PURE CARDINAL OBSESSION

Well, hmm. PCO here got kind of abandoned about two years back in favor of The Birdwatch. Sad, but necessary, since I basically ran out of time to handle two blogs at once, much less one. And then I forgot this even existed... 'til now. So check over there if you really liked my writing that much. Perhaps I'll be back in this space someday if it doesn't work out over there, so you never know. Until then, happy blogging and go Cards.

Carp's 1-hitter in Toronto the other night was absolutely filthy. 10 K's, 1 BB. Nice. But the one thing it proved to me is that it is really freaking difficult to throw a no-hitter. For proof, I tender you this: a Bill James piece from Rob Neyer's site last November about how likely no-hitters actually are.

Elsewhere in the AL East, the Orioles finished off a sweep of the Astros tonight. And after a 6-7 roadtrip where they failed in a golden opportunity to gain some ground on the Red Sox and Yankees, it couldn't have come at a better time. With the Rockies and their 4-24 road record coming to town this weekend to finish the homestand, the O's have absolutely no excuse not to make it six in a row.

As you can see in the title bar, PCO is coming to you now from Kent County, Maryland. There are five MLB teams that play within a radius of 200 miles, so it's nice to be a baseball fan here. And of those five, the one with the worst record on June 11 is, you guessed it, the New York Yankees. Here's the standings in that "division":

Baltimore	36-25
Washington	36-26
Philadelphia	35-28
New York Mets	32-30
New York Yankees	30-31

Wow. It's amazing to see that, but I'll give you a million-to-one odds that it won't look that way in September. At least, not the bottom part.

...PCO is back online! The internet fairy showed up this morning, so I now have regained my license to rant about the thing I love the most: the St. Louis Cardinals.

As I write this, the Cardinals just fell to the Yankees this afternoon, 5-0. There are some obvious flaws to the team -- mainly the bench, defensive problems of David Eckstein, and the lack of consistent middle relief -- and Scott Rolen has missed several weeks with a shoulder injury. But, at this very moment they are the best team in the National League by 4 games over the Washington Nationals (!) and the Padres, have a 5½ game lead on the Cubs in the Central, and are 9 up on the rest of the division, with several games remaining this evening. And it still seems that they're not even on that typical mid-summer "roll" yet, despite playing at a .639 clip.

Anyway, I thought I'd spread the good cheer. Be sure to check back frequently for more updates.

I'm moving out East to start a new job over the next few days, so it could get hectic, and thus I may not reappear for a couple of weeks (that goes for at The Birdwatch as well). But I'll be back sometime before baseball season, once I get settled in. Never fear!

Since my last two posts, neither of my teams has lost. Mizzou (12-13) beat Oklahoma (in overtime) and then Baylor in Columbia, and Purdue (7-15) beat Iowa in West Lafayette, thanks to 29 points from Carl Landry, after a weekend off. Both have big games this weekend, when Mizzou travels to Nebraska and Purdue hosts Michigan State -- Mizzou has to win some games to get in the NIT, and even has an outside chance at an NCAA bid (if they win out before the Big 12 Tournament), while Purdue needs some confidence before the Big Ten Tournament, which is the only way they can advance to the postseason.

Purdue's key for the Big Ten Tournament, actually, is avoiding Illinois as long as possible (and hoping someone else beats them). Illinois has the 1 seed all but locked up, and thus Purdue wants to do everything possible to avoid being seeded 8th or 9th, thereby being forced to play Illinois in the second round. Currently, they sit in 9th, but at 3-8 are only a game behind the Iowa/Northwestern tie for 7th (I'm excluding the possibility of finishing 10th, since Penn State and Michigan are both really bad). Unfortunately, they'd probably have to win 7th outright to get the seed, since Iowa and Northwestern have both beaten Purdue this year. At best, Purdue can probably hope for 6-10, which could be good enough for just that; however, if they're 5-11 or 4-12, then 8th or 9th is pretty likely.

Yeah, I just made a really long post there and I don't feel like duplicating it, so here's a link. Also, be sure to check out the discussions on steriods, plus Iron Throne's two-part series on the fantasy value of the 2005 Cardinal players (here and here).

Yesterday, the Cubs traded away a once-beloved veteran whose very effective seasons helped lead them to 88 wins in 2001 and the Central Division crown in 2003. However, a subpar season in 2004 filled with controversy led the Cubs to trade him away to the American League for a fringe major-leaguer and two prospects. Cubs fans were excited about the deal, claiming addition by subtraction of his personality from the team.

Yes, Kyle Farnsworth, appliance-kicker extraordinaire, was sent to the Tigers for reliever Roberto Novoa and two minor-leaguers.

I'm actually a little more disappointed about Farnsworth leaving the division than I am about Sosa, since he was such a goofy and flaky dude. You never knew if he was going to pitch solid relief in a comeback win, give up a So Taguchi game-tying blast, or cross up the catcher to allow the winning run on a passed ball on any given day. Kyle, you will be missed.

Purdue may be winning a few games now and then, but Mizzou is certainly not. They've lost 8 of their last 9 games, with the only win coming over Nebraska at home. During that stretch, they've been beaten by Texas Tech and Kansas State at home, been blown out at Texas A&M and Kansas State, and also lost to bad teams Colorado and UNLV -- the latter of which happened last night.

Ugly.

Mizzou's team this season reminds me a lot of Indiana's, since they both share several characteristics:

1) both coaches (Mizzou's Quin Snyder, IU's Mike Davis) inherited programs from legends (Mizzou's Norm Stewart, IU's Bob Knight) and achieved success in the NCAA tournament early on, but after disappointing '03-'04 seasons, both are on the hot seat this year
2) both teams have a "premier" player (Mizzou's Linas Kleiza, IU's Bracey Wright) who hasn't quite produced like he should, due to various reasons
3) both teams have few, if any contributing seniors (Mizzou's Jason Conley is the only one averaging significant minutes)
4) both teams have several freshmen who play a lot (Mizzou's Jason Horton, Marshall Brown, Kalen Grimes, and Glenn Dandridge, IU's D.J. White, A.J. Ratliff, and Robert Vaden)

I see promise next year for both teams -- however, both coaches may or may not return to their respective teams. IU sits currently at 10-10 (5-4 Big Ten), while Mizzou has dropped to 10-13 (2-8 Big 12). While Davis' team appears to be playing better of late, and still has a reasonable shot at an NCAA bid, he does not have a vote of confidence from his AD -- something Snyder has. I am of the opinion that regardless of the outcome of this season, Snyder (like Gary Pinkel) should be allowed to return next year with his young core of players mostly returning -- but if he doesn't produce a 20+ win season and more than a first-round NCAA exit, he should be fired.

Beating Penn State at home is a little like kissing one's sister, but when one is 1-8 in the Big Ten going in to the game, one should take any win one can get. Especially when Chris Hartley has successfully made the transition from last player on the bench to starter.

So, how'd it happen? Well, David Teague learned to shoot, Carl Landry continued to dominate, and Purdue actually was able to keep a team from making a high percentage of their shots.

Teague, one of the least efficient shooters in the Big Ten, put together a 10-16 (5-10 3-point) effort for 25 points, a career high. Landry continued his solid play with 24 points. And Purdue actually held Penn State to 28.3% from the field, and 25.0% from 3-point range -- if those weren't season lows, I can't remember what was.

So, a win's nice. And the next two games for the Boilermakers are also at home, after a weekend off, in the forms of Iowa next Wednesday and Michigan State next Saturday. Why not start a streak?

Okay, so I lied. No more about the Michigan game, since Purdue proceeded to get beat up in the second half in Columbus last Wednesday, then lose at Northwestern on Saturday afternoon.

I was at the debacle in Evanston; it was a beautiful February day on the North Shore, and I comfortably walked to the game from my car in a T-shirt and jeans (the same outfit I sat outside in at Mustard's Last Stand after the game). For most of the game, however, I wondered why I even bothered to make the trip. The Boilers fell behind 11-0, and were not much closer than 4 or 5 in the first half, which ended 32-18. Northwestern went nuts again to start the half, opening up a 20-point lead at 44-24 (and being helped by the officials, who called the first seven fouls in the second half on Purdue -- enough so, that when they called the first foul on Northwestern, a huge Bronx cheer erupted from the Purdue half of the stands). At that point, as I was vocally expressing my indignation at having driven all the way up there, the weirdest thing happened -- Purdue went on a huge run, cutting the deficit to 4 points once more with about 4 minutes left. Unfortunately, there was a point soon after that with Purdue down either 4 or 5 (forgive me for not being able to remember the exact time or situation), when two Purdue players both went for the same rebound on the defensive end, collided, and the ball squirted into the backcourt where it was grabbed by a Northwestern player -- and of course, Purdue committed a foul, the Northwestern shooter made both free throws, and that pretty much was the turning point down the stretch.

Tonight, the Boilers look to get out of last place in the Big Ten against Penn State. There's still enough games left to salvage a little dignity out of this season (even though they're mathematically eliminated from any postseason play, save winning the Big Ten tournament), so tonight would be a great time to start.

After the past month or so, a win -- especially a 29-point one -- is just so nice. It's a burden lifted off this Purdue fan's shoulders. I'll probably write more on the game later, but I just wanted to share in the awesomeness of this moment. Hopefully there'll be many more like it soon.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch contains an article on Sunday profiling 94-year-old former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who was a three-time All-American as a player for Purdue from 1930-1932 (the only one in the school's history) -- and led Purdue to its only national title in his last season. It's an excellent read, talking about Wooden's philosophies of basketball and life. He truly is an extraordinary man.

Another game, another frustrating and disappointing loss. This time, it's the longest losing streak in the Gene Keady era.

This time, it was Wednesday night to Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Attendance was light; the announced crowd was 11,278, but fans sitting in the upper arena were encouraged to move down to any empty seats in the lower arena -- the first time I've heard that announced in all the games I've seen at Mackey Arena. My best guess is that there were about 9,000 in attendance. And, since I knew I wouldn't be able to attend Sunday's game against Michigan, I tried to sell my ticket on the street before Wednesday's game. For a center-court, upper arena ticket (face value $21), I basically had to beg and plead to get $2. Needless to say, the atmosphere at Mackey is not what it has been in years past -- and Coach Keady's pleas in the Exponent after the Iowa loss last weekend didn't seem to hit their mark.

UWM used an intermittent full court press to pester Purdue inbounding the ball, and forced several turnovers as a result -- Purdue committed 19 on the game, and I'd be willing to wager that at least 10 of those were directly a result of the press. Unfortunately, that wasn't the main problem, as UWM shot 55 percent from the field in the second half, and 47 percent for the game. Purdue's defensive struggles -- ironic, considering Coach Keady has stressed defense his whole career -- did the team in once more.

Wednesday's game was the first of a slightly easier nine-game stretch in Purdue's schedule -- ranked second toughest in the nation according to Sportsline's RPI -- during which they can potentially regain some dignity after a 4-12 start. In my opinion, each of these games is winnable; however, the team seems to need to play a perfect game to win. Perhaps relying more on Carl Landry is the answer, I don't know. But we will find out soon -- even though neither will get the team anywhere in postseason contention, 11-14 or so looks a lot better than 4-21. Sunday afternoon against Michigan -- on national television (CBS) no less -- is when the Boilermakers will have to dig deep and finally get a win.

Don't miss an excellent post at TBW by Sean about the history of Cardinal baserunning.

Also, is anyone else headed over to this tomorrow afternoon? Feel free to drop me an email if you are.

Listless is a good word to describe it. It's only Purdue's second blowout loss this year, but still -- six in a row is not good. And players are going down left and right. Chris Hartley may have to see significant playing time -- yikes.

The only option, though, is to get right back on the horse. That'll be Wednesday night against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Yes, I'm going to do this every time there's a good post over at TBW. We just launched the site, so I'll do whatever it takes to get visitors. Although I think that site gets way more hits than this one, so maybe it isn't necessary.

Iron Throne does an excellent piece on Cardinal dynasties, and yours truly followed up with a post about baseball in this past half-decade (whatever it's called).

And don't miss the picture of Ozzie Smith Jr. from American Idol. I'm not kidding.

The Rams' report cards are in, according to the Post-Dispatch. The special teams and secondary did horrible (F and a rather generous C-, respectively), but thankfully both of their coaches will be gone. Martz himself rated a C-, which I thought was a little low, but hey -- that must be why I'm not a reporter, because I'd probably give him around a B-. I mean, after all, he made the playoffs.

Here's the letter grades:
Quarterbacks - B (mostly thanks to the backups, otherwise A-)
Running backs - B-
Receivers - B
Offensive line - C- (rather generous, in my opinion -- too many sacks)
Defensive line - C+
Linebackers - D
Secondary - C- (also generous, as stated before -- not enough INTs!)
Special Teams - F (Wilkins gets a B in my book, it's not his fault the coverage stunk)
Coaching - C-

Saturday, January 15 was a rough day.

Part I: Purdue vs. Indiana, NCAA men's basketball, Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, IN, 12:00 p.m.

A boring game became nuts at the end of regulation when Brandon McKnight missed a jump shot from the top of the key, and time expired during the scrum for the rebound (where no foul was called -- remember that, folks), sending the game to overtime. Then it got crazy.

At the end of the first overtime, and the score tied 61-61, Bracey Wright missed a jump shot. In the fight for the loose ball, Andrew Ford was called for a foul. Replays showed that the call was very questionable. Either way, Marshall Strickland was given two free throw attempts with 0.9 seconds remaining. He made them both. Purdue called timeout to try and draw up some kind of miracle play. Ford, who must've been a quarterback in high school, threw a perfect court-length strike to Carl Landry under the basket. Landry quickly drew a foul while putting up a layup, which somehow went in. The referee behind the play immediately ruled the basket good -- still, they went to the monitor to review the play. When they came out, they ruled the basket good still, and Landry had one shot to win the game.

Supposedly, when the referees huddled around the monitor, they ruled that even though Landry released the ball after time expired, he should get continuation -- and therefore the basket was good. Mike Davis was irate when the ruling was explained, and (apparently) rightfully so, because the Big Ten admitted that it was the wrong call a couple of days later.

It all was a moot point, however, because Landry missed his free throw. And Purdue lost in overtime -- McKnight's leaning 3 for the win banked off the front rim. The Boilers dropped to 0-4 in the Big Ten, and quickly fell to 0-5 (4-11 overall) after another close loss in East Lansing on Tuesday night.

Part II: St. Louis Rams vs. Atlanta Falcons, NFL divisional playoffs, seen at Jake's in West Lafayette, IN, 8:15 p.m.

After a rough afternoon at Mackey, I headed over to Jake's Roadhouse, a popular bar with lots of TVs, to watch the Rams' playoff game. The game started rather quickly, as both teams traded touchdowns within the first five minutes. But the Rams' defensive shortcomings shone through, and by halftime, they were trailing 28-17. The Fox network commentators reported on several Falcons postseason rushing and punt return single-game records being set during the first half, so it certainly didn't look good. Still, the Rams weren't out of the game by any stretch, down only 11 with the ball to start the second half.

Unfortunately, fter halftime, it got ugly. The Rams went three-and-out, punted, and the Falcons scored a touchdown thanks to a big punt return (again) and the resulting short field. The Rams failed to score during the second half. 47-17 was the final score. The Rams allowed 327 yards rushing, which was one of the aforementioned records.

The worst part about the Rams' effort was the little things. I can come up with a whole bunch of instances, mostly during the first half, where a tiny break going the Rams' way could've changed a lot. There was the punt that Kevin Garrett could've easily downed on the 1; instead, he misjudged where he was, and stepped on the endline, forcing a touchback. There were the two dropped interceptions (by Antuan Edwards and Tommy Polley) by the Rams defense during the Falcons' second drive of the game, which resulted in a touchdown. There were missed tackles on Allen Rossum's punt return TD. There were several drops by the receivers -- most notably one in the first half by Steven Jackson on third down. The defense failed time and again on third and long And last, but not least, while the game was still in reach at 28-17 on the first drive after halftime, when Steven Jackson danced his way to being stuffed on third and 1, forcing a punt. Little mistakes add up over the course of a football game. I'm not saying the Rams would've won if they'd played the second half the same way, but if a few of these aforementioned little breaks had gone their way, they might've been the ones up 28-17 at the half -- and thus dictated the tempo for the rest of the game. Who's to know?

It was an ugly day. To add to the frustration (although I didn't even think to look at this until the next day), Mizzou got killed at Kansas State that afternoon 74-54. Merely icing on the cake to one of my worst sports days in memory.

But hey... I have to remind myself that the Cards did win 105 games and a pennant, so maybe the law of averages has to kick in a little bit.

A little late, but here's another recent post of mine at The Birdwatch -- be sure to check out everything on that site! If we members of that site had enough money, we'd buy ourselves a ballclub and win a pennant every year -- we're that good.

There are so many distractions, with the Rams in the playoffs, and hot stove baseball, but for a die-hard like myself, it's hard to forget that it's college basketball season.

As a Purdue alumnus and season ticket holder, it's hard not to cringe at what's been happening to the Boilermakers this season. A 1-5 start to the season against a tough schedule was bad, but three home losses since to the likes of Illinois last Saturday (not bad), Wisconsin last Wednesday (tough, but you've gotta win those), and Baylor before that (yikes!) have taken the life out of the Purdue fan base with the team's record at 4-8.

Against Illinois, the game was sold out. The student section was nearly half-empty, since the game was the weekend before school started up again, and the tickets were part of their package. So, that's sort of understandable -- although, being a former student season ticket holder before who'd been denied tickets to a pre-spring semester weekend game, I feel a little shafted. Anyway, I can't complain because those 1,000 or so tickets didn't fall into the hands of even more orange-clad Illinois fans (since, of course, there's no way that that many Purdue students would've shown up to a game that they didn't already have on their package -- even if it was the #1 team in the country). Still, there were several thousand of those Illinois fans, and seeing them made me see red (well, orange).

Here's a couple pictures, courtesy of purduesports.com, that I edited to show the amount of orange in the crowd:



The left is Matt Kiefer, the right is Charles Davis. Those pictures don't quite show the magnitude of the infestation, but they do give the basic idea. Either way, it's sad to see the fans give up on a team like the Purdue fans have this year; while Gene Keady has struggled in past years, it'd be nice to send him out with a proper farewell.

For better or for worse, the season continues Wednesday night in Minneapolis. As that article says, the last time the Boilers were 0-3 in the Big Ten was 1963. Let's hope it stays that way.