Mathematically Eliminated

WARNING: THIS BLOG IS FOR CARDINAL NATION ONLY. ENTER AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

"Mathematically eliminated." "Magic Number 0." Depending upon your perspective, those two baseball slogans bring joy or sadness to the "fan"atic. For St. Louis Cardinal Baseball Nation, 2010 is indeed a sad one. For tonite, with six games yet to play, the Redbirds were officially eliminated from the race. They are losers in 2010.

Being a gracious loser, I tip my cap to the Central Division winners, the Cincinnati Redlegs. The oldest team in the National League. They played better baseball, marginally, than the Cardinals and the rest of the hapless teams in that sorry division.

For Cardinal fans, you know the story. After the successful early August showdown with the Reds in Cincy, they left Ohio with a one game lead. What happened in the next six weeks is X-Files material. Losing games to lesser opponents became commonplace. Talent they had. Heart they didn't. Leadership abandoned. And the fans still believed. What a fan base! The truth is out there. However, the beyond loyal Cardinals fans would not accept and admit to the ugly truth on the field.

From my perspective, the 2010 Cardinals quit. There I wrote it. After a recent trip to my hometown to watch Cardinal baseball, I saw a brand of baseball that was more American Legion than MLB. Suddenly, superior starting pitching could not beat sub
.500 teams such as the Cubs, Pirates, Nationals and Houston. Our hitting was feeble. Our defense was porous. Our manager and coaches were hamstrung. Yet the fans still came.

The 3 Million/year fans of Cardinal baseball deserve more. They fill the owners pockets every year with more money than imaginable in a small market. So, I write for them.

This is my 10 point Manifesto on how to "right the ship" of a storied and proud franchise:

1. Ownership. Be strong. Be smart. Raise ceiling to $120M. No more long term deals. Do Items 2-10 below as a start. Don't stop with my list!!!
2. General Manager. MO must go. He does not have the skills. Ludwick for Westbrook?
3. Pujols. Sign him to a deal STL can handle or trade him this winter for a flock of talent. Ownership will not make him baseball's highest paid player. Sadly, I see AP leaving. Without a hometown discount, AP walks. Thanks for the ride Albert. Courting AP will be LeBron II, if he becomes a free agent after 2011.
4. Manager. TLR cannot play the off-season Favre-like drama game anymore. Ownership must push him to make a 30 day decision after the season. He'll get mad and walk. No worries. He's done anyway. Sorry wife, he's coming home. He's all yours. Arf-arf.
5. Coaching staff. Move Oquendo to first, nobody follows his signs at third. Everybody else goes including Duncan. (He'll leave anyway without TLR around). Big Mac = Big Mistake.
6. Coaching Replacements. Bring in ex-Cardinals from the exile imposed by TLR's crew. Ozzie, Ted Simmons, Joe Magrane, Matheny, etc. all make STL home. Fill it out with Orel Hershiser, Will Clark and bring back Hal McCrae. And whenever Eckstein and Edmonds retire, hire them for any available post. Gamers all.
7. Old Players. Pink slips to: Franklin, Boggs, Hawksworth, Ryan, Schumaker, and possible Carp. Tattooed Carp is a white nut case in the mold of Joaquin Andujar.
8. New Players. Try to pry Gordon Beckham from the Chisox, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and Jonathan Broxton from the Dodgers. Vultures are hovering over Chavez Ravine.
9. Farm System. Hire someone who knows talent, particularly, someone in the Midwest and South. How does a Mark Buerle and Ryan Howard, to name two studs, escape STL scouts in their own backyard? And, another hire on developing talent. No more Peter Kozmas.
10. Stan the Man. Out of respect, re-do that grotesque statue of "The Man" outside the stadium before he dies. Even Stan's wife hates it. Speaking of Stan's death to be, he should be interred in a yet to be completed Redbird Village beyond center field.

Well there you have it Cardinal fans from the left coast. I may be in Monterey but I bleed cardinal red 365.

Go Cards in 2011.