Let’s Celebrate a Cardinals Championship and Other Bullets

It’s Friday the 13th, and the Cubs are headed to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals, who are having their home opener, which will feature a bunch of World Series-related festivities. That sounds swell.

  • Of the Cardinals getting their rings today in front of the Cubs, I’m not entirely sure Dale Sveum gets the issue. “I don’t know if it’s tough to watch, you give anybody respect when they win the World Series,” Sveum said. “It’s gotta be one team every year that wins it, that gets their rings and raise a banner like that. [The Cardinals are] the best in the world right, they’re the world champions of baseball. You’re gonna have to be out there and you’re gonna have to watch it. But, hey, you want other people to be watching you do it someday as well. It’s a fun day, there’s no question about it, I’ve been able to do it twice and it’s very, very fun.” Well bully for you, Dale. I think I’m going to go ahead and hate it, thankyouverymuch.
  • Matt Garza was understandably upset at himself for throwing away – literally – his chance at a complete game shutout yesterday when he couldn’t make a throw to first base with two outs in the 9th. At 119 pitches at the time, Sveum did the only reasonable thing, and pulled Garza. I wasn’t crazy about Garza coming out for the 9th inning in the first place (he was already over 100 pitches, it was an eight run game, and it’s early April), but I can understand why Sveum would allow Garza back out there. As we often have to remind ourselves: these are people. And I’m sure Garza was dying to get back out there.
  • Garza explained the throw that got away, and his thoughts on getting pulled thereafter: “I got [the ball], saw [first baseman Bryan] LaHair and said ‘son of a gun.’ The ball felt like I threw a change-up rolled up in dirt, dang it. I’m fine throwing it to the bases, but like I said, it just slipped out. All spring I was just dotting [the first baseman] in the chest. Today, just, [dang] it. It is what it is, I can’t be [ticked] off at skip, 120 pitches in, there’s no reason to be throwing 130 or 140. Like I said when [Jeff] Samardzija got his shot, you get your one shot and that’s it. I’m [ticked] off at myself, but man, we played one hell of a game. We got a lead, smelled blood and went out and got it.”
  • Phil Rogers says he walked in on Matt Garza exploding, privately, after the throwing error. Garza quieted, and then later apologized (even though he was just trying to blow up on his own and not in front of anyone else).
  • Dave Sappelt is working his way to the big club by succeeding in Iowa. “I thought when I first came over to the organization that I’d be an immediate impact guy with the big-league club — an outfielder off the bench,” Sappelt said. “It didn’t happen that way. I struggled hitting …. I’m finding my swing again. Everything’s starting to click.” Sappelt is currently hitting .207/.233/.379.
  • Speaking of those World Series festivities, Cubs’ coach Dave McKay will be participating with the Cards, since he was a long-time coach there, including last year. “Most people say, ‘Oh, it’s just another game,’ but it isn’t,” McKay said. “It’s the Cardinals and the Cubs and I’m with the Cubs now. I’m looking forward to it. I hope we put on a good show. I gave them everything I had for 16 years but that’s baseball. Now I’m with the Cubs, and I’m going to give them everything I got.”
  • MLBullets over at BCB, featuring Johnny Damon signing for chump change.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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