Bird’s the Word in 2009

Real men bumps chests

By Josh Mosley

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

The preceding chuckle was for my Midwest Swing compatriots. Eat it, fools. Eat it like Lou Malnotti’s pizza dipped in Schlitz beer. FACE!!!

But seriously. I’m guilty of making ass hatted predictions. In fact that was the whole point back in the winter when Andy, Danny and I came up with this little idea called Midwest Swing, or the ‘Swing. We would write about our teams with analysis, humorous features and tomfoolery. And when it came time to talk about the NL Central, even I was taken by the firepower and free wheeling free agency of the Chicago Cubs.

I hate them. I hate them like Silky Johnson hates…well hates everybody. I hope bad things happen to them and only them. But they were a damn good team. And I felt they would take the Central with my St. Louis Cardinals possibly making a run for the Wild Card and getting back to the playoffs for the first time since winning it all in ’06. This was my theory. This was what I thought.

Well, luckily, IN MY FACE!

The Cards are a trendy pick to win the pennant by such baseball “experts” as Peter Gammons and his motley crew on Baseball Tonight. So happy I am, right? Pleases me this should?

No. Because if there is one thing that working on a sports desk and covering a beat has taught me is that my prediction doesn’t mean shit. Because it could have gone out the window with a terrible July showing by the Cards. Instead they had a July and August for the ages and now they out did what I thought they would do.

My point is that there is only one person who predicted how this season would go. He’s as ethnically ambiguous as Vin Diesel, has hippy hair and can turn water into wine (coincidentally Danny goes to see this dude every Sunday to ask him if there is any way to make Miller Light into a legit beer. He’s still waiting on that answer). No one saw the Cards coming on like this. And it’s been a pleasant surprise for me and the entire Cardinal Nation.

So as the Birds head to Coors Field this weekend, needing only one win to clinch the Central, I guess I have to say that this was a memorable season no matter what the playoffs bring. Pujols was Pujols obviously. Yadi broke out, John Mozeliak broke out his wallet and negotiating hat and Carp and Wainwright were a nice 1 and 1a combo.

This team is built for an October run. Don’t crap out now.