Railway Rick - 01: My Kind of Town

Chicago was a blast.  But this first journey started 3 nights earlier at the Syracuse Amtrak station. That place is a ghost town on a Saturday night. I was confident I would have a seat to myself all the way to Chicago. But as the departure time got closer, the station began to fill with a large Amish group. Speaking maybe Dutch?  And then a wheelchaired passenger was parked about 20 feet from where I waited. Oh that was a smelly man. What was I in for on the train?  But all was well and I did indeed have a solo seat, as did everyone else that wanted one in our “Chicago” car. Anyone not getting off in Rochester, Erie, etc was put together in one car so we could not be bothered all night with passengers getting on or off. Nice. 

I was exhausted so I got some sleep between 11pm and 7am. Not totally restful as the sounds, and the motion, and the need to change position woke me every 20-30 minutes. But I went right back to sleep. Noise canceling headphones and an eye mask were a must. They also turn down the lights and stop making announcements between 11 and 7.  Very helpful.  Coffee at 7am from the cafe car and then stared at the boring countryside through Northern Indiana. And the final bonus of the trip, we arrived almost an hour early into Chicago. First trip completed. 

Took a long walk from the station to the hotel carrying my heavy duffel.  Yes Carol, I should have taken one with wheels.  Checked in early and got some rest before the Bears game. Closer to game time I expected the prices online to come down. But nope. This town is football crazy so the tickets were quickly disappearing online and the prices were going up. Oops. Oh well, I got an upper deck seat with a great view so I wasn’t disappointed. It was an incredible fan experience at Soldier Field. Great music; the fans knew when to sing along to the Bears videos and the fireworks show after every score. And the Bears decided to play well and they destroyed the Cowboys, much to the disappointment of many Dallas fans in attendance. A cap tip and shoutout to brother-in-law Dan, a huge football fan in his own right. 

After the game I hopped a bus up the Chicago Riverwalk area to the Aire rooftop bar atop the Centric Hotel, where I had a tabletop seat for a Sinatra tribute concert. The small 4 person band was great, especially the horn and bass. The singer was good and sounded a bit like Frankie, but he was over the top at times trying to imitate mannerisms, etc.  And he didn’t sing “New York, New York”.  Wtf?  But he redeemed himself slightly in his encore of “That’s Life”, and “My Way”.  Enjoyed a small dinner and some drinks during the concert. The weather that evening, and during the entire stay, was warm and wonderful. Great time and a nice leisurely walk to the hotel afterwards.  That was a full Sunday. I enjoyed my bed that night!

Monday morning I had a big breakfast at the diner next to the hotel and then had a short walk on Michigan Avenue. 

 

 

 

Hopped on the Big Red tour bus and rode around the city for 2 hours. I was expecting some audio commentary but there was none. Still a great way to see the city. There were about 10 stops along the way but I just stayed on for the entire loop. 

 

Enjoyed lunch and a Jamesons Stout at an Irish Pub when i returned. 

Later that afternoon I hopped back on the Red bus back up to river area. Rode the 90 minute Chicago Architecture Tour boat up and down the Chicago River. That tour came with a very good guide who explained a lot of history and architecture along the way. I especially liked the Carbide building that was constructed during prohibition. It was modeled it to look like a champagne bottle including some gold foil near the top, and also making the top look like a big middle finger. A big “F U” to prohibition! Another highlight was the old Chicago Post Office.  It was used as Gotham National Bank in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It has been remade into multi-use offices today and the rooftop is a 3.5 acre park with a track, basketball and pickleball courts. 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for my Monday highlight, a jazz show and dinner at Andy’s Jazz Club. When I made my reservation online, it was stated that parties of 1 would be seated at the bar. They lined up 4 of us “party of 1” guys right next to each other. I dubbed it the Lonely Man Jazz Club; just my internal joke; I certainly wasn’t going to talk to strangers. Lol. As expected the jazz band was outstanding, about 15 musicians!  And for about half of the 90 minute set, they had a female vocalist, Tatum Langley. Great voice!  Ironically, she recently completed a tour with the band Postmodern Jukebox. The coincidence there is that my favorite singer Haley Reinhart also toured with them for a while about 8 years ago. Tatum was hawking an LP she just completed, so who am I not to help out a young singer?!  Good thing Michelle has a turntable so I can listen to it. And since I bought her album, Tatum autographed it and took a selfie with me. A good night. A good dinner as well. I didn’t get my deep dish pizza as I had hoped but I had a good Chicago steak and a great crab cake at Andy’s. I enjoyed my long walk back to the hotel this time.  

The last morning was laid back. I was going to make my way to the John Hancock building and visit the top observation floor that has views in all directions, hence the name “360 Chicago”. But it was cloudy and I was done with rushing around. Instead I took a 2 hour self-guided walking tour around downtown. Only problem with that was getting caught in a brief rain shower. Oh well. 

 

Back to the hotel to grab my bags and take a Lyft to Union Station. I sat there staring at the fancy staircase in the station’s Great Hall, and I couldn’t help but think of Kevin Costner on that staircase in The Untouchables, shooting the Capone gang with a gun in one hand and diving and catching a baby carriage with the other hand. 

The #7 Empire Builder train on Sunday afternoon had some kind of issue on the first night and arrived 4 hours late to Seattle today. Yesterday’s version is doing better and is still on time for arrival in the Emerald City tomorrow morning. I only hope mine has the same good fortune the next couple of days. I’m on board now and so far so good as we departed on time. 

Goodbye Windy City. Now I’ll chill on a long 45 hour train ride through to the west. Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota tonight. Most of the day tomorrow will be spent in Montana. Hopefully in Seattle mid morning on Thursday. See you next time. 

Railway Rick - Planning the Trip

 

Welcome to the new and hopefully exciting adventures of Railway Rick. Tonight I embark on what undoubtedly will be the trip of my lifetime. I’m filled with excitement and also trepidation. This trip was born out of some depression, some desperation, and perhaps a hope for renewal and rejuvenation. It was a busy summer at the lake, as usual, with my annual parade of visitors. I love my parade; I love my friends and family and wouldn’t trade my time with them for anything. Well, maybe one thing, but she’s out of my reach. This was my first summer without my love, my Goose, my Monica. Even after a year, the feelings and the hurt is still so raw, as the tears on my keyboard can attest.  So, somewhere in the gauntlet of visitors, and during the flood of memories this summer, an idea began to form. I needed to get away. From the lake, from the pain, from the memories. I needed to find some renewal, some hope. And maybe make some new memories.  One day this summer, my gatecrasher brother-in-law Mark looked up from his phone and said “Did you know you can cross the entire country by train for just a few hundred dollars?”  I grunted and moved on with my day, but a few weeks later during a low moment, that comment came back. I said “Why not?”, and thus I was off and running. The research and planning began. 

I began looking at Amtrak pricing and schedules and maps, and my long cross country trip took shape. Amtrak has a $499 Rail Pass which allows you up to 10 train “trips” within a 30 day period. A ride from Syracuse to Chicago on the #49 train, the Lake Shore Limited, counts as 1 trip. Then when you change trains, like to ride the #7 Empire Builder train from Chicago to Seattle, it counts as trip #2. So my proposed route, with 1-2 day city visits along the way, became this:

Syracuse to Chicago, across to Seattle, down the coast to San Francisco/Oakland, then to Los Angeles. After those 4 legs of the journey, I would continue across the south over to New Orleans, then up to Washington DC, and finally New York City. 7 Cities in 21 days, with a lot of riding the rails in a coach seat in between.  I moved the travel window around a bit and landed on this sports junkie’s jackpot of a trip. If I left on September 20th, my city stops would magically line up with the opportunity to see 6 major sporting events!  NFL games in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York!  And 3 baseball games in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles! Whoa, the trip just got a lot more expensive but what the heck?!!  Wow, I began to get excited. Then I dug into the details. Where to stay, and what else can I experience in these cities along the way. I spent hours down the rabbit hole timing out events, making reservations and scouting out tickets and prices. 

Here is a brief overview of what I have planned. We’ll see as the trip unfolds whether I can keep up this proposed pace and hit the highlights of this plan. 

     Chicago 2 days - Bears game, deep dish pizza, rooftop Sinatra concert, city bus tour, Chicago river tour, jazz club dinner, Hancock tower city view

     Seattle 1 day - Pike Place Market, waterfront exploring, Space Needle, Mariners game, late night music

      San Fran/Oakland 2 days - Giants game, Ghirardelli’s chocolate, sunset cruise, Fisherman’s wharf, train to 49ers game, Haley Reinhardt concert

      Los Angeles 2 days - Catalina Jazz Club*, Hollywood Blvd, Walk of Fame, Mel’s Diner, Warner Bros tour, Universal Studios tour, cocktail at Musso and Franks*, wax museum, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Dodgers playoff game, Hollywood Bus tour including Santa Monic pier, Griffiths Observatory and Rodeo Drive. Also Du-Pars* for lunch, and a trip on Angels Flight*. (* as seen on the Bosch TV show!)

      New Orleans 2 nights but just 1 day - bus tour, voodoo and ghost tour, dinner and jazz cruise, some Bourbon street night life

      DC 2 days - night bus tour, FBI tour, Washington monument, Capitol tour, Smithsonian American History museum, jazz dinner

      NYC 2 days - Times Square, Broadway show with my nieces, city bus tour, Central Park, Empire State Bldg, Giants vs Eagles game

Whew.  We’ll see how that goes and if I survive it!

The planning and the packing is all done. Including a fancy new electronic plug that can charge 7 items at a time, noise canceling headphones, plenty of snacks, fedora and new jacket. And I’ve packed a few Goose items as traveling companions. 

          

Here we go. Tom and Carol will be taking me to the Syracuse station. More updates to follow after each city visit.  All Aboard!!!

Vegan Pizza

I'm celebrating today's Cardinals victory over the Pirates by making my very first Vegan Pizza.  I used to make and enjoy a killer vegetable pizza, but since I’ve gone vegan I haven’t been able to enjoy it because of the mayonnaise/cream cheese base and the cheddar cheese topping.  So I decided to concoct a vegan alternative!

Make the crust: 
Lightly coat a large cookie sheet with olive oil.
Spread an 8oz and 4oz package of crescent rolls on the pan.
Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes as stated on package.

Make a guacamole batch to use as the pizza 'sauce' (this one is spicy): 
- 4 avocados
- Juice from 1 lime. 
- 1/8 cup chopped red onion. 
- 2 pressed cloves garlic 
- 1/2 can Rotel diced tomatoes (hot)
- Salt and pepper
Mash ingredients together. 

Spread guacamole on cooled crust. 
Spread 1 can of rinsed, drained black beans on top of the guacamole.

Spread 1-2 cups chopped veggies of your choice on top. 
- green peppers
- red peppers
- yellow/orange peppers
- red onion 
- shaved/sliced carrots
- (zucchini, squash, broccoli, cauliflower would be good too)

Sprinkle vegan mozzarella 'cheese' on top.  
Cut into 24 pieces. 
Serve cold. 

Happy Veganniversary to me

One year ago today, Monica called me upstairs and said “Your girlfriend is on TV!”  Of course, she was talking about Michelle Pfeiffer.  Turns out the former Pink Lady was talking to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN, and they were talking about health.  Ok, I’ll bite.  The Cardinals aren’t on TV so I’ll sit down and watch it.  They talked about how well she looked and whether she had ever had plastic surgery, and then they talked about what she ate.

She professed she was a vegan, and that an interview Dr. Gupta had done the year before with former president Bill Clinton was the inspiration behind her change in diet.  That previous interview was part of a special report Dr. Gupta aired called The LastHeart Attack.  After President Clinton suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery after he was out off ice, he turned to the advice of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr.  So, I had Michelle Pfeiffer, former President Clinton, and Dr. Gupta all telling me that this Dr. Esselstyn was the greatest person on earth; that he had the secret to eternal life.  The Good Doctor wrote a book that simply states “Stop eating foods from animals because they are high in cholesterol, and cholesterol causes heart attacks”  Eat a plant based diet instead . . . veggies, fruits, beans, whole grains, etc.  Get your cholesterol under 150 total mg/dl he says, and you’ll never have a heart attack.  Period.

Well heck, I was bored so I said I would stop eating beef for a few weeks and see what happened.  I like fruits and veggies so how hard could it be?  Next thing you know, I had eliminated all beef, chicken, fish from my diet as well as anything dairy . . . no butter, no cheese, no milk, etc.  Eat nothing with a face or that had a mother.  I ordered Dr. Esselstyn’s book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and read it from cover to cover.  I researched his website, heartattackproof.com, and I became a disciple.   Within 6 weeks, my cholesterol was down from 200 to 147 mg/dl, and I had lost 30 pounds.  The weight loss has stalled, but my Vegan Vigilance has not. 

Today is my one year Veganniversary and I think I’m here to stay.  My family has been very supportive, and I have tried and found new foods that I had never thought about eating before.  I had never tasted hummus before.  Or guacamole.  Or a black bean burger, or whole grain pasta, or edamame, tofu, Thai Food, curry, Coconut milk, Almond milk, ice cream made with coconut milk, etc., etc.   And I love peppers, all colors, all shapes and sizes.  I can mix myself up a pot of stir fried peppers and onions and whole grain rice, and red and black beans, and eat it for a week.  Courtesy of my wife and my daughters, I’ve had vegan cupcakes, vegan cookies, vegan cranberry salad, vegan apple crisp, and vegan peanut butter cake . . . all made with no dairy products.  Now, they still have plenty of calories (LOL), but they are delicious and contain no butter whatsoever. 

Yes, I miss steak and bacon and Snickers bars.  But my plan is to live to 110 years old.  What the heck; I lived on the bad foods for the first 55 years; now I’ll live on plants for the next 55.  I’m liking it so far.  I’ll let you know how it turns out in about 54 more years.

Number 42

I was a child in the 60s and I was rocked to sleep each night in the summertime by a transistor radio singing lullabies of balls and strikes.  I loved my parents, but my true heroes wore crisp white flannel uniforms with bright red Cardinals perched at either end of a bat on the front.  On the backs of the uniforms were names like Gibson, Brock, Flood, and White.  I had (and still have!) multiple copies of their baseball cards.  I watched them on TV when they played Sunday afternoon games on the road, and 4 or 5 times each year, my family would venture to the old Busch Stadium (former Sportsman’s Park) to see them in person.  I loved everything about those guys.

But since I did not grow up in the 40s or 50s, I did not get to see Jackie Robinson play baseball.  I didn’t know his story for years.  It wasn’t until later in my adolescence when I learned about Jackie and segregation and racism, both in baseball and in life.  Looking back, it unnerves me to think that my childhood heroes that I took for granted would not have had the opportunities and lives they had if it had not been for the bravery and tenacity of that one man.  That first man.  That black man.  Today marks the fifth anniversary of the official Jackie Robinson day in Major League Baseball.  It was 66 years ago that Jackie took the field for the first time playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  That was 1947. 

Yes, baseball and society are both slow.  It took until 1947 for the first man of color to cross the white lines of the baseball field.  And everything wasn’t all rosy and warm after that happened.  Robinson wasn’t exactly hailed as a conquering hero; and the other teams didn’t just look around at each other and say “What were we thinking?  Let’s all go get some black ballplayers!”  No, that didn’t happen.  If you want a good portrayal of what did happen to Jackie as he broke baseball’s color barrier, go and see the new motion picture “42”, starring Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as the Dodger general manager Branch Rickey who gave Robinson his shot in the big leagues.  I haven’t seen it yet, but that will be rectified very soon.  My son saw it this weekend and called it “easily in his top five movies of all time, and probably his all-time favorite movie”.  I’m glad he saw it and had that reaction. 

But for years, baseball continued to move slowly.  It took until 1959 for the Boston Red Sox to be the last team to finally promote a black player to the big leagues.  The 60s proved to be an explosion of black stars in the baseball, and they were generally hailed as heroes, but behind the scenes their lives were hard as the segregation and racism of that decade persisted.  In the book “October 1964” by David Halberstam, he profiles the New York Yankees and the Cardinals through that season as they sailed on a collision course to the World Series that fall.  But he writes about the two different paths that the teams took through the early 60s to get to that point.  The Yankees were an aging team of white stars, with very few black players, where the Cardinals were embracing young black stars like Gibson, Flood and White, and then turned the corner on their season by acquiring Lou Brock early in the summer. 

And now, looking back, on this fifth anniversary of Jackie Robinson day, I’m thinking, “Huh?”  Only five years of celebration?  What the heck?  It took 61 years after the baseball color barrier was broken for baseball to finally create an official celebration.  Don’t get me wrong; it’s a great celebration!  Every player on every team will wear number 42 on the back of their jerseys today.  I cannot wait to watch the Cardinals and Pirates play tonight in those uniforms.  There will pregame festivities and a video shown at every stadium highlighting the life and career of Robinson.  Baseball is doing it right.  Now, that it is.  But it took way to long.  It’s like I said, baseball and society are slow.  

In the Know

Well, we are one week into the 2013 baseball season.  What do we know yet, if anything?

5 Things We KNOW We Know

1.  Yadier Molina is the best catcher in baseball.  Buster Posey is very good, and he’s a monster hitter, but Yadi is the complete package.  It’s a safe bet that he will win the Gold Glove behind the plate and bat .300.

2.  Matt Holliday is batting .182 so far.  And Albert Pujols is only batting .211 for the Angels.  It won’t end up that way.  If there’s anything I’m certain of, it’s that you don’t have to worry about Matt Holliday, or El Hombre.  There is nothing to see here . . . move along . . . these are not the droids you are looking for.

3.  Trevor Rosenthal can throw hard.  And he is here to stay.  If Jason Motte is out for an extended period, Rosie might end up closing out some games.

4.  The 1-5 Pittsburgh Pirates will finish under .500.  Book it.  Every year.  Since 1992.  Sorry, but it’s a safe bet.

5.  And finally, we are certain that the Houston Astros suck.  No really, they are horrible.  Historically bad.  In 6 games, they’ve struck out 75 times . . . that is 12.5 Ks per game.  Seriously.  Brett Wallace, the former Cardinals’ phenom that was traded to Oakland back in the Matt Holliday trade, has 17 at bats AND 13 STRIKEOUTS. 

5 Things We THINK We Know

1.  Adam Wainwright will be a stud.  He might not dominate every game.  He might not win 20 games.  He might not win a Cy Young.  But he might do all three.  He is throwing harder than last year and he’s now 2 years removed from his elbow surgery.  He’s back and he’ll be just fine.

2.  Jaime Garcia seems to be healthy as well.  He passed every spring test and his first start was sound, if not great.  If he’s healthy between the ears, and he’s showing maturity signs there as well, he can be one of the best lefties in the league.

3.  Matt Carpenter is a player.  He transformed himself into a second baseman; and he’s proven he can do almost anything except pitch and catch.  He’s a professional hitter; he battles every pitch and never throws an at-bat away, even against left handers.

4.  The Dodgers will dethrone the Giants in the NL West this year; and the Angels will knock the Rangers (and Athletics) off the top of the AL West.

5.  The Cubs are mathematically eliminated from the NL Central race.  Well, not quite, but I’m sure it’s close.  Any day now.  (Note: Clip and save and recopy this into any year’s season opening blog)

5 Things We HOPE We Know

1.  We hope that injuries don’t become an oft repeated headline of the season for the Cardinals.  David Freese looks like he’ll be back in the lineup for today’s home opener, but we don’t know when Motte will be back in the closer role.  Right now, the Birds have enough depth to ride these early injuries out, but no team can survive repeated hits to their 25 man roster.

2.  Petey the Kid Kozma looks like he belongs.  In spite of his .236 career average over 6 minor league seasons, he has risen above it all and settled in at the major league level.  He just looks comfortable; not at all phased about this whole major league thing.  He’s not going to be a career .350 hitter in the majors, but he looks like he wants to stay, and he looks like he wants to hit.

3.  Shelby Miller has the maturity (now) and the talent to stick.  Both he and the Cardinals hope that he’s thrown his last minor league pitch.  It might be interesting to watch the Rookie of the Year race in the NL this season.  St. Louis might have multiple players on the ballots.

4.  This might be the best bench the Cards have had in awhile.  Once Freese is back in the lineup, either Daniel Descalso or Matt Carpenter will be on the bench and they have both been Mr. Clutch in late innings for the past 2 years.  Shane Robinson can deliver pinch hits against anyone; he has no fear.  Ty Wiggington looked lost this spring, but he started at 3B Sunday and had 3 hits; perhaps he’ll be the right handed threat we need.  And Matt Adams can flat out rake; he could start at first base for a lot of major league teams. 

5.  This team will contend in the NL Central.  Their offense tends to be spastic (see below) and their bullpen as usual is in flux (see below), but they have a good mix of veterans and young talent, and Mike Matheny has them believing in themselves.  They may win the division (I’m predicting they do), or just a wild card, or maybe neither.  But as I said last week, they’ll be there in the end.

5 Things We Hope We DON’T Know

1.  The Cardinals’ feast or famine offense seems to be back.  It’s early of course, but in 3 of their games Dr. Jekyll has cranked out 14, 9, and 6 runs.  And in the other 3 games, Mr. Hyde has been limited to just 0, 1, and 2 runs.  Whiplash.

2.  The Reds are still good.  They’re not going away quietly.  Their starting pitching has been good.  Their bats roughed up Stephen Strasburg on Sunday, and Aroldis Chapman has 2 saves and 7 strikeouts in 4 innings of work. If the Cardinals want to compete in the Central Division, they’re going to have to earn it.  It should be an interesting series at Busch the next 3 days.

3.  Fernando Salas looks beatable this spring.  Opponents are sitting on Joe Kelly’s fastball.  Mitchell Boggs is out of his comfort zone as the temporary closer.  I’m not sure Edward Mujica can duplicate his 7^th inning success from last year.  Rosenthal is great; but overall the bullpen has me very nervous.

4.  Derek Jeter is nearing the end.  His ankle is healing slower than the Yankees hoped.  The pinstripes are old and weak and they miss their captain.  Not a lot of people will lose sleep if the Yankees finish 4^th or 5^th in their division and miss the playoffs.  But if Jeter can’t bounce back and produce at an all star level, it will be baseball’s loss.

5.  The Washington Nationals will win the World Series.  Hope I’m wrong.  They have the best rotation in baseball and a deep lineup.  They’ll beat the Detroit Tigers.

Another season of promise

Happy Opening Day!  This is the day when irrational fans around the world still cling to the belief that their favorite baseball team has a realistic chance to win it all this season.  For those of us who love and follow the St. Louis Cardinals however, the promise of a contending season is legitimate.  Year after year, the Cardinals regroup and reload, and then fight down to the wire in September to try and make it another Red October in St. Louis.  And more often than not, they succeed.  Since the new ownership group led by Bill DeWitt Jr. took over from the A-B Brewery before the 1996 season, the Cardinals have more post-season appearances (10) than any other National League team.  And let’s not forget those two World Championship trophies in 2006 and 2011.  Even in the years where they fall short of the playoffs, they usually keep hope alive until well into September.  Only once in the last thirteen seasons have the Cardinals finished with a losing record (78-84 in 2007).

Most teams flourish for awhile, and then rebuild.  And while they are rebuilding, they struggle for a number of years until they can find the right mix of young talent and veteran leadership to lead them back to the mountaintop.  The Mets are going through that now with four losing seasons in a row.  The Reds are riding a peak right now with a very talented ball club, but they went without a winning record for ten straight years from 2000 thru 2009.  The window of opportunity seems about to close for the current crop of Phillies.  The Red Sox and the Yankees are both old and teetering on the edge of the baseball fiscal cliff.

Then there are the Pittsburgh Pirates who are still looking for their first winning season since 1992.  And the Houston Astros are so bad right now, they had to take up residence in a new league this year.  And of course there are the lovable Chicago Cubs (does 1908 ring a bell?)   Or, a team could also try the unique business model offered up by the Miami Marlins . . . buy every star player you can get your hands on and try to win it all in one year; then blow it up the following winter and go back to square one for the next ten years before trying it all again.

But when you talk of the St. Louis Cardinals, you speak of history.  And tradition.  Decade after decade of excellence.  Eleven world championships.  Heck, they’ve made nine World Series appearances in my life time alone.  We were raised on stories of Hornsby, Frisch, Marion, Medwick, Dean, Slaughter, Schoendienst and the great Stan the Man Musial.  Some of us were lucky enough to watch the next generation of heroes . . . Gibson, Brock, Cepeda, Smith, Tudor, Clark, McGee, Sutter.  Gussie and Whitey.  Harry Caray and Jack Buck and Mike Shannon.  And the recent past has been just as strong with Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Eckstein, LaRussa, and Carpenter. 

This season’s team is being dismissed as being good, but not great.  A little flawed, already beat-up, and way too young.  No national writer is picking them to win the division.  After all, the Reds won 97 games last year so they must be ready to tee up another division title this year.  But this Cardinals core is strong and feisty, and poised for a lot of success this year.  Even with the injuries that have probably ended the careers of Rafael Furcal and Chris Carpenter, this team has a lot of young depth.  Veterans Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran are surrounded by the likes of Jon Jay, Allen Craig, David Freese, and of course Yadier Molina.  The rotation has a huge upside with Adam Wainwright primed for a Cy Young caliber comeback; and a healthy Jaime Garcia, Jake Westbrook, and the young arms of Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller to support him.  The bullpen is stocked with hard throwing young arms.  The Baby Birds may not finish the 2013 season with the desired result . . . “12 in ’13” . . . but it’s a good bet that come the end of September we’ll be staring at the promise of October baseball in St. Louis.  And that’s just fine with me.

And these Cards are not just going all in for this season; they’re set up for the long haul.  With the current young core of players, and budding stars Rosenthal, Kelly, Taveras, Wacha, Wong, Martinez and others, the future is bright under the shadow of the Gateway Arch.  Last year my son thanked me for raising him in St. Louis and allowing him the good fortune of being a Cardinals fan.  It is after all, Baseball Heaven!