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The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers meet in the National League Championship Series after battling it out 18 times during the regular season. The NL Central rivals have some bad blood heading into a series that seemed highly unlikely a month ago.

St. Louis knocked out the Philadelphia Phillies and their highly-touted pitching staff in the first round, which is a bit of irony considering it was the Phillies who helped the Cardinals get into the playoffs in the first place.

Milwaukee almost blew its NLDS series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ninth inning of Game 5 before righting the ship and finding a way to win. The combination of Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder is virtually impossible to hold down for an entire series.

Game 1 Preview: Sunday, Oct. 9 at 4:05 p.m. EDT

Cardinals SP: Jaime Garcia (13-7, 3.56 ERA, 3.23 FIP)

Brewers SP: Zack Greinke (16-6, 3.83 ERA, 2.98 FIP)

Zack Greinke was one of the best pitchers in baseball in 2011 as evidenced by his league-leading 2.51 SIERA (an ERA estimator that factors in all elements of a pitcher’s performance). He was a bit unlucky in his first and only start against Arizona, allowing four runs in five innings.

The stats a pitcher controls most, strikeouts and walks, painted a good picture for Greinke. He struck out seven and walked none. But he left a couple pitches up in the zone and the Diamondbacks took full advantage by hitting three home runs.

St. Louis’ offense was better than Arizona’s during the regular season and will be a tougher task for Greinke, assuming Matt Holliday is ready for battle. Holliday has been dealing with a nagging hand injury for quite some time.

Jaime Garcia proved his rookie season was no fluke by backing it up with another strong campaign. He’s overshadowed by Chris Carpenter in the rotation, but could very well be the best pitcher on the Cardinals’ staff.

This will probably be a low-scoring game that will be decided in the late innings, considering both pitchers’ reputations. Since Milwaukee’s bullpen was slightly better than St. Louis’ in the regular season, they have the advantage in close games and will pick up a home win to start the series.

Game 1 Prediction: Brewers 4, Cardinals 3

Milwaukee has home-field advantage, a better defense, a deeper rotation and a stronger bullpen, which means it should be favored to advance to the World Series. If St. Louis is going to pull off another upset, its offense, including Holliday, must step up big.

With Fielder’s impending free agency, this season will probably be the best chance for Milwaukee to claim baseball’s biggest prize for a while. With the slugging first baseman and his right-hand man in Braun, they have a good chance to do just that.

Will St. Louis’ magical run continue or will the Brewers claw their way to the World Series? I expect the latter, in a close series.

Series Prediction: Brewers win series in six games.

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On Friday night the St. Louis Cardinals upended the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies in a game for the ages. The Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter out-dueled the Phillies’ Roy Halladay in an instant classic as from the first hitter of the game to the final out every pitch was literally a suspense filled moment. 

In fact there was so much story line to this game that there are actually several ways in which the game made history. Here are the top five historical rarities that became current realities in that game. 

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In poker, four aces is a winning hand. In baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies thought so, too. But this year it turned out than one ace tops four aces.

A Year of Baseball Drama

This has certainly been a year of drama for Major League Baseball.

• The two wild card teams were not decided until that very intense last night of the season.

• Three of the four first-round playoffs went to the fifth game

• All four of the final games were decided by one run

The Best of the Best

But the best of these dramas so far was saved for the fifth game between the Phillies and the Cardinals. By that time, eight of the top nine payroll teams were gone from sight, with only the Phillies $173 million payroll left standing. Roy Halladay, one of the Phillies’ four aces, and arguably the best pitcher in the game, was up against his friend Chris Carpenter. Halladay went 19-6 in the regular season, had 220 strike outs and a WHIP just over one. Carpenter finished the regular season at a modest 11-9, and had been knocked out of an earlier game in the series after just three ineffective innings.

But this night, it was a classical pitchers’ duel: ace against ace, with the Cardinals’ one run looming larger as the game progressed. 

• Would Carpenter be able to protect the one-run lead?

• Would the Cardinals have to use their spotty bullpen that had troubled them all year long, and almost cost them their shot at the playoffs by giving up six runs in the ninth inning in the brutal loss to the Mets on September 22?

• Would either team be able to scratch out another run?

• Would Carpenter run out of gas, since he had gone at least seven innings in each of his last five starts in the regular season?

And then it came down to the ninth inning, with the meat of the Phillies lineup due up, the same part of the lineup that had scored three runs in the first inning against Carpenter earlier in the series.  With Utley, Pence, Howard, Victorino and Ibanez, there were four out of five left-hand hitters.

• Utley had the Philly crowd screaming with the long fly ball to deep center,

• Pence grounded out to third,

• and, Howard couldn’t even make it to first base

So there you had it: one ace beat the four aces. 

All of the top nine payroll teams are gone. All of the East and West Coast big-city teams are gone. So middle America gets a chance to fight it out for the World Series crown, in a season to remember.

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Have the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers managers Tony La Russa and Ron Roenicke traded places in the NL Central’s hierarchy? Is there a new NL Central sheriff in town?  

Roenicke appears to be gaining respect in MLB circles, while La Russa seems to be losing it—even among his hometown fans. How quickly roles reverse.

Trading Places was a cult classic starring comedian Eddie Murphy of Beverly Hills Cop and Saturday Night Live fame. In the movie, Murphy portrays a street bum who gets turned into a multimillionaire by two experimenting billionaire brothers. Tell me about opposite styles.

In real life, brother La Russa was busy experimenting with his iron-fisted arguing almost every call and complaining about almost everything technique, it seems, while Roenicke was allowing his players to have fun—witness Nyjer Morgan—as long as they are producing.

Did someone say producing? The Brewers last night completed a runaway victory over their NL Central foes in this year’s division race. They had a 10.5 game lead with about 20 games left in the season.

The seasoned Redbirds’ psyche took a hit after losing two best-of-threes to Milwaukee in the first two weeks of August. Then the rest of the NL poured cooking oil on the Birds.

But, the Cardinals bounced back to pull within six games of the Brewers and about two of the Braves with about one week left in the season. The Cardinals started to look much different from the team they were four weeks ago.

At that time on the banks of three different rivers, lefty Garrett Jones’ extra-inning, walk-off home run at PNC Park on Aug. 16 all but put the Redbirds’ fire out. The Cardinals were already playing uninspired baseball, but Jones’ blast dropped them to a low psyche.

It came off the newly acquired left-hander Arthur Rhodes who has been a good pitcher in this league. It was another blown opportunity, however, by the bullpen and pointed some of the blame and most of the focus on John Mozeliak and Tony La Russa.

Their hastily revamped Cardinals fell to seven games behind Milwaukee after the Redbirds’ further fire-sapping extra-inning loss in Pittsburgh. The team’s mental focus hadn’t been the same until 9/11 weekend, when the Cardinals swept the Braves.

The Cards had won the Brewers series that week, but still couldn’t dent the standings.

Roenicke’s Brewers were in the throes of winning 21 of 25 games during their decisive run that basically clinched and dented the division around the second week in August. The Brew Crew could sip their own Kool-Aid. Only the Philadelphia Phillies had a larger division lead.

The division lead would soon balloon to double digits for Milwaukee. St. Louis was on the cusp of experiencing more major problems. After losing the must-have series with the Pirates, the Redbirds lost a best-of-three series to the lowly Cubs and got swept in three by the last-place Dodgers in St. Louis.

The boo birds started to chirp over La Russa’s head while he was in the dugout and especially when he stepped foot on the field. His alleged trying to get into the Brewers’ heads idea failed.

In a Monday night broadcast from Pittsburgh during the Jones home run series, the local announcers first claimed La Russa was complaining about the lighted ribbon around Miller Park in Milwaukee. TLR did, in fact, make the headlines for claiming the lights were brighter when the Cardinals batted. 

The broadcasters went on to say La Russa usually has evidence to back up his claims. Well, Tony, show me. I’m from Missouri, and I’ll wait.

I understand managing and waiting on 25 players is not an easy task. La Russa sees his team on a daily basis during the season. He knows what the media, fans and opponents don’t know. But, Tony Sigmund Freud La Russa should have stuck to baseball and left pop psychiatry and psychology out of the situation.

The scenario got stickier after September rolled around sooner than wanted and the Redbirds weren’t rolling hard enough. They tried to flap their wings, but they were stuck in what appeared to be bullpen mud and crud from the Gulf oil spill.

The unnatural disaster hurt Busch Stadium’s environment—empty seats and tepid turnstiles became very noticeable. The Cards drew three million fans again this year, but the local media began to question whether or not LaRussa should return in 2012.

Ron Roenicke the rookie manager could run for mayor of Milwaukee and win. Despite having more pennant-chasing and playoff experience than his Brewers, LaRussa’s Redbirds got rolled.

It was Milwaukee playing like the grizzled NL veterans while the Cardinals flailed. 

St. Louis played like they felt the pressure after Mozeliak and TLR traded Colby Rasmus—the young, left-handed, fleet-footed, smooth-swinging and power-hitting center fielder. The center of Cardinal Nation started to collapse not long after that late-July trade.

Roenicke unleashed his team’s best baseball soon after. Even after Rickie Weeks was injured, the manager’s decision to move Corey Hart to the leadoff spot kick-started their right fielder, who then began to lay down the offensive law.

Yes, there is a new NL sheriff; Roenicke and La Russa have traded places.

Contact Lake Cruise: lakecruise@att.net.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

You may have heard the Milwaukee Brewers won their first division championship since 1982 when they were the Brew Crew—29 years ago—but have you heard the Cardinals are still alive for a postseason entry?

If you haven’t, then you’d better ask someone.

The Cardinals lost to the Cubs on Friday night and handed the Milwaukee Brewers a gift-wrapped NL Central title, but St. Louis can still get it popping in the playoffs and shock their NL Central rivals.

Join me on this brief-but-entertaining ride of reasoning, on the banks of the Mississippi River, thinking about how the Cards can pull off the impossible and win the NL Wild Card.

Just don’t put the Redbirds on the grill or choke on your popcorn just yet.

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Did the St. Louis Cardinals make a mistake by extending Lance Berkman’s contract? The slugger re-upped for a reported $12 million in 2012—a $4 million raise from 2011.

The Redbirds need a closer, a second baseman and another top of the line starting pitcher if they want to win it all. So, was paying Berkman, 35, almost half of Matt Holliday’s salary their best move?

Lance will be moving to the 36-year-old age range on February 10. Maybe he’ll exchange Valentine’s Day gifts with the fans and maybe not. But, it’s been a heartwarming relationship between Berkman and Cardinal Nation.

Join me for my heartfelt analysis of the reasons why this was the right move and the best move in lieu of the spending Cardinals’ next move.

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Last summer, when the St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols failed to reach an agreement, wild speculation from around the media, mostly launched by ESPN, concluded that Pujols was asking for a 10-year, $300 million contract. 

Columnists everywhere went crazy, suggesting that Pujols was selfish and that it would ruin the club to keep him. They speculated that maybe he even wanted a share of the team. It got to the point where speculation was enough for more speculation. 

Now it comes out that actually what Pujols was asking for is a decidedly less $230 million over the same 10 years. That’s $7 million a year less. So now the same media that went ballistic over $300 million is saying, “Oops, I guess we were wrong,” right?

Nope. The media, for all its tenacity to shred anyone else for any perceived slight, rarely raises its sharp sword against itself, not even when it’s appropriate. Rather than acknowledge they were wrong, they make it seem that new sum, which is roughly 30 percent smaller than originally reported, is still egregiously enormous. 

The media blithely ignores the fact that Pujols is just now rounding off the best first 11 years in major-league history and deserves to be the highest paid player in baseball—which the $230 million wouldn’t even do. Rather, they make it sound like he’s just another “me-first” player who is looking out for No. 1.

Who cares that he gave the Cardinals a hometown discount in his last contract? Over those 11 years, he’s averaged under $9 million a year. Lesser stars like Joe Mauer, Ryan Howard, Vernon Wells and even A.J. Burnett are making more money this year than his $16 million, and that’s hardly a complete list of players. 

Nothing against them, but they have a far less impressive body of work than Pujols. 

They wildly speculate about how only a team like the Chicago Cubs could afford him now. Again, they ignore reality. For all the way they’ve made it sound, Pujols and the Cardinals are further apart than the NBA and the Players Association. 

In fact, they aren’t far apart at all. They’re only one year and $1.3 million apart. That’s not exactly an untraversable impasse there.

The media never owns up to its errors. I see no columns written about, “Well, I guess I missed that one.” I see no debate on Around the Horn, the show where four fickle faces fling fecal-fed, fallacious fabrication for fun, and don’t own up to their universal indictment of Pujols’ selfishness just six short months ago. 

On Pardon the Interruption, no one interrupted the normal shouting back and forth to say, “Hey, sorry Albert, I guess we got it wrong!

No, that would be too much like responsible journalism. Today’s journalism has a different code. When you don’t have news, create sensationalism. When it’s not sensational, it’s just not news.

The fact is that if Pujols were to get the 10-year, $230 million contract, he would have played 21 years for the Cardinals and been paid a total of $319 million—more than $100 million less than Alex Rodriguez over his career.

This is a career that could end as the all-time leader in home runs, RBI, runs and doubles. He doesn’t even need to maintain his yearly averages to do that. Heck, he even has a shot at Pete Rose’s all-time hits record if he plays 11 more years!

And this is a player who, for all that’s ever been revealed about everyone else, is clean as a whistle in an age of cheaters. How much is it worth to baseball to replace the two biggest embarrassments on their record books with a man who played clean and is one of the biggest philanthropists in professional sports? How much is that worth to an organization?

So when you factor all of that in, $319 million isn’t a lot for 21 years of one of the greatest hitters, perhaps even the greatest when all is said and done. Pujols’ request isn’t just not selfish, it’s pretty doggone reasonable! He’s absolutely worth it!

As scarce as the “We were wrong” articles are, the articles that say “he’s worth it” are now just as scarce.

And they wonder why he doesn’t want to talk to the media.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Did ESPN analyst and Stamford, Conn. current Director of Public Safety and Public Health, Bobby Valentine, leave a piece of his heart in impressive old St. Louis? 

Known for cow towing at Mike Shannon’s with the likes of controversial umpire “Country” Joe West and praising the wonderful fans of St. Louis via KMOX, it appears he wants in and is smart enough to know how to discreetly go about it.

Since 2009, he’s reportedly been either a quiet candidate or interviewed for the Baltimore Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins, New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays managerial positions.

Sounding like general manager John Mozeliak’s and Jon Jay’s biggest fan, Valentine’s praise of the 2011 trade deadline moves by the Cardinals was unwavering.  Bobby and Peter Gammons were the most ardent supporters of the trade.

Well, since then, the Redbirds have fallen seven games out of first place—shades of last year after the Ryan Ludwick deal.

In fact, as Bernie Miklasz pointed out in a St. Louis Post Dispatch column last Sunday, the Cardinals have been collapsing late in the season almost every years since they won World Series championship No. 10 (2006).

As an analyst, Valentine, 61, obviously realizes this.  He’s LaRussa’s contemporary and has managed against him in the Majors.

Valentine’s Mets bloodied LaRussa and the Cardinals, 4-1, in the 2001 NLCS on the way to the Subway Series against the Yankees.  Like a shark, he could be smelling blood rolling along the banks of the mighty Mississippi River near Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis. 

Even if the bloodied but unbowed Tony LaRussa is still the skipper in 2012, he can’t manage forever.  TLR will have to depart someday hopefully very soon in the eyes of a lot of fans.

I personally can’t see third base coach Jose “The Secret Weapon” Oquendo getting a fair shake for consideration as manager of the Redbirds after LaRussa leaves.  I’d love to see Jose’s former superior on the depth chart—the great Ozzie Smith—as the manager next season. 

This probably won’t be the case.  If LaRussa gets wind of Ozzie being considered, then TLR will want to stay for as long as possible.  There haven’t been any heartfelt feelings between Tony and Ozzie for the last 15-16 years and counting.

“Count” Valentine came into the Majors as a utility player with the L.A. Dodgers in 1969.  He still reveres Tommy LaSorda and evidently Groucho Marx. 

Valentine is the manager remembered for donning a fake mustache and coming back into the dugout to oversee his team after being ejected while with the Mets in 1999.  MLB summarily fined him $5,000 and suspended him for three games. 

Here’s a summary of his managerial record in the Majors:

Starting in 1985 with the Texas Rangers, he’s managed 2,169 games in 15 seasons.  LaRussa had about 2,680 wins at the time of this writing in some 30 years a manager in the Majors. 

With a .510 winning percentage (1,117-1,072) in MLB, Valentine also trails LaRussa in this category (.535).  Valentine’s winning percentage was .534 with the Mets from 1996-2002—his last stint in the Majors.

He played during the good old baseball days of outfield chain link fences.  Valentine probably wishes those days never were; he suffered a horrible leg injury after his spikes got stuck while chasing a fly ball in Anaheim.  Largely due to the fence accident, Bobby V. retired as a player at 29 years old.

An interesting tidbit is Valentine’s relationship with former Mets general manager turned ESPN analyst, Steve Phillips.  The latter fired Bobby in 2002, but in 2009 Valentine was hired after Phillips was terminated in a scandal involving a female employee at the cable giant.

Valentine is somewhat revered as a giant in Japanese baseball lore.  He managed the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League to the Japanese Series championship in 2005.  Later that year, he led the Marines to the championship over Korea in the first Asia Series.

He was reportedly fired after conflicts with the general manager of Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League.  Conflicts of interest aside, I believe Valentine would love to manage the Cardinals if LaRussa doesn’t return in 2012.

Do you, my beloved readers, believe he’d do a good job?

Comment or contact Lake Cruise at rjspann@swbell.net.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Updates 4:11: John Mozeliak stated during the Cubs/Cards game that he hopes the deal will be finalized by the end of the day. Apparently there are still a few kinks to work out, but the deal will be done. 

Update: 2:53: The latest reports are that there is now a deal in place. It boils down to the Dodgers giving cash and Furcal to the Cardinals for a “lower level prospect.” In other words the Cards are essentially adding him for free. 

The Dodgers get rid of some salary (but not all of it) and get a chance to play their prospect. 

The St. Louis Cardinals have been in hot negotiations all day with the Los Angles Dodgers in pursuit of the shortstop, Rafael Furcal. According to Scott Miller of CBS Sports, the Dodgers are close to asking Furcal to give his permission for the trade.

Furcal has 10 and 5 rights, which means that as a 10 year veteran and at least five with his current team, he must approve any trade. Previously Furcal has indicated he would be willing to waive those rights to go to St. Louis. ESPN confirms.

As of yet there doesn’t appear to be much information on what the Cardinals would be giving up, but it’s unlikely they’ll be giving up any of their key components in their roster. It also appears that the Dodgers would be eating a good amount of cash in the deal. 

While the Dodgers mainly benefit by getting rid of a contract and giving Dee Gordon a chance at becoming the full time shortstop, the Cards benefit is much greater. 

When the St. Louis Cardinals acquired Matt Holliday there was a lot of speculation that by re-signing him, there would be no way to keep Albert Pujols. This of course, was very much in contradiction with what Pujols had stated about what he wanted—to play for a contender. 

Amid all the swirling trade rumors and speculation of next year’s free agency the things that Pujols hasn’t said drown out the one thing which he has said.

Wild projections of $300 million and 10-year contracts aren’t coming from Pujols, but from media speculation. Those are projections which Pujols has publicly stated “are way off.” In fact, he’s even said that he and his agent have laughed at them.

To reiterate, what he has said is that he wants to play for a contender. Over the course of his time with the Cardinals, that’s certainly been the case. In fact, after just 10 seasons in the Majors, Pujols is already 34th all time with 56 postseason games played. 

Holliday was an aggressive acquisition to keep the Cardinals in playoff contention, as was the Colby Rasmus-for-Edwin Jackson deal earlier this week. Dealing Rasmus was a smart move by the Cardinals. Certainly he has a ton of potential but the emergence of John Jay has made Rasmus expendable.

In acquiring Jackson the Cards bolstered both their rotation and their bullpen as the acquisition enables career reliever Kyle McClellan back to the bullpen. Add in Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel and you have significantly stronger bullpen.

The need for these upgrades simply cannot be understated. The Cardinals have the third most blown saves in the Major with 16. Their ERA from the seventh inning on is 21st at 3.94. In other words, if baseball were a seven-inning game the Cardinals would have the best record in the Majors.

There are two reasons for the Cardinals late-inning woes. Firstly, the bullpen problem which has already been addressed. Secondly, there is the fielding problems they have. With 71 errors the Cards are tied for 22nd in the Majors. They are tied for the seventh most unearned runs allowed in baseball with 44.

This brings us, at long last, to the subject of Rafael Furcal, Albert Pujols and why the acquisition of the former could be the key to the retention of the latter. If the rumors are true, that the Cardinals are aggressively trying to trade for the Dodgers shortstop, Pujols may be around for a very long time.

Ryan Theriot is frankly just not a good enough fielder to play the shortstop position. In fact, you could make the case that based on his zone runs (minus-10) and his fielding percentage (.958) he’s one of the two or three worst fielding shortstops in the game.

In fact, roughly one quarter of all the Cardinals’ unearned runs can be attributed to Theriot. Furthermore the Cardinals give up 4.21 runs when Theriot starts at short compared to 3.95 when he doesn’t. Clearly, he’s a defensive liability. 

Rafael Furcal is not the best fielder in the league. In fact, he’s somewhere between average and slightly above average, but that’s still a significant improvement over Theriot. Simply having a player who can make the plays he is supposed to make can be the difference between an unearned run and a double play, particularly in the Cardinals system where they pitch for the ground ball.

While he’s had the inferior season with the bat, lately Furcal has been coming around. It may simply be a matter of motivation. His career OPS is 30 points higher. Certainly he’s been looking like he’s playing like he wants to be traded. His OPS over the last nine games is .862 to go with five RBI and five runs.

Furcal isn’t going to lead a team anywhere by himself but he could be the final piece of the puzzle this year for the Cardinals.

Offensively, particularly when they have their titanic trio in place, they are absolutely lethal. In fact, in the 45 games where the Cards have had Bekrman, Holliday and Pujols all in place, the Cardinals have scored an average of 5.4 runs per game. In games where one of the three is missing they’ve only averaged 4.6.

If that’s not convincing enough for you throw in their hot young third baseman, David Freese (.865 OPS). When he’s in the lineup along with the other three, the Cards are averaging a whopping 5.8 runs per game. If Yadier Molina (.775) and Skip Schumaker (.699)  start along with those four, the Cards average 6.3 runs.

Don’t be deceived. The Cardinals are a better team than their record indicates. They have been battling injuries all season long. Add the newly designated starting center fielder to the mix and with those seven players you’ve got a starting lineup with a combined OPS of .826.

Furcal has been able to hit in hitting lineups. While this season he’s been somewhere between absolutely cataclysmic and merely abysmal for most of it, that probably has as much to do with playing on a bad, bankrupt team, with no chance of going anywhere as anything. Any Dodger right now would benefit from a change in environment.

He’s hit in the past, and in a heavy-hitting Cardinals lineup, he would hit well again.     

While Berkman is out with a minor shoulder injury right now, the Cardinals are finally looking like they are on the precipice of finally having the middle of their order healthy for the first time. Actually having their starting lineup, um, starting is going to make a difference offensively.

Not only that the team has a couple of other very exciting young players who will be back in August. Allen Craig, who had a very healthy .928 OPS before going down with injury is coming back at at the beginning of the month. 

Eduardo Sanchez, the electric young pitcher who had a 1.88 ERA, a 1.047 WHIP and a 193 ERA+ before going down with injury is expected back at the end the month. His addition should further shore up bullpen.   

Adding the pitching through trades and getting healthy should result in the Cardinals giving up fewer runs.  Adding a better glove would result in fewer runs. Getting healthy will result in more runs scored. Scoring more runs while giving up fewer runs should result in winning more games.

There’s every reason to think that they can still win the Central division. In fact, adding Furcal would make them the favorites to win it, if they aren’t already after the Jackson trade.

Once they get into the postseason and can field that enormously potent lineup every game the Cardinals have every chance of winning a series against Philadelphia or San Francisco. Putting up a lineup with an aggregate .800 OPS would put the adage about “good pitching beats good hitting” to the test. 

Besides that, a trio of starters that includes Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Edwin Jackson on the mound isn’t too shabby either.

The rumors are rampant that the Cardinals are making a play to win one last World Series before they lose Albert Pujols. I think they’re actually making a run at a World Series to keep Albert Pujols. Again, I put more stock in what he says he thinks that pure media speculation.  

He says he wants to stay in St. Louis if they do what it takes to stay competitive. Nothing says competitive like winning another World Series. If the Cards win it all, then Pujols stays, and Furcal might be just what they need to put them over the top.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Where does Albert Pujols rank on the all-time Cardinals list of best players in franchise history?  Keep reading, and I’ll tell you what I think. You tell me how you took it.

Pujols took another leap forward for man and womankind, St. Louis Cardinals fans. In the new Busch Stadium, he came, saw and conquered another milestone last Friday night before the disgruntled faces of beleaguered Chicago Cubs and their faithful.

By a 9-2 score, the long-suffering lovable losers from the North Side of “The Chi (shy)” took it on the chin again, courtesy of the popping bats of Pujols and the Redbirds. The crushing victory was the icing on the cake for the current baseball king of the city.

According to the Redbirds’ broadcasters, Pujols became the latest Saint Louis Cardinal to reach 2,000 hits—while wearing the historically significant St. Louis Cardinals uniform. Only certain individuals get to wear the birds on the bat, and Pujols knows it.

Hall of Fame ballers Rogers Hornsby, Stan “The Man” Musial, Rogers Hornsby and Lou Brock all wore it for most—if not all—of their MLB careers. They have their own statuettes outside of the new stadium, and Pujols knows it.

He sports the classic uniform—one of the most recognizable in all of the world’s sports—with the pride and class it deserves, and once again proved to be a much better hitter than his current batting coach.

Ouch. 

Pujols could someday be—without question—the best St. Louis Cardinals player ever.  If he isn’t already, that is. He’s not done, yet, though, most folks in the STL hope. There could be another World Series, or hopefully more, under his helmet.

It seems to me like Albert just added about as much pressure as can be to the Cardinals’ front office to keep him. They almost have to re-sign him now, right?  We’ll see. Judging by moves in the last two years, there is no telling what the brass is planning to pull off.

Stay tuned to the Laker, and I’ll let you all know, my beloved readers, what’s really going on after the season in terms of Pujols—the former baseball prince of the city. He’s quickly becoming one of the eight wonders of MLB history.

For his 2,000th career smash off against pitching in the Majors, on Friday night of the eighth inning with two outs, Albert smashed a peppery steak (RBI) double down the third base line—making the scoreboard bling for the Redbirds against the lowly Cubs. 

What was most impressive was the way Pujols sped around the bases as if it was the bottom of the ninth inning in the seventh game of the World Series—like he was carrying the championship-winning run. It’s called hustling in the Gashouse Gang tradition.

You Cubs fans wouldn’t know anything about that, I don’t imagine. Imagine this, though, as much as the Redbirds and Cardinals face one another, Pujols could end up getting his hit No. 3,000 against Chicago…this season…double ouch.

After No 2,000, I felt like the Cardinals had the painful for the traveling pack of fanatics from Illinois game in hand, and Pujols could’ve been taken out of the game. While the fans showered him with blessings, he looked like he wanted to shed tears of thanksgiving. Take him out for a pinch-runner, why didn’t the manager? 

Who knows?

The classy Cardinal he is, Pujols twice tipped his helmet, while standing at second base. It looked like LaRussa pulled a classy move, though, and ordered the next batter to step out of the batter’s box, so the fans could salute Albert even more.

How do you like it in Saint Louis? You all love it. We (MLB fans) love it. Pujols the great Redbird grinder did it with his left wrist in what looks like a cast. Ouch.

The leading man in this cast of Redbirds characters, he’s starring in an almost Hollywood career full of flavor. Lights, cameras and action to the tune of 3,000 hits could be the next feature film Pujols produces in a Cardinals uniform. 

What a shame it would be if this doesn’t happen. First Ryan Ludwick gets traded and the team’s title hopes head south for the winter 2010. Then Colby Rasmus gets run in 2011 and the Redbirds immediately loose two demoralizing games at home to lowly Houston. 

Albert’s milestone could be the spark the Redbirds need to get them going. Then Albert is allowed to walk after the season? No way, right? You tell me, I’m not a participating party.

I’m telling the world that it’s probably a party in Saint Louis for right now. I have a feeling Albert’s teammates know this could very well be his last go around in the circle of St. Louis as a Redbird. 

What a crying Cardinal shame it would truly be.

Enjoy the ride, though, with about two full months left in the season, Albert could have close to 100 more hits left in him in 2011. If that happens, then it could mean a deep playoff run for the Redbirds. Lou Brock and the rest of the living Cardinals greats will be watching.

This has been the almost great Lake Cruise reporting live from the banks of the Mississippi River close to Pierre Laclede’s Landing. Right now, as I write, Pujols is landing at about A-1 on the list of all-time best Cardinals. But that’s just me. 

 What do you think, my beloved? Meanwhile, catch me next time on the latest edition of Lake’s Pujols Papers. I’m out.

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