It is once again time for my view of the top 20 stores across the St. Louis Cardinals Nation during this past year. The countdown begins with story number 20 and will continue until number one.
I will then wrap up the series with another repeat feature, my prediction for the top five Cardinals stories of 2010.
This placeholder post will carry the links to all 20 stories as well as last year’s articles.
The Cardinal Nation Blog’s top 20 stories of 2009
20. Wagner Mateo
19. Minors coaching turnover
18. Shelby Miller
17. John Smoltz
16. Change in centerfield
15. Shortstop shuffle
14. Whitey to the Hall
13. Memphis and Springfield success
12. Duncan’s disc, discord and departure
11. Third base turmoil
10. Kennedy’s final season Skip-ped
9. The return of Big Mac
8. Franklin the finisher
7. Penny for Pineiro
6. The successful odd couple – Mo and TLR
5. The failed finish
4. Holliday’s free agent romp
3. Cy close and closer
2. The repeat MVP
1. The big trades
Reviewing the predictions: TCN Blog’s top five Cardinals stories of 2009
Projected top five St. Louis Cardinals stories of 2010
From January 2009
Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008: #16-20
Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008: #11-15
Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008: #6-10
Top 20 Cardinals Stories of 2008: #1-5
Projected top five St. Louis Cardinals stories of 2009
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OK, now that we finally have the entire list, I am interested in comments. I know there were some questions/concerns early on, but without seeing the entire list, it was difficult to be specific. I still have a couple of articles in the series to go, but this is the 2009 list as I see it.
Comments?
It was an eventful season.
Stories 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 were big.
20 was a big story that fizzled.
A few, its hard to know what year they best fit. 7 and 9 may become 2010 stories.
Certainly the Penny part of 7 alone has potential for 2010 and barring some major unexpected events, Big Mac will definitely rank in the top five of 2010. But even in 2009, Mac’s return announcement and the anticipation and delay over his talk was big news over the final two months of the year. I think Joel Pineiro’s 15 wins is the most unsung achievement of the 2009 season. This is very hypothetical, but had he only won seven like in 2008 and lost the other eight, the 2009 Cardinals would have finished in second place. Maybe linking in Penny was a mistake.
There seems a cohesiveness or inventiveness that is larger than story 6, but its too fuzzy to claim or see clearly. Moving Schumaker; elevating Rasmus; trading for Holliday and then retaining him for big bucks; signing Miller and Mateo; trading prospects; even moving Chris Duncan. Such moves seem decisive or more inventive than normal. It could be argued its the entire organization working better or making bolder moves.
Great list Brian.
The All-Star game should get at least an honorable mention even though its about more than just the Cards. It was great for Cardinal nation generally. That was very likely the last public appearance for the greatest Cardinal Stan the Man.
The offensive fizzle the last few weeks of the regular season is a story on several levels, apart from the post-season fizzle. The Albert power outage/elbow issue a part of it. Coupled with the bullpen fizzle. That’s a lot of fizzles, and the offense and bullpen will be the same in 2010.
bb, great point about the ASG. I may have whiffed on that one. I hope it was not Stan’s last appearance as I don’t think he was given proper due, but I know what you mean.
It’s an impressive list of stories from 2009 and likewise looking back at the projected top 5 stories for 2009 is interesting.