Welcome again 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, snark, facts, notes, opinions, random weirdness, praise, cheap shots, assorted Bernie Bytes and stuff that’s on my mind as I have my first cuppa 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, May 20
Where do I start?
— Let’s begin with the Cardinals winning again, outlasting the Pirates 9-6 in 10 innings in Tuesday’s game played before an announced crowd of only 22,958 at Busch Stadium. With the victory, the rollicking Cardinals improved to 28-19 on the campaign and moved ahead of the Cubs and into second place behind Milwaukee in the NL Central … the Cards are 14-6 since getting swept by the Mariners and have MLB’s fifth-best record since April 27, and rank No. 8 overall in winning percentage through their first 47 games … After hitting only 10 homers in their first 15 games in May, the Cards bombed the Pirates four times last night. The good times continue.
— Two big saves in this one: (1) Ivan Herrera’s game-winning, three-run, walkoff homer and (2) thankfully the Tarps Off boys from Stephen F. Austin University were in the joint again to enliven the atmosphere at the Busch Stadium museum with energy, noise and a baseball Coachella vibe.
— Tip of the cap to all of ‘em. Manager Oli Marmol and the players are thankful for the SFA gang coming to town to supercharge the ballpark and give the team a large dose of the enthusiastic and passionate support it deserves. The Cardinals went 3-1 with their new spirit animals in town; before that they were 10-11 at home.
— My hope is that local-based Cardinals fans will follow the Tarps Up lead and get Busch rocking again. This is an ideal time for a younger generation of Cardinal fans to step up and make this their team. And that would be a fantastic fit for the youngest team in the majors.
— Matthew Liberatore: again? Why does Libby pitch like John Tudor for the first four innings of a start, only to turn into Mike Maroth at the start of the fifth inning? In his 10 starts this season Libby the lefty has a 3.20 ERA in the first four innings and a 9.49 ERA in the fifth-sixth innings. That includes a fifth-inning ERA of 11.42. I like dropping vague references into columns, so in case you’re wondering about Mike Maroth, the lefty had a 10.66 ERA in 14 games (seven starts) for the 2007 Cardinals.
— Alec Burleson: underrated. He plays much better defense than he’s given credit for. And we know he’s a smooth hitter. Burly also leads the Cardinals in dirt this season … as in dirt all over his uniform after diving to make plays for ground balls, errant throws, or when he’s charging around the bases and sliding chest-first into a bag or home plate. Among MLB first basemen that have at least 150 plate appearances this season, Burleson ranks 3rd in batting average (.285), 7th in slugging (.464) and has a wRC+ that makes him 27 percent above league average defensively. Based on wRC+, Burleson is having a better season offensively than Freddie Freeman, Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Pete Alonso.
— Morning Sickness: It pays off to marry well. There’s yet another prestigious championship for Stan Kroenke with his Arsenal club winning the English Premier League for the first time since 2004. In Kroenke’s last five years, his franchises have won the Super Bowl (Rams), NBA Finals (Denver), Stanley Cup (Colorado), and a Premier League championship. His Colorado MLS team won the league championship in 2010. Kroenke also owns SoFi Stadium, which has hosted the Super Bowl, and a college football National Championship Game – and soon will host World Cup soccer matches and be a big part of the 2028 Olympics.
— Landman: Kroenke recently became the largest private landowner in the U.S. with a total of 2.7 million acres.
— Congratulations to Stan’s wife, Anne Walton Kroenke, for making it all possible for Stan to win so many prizes. She agreed to marry Stan and bring him into the Walton Family Dynasty. With Stan’s pulsating charisma, can you blame her?
— And finally, sincere congrats to Kevin Demoff who is arguably the world’s most highly compensated man servant.
— Is Cleveland’s James Harden the worst defensive player we’ve ever seen in the NBA? Well, right now he is. As the New York Knicks frantically erased a 22-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to beat the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the comeback plan was simple. “There is no secret: we were attacking Harden,” NY coach Mike Brown said.
— Harden was specifically targeted eight times in isolation in the fourth quarter. According to media reports, that has only occurred 30 times in NBA tracking data that began in 2013. In those scenarios Tuesday, Harden gave up more points per possession than any player ever has.
— The comeback was engineered by the fabulous New York guard Jalen Brunson, who repeatedly destroyed Harden on 1-on-1 matchups. Scoring on several consecutive possessions on the dribble to toast the slow-moving Harden, Brunson scored 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the fourth quarter. I ain’t no Pat Riley, but maybe Cleveland should rotate some defensive help to protect old man Harden? By the way, Harden had six turnovers and five made field goals in Game 1. That’s already happened six times in the 2026 playoffs. He was absolutely brutal. Give Harden this much: he displays admirable “social distancing” when playing D.
— I’m not saying Harden is horrendous defensively, but … matadors carefully study his game tape to learn how to get out of the way faster, and his signature defensive move is pointing at the guy who just scored.
— A film that I can’t wait to watch as soon as it is available on streaming: “Blue Heron,” the autobiographical piece crafted by writer-director Sophy Romvari’s childhood. Gee, aren’t I Mr. Fancy Pants? Are they still making Star Wars movies? Next up for me: Marty Supreme.
— Question: does Taylor Sheridan sleep?
— Recommended YouTube binge: the fellas from the “Eat Local” channel recently went on a road trip (from their Chicago base) to sample some foodie delights in St. Louis. The stops included Pappy’s Smokehouse for dry-rubbed ribs, Gioia’s Deli for the famous hot salami sandwich, Carl’s Drive In for burgers, Craft BBQ for Pork Steaks, Blues City Deli for the Muffuleta sandwich, Anthonino’s Taverna for the plump toasted rav, and Havana’s Cuisine for the giant (and highly recommended) Cuban sandwich.
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 STLSportsCentral, 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.