"Global Warming" and the St. Louis Cardinals: The Connection Exists (as Cardinals retool team and play great game against Dodgers)

You may think that my interest in baseball could never provide me information on the fraud of "global warming". WRONG.


I was listening to the Dodger broadcast of the St. Louis Cardinal game--great 15 inning game last night where Joe Torre mistakenly let Jeff Weaver pitch to Albert Pujols WITH THIRD BASWE OPEN in the last of the 15th inning--or maybe it was said during the rainout broadcast the previous night. The Dodger announcers were talking about how this has been the COLDEST July in St. Louis in some 66 years, and that farmers are upset. I was just in Boston, and my older daughter tells me Boston has been COLD.


Ye, I know that the Pacific Northwest has been hot, and the Southwest has been pretty warm including El Paso where I live), although not unusually so. But the fact remains that, overall, the United States IS NOT WARMING. Of course, the WORLD is no longer warming. But there NEVER WAS a warming TREND in the United States, where the warmest year since 1880 is 1936 (or maybe 1934, I sometimes misremember the exact year, and the 1930's dust bowl years were generally WARM), in a virtual tie with 2006. Since 2006, the United States has COOLED. See Michael Crichton's SOURCED chart in his eco-thriller, "State of Fear", for the chart proving it is a FACT (not a matter of opinion) that there has been NO consistent warming TREND in the United States for the entire recorded history of United States temperatures. In other words, as with Seattle and Boston this year, temperatures have gone up and DOWN since the beginning of temperature data, in the United States, WITHOUT A DISCERNIBLE TREND. Whether the United States is "warming" or "cooling" depends totally ON WHERE YOU START. If you start in 1536 or 2006, the United States is COOLING. In fact, since the warm year of 2006, there have been no significant warm years in the United States. Greenhouse gases, of course, have kept incrasing, even as the WORLD has stopped warming.


So much for the fraud of "global warming".


The St. Louis Cardinals NOW "look" like a playoff team, provided their pitching holds up. They have added Matt Holliday, and Mark DeRosa has started hitting home runs. Further, Ludwick has gotten hot. The Cardinals now probably have the best hitting team in the National League (the Phillies and Colorado might argue). The Cardinals have to now be regarded as a favorite to win the Central Divison, although the Cubs are showing signs of life. You will note that I have already been proven right (for now) about the Brewers. I wrote them off when they were still AHEAD of the Cubs and the Astros. As usual, I was right. The Brewers, unless they have added pitching, simply do not have the pitcing to make it to the playoffs (being in the position of the Cardinals of last year).


P.S. The addition of Matt Holliday, who has been hitting .500 in his brief time with the Cardinals, is the only excue for Joe Toree not walking Pujols last night. Yes, it was THIRD BASE that was open, with runners on first and second. But only ONE run matters, and third base truly represetned an open base. It is hard for me to believe that Torre would have let Weaver pitch to Pujols before the Cardinals acquired Holliday, even with Ludwick being hot and Pujols having been in soomewhat of a slump. Yes, things can happen with a runner at third bawe: walk, wild pitch, hit batter, infield hit, etc.). However, this is ALBERT PUJOLS we are talking about. The only way those risks of lputting a runner at third base come into play is if you think you are going to face a hitter fairly close to being as good as a Pujols trying to cmoe out of a slump. In my view, still a MISTAKE by Torre. However, I agree it is a close thing, and there is a case to be made that Toree knows more about baseball than I do (which does not change that managers and coaches make many inexplicable decisions that even they hafe trouble justifying--often to avoid the embarrassment of explaining why they put a player in a position to score on a wild pitch, etc., or whatever other embarrassment they are worried about explaining more than they are worried about texplaining something like pitching to Pujols).


P.S. 2: It may come down to the Cardinals and Cubs in the Central Division now. The Cardinals now appear to have enough to be there in the end, so long as Carpenter stays healthy and effective (a caveat that obviously applies to every team, in terms of what injury or fatigue can do to you). The Cardinals have an advantage of a number of off days from here on, limiting their exposure to current lack of an effective fourth OR fifth starter. I keep up with the Cubs less consistentlly, but they have obviously done well since the All Star break. Since it is something like 1908 since the Cubs have won it all, I would not BET on them being in the World Series--much less winning it. With the improvement in the Cardinal personnel, however, it may be only the Cubs that have a chance of staying with the Cardinals. Yet, the fact remains that no Central Division team has yet shown the ability to break decisively away from being a .500 level team. The Cardinals have been pretty much a .400 team since the break, losing even after adding significant hitting. The Cardinals lost 2 out of 3 to the Phillies, even after adding Holliday, and DeRosa home runs and the Ludwick hot streak have not kept the Cardinals from playig merely .500 ball since the break, despite winning three in a row over the Dodgers. Still, they now should at least be there in the end. We will see if the present success against the Dodgers means a jelling team about to reach its new potential as Pujols returns to being Pujols (while now being "protected" by hitters after him).