Tagged: David Freese
Spring Training Trip 2010
This week I made my first pilgrimage to the festival known as Spring Training. There is no better excuse to get out of town, find some sun and get a taste of things to come.











aig first caught my eye playing for AA Springfield two years ago. I liked him immediately, and I am pulling for him to make the club.









Step Away from the Edge
Good
news: It is Opening Day. Summer is here!
Bad news:
Someone forgot to put Opening Day
on Mother Nature’s calendar. It is still
winter in St. Louis.
Good news:
I was home from work today.
Bad news: The
reason I was home was because I was sick.
It was a two Kleenex box day.
Good news:
I got to see the home opener in real time between the St. Louis
Cardinals and the Pittsburg Pirates.
Bad news: Pirates
won.
Good news: We
got the first loss and blown saves out of the way. We can concentrate on winning now.
Despite
pitching five scoreless innings, starting pitcher, Adam Wainwright, will take
the heat for walking his last two batters.
Lefty reliever, Trevor Miller, will take the heat for letting them
score. Rookie Jason Motte will take the
heat for being one strike away from a save, but instead giving up the game
winning double.
In other
news that will make Cardinals fans shake their heads, former Cardinals middle
infielders had big opening days elsewhere.
For the Orioles, Cesar Izturis hit .500 including a home run and ended
the day with 2 runs and 2 RBI’s. Felipe
Lopez matched those numbers, hitting two homeruns for the D-Backs, one from
each side of the plate. Go figure.
Before we
all go throw ourselves from the St. Louis Arch or toss ourselves in to the Mississippi river in despair or to simply make our
nose stop running, let us take a few moments to review a few things that might
get lost in the Opening Day grumblings:
- Kyle McClellan, despite a
rough Spring Training, pitched a scoreless inning - Khalil Greene notched both
his and the Cardinals first RBI.
Welcome to St. Louis, Mr. Greene. - Hometown rookie, David Freese,
recorded his first big league RBI on a sacrifice fly, scoring speedy pinch
runner, Joe Thurston. - Adam Wainwright reached base
in both of his at bats. Once on an
error, which led to a run. Once on
a double. You cannot say he did not
help himself any way he could. - Albert Pujols batted .750
with two singles, a double and an intentional walk. - Ryan Ludwick had a .400 day,
hitting the first bomb of the year - Skip Schumaker, coming off
the bench, is officially batting 1.000 against lefty pitching. Schumaker also stole the first Cardinal
base of the year. - Chris Duncan is .333 with a
double and a walk. The walk led to
a run scored by pinch runner Joe Thurston.
Remember
this is one of 162. We are not supposed
to win them all. Baseball is where the “you
can’t win ’em all” phrase comes from. So,
put the razors away. Step back from the
edge. Take a deep breath. In with the good air. Out with the bad air. Put it in a bubble and blow it away. The Cardinals are going to be just fine.
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was southern summer nights
Maybe it was you maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
-Michael Anderson
Since I will see both minor and major league games this year, it
did feel right to start off my season seeing both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Memphis Redbirds play two exhibition games over the weekend. The match-up took place at Auto Zone Park on historic Union Avenue in Memphis Tennessee.
Walking into the ballpark, I felt I had died and gone to redbird
heaven. The entire field was covered
with St. Louis Cardinals and future St. Louis Cardinals, such a beautiful
sight.
I had heard that Auto Zone Park was even
nicer than AT&T Ballpark, the home of the Oklahoma City Redhawks. And, the ten-year-old park is nice, but I do
not think it has anything on the ballpark in Oklahoma
City. AT&T
Ballpark managed to add historic value to a new park, by making monuments to Oklahoma born players,
such as Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle and others.
The park in Memphis is missing
the historic element.
However, you know you are in Memphis when you are
greeted by a live band playing in the courtyard, just inside the front
gates. In the city that gave birth to
the Memphis sound, music is everywhere. Also, the courtyard is graced with the lovely Memphis Redbird Red Hots.
I knew I took a bunch of pictures, but even I was surprised when I uploaded them to my computer that there were 600+ taken over the course of two days. Unbelievable. I swear, I did not have my finger on the button the whole time. I actually kept a scorecard, too. But, evidently I was very busy. So, when I say here are “just a few” pictures, you will know I mean it.
Everybody stops to watch Albert Pujols take batting practice. I think he could sell tickets to his batting practice to raise money for the Pujols Family Foundation.
The Cardinals 25-man roster includes a number of rookies. Here are just a few getting ready to take batting practice: Infielders, Joe Thurston and David Freese, and outfielder, Colby Rasmus. I believe fellow rookie, infielder, Brian Barden was in the cage.
New Shortstop, Khalil Greene, looks happy to be a Cardinal. He had a great spring training, and hit a bomb in Memphis, so we are so happy to have him.
Yadier Molina heads to work.
One of my favorite game sights is the catcher, starting pitcher and pitching coach walking in from the bullpen, all warmed up and ready to go. The walk means it is almost game time. In the first picture are Yadier Molina, P. J. Walters and Dave Duncan. P. J. Walters, who will start in Triple-A Memphis, made a spot start for the Cardinals in Friday’s game in place of Chris Carpenter. Walters had a very fine outing, as the Cardinals won 13-1.
The second picture is Yadier Molina, Joel Pineiro and Dave Duncan. Joel Pineiro had a great spring training, and he pitched well on Saturday. He got into a couple jams, but did not loose his cool. He pitched better the longer he went. The Cardinals won 7-3.
Another beautiful sight:
I took the following two pictures, because I wondered if the kid in the #12 Aaron Miles jersey was asking John Mozeliak, “Hey, Mo. Why didn’t you pick up Miles? Now, I need a new jersey. Forget the autograph. I want a new jersey.”
Amazingly enough, another kid walked up with a #12 T-shirt. I imagined him asking the same question.
This is a nice shot of Khalil Greene , but the guy on second base got my attention over the weekend. Memphis center fielder, Shane Robinson, has a nice bat. He made a great diving catch in center, and literally climbed the wall to try to get to a Rick Ankiel home run that was long gone.
But, I found the following shot of him hilarious. From left to right (field), we have Jon Jay (5’9″), Shane Robinson (5’7″) and Joe Mather (6’4″). Mather looks like a Giant.
Chris Carpenter was scratched from the Friday start, which is fine with me. There is always a worry that he has X number of pitches left. No need to waste them on an exhibition game. He was reported to have a calf injury, but if he can cop a catcher’s squat to catch Adam Wainwright, the calf must be healed.
Before Saturday’s day game, I was at the park before it was open. So, I decided to take a little walk all the way around it. When I got to the back of the park, the gate was open. I resisted the urge to trespass. However, I could see through to the field. I was not surprised by what I saw: Third Base/Infield Coach, Jose Oquendo was hitting early morning ground balls to Skip Schumaker. Here is a picture of Schumaker warming up later.
Speaking of Jose Oquendo, late in the game on Saturday, he was sent in to pinch hit. The crowd went wild. He fouled off a couple and then drew a walk. When he took his lead at first, the crowd wanted him to steal. He got moved around to third base. He had an opportunity to tag and score on a fly ball, but evidently, he did not send himself. Ironically, he was stranded at the base he will be coaching all year.
The-closer-who-must-not-be-named, Jason Motte, pitched in the ninth inning Saturday.
Not to be outdone by the Cardinals coaching staff, Memphis Redbirds Manager, Chris Maloney, sent himself in to pinch hit. He made nice contact, but grounded out to finish the game.
Ballpark Food Note
I give the ballpark hot dog a grade of “B”. Good quality hot dog, toasted bun. Good, but not fantastic. The unique food to have are the barbecued pork nachos. Very good, but very pricy at $8.50. The hotdogs were $4.00