It’s getting to be the time of year when The Great Northeast Media Hype Machine begins acknowledging the existence of teams outside the New York-Boston sphere.
The past couple of days, the Old Grey Lady herself has published a couple of stories in which the Cardinals feature prominently. (stories may require registration)
The first was a piece, which ran Friday, about noted fantasy baseball expert Ron Shandler, who’s the author of the long-running “Baseball Forecaster” and runs BaseballHQ.
His success at those ventures led to him getting a job with our Cardinals:
Shandler’s reputation caught the attention of Jeff Luhnow, who was appointed vice president for player procurement by the Cardinals after the 2003 season.
“I was an entrepreneur and did two technology companies on the West Coast,” Luhnow said. “And when you start a company, you oftentimes pull together a group of experts that can add a little credibility to your company.”
Shandler’s deal with the Cardinals allowed him to keep working on Baseball HQ and “Forecaster,” which Times reporter Benjamin Hoffman touches on:
A few weeks before the Cardinals acquired (Mark) Mulder in December 2004, a negative report about Mulder appeared in “Baseball Forecaster” with the comment, “Risk-averse drafters might want to spend their money elsewhere.”
Well, Jeff Luhnow, if you’re paying a guy for his advice, why didn’t you follow it?
When the trade was completed, Shandler’s followers questioned the integrity of his report, with some suggesting that he had given Mulder a poor evaluation in an effort to lower his trade value.
Even if those accusations were true, the Cardinals didn’t seem fazed at all by the report and pulled the trigger for Mulder. No wonder Shandler quit:
“After a while it was like, ‘Why am I spinning my wheels here? I don’t know if they’re taking my information into account when making their moves.’ ”
No, they sure didn’t take the advice they were paying you supply. It’s kind of funny; on the TV in the background as I type this post is a “Who’s #1″ program on ESPN2 about “Trade Robberies.” While this trade doesn’t rate on the all-time MLB list, it’s certainly the worst since the Van Slyke-Pena deal, possibly since the Carlton-Wise deal.
But we already knew that.
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The second article about the Cardinals ran in Sunday’s Times, this time written by the esteemed Murray Chass.
In it, Chass takes a look at the Cardinals recent woes, which we know all about, but which nobody inside the Northeast media orbit seems to know about.
The first few paragraphs compare the fortunes of the Cardinals and the Dodgers, teams that on July 26 were 58-42 and in first place and 47-55 and in last place, respectively. What’s happened since, Murray?
Seven weeks later, after they played their games last Wednesday, the Cardinals still led the N.L. Central, with a 77-68 record, and the Dodgers were in first place in the N.L. West with a 77-68 record.
[snip]
In that seven-week span, the Dodgers had a 30-13 record and the Cardinals went 19-26. The fortunes of the two teams were reflected in eight-game losing streaks. The Dodgers lost their eighth consecutive game July 26, then began an 11-game winning streak in their next game. (They won 17 of 18.) The Cardinals began an eight-game losing streak July 27 and haven’t really recovered.
Chass then plays the “What’s Wrong With the Cardinals?” game, going through the laundry list of stuff we’ve known for weeks: starting pitching, relief pitching, nobody hits but Pujols, etc.
I’m not sure why this story bugs me; it’s not like it’s nothing I don’t know already. Maybe it’s that whole patronizing you’re-not-in-the-Northeast-you’re-not-important attitude that’s implicit in these kinds of stories. It’s like playoff time is the only time of year they can acknowledge the existence teams elsewhere in the United States.
