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09/30/2004: I don't want to give up prematurely....
but I may have to settle for the NL Division Crown and a great record for this season. Brian Gunn at Redbird Nation has an interesting observation about how recent Redbird postseasons haven't gone all that well: The Curse of the Killer Tarp
I've mentioned this before, but there seems to be a new curse taking hold of the Cardinals in the postseason -- call it the Curse of the Killer Tarp. Seems every time the Cards march into October, they're felled by some freak injury:At least, as Brian points out, we're not the only postseason team plagued by injuries; apparently only the Braves are currently at full strength.
1985: Vince Coleman
1987: Jack Clark, Terry Pendleton
1996: Ray Lankford
2000: Mike Matheny (and Rick Ankiel?)
2001: Mark McGwire
2002: Scott Rolen (and Darryl Kile?)
2004: Chris Carpenter
Another reason to hate living in interesting times.
In case you're curious, the reference to "the Killer Tarp" refers to the 1985 entry in the list above when, during a rain delay before game 4 of the NLCS at Busch Stadium, Vince Coleman--who was probably the fastest man in the National League that season--managed to get run over by the machinery which rolled the tarp over the playing field, a contraption which, IIRC, only moved at about 1 or 1.5 MPH.
Len on 09.30.04 @ 08:05 AM CST
