guy. It just seems that the whenever he faces a lineup the 3rd time through the batting order, that things tend to get a little dicey for him.

Jaime was facing the bottom four in the Phillies order in the top of the 7th inning, sailing along with only 74 pitches thrown and only 3 hits allowed in a 0-0 game. I turned to whomever would listen (my wife in the man-cave, and my friends via text message) and said this was the crucial inning. St. Louis desperately needed to hold serve against the lower part of the order because they would be sending up the top of their own order in the bottom of the 7th; and they had just pushed Hamels to the bench by forcing him to throw 117 pitches through 6 innings. The game was on the line, and it was there for the taking. But to the Phillies credit, they made their own push. Shane Victorino led off the inning with a single up the middle. Garcia managed to scrape through 2 more outs to John Mayberry and Placido Polanco, but he looked to be on the ropes. With Octavio Dotel warming up in the bullpen, Yadier Molina had an animated discussion with Garcia on the mound and then the decision was made (probably from the Cardinals bench) to walk Carlos Ruiz intentionally. Right handed hitter Ben Francisco came into the game, and I was expecting Tony LaRussa to go to Dotel; in fact I pleaded with my television for the skipper to bring in Dotel. In fairness, Garcia was still pitching a shutout and it wasn’t a horrible decision to leave Garcia in the game. But regardless, it turned out to be the wrong decision. Francisco lofted a 3 run home run into the Cardinals bullpen and the game was history.

The Cardinals, of course, did not go quietly in the late innings. They scratched out a run in the bottom of the 7th, and then another in the bottom of the 9th, but it was the 8th inning that broke their backs on offense. They loaded the bases with one out and had Allen Craig at the plate and Albert Pujols in the on-deck circle. Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel took Brad Lidge out of the game and went with his closer Ryan Madson to face Craig. He drilled an 0-1 pitch on a short hop to Chase Utley for an easy 4-3 double play. Three feet in either direction and the game would have been tied.

There were no goats in this game. You tip your hat to Hamels and you tip your hat to Francisco. They got the breaks at the right time and they made the plays. As much as I’d like to blame Garcia or LaRussa or Craig, I cannot. They just got beat.

The math doesn’t look good. Again. But this Cardinals team seems to thrive on bad mathematics.
• On August 25th, they were 10.5 games behind the Braves.
• With 5 games remaining, they were still 3 games behind.
• Facing a possible 0-2 deficit on Sunday and a 4-0 lead by Cliff Lee of the Phillies, the Cardinals rallied. If they had fallen into that 0-2 hole, history said that 93% of the time in a league division best of five series, a team in their position would lose the series.
• Now after losing the pivotal 3rd game, history once again says that they will lose. 83% of the teams that lose the 3rd game after being tied 1-1, go on to lose the series.
That is music to the Cardinals’ ears.

Speaking of math, in these three playoff games, I’ve managed to finish off 3 bottles of scotch/whiskey. Before you judge me (LOL), all three bottles were almost empty when I started. But the Jameson, the Glenlivet, and even the J&B are now in the recycle bin. It looks like it is time for a trip to the store before tomorrow night’s game. I certainly don’t want to drain my Johnny Walker Blue if things go wrong tomorrow.

And since the Four Seasons proved luckier than the Eagles, let’s try these musical musings for good luck . . .
• “Let’s Hang On” and get this series to game 5.
• And when Roy Oswalt throws his off speed assortment Wednesday night, it might be time to “Walk Like a Man”
• Who Loves You (Pretty Baby)? Cardinals Nation is in love with this team and we haven’t given up
• And finally, the Cardinals have their eye on game 5 in Philadelphia with “Working My Way Back To You”

Oh What a Night!

All the baseball world knew what was at stake. Already down 1 game against the mighty Phillies, and with Chris Carpenter pitching on short rest for the first time in his career, it was win or go home. A 2 game deficit in a 5 game series is almost insurmountable; especially to a team with a pitching staff as deep as Philadelphia’s. Since the Division Series round was added to the MLB playoffs in 1995, 39 of those series have started out with one team up 2 games to 0. Only 3 of those series ended up with a complete comeback by the trailing team. 93% of the teams with a 2-0 lead went on to win the series.

So there it was. That was the math facing the Cardinals. Tony LaRussa knew it was long odds but rolled the dice on Carpenter. It didn’t go well. The daunting task of stealing a game in Philly became even more of a long shot after Philadelphia’s lineup strafed Carpenter for 4 quick runs in the first 3 innings. The Cardinals were in a deep hole, facing Phillies’ ace Cliff Lee and trailing by 4. LaRussa had to pinch hit for Carpenter in the 4th and thus began the inevitable bullpen carousel that he is famous for.


Remarkably, the bullpen held, and the Cardinals came all the way back to win an exhilarating game 5-4. It was game of raw emotion in the Rowe Man-Cave and all throughout Cardinal Nation, as each improbable moment unfolded, and the Cardinals evened the series 1-1. Here are the quick hits and emotional bullet points of the night . . .

• The Cardinals got 12 hits off of Cliff Lee. Whodathunkit?
• That was a crazy strike zone. Nobody was happy.
• The three runs St. Louis scored in the top of the fourth were huge to turn the game around. And even though Jon Jay was thrown out at home to end the inning, the Redbirds were back in it at 4-3.
• And Jon Jay is a stud. I don’t remember the guy who played center field before he came along. Thank you Toronto for taking old what’s-his-name off our hands.
• The Cardinal bullpen took over and pitched 6 innings and gave up 1 hit, striking out 6 and walking no one. Wow!
• Fernando Salas calmly retired all six he faced, including strikeouts of Chase Utley and Hunter Pence in the 5th inning. I love his demeanor on the mound.
• Octavio Dotel breezed through all four batters he faced. And then LaRussa decided it was time for Scrabble (Mark Rzepczynski). I was screaming at the television for Dotel to stay in.
• Scrabble’s biggest moment was picking Jimmy Rollins off first base to end the 7th. And that set up Tony’s-Delight on the menu for the 8th inning . . . With Utley, Pence and Ryan Howard coming up, I had the feeling it was going to be a 4 pitcher inning. As expected, Scrabble was followed by Mitchell Boggs who was on call to pitch to Pence. And then of course, the ancient one Arthur Rhodes was summoned to face Ryan Howard. The 75 year old Rhodes struck out Ryan Freakin’ Howard. That was a moment to treasure!
• And I knew before the inning was over, Jason Motte was going to be called upon for a multi inning save.
• The Cardinals rode a new young closer named Adam Wainwright to a championship in 2006. Motte has that look about him this year.
• Jake Westbrook was the sole survivor in the Cardinals bullpen. If the game went to extra innings, he was going to be a busy man for a long, long time.
• On offense, Rafael Furcal, Albert Pujols, Ryan Theriot, and Jay all had multi-hit games.
• Every Cardinals regular had at least one hit.
• Skip Schumaker slid into first. Again. And for once, he was safe.
• When the Cardinals needed the heart of the order to tilt the game their way in the 7th, Allen Craig led off with a towering triple and Pujols laced a single to left to drive in the lead run. Lance Berkman followed with a flared single to chase Lee.
• The Phillies are not about to fold, but this game had to dent their invincible armor a little.
• St. Louis knows that if it can hold serve with at least one win at home, they’ll have a rested and determined Carpenter ready for game 5.
• We can all smile and enjoy Monday’s ‘travel’ day. Happy Flight! Happy Flight!