When I heard today that the Cardinals had acquired Indians RHP Jake Westbrook, I thought it sounded like a reasonable move, but THEN I heard we gave up Ryan Ludwick to get him, and I wasn’t nearly so sure the move was reasonable. Time will tell if this trade is in the Cardinals best interest, and although I have to agree that it appears the 2010 Cards thus far seem to win games in spite of their inconsistent offense, and that the trio of Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Jaime Garcia, had won 41 of the 42 games won by a Redbird starting pitcher this season as of yesterday, I still hate to see Ryan Ludwick leave. My wife and I saw him play against the Astros at Minute Maid Park just after the Cardinals got him in 2007, and he impressed me greatly that day and has ever since. He is an excellent defensive outfielder with a better than average arm who is extremely accurate and is not only a good power hitter but one that hits very well in clutch situations with runners in scoring position. And he is ALWAYS hustling, doing his absolute best to help his team win.

     I wish Ryan the best with the Padres, and I congratulate them on an excellent addition to their offensively challenged lineup.

    As a lifelong Cardinals fan, I also wish Jake Westbrook good fortunes with the Redbirds. May he prove to be the dependable #4 starter we need!

    And, although Mr. Ludwick may be wearing a Padres uniform, he will always be a Redbird in my thoughts and dreams…

     As the ultimate test of the recent promise I made to Patricia, to give up watching Cardinal games on the weekends when we have plans to do things together, I will be having lunch today with Pat and my step-daughter, Shannon at Kim Son Restaurant in Houston rather than watching the Cubs/Cardinals game on mlb.tv. I must be crazy, but this is an excellent test of my promise.

    Thank goodness the Cards/Cubs game tomorrow got moved to Sunday Night Baseball, and therefore I will get to see it under the terms of our agreement! Go Cardinals!

     About a week ago, I promised my sweetheart, Patricia, that I would give up watching Cardinals games via mlb.tv on the weekends so she and I could spend more quality time together. This past weekend was the first time I exercised my promise, and although I did not see one single pitch of our games on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, my Redbirds managed to win all three games from the Dodgers, completing a 4 game series sweep. One could say that this was just a coincidence, but I choose to believe that I was rewarded for keeping my promise.

     Please don’t tell anyone, but I was actually out of town all this past weekend, without Pat, and I hope this doesn’t lessen the impact of my promise. I certainly do plan to uphold my promise this coming weekend, when Pat and I will be home together…

     I give credit to home cooking, a typical hot, sweltering St. Louis July day, and the extra boost of a 4 day vacation from the grind of the season provided by the All-Star break for allowing Chris Carpenter to return to his normal, dominant style of pitching as the Cards cruised over the Dodgers at Busch Stadium tonight and pulled to within a half game of the idle Cincinnati Reds.

    Prince Albert started the final half of the 2010 campaign with 3 hits, and hope still abounds that he and Matt Holliday will give us the extra charge our offense needs by both getting hot together, hopefully numerous times over the next couple of months!

    Tony continued to perform his lineup magic, inserting Allen Craig in right field on his first day back with the big club, and having Allen respond with his first two Major League RBI.

01 My Friend Stan’s a Cardinal 1.m4a FAMILY, & FRIENDS,

     PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES AND SEE IF YOU CAN HELP ME WITH A PROJECT THAT IS NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART:

     I have been a St. Louis Cardinals fan my entire life, as many of you who know me realize. Back in the mid 1960′s I started composing a song about my favorite team. Thanks to the musical talents of one of my Sigma Nu fraternity brothers, Charles Strong, I was introduced to one of the Smother’s Brothers’ songs, “My Old Man’s a Sailor”, and liked its basic melody so much that I borrowed it, or a slight alteration of it, for my song, which I entitled, “My Friend Stan’s a Cardinal”. This spring, with the urging of my youngest, son, Paul, a policeman in South Houston, I got in touch with Charles and with his help was able to record my original song and a newer version of it at a recording studio in Minden, Louisiana.

      My intention is to make a CD of these two songs and make it available to the Cardinals and to as many of my friends and baseball fans as are interested in receiving it. I have no intention of making this a commercial venture – I simply want to share my love of the Cardinals with all who care to listen.

      HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP ME WITH THIS PROJECT:

      My oldest son, Jason, is an advertising creative director in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has graciously volunteered to design the front and back of the CD for me. The title of the CD will be “My Friends Are Mostly Cardinals”. Jason’s idea is to have friends of mine who are or have been during some time in their lives fans of the Cardinals to email me photos of themselves in Cardinal attire. A cap or jersey or tee-shirt. Anything Cardinal. Jason will take a large number of the photos submitted and form a collage or mosaic tile to represent a cross section of my friends that are Cardinals and/or Cardinal fans and use this as the cover of my CD.

      I would greatly appreciate your help with this project so please use your digital camera or your cell phone camera to take a photo of you in Cardinals attire and email it to me as soon as possible at blee132325@me.com. Be sure and send the photos ONLY to my email address, not to my FACEBOOK wall, even if you are learning of my request via FACEBOOK.

      One of my two songs that will be on my CD is attached to this email, hopefully for your enjoyment, and in an attempt to get you in the proper frame of mind to take a photo and email it to me to help me with this project, which is very dear to me!

Your friend and fellow St. Louis Cardinals fan,

B. Lee Brantly
HZ 92, A 231
1965 Westbury High School graduate
1969 Louisiana Tech University graduate

     Today I finally had the opportunity to listen to a cassette tape sent to me recently by one of my childhood friends. The tape is a narrative and song about Mickey Mantle by Carroll Roberson, and tells the story of Mickey being led to Christ by Yankee teammate, Bobby Richardson. I am so glad to hear this moving rendition of Mickey’s conversion. He was an idol to many, including my brother, Dennis, and probably the greatest switch-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball. I will look forward to talking baseball with him in heaven!

      I have recently recorded two songs about my beloved St. Louis Cardinals, which I plan to make available to the Cardinals and friends in the near future. I am seriously thinking about including Carroll Richardson’s narrative and song about Mickey on my CD. I will make an announcement in this blog when my CD is ready, and I would like to share it with all those interested.

     Last night I was lucky enough to see my Redbirds clobber the Astros 8-0, and see both Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday hit mammoth home runs! After watching every Cardinals game via mlb.tv this season, I love watching the game, but seeing it in person is SO much better! I think back to my family moving to Houston in 1961 and how excited I was that Houston would be getting a Major League team the next season – The Houston Colt 45′s, now known as the Astros.

     Those of us living in or near a Major League city are indeed MOST fortunate. Everyone else needs to travel to see a game as often as you can!

     Tonight, I am going back to Minute Maid Park to see the Cards play the Astros again, and this time I will be accompanied by my sweetheart, Pat (who also went last night), my brother, Dennis, my youngest son, Paul, and his wife, Yessica, my boss and close friend, Chris, and his friend and mine, Danny, my good friend, Bill, and his wife, Kathy, and their daughter and her fiance. After the game, most of us are going out to eat at Kim Sun restaurant. My only regret is that my oldest son, Jason, his son and my grandson, Jackson, and Jason’s sweetheart, Susan, won’t be able to join us.

     I cannot imagine how the game could be more enjoyable than last night’s, but, who knows, this is BASEBALL and my CARDINALS are playing, so anything is possible!

     Heroics rained supreme again in Denver, where the Rockies came from 3 runs down to tie the game in the 8th, and then won for the second straight night on a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth!

     Chris Carpenter, Cards Co-Ace, coming off his worst start in several years, takes the hill tomorrow afternoon against the Ubaldo Jimenez, who leads the league in wins with 14, in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

     This is the type of circumstance that teams with serious intentions of playing deep into October must overcome to prove their metal! My vote is with Carp and the Redbirds!!!!!

     It’s time for Albert Pujols to awaken from the offensive slumber he has been experiencing thus far this series, and follow the example set tonight by fellow teammate and super star slugger, Matt Holliday. I’m with you all the way, Albert!!!!!

     Well, maybe Tony La Russa does read my blog! He did start John Jay in right and Tyler Greene at short today. He was also very pleased, I’m fairly certain, with the pitching and hitting performance of Co-Ace, Adam Wainwright! After all, Adam only pitched a complete game five-hitter, struck out nine, and drove in 3 runs with a base clearing double!

     This game continued the saga of the 2010 Cardinals, who look like world beaters one day and like a second division Little League team the next. Maybe the All-Star break will allow the team to collect its thoughts and decide which team will show up for the remainder of the season – my hope is that it’s the one we saw today!

     Speaking of the All-Star Game, the Redbirds will be well represented, with Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina starting for the NL, while Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and Matt Holliday will also be on the squad, as they attempt to win for the first time in 13 years.

     Following this afternoon’s game with the Brewers, it is obvious to me as a longtime Cardinals fan that with David Freese and Ryan Ludwick on the DL and Brendan Ryan hitting below the Mendoza line, Tony Larussa needs to be asking for help from the front office to supply some offense to his lineup. I am extremely disappointed with both the hitting and defense of Brendan Ryan, and this is the position I would be looking to fill. Maybe another stint on the bench will jump start Brendan. Now that John Jay is back up on the big team following Ryan Ludwick being placed on the DL, I think he should play right field against left handers and Nick Stavinoa against righties. Tyler Greene has had an excellent minor league season and looked good since coming up a few days ago and needs to play second against left handers and share some time with Felipe Lopez at shortstop.

    We have seen a bad start each from co-aces Carpenter and Wainwright and one from outstanding rookie Jaime Garcia, but even great pitchers have off days, and the pressure to limit the opposition to 3 runs or less has to be a factor, as well.

    Come on, Tony, let’s get Albert to rally the troops, and lets not wait until it’s too late to salvage what has the potential to be another playoff year. It’s encouraging to hear that Albert and Yadi are both working overtime in the batting cage to get Yadi back on track, but we can’t afford to have our shortstop hit so poorly AND not play absolutely stellar defense…