RANT, ONE LONG EXTENDED RANT

Cardinals can't hit, so who's their hitting coach?

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a funk.  A team with a former batting champ and the greatest hitter of his generation can't produce runs.  They've been relying on excellent pitching, but there's only so long that Jaime Garcia and Brad Penny will be able to post ERA's under 2.00.  For now they've been lucky.  But it's early May and there's a long season ahead.  A long freakin season.

So why are the defending central division champs struggling to score runs despite returning seven starters from last year's team?  Is it the new 3rd baseman?  Well, David Freese is hovering above .300, and that's significantly better than one-armed Mark DeRosa.  Could a second year player be struggling while coming to terms with more playing time, perhaps Colby Rasmus?  He's got 7 homeruns already.  What else has changed?  

No one in the press seems to be acknowledging it, but perhaps new hitting coach Mark McGwire is the problem.  In fact, let's not even pretend like there's any other possibility.  Albert Pujols has struck out more times per AB than any other time in his career.  Brendan Ryan and Skip Schumaker, two hitters most in need of coaching, couldn't hit Kristie Alley with a 6 foot Twinkie.  And Yadier Molina is following up an All-Star season by doing his best impersonation of his brother Jose.

Everyone knew that McGwire would bring questions about his past with him.  However, the distractions created by media attention have largely subsided.  Perhaps McGwire's history is causing a crisis of leadership confidence in the clubhouse.  Tony LaRussa is one of the greatest managers in baseball history, and the greatest manager in Cardinals history (yep it's right there, take it for what it's worth).  But he clearly brought his old friend in to help revitalize McGwire's tarnished reputation.  McGwire was not a great hitter in the big leagues.  He was a bomber, and his approach helped him, with some help, to sock over 500 dingers.  But not every hitter in the Cardinals lineup needs to be focusing on power.  A hitting coach needs to be able to get the best out of every player, regardless of whether their strength is in power or contact. 

But Let's Not Just Bash McGwire Totally...

Just because a guy may not be a suitable hitting coach doesn't mean the whole city of St. Louis should shit on him.  The fairweather politicians who decided to remove Mark McGwire's name from a section of Interstate 70 should be looking in the mirror.  Changing the name from "Mark McGwire Highway" to "Mark Twain Highway" seems a tad rash.  Are they saving money by only buying half of a sign?  Twain deserves recognition, but a section of highway is probably a little trite considering his contributions to the American literary canon.

There may be doubts about the honesty of Mark McGwire's work during his playing days.  But there's no way to take away the memories he gave Cardinals fans.  The details of that era of Major League Baseball will never be fully understood.  And there's no doubt some shenanigans were taking place.  But the games counted.  They're in the books.  And McGwire played the game as well as anyone else in that era.  Besides, what right do politicians have to reprimand someone for lying and cheating?

Speaking of People on Their High Horses...

Where are the national columnists who spent the last decade raking in cash by denouncing baseball's PED offenders?  Did they cash out and retire to the Bahamas.  Because no one seems to have a problem with an NFL player getting an award despite testing positive for a masking agent.  In fact the Associated Press felt it was necessary to remove the award, then revote with the offenders name still on the ballot, then give the award back to him.  

The NFL has had three former Rookie of the Years: Shawn Merriman, Julius Peppers, and now Brian Cushing, test positive for steroids in the last decade.  No one is taking away their highways.  No one is calling them before Congress.  No one is writing books on the intimate details of their injection routines.  No one is crying about the children.  And I ask you, what about the children?  Do they only care about baseball.  Or were the children metaphorical representations created by collective sports writer nostalgia?