St. Louis – This time, the enemy is TV, not the rivalry.
For the second consecutive year, the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros find themselves on Fox’s undercard. No team won more games than St. Louis this season. The Astros feature Roger Clemens, considered in some circles the best pitcher ever.
And yet Fox is treating this rematch like the return of New Coke. Cardinals vs. Astros is not the lead series, taking a back seat to the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, um, Albuquerque, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Columbus and Denver, based on the markets where the games will be shown.
A year ago, the Astros and Cardinals reveled in their status as “The Series TV Forgot,” joking about the attention given the ALCS cage match between the Red Sox and Yankees.
Now, their sense of humor has oozed ever so slightly into anger.
“Of course we got overshadowed. There’s more (media) here this time, but oh, yeah, that’s because the Yankees and Red Sox are out of it,” Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds said sarcastically. “I guess somebody has to watch this series, because we are both in the Central time zone.”
Based on Fox president Ed Goren’s explanation in Wednesday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the problem is simple: The Astros and Cardinals aren’t pathetic enough.
The Red Sox-Yankees’ popularity, he reasoned, went beyond their blood feud. It was driven by The Curse of the Bambino, Boston’s World Series drought linked to the loss of Babe Ruth.
So it is, Fox has settled on Chicago’s appeal. This is a franchise that does Boston’s previous hunger strike one year better, having not won a World Series since 1917.
Did we mention Los Angeles (2) and Chicago (3) are also among the biggest markets? Houston is 10, St. Louis 21. On Wednesday, the League Championship Series matchups went head-to-head, with the nonfeatured game in each area falling to FX, heretofore known as the Cardinals Network.
Lineup tweaks
With left-hander Andy Pettitte starting, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa adjusted the bottom of his lineup.
He moved Yadier Molina to seventh, bumping Abraham Nuñez to eighth ahead of pitcher Chris Carpenter. Molina is a slow runner and often has trouble advancing on sacrifice bunt attempts.
Carpenter, not known for handling the bat well, squeezed home Mark Grudzielanek on a perfectly executed play in the second inning.
Footnotes
Houston catcher Brad Ausmus, a Dartmouth grad known for his dry wit, delivered an interesting answer to an obvious question.
Asked if he was happy to renew the Astros’ rivalry with the Cardinals in the NLCS he said, “I would rather be facing the Rockies.” For the record, the Rockies finished with 95 losses and traded Ausmus nearly a decade ago. …
With Busch Stadium scheduled for demolition to make room for the new and improved model next season, fans have been penning their goodbyes on the stadium pillars.
Of course, there were a few zingers, including: “CUBS stands for Completely Useless By September.”
