You’re supposed to play this game, not mail it in and hurry up and catch a plane. It was a bullpen game, but not that many. We’re both trying to win the game.

– TLR

Come on, you can say it, Tony: It wasn’t a bullpen game but the advent of the 10-man rotation! He played it nearly textbook, pinch-hitting for the starting pitcher before his first plate appearance, then inserting another pitcher in that spot. TLR even took it up another level by pinch-running for the pinch-hitter with a pitcher! The actual pitcher batted only once in the game — and that was Kip Wells, whose GPA of .243 is better than non-pitchers Aaron Miles (.237), Russell Branyan (.222) and Miguel Cairo (.221). In a season of ups and downs, we’re happy to see the team close out the year on a hopeful note. Now if they can only carry over the 10-man rotation til next April…

The ledes all noted that the Cardinals tied a record by using 10 pitchers in the nine-inning game. But including Miles and Spiezio — and Ankiel — the Cardinals used 14 players who’ve pitched at least one major-league inning:

1. Percival
2. Wells
3. Looper
4. Falkenborg
5. Johnson
6. Springer
7. Franklin
8. Flores
9. Jimenez
10. Isringhausen
11. Miles
12. Thompson
13. Spiezio
14. Ankiel

That has to be a record.

As for mailing it in, he Cardinals may not have for the final game of the season, but the Post-Dispatch did so quite literally: Their game recap was wired in by Alan Robinson — of the Associated Press.

I’m just happy it ended the way it did for me. As a backup guy, you’re trying to prove yourself every day.

– Schumaker

With his 5-for-5 finale, Schu launched his BA to .333. If he had had enough plate appearances, he would have been third in the NL batting leaders. When a player doesn’t qualify with at least 3.1 PAs per his team’s games, however, you can add the number of PAs short he was to his total to see what his "qualifying" batting average is. Schumaker had 188 (only eight walks!) on the season and needed 502 to qualify, which was 314 short. That would leave him with a .120 qualifying batting average. Okay, forget that. But Albert Pujols, who had climbed to .330 the day before, still finished the season with a .327, good for sixth in the league. He wore an 0-for-5 collar Sunday, but we appreciate him not sitting on his average.

It was so typical of how we kept bouncing back all year along, no matter what blow we took. He (Schumaker) is the only guy in the clubhouse who doesn’t want to end the season. I think we’re all ready to leave.

— TLR

And so it ends. We’re not sure when the team resigned itself to its fate, but La Russa’s coda probably resounds with a lot of fans, too. As for us, we’re never ready for baseball season to end, especially not for our team.

This entry was posted by Pip on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 1:29 pm and is filed under quotebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.