Category Archives: Baseball

Hump Day Hustle: Cards crush Cats, Warrior Wonderfulness ++

Of course, I’ll get U of L’s hammer down of the Cats on the diamond, and another other sports item that’s caught my attention (and perhaps yours, though perhaps not), but I feel compelled to start with . . .

. . . Steph Curry.

Like most in my neck of the woods, I much prefer college hoops to that at the proverbial “next level.” But after the first Monday in April, I start paying attention to the play for pay guys. Because, you know, it’s the only game goin’.

And, the playoffs, when every possession makes a difference, can be pretty compelling.

But, bored Saturday night — thunderworks, especially pop ones hold little interest here — I checked out the Warriors/ Celtics. Where Mr. Curry and Jayson Tatum were putting on a mano a mano battle. They were throwing in treys from Newberry Street. Some from Paul Revere’s route to Lexington. Continue reading Hump Day Hustle: Cards crush Cats, Warrior Wonderfulness ++

Cards nab Series over Cavaliers

It doesn’t always start with The Stare.

But when it comes, that glare, with enough blow-torch heat to weld batters hands to the bat, making proper swings impossible, it is a pitching spectacle.

Amplified by those bug-eyed sports spectacles, the signature scowl is trouble for foes, and a delight for Cardinal fans.

On Sunday, when the Cards blasted UVa, 8-2, the Stare was there.

Luke Smith was On! Continue reading Cards nab Series over Cavaliers

Walking Off at the Jim

Eagerly anticipating my visit to 3d & Central to watch the Louisville nine Friday night — my first public event since Rudy Gobert embraced former Card Donovan Mitchell last March– I knew there was one iconic sound of baseball that wouldn’t be heard.

That sharp crack that comes when a hard ash bat squarely meets horsehide fashioned with 216 stitches.

You know that exhilarating sound if you ever were in the ballyard watching, say, Dave Parker, during those years when he was a perennial MVP contender as the We Are Family Pirates moved inexorably toward their ’79 Series Crown.

Buuut, in college ball, it’s metal “lumber” with a less than satisfying ping. Sigh.

That however didn’t even raise to level of minor buzz kill, given my thrall of actually attending a game on a hot April night. Continue reading Walking Off at the Jim

Cards, CWS & the Coulda Woulda

Under the Old Normal, may it rest in peace, the first pitch of the College World Series in Omaha would be Saturday.

In a Reasonable Normal, the Louisville Cardinal Nine would be there, co-favorites, with, say, the SEC anschluss of Florida and Ole Miss, who started the abruptly cancelled season with a sizzle, and, oh, Vandy, which has driven the Cards to the Douglas County line a couple of times.

In a Perfect Normal, this would be the year.

Cards Win! Cards Win!

In ’07, Dan McDonnell led U of L to the CWS in his first season coaching at The Jim.

Finally won a game in Omaha in 2017.

Took a couple out of the loser’s bracket last season.

The Cards and McDonnell were poised. On the cusp. It was time.* Continue reading Cards, CWS & the Coulda Woulda

Dads/ Sons/ Baseball: An Essay for My Father

It is for me the most charming aspect of The Jim, where the Louisville Cardinal nine under normal circumstances spends spring evenings, whiling away at America’s pastime.

I’m not referring to the bucolic berm beyond the fence where a caught fly ball is marked 7 on your scorecard, the one where kids play tag and catch and push each other down the slope and sometimes pay attention to the game.

Nor the crossed Louisville Sluggers outside, a sign of our city’s significant contribution to  the the game.

I’m talking about the railroad tracks beyond the fence in right, where the screeching and whistling of commerce on wheels harkens back to that more pastoral time when baseball and traveling from sea to shining sea were new and adventurous.

A great lament for U of L athletics is what might have been for this season’s loaded baseball team? It’s certainly worthy of consideration, yet that’s not really what this is about.

In fact, mea culpa, the lede is a ruse of sorts, a way to hoodwink Glorious Editor of cardchronicle.com that this is within the parameters of the purpose of our fan site. As well as his bosses at the home office. It’s one of the sites where I double post these sports musings along with my vanity sports blog.

What this is really about is how for my generation — We were the war children/ Born 1945 —  baseball was the American imperative. Continue reading Dads/ Sons/ Baseball: An Essay for My Father

Reflections on U of L’s Last Hurrah in CWS

There was, as any sad U of L Cardinal fan understands, a consensus. A healthy consensus, and almost universal belief.

That Luke Smith, who again hurled brilliantly in this 2019 post season — three hits, none after the 3d, ten strikeouts, but one walk, and a single score on 106 pitches — should have been pulled after those eight masterful innings.

Should have been pulled because his competitive bile at the end of that half inning — hurling antagonistic invective toward the Vandy dugout and Julian Infante whom he’d just struck out — could well awaken the beast that is Vanderbilt. Should have been pulled because the Cardinals have not one but two shutdown closers. Michael McAvene with his 5/1 K/BB ratio and 7 saves. Michael Kirian with his 1.68 ERA, 4/1 K/BB ratio and 5 saves.

Or, at the very least, pulled in the 9th after walking JJ Bleday, the nation’s best basher, on five pitches, after getting leadoff Austin Martin to ground out to start the Commodore half.

That consensus however does not include Dan McDonnell, the successful Louisville mentor, who has turned the Cardinals into a national baseball power.

McDonnell, with a look on his face that was kind of difficult to comprehend — it looked like indecision mostly — stayed with his starter. (One of the advantages of good TV coverage, are those close ups in those tense situations.)

I, like most, think it was, at the time, and in retrospect, an egregiously wrong choice. You gotta trust your closers.

But Smith stayed on the mound. Continue reading Reflections on U of L’s Last Hurrah in CWS

Reflections on a U of L Walk Off

Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you.

Prior to Thursday night’s season-saving, Final Four-elevating 4-3 walk off by the Louisville Cardinals, 28 of the 52 victories in 2019 by the heading back to Dudy Noble Field Mississippi State Bulldogs have been of the come from behind variety.

In a little tit for tat, the Cards ended the season of their former assistant coach’s nine By. Coming. From. Behind.

As the number of the trailing, lifeless at the plate Cardinals’ outs was diminishing, the way too glib announcing team of Kyle Peterson, Eduardo Perez and Karl Ravech started hypothesizing about Bulldog/ Commodore pitching matchups for Friday night.

They weren’t the only ones who thought the game had a fait accompli feel to it.

In the top of the 7th, even before Tanner Allen’s “insurance” RBI single gave State a 3-0 lead, I — yeah me, ever the pessimist — texted my pal and declared, “This season is over.”

Silly me. Continue reading Reflections on a U of L Walk Off

Cards Survive Rain & Auburn, 5-3, Advance

A win is a win is a . . . you know . . . win.

Louisville, 41-1 when leading after six, 42-0 when leading after seven, hung on despite itself to eliminate Auburn’s Tigers from the CWS, and live for the proverbial another day.

The Cards will meet the vanquished of Mississippi State/ Vanderbilt Thursday evening.

U of L, with a 4-1 lead, endured a 20:07 rain delay before action resumed in the top of the 5th at 11:00 AM Omaha time Wednesday. In front of a “crowd” at first pitch you could count on fingers and toes, both the Cardinals and Tigers sleep walked through 2 1/2 innings before any energy sparked.

Given how well Adam Elliott was pitching, Dan McDonnell yet again made one of his patented curious post season pitching decisions, bringing in ace reliever Michael McAvene to hurl the top of the 7th. The Cards closer certainly needed to knock off some rust. Following his suspension during the regional, two laughers over East Carolina when he wasn’t needed and a DNP in the CWS opening L to Vandy, he hadn’t taken the mound since June 2.

But Elliott was on, and surely could have gone another inning at least. Continue reading Cards Survive Rain & Auburn, 5-3, Advance

Louisville Rampages Way to Omaha, 12-0

Louisville 12, East Carolina 0.

It is at somewhat incomprehensible moments like this, that the writer’s craft and focus run off and hide.

How to explain in an ebullient but professional way how your favorite school’s baseball team has just drawn and quartered the tenth best squad in the land by scores of 14-1 and 12 zed to be the first to punch a ticket to the College World Series.

What hook to use? Where to start? Does it really matter if you get the essentials and the peripherals onto the page.

So . . .

. . . this morning, while cruising the interweb, before heading out to The Jim, I came across a mention of Peyton Manning. Who, as you might recall, used a barked “Omaha” as a trigger to his teammates that he was changing the call at the line of scrimmage.

So, should the Cards prevail, I thought I might start with that angle, and work from there, maybe talk about how the Cards pulled a Peyton Manning. Which the observant among you will notice I have done.

Then there’s the more obvious storyline, which if I weren’t such a contrarian, I would have put at the beginning of the lede.

Bobby Miller. The righty is U of L’s third starter, but got the nod on Saturday noon. And all he of the 6-1, 4.37 ERA (4-0, 3.12 at home) did was totally throttle the hard hitting Pirates. Continue reading Louisville Rampages Way to Omaha, 12-0