Dark Bilious Vapors

Back in the early days of the Greymatter incarnation of this blog I fretted about this being the end of Jim Edmonds's playing career. Nice to know that I might have been wrong; basically after a disappointing second half last season and a spotty spring/early season, Jedmonds has pretty well turned things around to become a legitimate MVP contender this season.

Everything has come out right for the Cardinals thus far in 2004, and Edmonds' world turned around. This time, after offseason surgery to correct his weak shoulder, after a disjointed spring in which he had little work, he started relatively slowly.

"I had people come up to me in the organization and say to me, 'What's wrong? What's bothering you? Is there a distraction in your life?'" he said. "There is no difference between me in April and me in August except things are working well. ... Being hurt last year, going into the offseason having surgery and going right into spring training without picking up a bat or a ball, it's really hard to find your rhythm."

But Edmonds began getting in cadence after those initial few weeks, and his season has steadily built to a crescendo.

After batting .257 for the first two months, Edmonds batted .311 with four homers in June, .381 with 13 home runs in July and .359 with 10 home runs in August. On Thursday, he lit the fuse on September, hammering a two-run homer in the first inning to help the Cardinals forge a 3-0 lead.

Edmonds is batting .373 with 23 home runs, 51 RBIs and 46 runs scored over 50 games. With 39 homers, he is three shy of his career high of 42 (set in 2000), and he became the third Cardinal this season to reach 100 RBIs, joining Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen.

"I've seen him be really good for a month or six weeks before," manager Tony La Russa said. "But he's competed with this consistency for a long time. It's the best I've ever seen him play."

Len on 09.03.04 @ 07:01 AM CST