the cruelest month

this dispatch from a friend who attended saturday's 10-4 loss to phila:

I saw the redbirds this weekend and they looked awful. The town is in a panic, just like last year at this time. But I think this year is different: their play is lazy and uninspired, Edmunds has clearly lost a step, they're old, their rotation, while deep, is full of pitchers who overachieved last year, and their bullpen simply sucks. I'm convinced Mulder has blown-out his arm. I did hear on sports open-line that LaRussa's teams are notorious for slow starts (they were 24-22 at one point last year), but this slow start may turn into a slow middle and a slow end. The loss of Calero and Kline cannot be overstated. And by the way, the signing of Larry Walker may be one of the dumbest things Jocketty has ever done. If Walker wasn't on the team, maybe Renteria or (more importantly) Matheny would be.

my response as follows:

all your points may be right . . . . but they looked pretty wretched in april last year too. opened 1-3 at home against milwaukee (!), gave up 30 runs in 4 games. a week later the astros came to town and swept three straight, outscored the birds 26-9.

i also recall a year (maybe 2002) when st louis opened the season in colorado. i didn't go to any of the games because i hate coors field baseball, but the cards got clobbered in all three. let me go look it up (i love the web . . . )

here it is: in 2001, fresh off winning the division by 10 games, the cards opened in denver and lost three in a row by a combined score of 32-11. that year's team was .500 as late as july 29, and they were 8.5 games behind the cubs; they went 42-19 down the stretch and tied houston for the division, while the cubs went 28-32 and finished third.

long season.