Dark Bilious Vapors

Magic Number: 0

The St. Louis Cardinals are the undisputed, no tiebreaker necessary, National League Central Division Champions of the 2004 Championship Season.

I have to confess just a little bit of disappointment; it'd been somehow more exciting if we could win it by beating Milwaukee tonight (especially since the game's being shown on cable TV here in the Memphis area). But the Chicago Cubs decided to do the honorable thing, and let Florida beat them in the second game of a doubleheader this afternoon. Apparently, the Cardinals found out just about an hour ago. Supposedly Fox Sports Midwest is going to be showing the champagne celebration in the clubhouse after the game; hopefully Time Warner here won't cut away before that.... We'll find out soon.

And according to Lee Sinins, it appears that we're way ahead in the race for #1 seed in the postseason. If I read things correctly, we've got an excellent shot at home field advantage for both the NLDS and NLCS.

Life is Good.

UPDATE: Maybe I've spoken too soon again. Albert "the Great" Pujols just dropped a fly foul ball that should have been an easy catch, giving the Brewers an extra out in the bottom of the 1^st inning. No apparent damage, as the next pitch resulted in a ground ball to Pujols and a 3-1 putout, but that strikes me as something of a bad omen.

Meanwhile, Matt Morris is pitching; while it's an away game, at least it's a night game and not a day game. So far it's looking like the Good Matt has shown up. We shall see.....

UPDATE II: The Good Guys win, 7-4.

Nope, they didn't stick around for the champagne celebration, dammit. However, they did stay with the Fox Sports Midwest feed long enough to let us see the "highlight reel" that FSM compiled. I'm surprised (pleasantly) by the number of highlight plays they showed that I remember seeing on TV this year. As I've noted before (either here or on comments to one or more of the Cardinals blogs), the upside to the Cards being so dominant this season is that, in addition to the huge block of Fox Sports Midwest games that Time Warner here bought the rights to, and the handful of games we could catch on WGN or the Turner stations when we were playing the Cubs or the Braves, Fox Saturday Baseball and ESPN's Monday Night, Wednesday Night, and Sunday Night broadcasts often picked up Cardinals game. All in all, it's been a great year to be a Cards fan--even in exile.

Today, the NL Central, next month, the World Series? I don't want to get my hopes too far up but.... to paraphrase the Illinois Lottery commercials:

Somebody's gotta win. May as well be us.

Great job, guys.

The St. Louis Cardinals: 2004 National League Central Division Champions
Active Roster

Pitchers 	    	B/T 	Ht 	Wt 	DOB 	 
49 Rick Ankiel 	    	L/L 	6-1 	215 	07/19/79
40 Kiko Calero 	    	R/R 	6-1 	185 	01/09/75
68 Carmen Cali 	    	L/L 	5-10 	185 	11/04/78
29 Chris Carpenter  	R/R 	6-6 	230 	04/27/75
23 Cal Eldred 	    	R/R 	6-4 	240 	11/24/67
61 Randy Flores     	L/L 	6-0 	180 	07/31/75
55 Danny Haren 	    	R/R 	6-5 	220 	09/17/80
44 Jason Isringhausen   R/R 	6-3 	230 	09/07/72
56 Ray King 	     	L/L 	6-1 	240 	01/15/74
21 Jason Marquis 	L/R 	6-1 	210 	08/21/78
35 Matt Morris 	     	R/R 	6-5 	220 	08/09/74
52 Al Reyes 	     	R/R 	6-1 	210 	04/10/70
37 Jeff Suppan 	      	R/R 	6-2 	220 	01/02/75
50 Julian Tavarez 	L/R 	6-2 	195 	05/22/73
19 Woody Williams 	R/R 	6-0 	200 	08/19/66

Catchers 	     	B/T 	Ht 	Wt 	DOB 	 
22 Mike Matheny      	R/R 	6-3 	220 	09/22/70
26 Cody McKay 	     	L/R 	6-0 	210 	01/11/74
41 Yadier Molina 	R/R 	5-11 	225 	07/13/82

Infielders 	     	B/T 	Ht 	Wt 	DOB 	 
8 Marlon Anderson 	L/R 	5-11 	200 	01/06/74
7 Hector Luna 	     	R/R 	6-1 	170 	02/01/80
5 Albert Pujols 	R/R 	6-3 	225 	01/16/80
3 Edgar Renteria 	R/R 	6-1 	200 	08/07/75
27 Scott Rolen 	     	R/R 	6-4 	240 	04/04/75
4 Tony Womack 	     	L/R 	5-9 	170 	09/25/69

Outfielders 	     	B/T 	Ht 	Wt 	DOB 	 
32 Roger Cedeno 	S/R 	6-1 	205 	08/16/74
15 Jim Edmonds 	     	L/L 	6-1 	210 	06/27/70
12 Ray Lankford 	L/L 	5-11 	200 	06/05/67
47 John Mabry 	     	L/R 	6-4 	210 	10/17/70
16 Reggie Sanders 	R/R 	6-1 	205 	12/01/67
99 So Taguchi 	     	R/R 	5-10 	165 	07/02/69
33 Larry Walker 	L/R 	6-3 	235 	12/01/66

Manager & Coaches  	 

10 Tony La Russa 	Manager
24 Joe Pettini 		Bench Coach
18 Dave Duncan 		Pitching Coach
12 Mitchell Page 	Hitting Coach
38 Marty Mason 		Bullpen Coach
39 Dave McKay 		First Base Coach
11 Jose Oquendo 	Third Base Coach
20 Lou Brock 		Special Instructor
45 Bob Gibson 		Special Instructor
2 Red Schoendienst 	Special Assistant to the General Manager

Staff 	 

Dr. George Paletta 	Head Team Physician
Barry Weinberg 		Trainer
Mark O'Neal 		Medical/Rehab Coordinator
C.J. Cherre 		Traveling Secretary
Rip Rowan 		Equipment Manager
Buddy Bates 		Assistant Equipment Manager
Jeff Murphy 		Bullpen Catcher

Len on 09.20.04 @ 06:49 PM CST