Though he exudes a nice-guy persona, St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright is aggressive and serious about his business when working.
The Georgia native is also confident as to the result of the one-game National League wild card playoff to be held a week from Friday. Though his team has not yet clinched a spot in that game – likely to be held in Atlanta against the Braves – that is part of Wainwright’s point.
Unlike Atlanta, the Cardinals’ 2006 World Series hero isn’t anxious to start popping champagne corks – yet.
The following was tweeted Thursday evening by SportSouth, one of the Braves’ television rightsholders, citing a quote from a Post-Dispatch article by Joe Strauss.
“No disrespect to what they did but I think we’ll save the big pop for when we beat ATL” – STL Adam Wainwright on Braves clinching celebration.
The Braves held a raucous celebration on Tuesday night when they were assured of reaching the post-season (see photo). Though Atlanta hasn’t yet been formally eliminated from the NL East race, the club will most likely secure the first wild card berth. On Tuesday, their caps and shirts indicated the generic descriptor, “Playoffs.”
SportSouth then asked the 19-season star of the Braves, third baseman Chipper Jones, his reaction to Wainwright’s words. Their second tweet follows.
“They’re the defending world champs their guys have been through it before ours haven’t…to each his own” – Chipper on Wainwright’s comment.
The reality is that Jones, set to retire after the post-season, has been there. In fact, the 40-year-old is the last remaining player on the Braves roster from their 1995 World Championship team.
With that age comes the wisdom to avoid giving his opposition bulletin board material.
Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.
If I was Chipper, I would have told Wainy he should worry about clinching a playoff spot first.
My guess is that there may be a difference between what Chipper thought and what he said.
Okay, I fail to see what the big deal is. From the quotes it looks like all Waino said was that they weren’t going to celebrate until they beat Atlanta. The point was the celebration so the part about beating Atlanta is just the necessary assumption in order to get to the celebration in the first place.
Why give your opponet any more incentive to whip you.As if the Braves aren`t motivated enough.Nothing wrong with being confident but whats wrong with quiet confidence?CC`s right……………Cards got to get there first.Nothing is written in stone yet.
What’s wrong with saying you aren’t going to prematurely celebrate? Because that is all he said.
I agree with crdswmn, I think Wainy was saying he thought celebrating before the play-in was premature and he’d wait until they got past that to celebrate. I didn’t take it a predicting a Cards victory.
I also agree with Bw and think Wainy should have been more careful about how he said it so as not to give Strauss and the Braves a molehill to make a mountain out of.
I doubt that mountain erecting out of molehills was contemplated by Waino, but with Strauss there how can it ever not be? The statement he made is perfectly logical and grammatically correct. I don’t get the overreaction.
The question seems to be in the choice of the word “when” versus “if”. Some might argue the latter would be too weak while others might consider the former too presumptuous.
In fairness to the P-D, the quote wasn’t in their headlines. I wasn’t even aware of it until I saw the Atlanta media had asked Chipper about it.
Some people in Atlanta have too much time on their hands.
Strauss didn`t say it.Wainwright did.I know Waino can do no wrong in your eyes and Strauss is always wrong in your view but IMHO Waino said too much.
Oh, the irony.
TLR on Schmalbert contract:
” . . . I don’t think that I would ever endorse a contract beyond six years, tops.”
“It’s one of the dangers in our game when an organization is pushed beyond something — five or six (years) is a big commitment — when you go longer I think it’s scary and dangerous.”
http://tracking.si.com/2012/09/26/albert-pujols-tony-la-russa-contract-angels-mlb/?xid=ob_blogs
Speaking of quotes that have received a lot of attention…
I find it interesting that TLR speaking what the vast majority of people probably thought already is so newsworthy. Long contracts are risky – of course riskier for some clubs than others.
Perhaps his candor is the newsworthy item here. Still, I can’t help but wonder if he would have said the same had Albert taken the Cardinals’ offer instead of the Angels’.
I can’t help wonder if he’d have said the same if schmalbert had a monster season.
He’s probably just looking for media attention to sell more books.
Gee i wonder if any writer doesn`t do that?
That’s kind of what I’m thinking. Probably be hearing more words of wisdom.
Yes. One would think that on the book tour, he will be fielding a lot of questions.
Brian, I notice from the list of transactions on the roster matrix page that the Cards are still moving guys around on the minor league rosters. Can you shed any light on the reason for that? I know that next spring, the rosters really won’t mean anything until they are set just prior to breaking camp, so what’s the point?
I am not really sure about what is behind these current moves. However, there will be some important roster designations made before the Rule 5 draft in December. A lot of folks don’t understand the huge difference between a player being on the Triple-A vs. Double-A roster for Rule 5 eligibility purposes. I will have the specifics about this in November. (Subscribers: Here is the link to last year’s article on the subject.)
Never underestimate the propensity/ability/audacity of the media to take a quote and spin it in a context to drive controversy. Just look at the elections this year.
When a 140 character twitter quote can be redacted to mean something different we have hit rock bottom.
Also, I’ve never understood why a professional ballplayer needs any extra motivation such as a “bulletin board” slight to make them want to play harder. That is their job. I don’t need any extra motivation to work hard at my job.