Hello, and welcome to my new feature here at STL Sports Central: Breakfast with Bernie, which I’ll write in the morning on most weekdays. And if I’m a little late it’ll be “Brunch with Bernie.” On most days, I’ll lead off with a Cards recap. There will be plenty of baseball info served here, with emphasis on the Cardinals. Time permitting, I’ll try to throw in some non-sports stuff, and some weird stuff, culled from random headlines.
Winning is more fun than losing, especially if you are a St. Louis Cardinals team that has repeatedly been beaten upside the head by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yes, winning is generally preferred over losing, though you wouldn't always know it by watching the Cardinals fall down and crack when the Brewers show up in the ballpark.
After losing seven consecutive games to the awesome team from America’s Dairyland, the Cardinals made a few mental and emotional repairs, got the mojo going, and flew to a 5-1 win over the Crew on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.
After getting slapped around by Milwaukee for far too long, the prideful Redbirds may have remembered the words of iconic Green Bay Packers Vince Lombardi.
Actually, I don’t think the Cardinals thought about Lombardi at all, because he was a football coach who passed away in 1970. But please give the boy a break here. I’m just trying to be clever. And I also have an authentic Vince Lombardi autograph on my office desk here in The Lair – honestly I do – and just seeing the great coach’s signature is good for a motivational lift.
“Winning isn't everything,” Lombardi told the famous author, James Michener. “The will to win is the only thing.”
I believe the Cardinals are always determined to win. They are honorable competitors that way. But trying really hard to win doesn’t work if you can’t pitch effectively, or hit with authority. I mean, I’m an example of this. I truly want to write good columns, but I have a problem with swinging and missing. I whiff too often. Yes, a lot of strikeouts. And as a faithful reader you already know this. Perhaps I should be sent down to Memphis, just like Nolan Gorman.
In their 48th home game of the season, the Cardinals had their usual ambition to win. But this time they got the pitching they needed from starter Michael McGreevy. Their combustible bullpen did not blow up. Their hitters did something truly amazing by putting five runs on the Busch Stadium scoreboard.
The Birds were fortunate to face Milwaukee starter Kyle Harrison,who toiled through four hittable innings with a sore left elbow. Frankly, this was a bigger concern to the Brewers than anything the Cardinals did to them in a rare win over their NL Central overlords.
“It’s obvious he’s fatigued, and we’ve got to help him on that,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Harrsison. “We could have left him in there, but we’re thinking about his future.”
Recently recovered thoughts from the old brain of a young at heart sportswriter…
1. Michael McGreevy gave the Cardinals a strong – and needed – performance in Wednesday’s win, turning in his 12th quality start of the season. For context consider this: McGreevy is tied for fourth in the majors for most quality starts; the only guys with more (specifically 13) are Sandy Alcantara (Marlins), Christopher Sanchez (Phillies) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers). After allowing one earned run in 6 and ⅓ innings vs. the Brewers, McGreevy lowered his season ERA to 3.01 which ranks 10th best among NL starters. By the way, McGreevy’s 12 quality starts match the QS total produced by the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski. Minus the massive strikeout total, of course. But McGreevy did strike out 25% of the Brewers he faced in his latest winning start.
2. Manager Oli Marmol’s decision to give McGreevy an extra day (6) between starts worked as anticipated. In his three starts this season made after six days off, McGreevy has been nipped for three earned runs in 18 and ⅓ innings for a 1.47 ERA. During his career, McGreevy has made six starts on six days of rest and has a 1.82 ERA in 49 and ⅓ innings. If we throw in his two career relief appearances on 6+ days off, McGreevy has a 1.55 ERA.
3. McGreevy neutralized the Brewers with a sharp, seven-pitch mix. His cutter, sinker sweeper and curve had Milwaukee batters chasing those pitches out of the strike zone at rates between 37.5 percent to 50%. According to TJStats, McGreevy’s highest-graded pitch was the sweeper.
4. It was terrific to see rookie prospect Luis Gasteleum make his big-league debut Wednesday. He threw only eight pitches to get two outs to end the 7th inning. His best pitch (according to TJStats) was his four-seam fastball. But Gasteleum got his two outs on his signature pitch, the changeup. One was a sac fly to score an inherited runner – but no big deal. Nice work.
5. The Cardinals scored five runs, which is a notable accomplishment. Why? Before this one, the Cards hadn’t scored five runs at home since more than a month ago, June 7 .... scoring no more than four runs in 12 straight games at Busch Stadium until last night.
6. Here’s why that matters: when playing at Busch Stadium this season the Cardinals are 6-0 when they score exactly 5 runs – and have won 15 of 17 when scoring five or more runs.
7. And sheesh ... when the Cardinals score four runs or fewer in a home game this season, their record is 9-22. So yeah, it really matters when the Cards generate five-plus runs in a Busch game. To put it another way: the Redbirds have an .882 winning percentage at Busch Stadium this season when scoring 5+ runs, and a .290 home winning percentage failing to score 5 runs.
8. Walker and Burleson: That sounds like a law firm, eh? Well, the fellas were at it again Wednesday, wrecking the Brewers with their combined four hits, four RBIs, and three runs scored. As a team the Cards had only seven hits in the game, so Walker and Burleson provided the big-impact blows. In the first inning Walker had an RBI double and scored on a Burleson double. They tag-teamed it again in the sixth, when Burly crushed a long-distance 443-foot, two-run homer that scored Walker. Walker’s early RBI double gave the Cardinals a win expectancy of 66 percent. Burleson’s RBI double raised the win expectancy to 73 percent. And Burly’s two-run bomb increased the Cards win expectancy to 97 percent.
9. It’s pretty cool to look at the National League leaderboard and see Walker leading the circuit with 70 RBIs, and Burleson ranked fourth with 66 ribbies. Walker’s 70 runs batted in are the most in the majors going into Thursday’s action.
10. Impact: Burleson and Walker have combined to drive in 33.4 percent of the Cardinals’ 416 runs this season. They’ve teamed up to hit 34.6% of the Redbirds’ homers, 31.4% of the doubles, and scored 25.2% of the total runs.
11. Jose Fermin shouldn’t be overlooked. His solo home run in the fourth stretched the Cards lead to 3-0. It was Fermin’s fourth homer of the season, and he’s knocked in 18 runs in his 148 at-bats. He draws walks. He doesn’t strike out much. His defense is below average at third base and left field, but he makes up for that with his offense, versatility and positive clubhouse personality.
12. For the season Fermin has a .270 average with a .731 OPS. That Fermin OPS is higher than that of Kyle Tucker and Fernando Tatis Jr. In 23 games and 76 plate appearances since June 6, Fermin has a .319 average, .458 slugging percentage and .805 OPS. Among Cardinals with at least 50 plate appearances over that time, Fermin’s .805 OPS ranks third on the team behind Walker and Burleson.
13. Here’s a stat I didn’t expect to see on July 9: Jose Fermin has played in more than twice as many games (57) for the Cardinals than Brendan Donovan has played (25) for the Mariners. Donovan hasn’t appeared in a Seattle game since May 15, his left-groin strain was more serious than initially anticipated. Seattle gave up a lot in the trade to secure Donovan for at least two seasons, so hopefully Donovan will make a strong comeback and help lead Seattle to the playoffs. He becomes eligible for free agency after the 2027 campaign.
14. Donovan has spent significant time rehabbing at Seattle’s spring-training site in Arizona. He is said to be nearing a rehab assignment that will move him closer to returning to the Mariners’ lineup. The team is being cautious, giving Donny extra time to ensure he’s fully healthy and comfortable to prevent another recurrence of the injury. “When BD is ready to go, he will be ready to go,” Seattle GM Justin Hollander told reporters.
15. Can the Cardinals make the best of a series they've already lost by upending the Brewers on Thursday night at Busch? A 2-3 record in the five-game set against Milwaukee looks and sounds a heck of a lot better than 1 and 4. And given that the Brewers are clearly the superior team, if the Cardinals finish 2-3 in this series, it's no cause for shame or ridicule. Milwaukee is supposed to win a series like this. The Brewers have more pitching and hitting and speed and ... more of everything.
Five items from the buffet …
1. It’s no offense to them personally, but my headwires are fraying from being exposed to the never-ending social media obsession with two of the most prominent women in America – Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clarke. The hatred is horrendous, and I don’t know why the people who spew it don’t realize that it makes them look small, petty, and completely empty in their own lives.
2. Is Christian Pulisic one of the most underrated U.S. athletes of modern times? Absolutely. I wish that wasn’t the case. And I am sorry – and surprised – to learn that Pulisic fractured his left leg in the USA’s humiliating loss to Belgium in the World Cup.
3. But Pulisic doesn’t do himself any favors. One of the greatest U.S. players, Landon Donovan, used his podcast to hit Pulisic and his “team” with a blast of withering criticism. Pulisic’s aloof manner is alienating.
“One of the biggest problems — I speak to people who are at U.S. Soccer. I speak to his sponsors. I speak to his teammates. I speak to the staff and the coaches. People are fed up with the way things are handled around him,” Donovan said. “And it’s not necessarily him, but it’s his agents, his family, his hangers-on, the people who are influencing. People are fed up with it. They treat people poorly. They do things poorly.
“It’s always a ‘no’ whenever you wanna ask, ‘Can we do an interview?’ It’s always a, ‘No, you can’t get near him.’ He doesn’t say ‘hi’ to the commentators who do all the games all the time when they walk by. All the other guys come over and shake hands and say, ‘Hello.’
“There’s just this sense about him that you can’t get near him. And I actually don’t think it’s from him. I think it’s from the people around him. They need to stop, and he needs to man-up and have a conversation with them and say, ‘Look guys, this is not helping me.’ ’’
4. Rolling Stone came out with “50 Songs For 50 States.” OK, what about Missouri? The choice was Nelly’s “Country Grammar” with an honorable mention to Wilco’s “Heavy Metal Drummer,” which has a reference to Laclede’s Landing.
Rolling Stone explained the selections:
“Nelly came out of St. Louis leading a local crew of high school buddies called the St. Lunatics, and broke out with his smash hit Country Grammar. His sound was influenced by Southern rap like OutKast, but he gave it his own welcoming, laid-back Midwestern feel and playful flavor, rolling down your street in his Range Rover and going multiplatinum with his 2000 debut, Country Grammar.”
5. Chuck Berry? Hello?
No Chuck Berry?
The late Chuck Berry from Saint Louis, Missouri?
Hello? Want me to link to the Chuck Berry songbook?
Maybe listen to his Greatest Hits?
Chuck Berry?
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, Keith Tkachuk, 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.