What happened to waiting until the spring to judge the Cardinal’s offseason?

I think you must have missed it where I said “until they prove otherwise” and “so far.”

Cheers.
B

Thanks for blogging. Mizzou, you got that right.

You could have included the Crab Soup recipe, though otherwise a quality read.

Being a Steelers fan, their offensive line is below average at best and if Jason Capizzi had any significant talent, Marvel Smith would have been placed on IR weeks ago and Capizzi added to the roster. I’m not saying he wouldn’t help the Rams, but i do not think he is a difference maker.

To clarify my Capizzi comment. Capizzi has been in the Steelers training camp for a couple of seasons and knows the system. After putting Marvel Smith on the IR, the Steelers probably went after Capizzi because he is familiar with the Steelers offense. If Capizzi had the talent the Steelers needed, he would have already been on the Steelers roster before the Rams put him on their practice squad.

Actually, I think the Tom Cruise movie is so bad, the studio is releasing it on Christmas day because that way when it flops, they have an easy excuse. And about the accents, I don’t see why it’s any better to talk with a fake (and usually poorly done) accent in English than simply their normal accent. And while Kevin Costner got criticism for talking like an American in Robin Hood, the English actually used to talk with American accents. (Or American-ish, rhotic, it’s called, while their current accent is relative modern, non-rhotic. Part of America developed the non-rhotic accent, like Boston, because they were in more frequent contact with England, and picked up part of the accent)

About the Cardinals; I think there is some truth to the ‘cheap’ thing. I do think it’s smart to not try and outbid the Angels (Fuentes.

Thanks Bernie!

the rams site only has Capizzi’s vitals, no pic, no commentary, the Steelers Web site has a pic, a long narrative of the guy. Just to show you the difference in detail, shows the type of organization each is. It’s pitiful how poorly run the ram organization really is.

‘Bingo’ on MU. Being so unprepared and clueless as a team at this stage in MA’s tenure is NOT waht BCS programs pay top-dollar for. Good luck to him reinventing himself and his program.

I consider Bruce Weber to be one of the top college basketball coaches in the country.

I don’t think the Cardinals are cheap, although I would like to see them add some additional pitching help. I’m optimistic they will. They already have some players who are costing sizeable bucks, and will have to ante up significantly for Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer in arbitration. This will put a further strain on their mid-market budget. Additionally, the Cardinals have to be looking ahead to much more pay for Albert Pujols if he is to be retained as the franchise player he is. I hope they will move forward sooner rather than later to try to extend his contract. It will be traumatic to Cardinal Nation if we were to lose the best player in baseball because of inability or unwillingness to ante up the considerable amount it will take to retain his services beyond the present contract with him.

Your an idiot Bernie.

Cheers
A

Whether Valkyrie is any good or not - why should Cruise speak with a phony German accent ? OR even a real one ? He is supposedly speaking in German to other German speakers, not some show-biz bunch of German imitators. I wouldn’t want the role played as if he were Sergeant Schultz.

Still no Crab Soup recipe…Dang it Bernie and your secret recipes.

The Cardinals have a high enough payroll. Tony needs to stop trying to gimmick his way to the playoffs.

You are right about Anderson. He has the players to run his “system” and it got exposed last night. Unfortunately I don’t think there is a backup plan.

By the way, nice blog.

If the Cardinals’ offer was not good enough why hasn’t Fuentes signed with the Angels? Who are they bidding against? If the Angels offer is that much better why hasn’t he signed? Who is in the bidding war. I thought it was the Angels and the Cardinals and no one else. Are the Angels really not interested, if they want him and need him the same line of bs could be said about the Angels. What have the Cardinals done wrong?

As a fan of both teams, with a nod to Illinois, who collected much of my tuition money, I hope that the series can reach a more competitive state in the coming years. I have been to 15 of the last 17 games and watched the other 2 on television, and the series has just gotten down right dull the past 7 years. I would rather the game be played tightly and a close Illinois victory than these blow outs the past few years. I hope that Mike Anderson can get the team to forget about the game last night and continue to build on what they’ve accomplished this year so far. Coach Anderson is a quality person and does have good coaching skills, plus the team is immensely likable and watchable, I am rooting for the Tigers and for Coach Anderson to bring more recruits and success to the team and make MU a consistent competitor in the Big 12 again. As good as it is to have the football team doing well, the heritage is the Basketball team and that seems to have been forgotten here of late. One thing that Weber has done every year before the Braggin Rights game is to show clips to the current squad from past teams and past games vs Mizzou as well as clips from former players giving their recollections on the game itself. It has really given the players a sense of ownership and pride in their role and responsibility in the series. I think Coach Anderson should do the same thing with his guys in future games, too. There is alot of great footage out there with Norm and several past players that could give great testimonials about classic games vs Illinois. Go Illini and Go Mizzou!

“Cruise hopes to pep his career and warm up his image by doing a film RELEASED ON CHRISTMAS DAY that features a bunch of guys in Nazi uniforms? OK. He must be getting PR advice from Plaxico Burress.”

That’s a gem right there.

Bernie,
Not trying to be a jerk, but you yourself have stated you would wait and grade the Cardinals once their roster is set during spring training. I, myself, believe that would be the fair thing to do. The market is essentially “frozen” and I know that you know that.
Mo’s apporach I think will turn out to be the right one. If not, I’ll speak out…but not now.

I didn’t think that Mizzou’s shot selection in the Braggin’ Rights game was all that bad…I just think that they shot poorly.

Besides that they blew some easy buckets under the basket.

In comparison I thought they shot the ball real well from the perimeter against Stetson, albeit a lesser opponent.

On the other hand, Illinois shot the ball lights out and when a team does that against you the only recourse you have is to match them which of course the Tigers couldn’t do.

But as far as the press defense, I’m afraid of what the rest of the Big 12 is going to do to it.

Bernie Said: APOLOGIZE TO BRUCE WEBER: After a transition period, he’s got Illinois headed in the right direction, and Illini fans have to be thrilled by the number of outstanding and heralded recruits that are on the way. Weber and staff have established a terrific recruiting pipeline, so the Illinois fans who turned on Weber because of his allegedly weak recruiting should step up and admit they were wrong. As I am doing right now. Coach: I didn’t think you could recruit like this. I was wrong. My apologies.

But still an average coach. Like Mr. Pinkel and Brad Smith he took the juice out of Juice Williams by designing a game plan around a pocket quaterback which Juice isn’t.

Merry Charistmas Bernie and all the other Cards fans. I don’t know if I would go so far as to call the Cards cheap but there certainly is some validity to that. I wil still give them some slack for a while longer particularlly while there are still a lot of unsigned FA’S. The one thing that bothers me is, the front office is already predicting a down turn in attendance, and they are using the economy as the reason. That will be part of it but I guarantee them if they go out on the limb and really show some aggressive signings, the fans will come regardlis of the economy. People spend money on sporting events even when they don’t spend it on milk. Give us a real powerful team and we will be there.

We are Americans and the actors in the movie should be speaking good English. I certainly wouldn’t want the characters speaking German with English subtitles–as is too often the case with other languages.

Ilinois has won twice as many bragging rights games as Missouri. Of the losses, Anderson has three. Was Stewart’s losses more acceptabe than Anderson’s? There is an element in this town that is just waiting (hoping) for Anderson to fail.

As for the Cardinals I think it is really premature to judge them on what they are doing or not doing on Dec 24.

Interesting, you replied to my Cardinal comment, but not my Mizzou comment.

It can be frustrating, but I really can’t find agreement on the Cardinals being cheap. They are generally around the 10th highest payroll, and they have signed some pretty good contracts. The bigger mistakes they have made are spending on some bad contracts, from Tino, to Mulder, to Juan Enc and Izzy. As much as I would like to see them make a big splash, what player do I wish they would have signed? Certainly not C.C., his contract may turn out to be the biggest albatross ever executed; he is prime long-term bust material; I recall how he started last season. The offer to Fuentes is plenty, anymore makes it a bad deal. Could we afford the chance on A J Burnett’s health. Is Renteria or Furcal worth those dollars? The last thing I want to see is bad free agent contracts hampering their efforts to lock in Albert for his career.

Bernie,

I appreciate your apology to Bruce Weber. Most sports columnists don’t know the meaning of the word “apology.” His recruiting approach was not working, so he changed it. Whatever he (and Jerrance Howard) are doing, it’s working like a charm now.

There is a small but vociferous minority of Weber-bashers on the Illinois basketball message boards that will never demonstrate the integrity you showed in your blog today.

That’s fine to be critical of the Cardinals. However, I’m confused that you rate Fuentes as a middling closer with your statistics, but then get mad when the Cardinals refuse to pay him close to elite money. There’s a difference between cheap and focusing on value. When you can come up with a better argument that the Cardinals are missing out on opportunities to truly better the team, then I have to side with Mozeliak’s patience.

Yeah, Hollywood needs to understand the difference between an actor and a movie star. Cruise is a movie star. Just from the trailor I can tell that the role of a 1940’s German officer requires an actor. Too bad to, b/c there’s a great historical story to tell.

Agree w/ the Cards too, I liked the Greene move, but I’d be stunned if we get Fuentes. If management doesn’t step up and make a few moves to get this team over the top, it’ll be hard to justify paying the money (economy) and hassle (HWY 40) to watch this team.

Speaking of PR blunders. The Cardinals make their “powder dry” statement, and the day before Christmas I get my season-ticket renewal notice, which by the way is due February 3. That has to be one of the earlier dates it’s ever been due.

Hey Bernie,
I like this new approach! If you don’t mind, I may try a similar approach to my blog and podcast…Redbirds of a Feather. I agree on all your points and as an Illini fan, Weber is doing a tremendous job for Illinois. I see them going far in the NCAA; particularly if Legion plays to his potential and the other guys keep doing what they’re doing.

Right on with regards to Kevin Costner. He is always himself. “Dancing With Wolves” was the same guy as “Field of Dreams” the same as…He rates right up ther with Bill Paxton from the tornado movie (Twister?). I think Paxton was playing Costner in that movie.

As far as the Cardinals being cheap…Thanks for putting that in print. There are quite a few FO apologist that need to read what you wrote.

The current ownership group bought this team for a song. They sold off the parking garages and made back most of their investment. The have very little of their money invested. They can certainly afford to put a good team on the field.

Last season they were unexpectantly in the thick of the pennant race. A trade for some bullpen help could have put the Redbirds in the playoffs. It was cheap not to do anything at that time.

They have had the opportunities to fill the needs this off season and haven’t done much. The pattern of cheapness is now clear to any reasonable thinking person.

I have always wondered about Mike Anderson but thought I would give him a try…my patience is running out. This team was not prepared at all for the Illini.

I just saw Valkyrie. The movie was great and Cruise (who I usually don’t like) was very good in it. Great blog.

Mizzou’s shot selection was the key. When they worked the ball around, under, over and through, they were able to get a decent shot. Unfortunately, they only did this a couple of times. Many coaches control bad shots with bench time. Norm did it, but since him, Quinn and Mike both are reluctant to use this tool. If a player continually takes bad shots, why is he still playing? If a player is continually out of control, why is he still playing? Leo Lyons was a terrible player his first year. He is much better now. Anderson can do it. He needs to work his magic with the others.

Bernie, a couple of points. First, speaking in an American accent is required if the actors do not speak the foreign language. If this were not the case, they would only hire multi-lingual (of which there are few)or foreign actors … not those that put people in the seats. The alternatives is to speak English with a fake German accent (yawn!). It’s the same as musicals when the actors SING THE DIALOG. You see, we REALLY know they don’t do that in REAL LIFE.

The Cardinals are cheap … and except for Busch, they’ve always been cheap. Breadon was the cheapest which led Banch Rickey to create the farm system. If baseball doesn’t have the gonads to have A salary cap, then why the heck don’t we just put all of our salary into GREAT SCOUTS AND COACHES, signing as many good ballpayers out of college, highschool, sandlots, etc. and developing the prototypical CARDINAL PLAYER (Medwick, Slaughter, Musial, Boyer, etc.) That’s how the Cards put together NINE (9)WORLD SERIES in TWENTY (20)YEARS!!!!

1. Did Coach Anderson not see the Illinois and Clemson game? I understand the Tiger’s game is full-court press, but Illinois shredded Clemson’s first half press and had a sizeable lead. When Clemson pulled out of it, and packed it in, Illinois’s high FG % went south fast. When should coach’s ditch their strategy and stick to it?

2. Most Illinois fans are also Cub’s fans, so don’t hold your breath for an apology. They turned quickly on Zook and his boys this year, granted they merited some of the heat. From the corn fields in Central Illinois, I have learned there is a great divide in the way we support our teams in Chicago and St. Louis. And is it Weber landing the guys, or World Wide Wes? Just wondering.

3. How long will we get the discount on Pujols?

4. Tom Cruise played his best role–himself–in Tropic Thunder.

5. Some player are better in other environments.

Take care from the fertile soils.

It is the same story wirh the Missouri basketball game. In the early part of the season they play about 8-10 games at home against very weak teams, a lot of which are not in Division 1. Thus, Mizzou will have a vey impressive win/loss record and some think the team is very good. But then when it plays Illinois and the Big 12 schedule, we find the team at best is average.
To toughen the team, Mizzou should have a harder nonconference schedule and play on the road.

Bernie, how long is the fan base of the Cardinals going to put up with their cheap-ass antic? Waitng for a deal like Lohse to come along and for Carp to get well is getting old.

Bernie…dead on! Mo & the gang are cheap and continue to not live up to their end of the bargain for the 3.4 million who continue to come…I am not sure why some are so optimistic that the Cards will do the right thing and improve the team. Did they do it last season when we were in first place and needed some relief? No, they chose to continue the season on the cheap trying to get more for less…Result. Fourth place finish after leading most of the first half of the season. Same result this year. Life-long fan who has run out of patience with this group.

The Cards are cheap. No pun intended, but you could call them “dirt cheap”.

We need another starting pitcher and a bridge or fill in stopper until the kids get some more experience and are ready next year. The Brew Crew is weaker and the Astros and cutting back with the Reds being the Reds. The Pirates, pleez.

Maybe Fuentes is not the answer, he seems to be playing the Cards to get more $$$ and years from the Halos. What may be really humorous is if they don’t want him! Free agency is a double edged sword. Pull the offer!

Keep up the good work Bernie and maybe the Cards will wake up before the powder gets wet!!!

Bernie Said: APOLOGIZE TO BRUCE WEBER: After a transition period, he’s got Illinois headed in the right direction, and Illini fans have to be thrilled by the number of outstanding and heralded recruits that are on the way. Weber and staff have established a terrific recruiting pipeline, so the Illinois fans who turned on Weber because of his allegedly weak recruiting should step up and admit they were wrong. As I am doing right now. Coach: I didn’t think you could recruit like this. I was wrong. My apologies.

But still an average coach. Like Mr. Pinkel and Brad Smith he took the juice out of Juice Williams by designing a game plan around a pocket quaterback which Juice isn’t.
— psjamiller1990@att.net

???? Ummm… Bruce Weber is the coach of the Illinois Basketball team… The coach of the Football team is Ron Zook…