View From the Cheap Seats

On this date in 1938, the St. Louis Cardinals did what would have been unthinkable three years earlier. They dealt a declining Dizzy Dean to the arch rivals, the Chicago Cubs, in exchange for for pitchers Curt Davis and Clyde Shoun — and more importantly, $200,000 in cash.

Ol’ Dix was a shell of his former self after an arm injury. But he was still a colorful character who could sell tickets in Chicago.

A tip of the cap to James Earl Jones who performed the climactic scene of the greatest baseball move ever. I hear he was also in some space movie. But whatever. Mr. Jones passed away today at 93, a truly great actor with maybe the most memorable voice in movie history.

Anyway, his “people will come” scene always made me wonder who the St. Louis Cardinals player among the ghostly baseballers who emerged form the corn in Field of Dreams.

I’m going with Austin McHenry who sort of like Moonlight Graham had his career wrested away from him. McHenry was an instant star after arriving in St. Louis in 1918. But his career was over four years latter when dizzy spells that interrupted his .350 hitting turned out to be a brain tumor that claimed his life at 27.

McHenry would have been a contemporary of the Black Sox players banned from baseball after the 1919 World Series. So that makes sense. I just can’t think of any other St. Louis player with such a heartbreaking story whose major league destiny was left unfulfilled.

Happy birthday to legendary St. Louis Cardinals hurler Adam Wainwright, born on this date in 1981.

200-138 over his career, Wainwright was the 38th pitcher in MLB history to notch 200 victories. He notched a pair of 20-win seasons and had 2,202 career strikeouts, most famous catching Carlos Beltran looking with the bases full and two outs to end the 2006 National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.

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On August 29, 1977, Lou Brock steals his 893rd career stolen base against the San Diego Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium.

The theft broke the previous all-time stolen base record of Ty Cobb that stood for nearly five decades. Brock would raise his total to 938 before he retired, a mark that would later be shattered by Ricky Henderson.

Brock still stands at second all-time in stolen bases and first in the National League. However, the standings have been altered over the years as Cobb’s career total was amended to 897 stolen bases 19th century star Billy Hamilton was credited with 130 bases swiped in the American Association his first toe seasons to pass Cobb with 914.

On this date in 1918, the St. Louis Cardinals received Austin McHenry from the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association in exchange for Marty Kavanaugh and Dutch Distel.

The outfielder was described by scribes of the day as a “veritable demon at the bat” despite the perception that his talents were unpolished and he “was not on speaking terms with the finer points of the game.”

Known for his hustle, during his first four big league seasons, McHenry markedly improved every year. He eventually came to be thought of as the heir apparent to Roger’s Hornsby as the Cardinals’ resident superstar, turning in a performance worthy of MVP Award consideration in 1921 by hitting .350 in 152 games with 102 runs driven in.

Tragically, less than a year later, his enormously promising career came to an entirely unexpected end. By the middle of the 1922 season, the young outfielder confessed to St. Louis skipper Branch Rickey that he feared he was going blind when questioned why his batting production had suddenly become erratic. He was sent home to rest in early July, but never made it back to the big leagues. Instead, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died four short months later at just 27 years old.

Another of McHenry’s Milwaukee teammates, William “Pickles” DilHoefer, followed him to the Redbirds in 1919 — and in an early appointment with the grave - passing away at 27 years old in 1921 from Typhoid Fever.

While the AA Brewers share a name with the current National League Central Division rivals of the Cardinals, they’re not related to the American League club of the same name that played in Milwaukee in 1901. That MLB team’s lineage actually flows through St. Louis.

A charter member of the American League, that club moved south in time for the 1902 season to become the St. Louis Browns for the next half century before moving to Baltimore in 1954 to become the Orioles..

George Brett to Cardinals fans still seething over ’85 World Series: Get over it In a new documentary, the former Royals star says, of the 1985 World Series: "You didn’t show up for Game 7, you lost 11-0. Suck on it.”

ST. LOUIS STILL NEEDS ANOTHER STARTER

I’m glad the St. Louis Cardinals have invested in starting pitching This off-season.

On one hand, I feel silly congratulating John Mozeliak on doing what obviously needed to be done. But on the other, so many times before (i.e.: this time last year) he looked the obvious in the eye and blinked. So, I’m grateful at least that didn’t happen again.

Still, while I was especially happy with the addition of Sonny Gray last week, I still don’t look at this rotation and feel especially good about things. The other two additions, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson both come with a lot of question marks. Nearly as many as holdover Steven Matz who has logged more different types of injuries than wins the past two years.

While Mozeliak issued one of his standard comments that all your number one starter consists of is being the guy scheduled to start that particular day, that really what he believes, can it? Maybe you can get away with that in May. But not so much in September and October. Right now this club has no ace, Gray is a decent two or three starter. Mikolas is a three if he’s having a good season and a four if he’s not. And Gibson, Lynn and Matz all look like guys who would be a four or even a five on a competitive team.

It adds up to the Cardinals being on the wrong end of a mismatch at least three out of every five games.

I firmly believe the Redbirds need to make another big pitching acquisition — and that a trade is the way to do it.

First, the Cardinals have a surplus of talent on the middle infield, outfield and in not quite ready pitching prospects while their cash resources are probably getting a little bit thin. They could trade for a guy like Dylan Cease, Shane Bieber or Alek Manoah for far closer to the salary they’re paying their bottom three starters than what they’re paying Gray.

Second, the Birds have a pitching staff that could defitnely use an infusion of relative youth, and signing a free agent likely means adding another pitcher on the wrong side of 30. Manoah will be 26 next season. Cease and Bieber will be 28 during the 2024 campaign.

Matz will be 33 in 2014. And he’s the youngest guy currently penciled into the rotation. Gray will be 34 while Mikolas, Lynn and Gibson will all be 35 or older.

Youngsters Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson haven’t been able to stick in the rotation at this point. And, with Lynn and Gibson potentially in one and done deals, St. Louis could use some coverage for 2025.

Another front part of the rotation starter would put the Cardinals in position to field a a hurler who could pitch six or more innings every day of the week, making life simple for the bullpen. And if St. Louis went the Cleveland route, I’d love to see the deal expanded to include closer Emmanuel Clase who is signed to a very reasonable contract — but rumored to be on the block.

The outrageous demand of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred that the people of Wisconsin spend nearly half a billion dollars on renovations to the Milwaukee Brewers’ ballpark I just the latest example of how hopefully he is out of touch with fans.

While baseball’s ownership ranks may be flush with billionaires who have more money than brains, a lot of families who buy tickets are struggling to make ends meet. Is now the time to threaten to take away their beloved home team if they don’t pay the billionaires a handsome ransom?

Is there ever a time for that?

The relationship between teams and their fan base isn’t a one-way street. Teams ask is for more an more, often without any reciprocity in terms of ownership investing the benefits from their luxurious new facilities in the product on the field. How much can they really expect from us? It seems the only limit is their imagination.

While I’m not a fan of the Brewers’ players, I can respect the fact that their fans usually punch above their weight as a smallish market. Currently, Milwaukee is 13th in baseball with an average of 28,143 tickets sold per home game. That’s better than the large market Texas Rangers (27,743) and San Francisco Giants (27,737) and in the upper half of baseball.

Does that support meaning nothing to the other owners in baseball? Vancouver, Nashville, San Antonio and Portland, OR are already being mentioned as new hosts for the Brewers. It’s terribly insulting to the people that have supported that franchise for 53 seasons. It’s not unlike the situation in Oakland where Athletics owners have turned up their nose at every stadium proposal and concession made to them, driving away faithful supporters as they finally got Nevada to outbid California in financial contributions for a new stadium.

Something has to be done to make owners at least partially responsible for their high-dollar demands. After all, no one is saying Milwaukee’s baseball park is dangerous or obsolete — it’s only 23 years old. They want more amenities to increase revenue flow and the “fan experience.” It’s more than a little bit ironic that fewer fans will be able to experience the ballpark at all as costs continue to rise.

At some point, someone has to tell the billionaires no. But how. They’ve stolen the fans’ came and are now blackmailing us with it.

Exactly.

Stop changing the game 🙄

A Better Idea for MLB Realignment

Given the fact that the owners have started to make noise about a salary cap thanks to the crazy off-season spending and the players have already vowed there will NEVER be a salary cap, I got to thinking about a creative way to create some fairness in baseball.

As things currently stand, the middle of the financial pack teams have no chance to out-bid the big spenders for the best talent in the game. Really, they can’t even keep their best players long term unless those players are willing to take less out of the goodness of their heart a la Nolan Arenado. I’m still shockad he didn’t opt out and double his income. It’s become an increasing problem when the Mets and Padres are determined to have $400-million payrolls and traditionally successful clubs like the St. Louis Cardinals invest less than half of that in their roster.

There is no realistic way for mid market teams to bridge that financial gap. And while some glibly say “you can’t but a championship,” that’s not entirely true. You can buy depth and erase roster mistakes by throwing money at the problems. If you’re a small market club like the Twins and you spend $270 million on a guy with a bum ankle, you can’t recover if he turns into a shell of his former self in year two or three. In fact, the ONLY scenario that is currently allowing the Redbirds to be likely candidates for a playoff spot is the fact they play in a weak division. Hmmm… Why shouldn’t all the teams benefit from playing in a better divisional situation?

Remember when the idea was floated a couple weeks ago about realigning baseball, a move that would have separated St. Louis from its National League Central foes in favors of “geography?” Why do we care about geography? This is the jet age. If clubs can trek the whole country to play every team In the major leagues under the new schedule, why can’t they be aligned by something other than geography? They’re already going EVERYWHERE.

Namely, the teams should be reshuffled each year based on their payroll, not their address. The biggest spenders should be put in one division, the next highest spenders in another, all the way down. What’s to keep clubs from depressing spending to get into the weakest division? Well, the six lowest spenders would be placed one each in the divisions with the biggest spenders. The smallest budget club would go in with the biggest spenders, something teams would certainly want to avoid.

As things currently stand:

Division 1: Mets, Padres, Yankees, Phillies… and Athletics.

Division 2: Dodgers, Blue jays, Angels, Braves… and Orioles.

Division 3: Astros, Rangers, Cubs and White Sox… and Pirates.

Division 4: Giants, Red Sox, Rockies, Cardinals… and Rays

Division 5: Twins, Brewers, Mariners, Tigers… and Reds

Division 6: Diamondbacks, Nationals, Marlins… and Guardians.

While the map isn’t the most important factor, regional rivalries aren’t going to be completely out the window because the teams in the northeast and on the west coast tend to be the biggest spenders and the clubs in the Midwest are largely the middle to lower tier.

The point is that the ridiculous spenders won’t victimize the weaker clubs in their traditional division by spending them into oblivion. The Mets, Dodgers and Yankees can beat the living daylights out of each other and some of the other teams would still have a real shot at winning their division and making the post season.

It’s not a salary cap. The big boys can go nuts if they want. But the teams in the middle can make rational decisions that won’t ruin their franchise. In fact, I could see a situation where this creates more good jobs for players because they won’t turn up their noses at their drafting franchise because they want to go somewhere to “have a chance to win.” If I’m the Marlins GM, I’m not spending $300m on my franchise player knowing I have no chance to beat the Mets, Phillies and Braves with or without him. But if I’m competing against mid majors… that’s a different scene entirely.

As a bonus, it will create excitement every year to see what division your favorite team will land in. The payroll deadline could be Feb. 1 to give the schedule makers a few weeks to iron out the details.