Welcome to a new feature here at STL Sports Central: Breakfast with Bernie, which I’ll write early in the morning on most weekdays. I’ll serve up observations, notes, opinions, random weirdness, praise, cheap shots, assorted Bernie Bytes and stuff that’s on my mind as I have my first cuppa or two of the day. This isn’t a full breakfast. It’s Continental style. And this gives you a chance to snack up before I write a different and fuller column that I’ll post much later in the day.
The Continental: Monday, May 18
— Your St. Louis Cardinals won another series, taking two of three from the Royals at Busch Stadium, giving the Redbirds a 4-0-2 record in their six series played since getting swept by the Mariners on the weekend of April 24-26. This isn’t a rebuild. It’s a renewal.
— The best story of the weekend, of course, was the spontaneous blast of positive ballpark energy from the “Tarps Off” club baseball team from Stephen F. Austin University in east Texas. This colorful, shirtless, chanting, towel-flapping, legion of smiling-happy bros truly reawakened Busch Stadium for more than a day for the first time since the 2022 season. Their presence brought to mind an SEC or Big Ten college football game, or a match pitting Liverpool vs. Manchester United in the English Premier League You know all of the details by now, but manager Oli Marmol and his players were fired up by this raucous pep squad in right field. The environment of their home ballpark – finally! – was alive again.
— Overlooked and underrated: Another fine start Sunday in a losing cause (not his fault) by Andre Pallante. I continue to be astounded that – even locally – the last month-plus of outstanding work by Cardinals’ starting pitchers is barely being recognized, let alone highlighted. Since April 14, which is 30 games ago, the Redbirds rotation ranks fifth in MLB with a 3.36 ERA and is tied for fourth with 14 quality starts. And in their first 15 games of May, the St. Louis starters have sculpted a 2.80 ERA that ranks fourth in MLB and have the second-highest total of quality starts with nine. Keep it up, fellers.
— Stuff I didn’t know: Who the heck was Stephen F. Austin, anyway? Pioneer. Helped establish the colonization of Texas, which is why he’s forever known as the “Father of Texas.” And hey, he had some history in Missouri. According to the Texas State Library, Austin “spent his formative years in Missouri. Raised in the lead-mining frontier of southeastern Missouri, he served in the territorial legislature and helped secure a charter for the Bank of St. Louis before the Panic of 1819 triggered his move south.”
— Update on old friend Brendan Donovan: The popular former Cardinal is back on Seattle’s Injured List after reaggravating a previous injury (strained left groin) in Thursday’s game at Houston. The initial injury sidelined Donovan for 20 days earlier this season, and the latest imaging showed increased inflammation in the affected area. This apparently is a recurring problem for Donovan, who missed 28 days with a left groin strain that took him out of the St. Louis lineup last season. Donovan also missed 62 days with an elbow injury in 2023. When able to play this season the Mariners third baseman has put up great numbers including a .396 on-base percentage, .468 slugging percentage and an OPS+ that makes him 44 percent above league average offensively. His injury history is one of the reasons I was in favor of the Cards trading Donovan was his history of getting banged up and missing time.
— Random recommendations: (1) Trader Joe’s french vanilla ice cream is absolutely fabulous. (2) I’m late to this particular dance – but of course I am – but check out the indie-rock band “Momma” and their style of music known as "Bubblegrunge.” Four stars out of five. (3) The six-part British true-crime drama series “Legends” on Netflix.
— About Ivan Herrera: Can he be equipped with a rocket launcher? Here’s an update from Rob Rains, the dean of St. Louis baseball writers: The Royals swiped a bag on the Cardinals’ catcher in Sunday’s competition, making opponents 10 for 10 in attempted stolen-base thievery against Herrera this season. The payoff stat from Rains: “Herrera has not thrown out a runner trying to steal since Sept. 1, 2024 and has now allowed 32 consecutive stolen bases.”
— I’m jacked to watch the NBA Western Conference finals, which offers a glorious matchup of San Antonio vs. defending champion Oklahoma City. This series should be a banger, featuring the Thunder’s back-to-back league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the 7-4 Spurs Victor Wembanyama. This should be a great one.
— Weird stat, at least to me: though he’s pitching well for the Boston Red Sox (4-1 record, 3.18 ERA) former Cardinal Sonny Gray has a 15 percent strikeout rate this season. Notably, all five Cards starters have a higher punch-out rate than Gray so far this season. And the Cardinals, relatively speaking, do not strike out many hitters.
— Jordan Walker went 0 for 4 as the DH in Sunday’s loss. This was the latest example of the Cards’ struggle to cultivate offense from the designated hitter spot. This season the Redbirds DH delegation has batted .213 with a .310 slugging percentage and .627 OPS and is 18 percent below league average offensively. When used at DH this season Nolan Gorman and Walker are a combined 7 for 43 for a .163 average.
Enjoy your day and thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.