1 PM...be there or be square.

It’s gotten to the point where I might as well end up conceding Mondays as a lost day when it comes to the Musings. Writing anything of value is pretty much a lost cause at this point. It’s tough enough to piece together some semi-redeeming prose of any length on a Monday to begin with. When you factor in the amount of work that I normally do on a Monday it is damn near impossible. Unless, of course, I just completely blow off work and write during the morning…which is exactly what I’m doing today.

I was going to start off with a detailed breakdown of Florida’s ass kicking at the hands of Alabama. Then I decided that I’d rather not relive that god awful three hours in intimate detail anymore then I already had over the past two days. Put simply, Alabama played the best game that they’ll play all year on the exact same day that Florida played it’s worst of the year (we hope). Brodie Croyle played the way so many fans had envisioned when he was the nation’s #1 QB recruit four years ago, while Tyrone Prothro managed to make even the great David Palmer marvel at his speed, versatility, and toughness. Seriously, how did that guy not cry (even a little bit) after his leg bone snapped in two? That’s as gruesome an injury as I’ve seen since Napoleon McCallum broke his leg on Monday Night some years ago. There were no real bright spots on the defense, though Brandon Siler and Reggie Nelson both managed to play with a reasonable amount of productivity for a defense that was getting pushed all over the field. Offensively the Florida line was once again a major weakness as it constantly had the Gators starting off in 1st & 15 or 1st & 20 situations. This has been a common theme thus far this season for the Gator offense. Yet, up to this point the passing attack of Chris Leak and Co. had been able to make up for a multitude of sins through their productivity. Even when the offense (or any phase of the game for that matter) was able to make a big play they would, invariably then turn around and manage to give back all the momentum gained to Alabama and their crown of raucous inbreds. At one point, as Prothro was making a ridiculous diving tip-catch, I turned to my buddy Vitas and mumbled, “It’s just Bama’s day.” It was and the Tide took full advantage of every opportunity afforded them on this day. All is not lost though, not by a longshot. Florida must go to LSU in two weeks as well as get prepared for the annual tangle with Georgia in Jacksonville at the end of the month. If Florida can win both of those games as well as manage to go through the rest of the SEC season undefeated (no small feat) then they’ll be in the drivers seat for the SEC East Title and a possible rematch with Alabama in Atlanta. Urban had his honeymoon and it’s now time for him to earn that fat salary ,and all the other perks that come with being the Head Coach at the University of Florida, by getting his guys refocused and better prepared for the rigors of the nation’s toughest conference.

Okay, so that went on a little longer than I had hoped but, to be honest there was no real way to put a wood shedding like that in it’s proper perspective with anything less than the bare bones review that I just posted.

My real focus for today is the kickoff of the MLB playoffs. Specifically the outlook for the St. Louis Cardinals. Many may wonder why a kid who grew up in Florida is a Cardinal fan. Actually, it’s a pretty simple explanation. My entire family (on both sides) is originally from St. Louis and I’m the only member of my immediate family who wasn’t born in the city. I attended my first baseball game at Busch Stadium when I was only 6 and I immediately fell in love with such Cardinal luminaries as Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee, to make no mention of Keith Hernandez or his mustache. Though I would grow to hate Hernandez and everything associated with him during his tour with the Mets in the mid-80’s. Those mid-80’s Mets teams are still the standard bearer for all teams that I hate in sports.

These days the Cardinals are one of the best franchises in all of sports, not to mention baseball. They have a great GM in Walt Jocketty and a Hall of Fame Manager in Tony LaRussa. Combine that with a city that many experts consider the best baseball town in American and you have a recipe for an unprecedented run of success. Through all of this success, there has always been a missing element for the Cardinals when it came time for postseason play. It was something different each year: shaky bullpen, lack of starting pitching depth, injuries, even the lack of a true #1 starter in last year’s playoffs.

After the off-season addition of Mark Mulder, this year seemed to be the exception to the rule. That is until the injury bug bit St. Louis about two months back. First it was Reggie Sanders's injury and then Larry Walker. Finally, the vastly underrated Scott Rolen went down for the year. This alone nearly caused my father to go back to drinking scotch. The loss of Rolen could have been much more debilitating if it hadn’t been for the brilliant defensive work of Abraham Nunez. With that said, it doesn’t take Buster Olney to figure out that St. Louis is going to miss Rolen’s bat in the lineup behind Albert Pujols during the postseason. Through it all, the Cards managed to keep winning games and were never in any real danger of being overtaken by the surging (and extremely annoying) Houston Astros. A major reason for this consistency was the dominance of the pitching staff. As a team, the Cardinals hadn’t been able to throw out a starting rotation this consistent and dominant since the 1985 team that boasted John Tudor and Joaqin Andujar. More than any other factor the starting rotation was the reason for my extreme optimism regarding this year’s edition of the Cardinals. That is, until the rotation began to fall apart during the month of August. Chris Carpenter’s feel good season took a dramatic turn for the worse as he allowed 23 runs in his final 22 innings of the regular season. Matt Morris also fell on hard times down the stretch, going 1-8 in his last 9 decisions. The one bright spot late in the year was Jeff Suppan. Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of Matt Morris and Jason “That’s outta here” Marqis, Suppan is now the Cardinals #3 starter going into the postseason. Don’t get me wrong, Suppan is a nice pitcher and has had a good year for St. Louis. However, Suppan is most effective when he is the fourth or fifth starter for a good team. The thought of relying on Suppan to capture a must win game on the road puts the fear of Whitey (Herzog, that is) in me.

So....here's what I'm thinking: The Cardinals should dispose of the Padres in 4 games (San Diego will stave off elimination for one game at home). If they are able to eliminate the Fathers then I’ll be hoping and praying for the Braves to pull a rabbit out of their hat and eliminate the Astros in the other division series. The Cardinals were able to withstand the Astros in the NLCS last year but that was without a healthy (and recently dominant) Andy Pettite. I was telling anybody who would listen in June and July that this was St. Louis’ year to win it all, that all the pieces were finally in place. Now, I’m a lot like Joe Gibbs during Nick Novak’s game winning FG in OT on Sunday…afraid to look.