The Team Nobody Wants to Play
There is a major sports franchise that is so dangerous, nobody wants to play them. So scary, that when their opponents are scheduled to play against them, they fear for their safety. So frightening, that the idea of facing them causes grown men to want to sit that game out and not want to risk the very real threat that they could get hurt that day.
I’m not talking about a bruising, dirty football team here. Or an intimidating, terrorizng hockey club. Or Team World Championship Full Contact Ultimate Fighting. I’m talking about the St. Louis Cardinals. The baseball team.
Say, what?!?
A friend of mine, who is a Milwaukee Brewer fan, tipped me off a while back about how St. Louis Cardinals pitchers always seemed to throw at a key batter on the other team on purpose and with an ulterior motive in mind. This, he explained, was so the Cards could just maybe take that player out with the inside fastball/purpose pitch, and maybe the guy might get injured. If the pitch “just” nicked the opponent in a harmless place and didn’t injure him, then they could always pretend that it was an accidental pitch that just got away from the pitcher. Or, if it did not hit him, it could just be passed off the pitcher was just a little off as he was pitching inside. But if they got away with it, kaboom, that guy’s out of the game. Or that series.
In other words, the Cards would gain a serious edge on their opponent by “accidentally” throwing inside a lot and maybe even hitting some people. The preferred place to hit that opposing player, he said, was on the wrist, forearm, ribs and shoulder, all good possible places to induce a few games worth of injury, but not at the head and serious enough to draw unwanted and extra attention that might get them in trouble.
And, the real kicker to the Cardinal strategy, my friend said, was that the Cards always throw at the other team first. That means the Cardinals can “get away with murder,” get away with their alleged strategy of selectively targeting batters to be HBP and to maybe even remove the other team’s best player. And of course, their opponent will always be one step behind and feel they have to retaliate, after which time, THEY are the ones who get in trouble.
My friend cited several times, where either his Brewers’ hitters got plunked and dinged up by Cardinal pitching, or a few other teams playing the Cards, where he saw the same thing happening to them.
This, I thought, was intriguing. Sounds like a way out there conspiracy theory, but definitely was something to keep an eye on. I started to closely watch the pitching some of the times when the Cardinals played on games of the week on TV, and to be honest, I didn’t necessarily see it happen.
But then, I started to see some peculiar coincidences.
October 2013 – L.A. Dodgers rampage through the last half of 2013. During one stretch, they win 42 out of 50 games. They are playing unbelievably well and appear unstoppable. Their best hitter is Hanley Ramirez. Then, when they are playing the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Championship series, Cardinal pitcher Joe Kelly plunks Hanley Ramirez in the ribs. He plunked him so badly he breaks a rib. This knocks Ramirez out for the rest of the series. The Cardinals go on to win the series, in large part due to Ramirez’s absence. Many experts opined that the key to the whole series was when Hanley Ramirez got knocked out of the series, the Dodgers’ offense ground to a halt. Hmmm.
July 19, 2014 – Big series. Dodgers vs. Cardinals. Both teams fighting for playoff spots. L.A. Dodgers’ best hitter this season is Yasiel Puig. Cardinal pitcher Joe Kelly comes inside with a fastball and hits Puig on the wrist. Puig tries to play, but later gets taken out of action for the rest of that game. Puig is out on a day to day basis. The Cardinals win the game. Puig has to miss the last game of the series. Hmmmmmmmm. (note the extra “m’s”)
July 20, 2014 – The next night, Dodgers vs. Cardinals, early in the game, Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez hits Hanley Ramirez in the shoulder, practically knocking him out of the game. Later that game, Clayton Kershaw retaliates against the Cards by purposely hitting Matt Holliday on his rear end. It is obvious payback. The teams both get warned that the next HBP will result in that pitcher and his manager being thrown out of the game. A few innings later, Cards reliever Trevor Rosenthal drills Hanley Ramirez on the wrist and knocks him out of the game and the next three games. And yet, the umpire does NOT toss the pitcher out of the game. The Dodgers edge the Cards to win the game. Did the Cardinal strategy work? The Cards won the series 2 to 1. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
In each instance cited, the Cardinals’ pitcher hit the opponent’s player first. In each instance, the key player on the opponent’s team was injured and had to miss both that game and some subsequent ones. In each instance, the Cardinals gained an advantage by this “alleged strategy.”
Oh yeah, in 2013, the four other teams in the Cardinals’ central division, the Pirates, Reds, Brewers and Cubs, were ranked 1, 2, 4 and 5 in all of Major League Baseball in times hit by a pitch. Was it just a coincidence that the Pirates and the Reds, who both also made the playoffs that year, were the chief rivals of the Cardinals in 2013? Or that the Pirates and the Brewers rank 1st and 3rd in being hit by a pitch so far in 2014? Or that when the Cardinals play a game, there is about an 80% more likelihood that a player will be hit than the major league average?
In every conspiracy theory, there is just not enough proof to prove that the theory is the truth. But there are enough flickers of coincidence to fuel the thoughts that the theories just might be real. And that allows the followers of those conspiracy theories to think that there is enough evidence there to keep speculating that what they think might be happening might really be correct. In the case of the St. Louis Cardinal pitching staff, there is no way you can ever prove that they are throwing at hitters with intent to injure. They will never admit to anything. There is only the visual, anecdotal, coincidental evidence called Cardinal baseball games that every baseball fan, or conspiracy theorist can look at and make their own conclusions.
But one thing is certain. When you are going up against the Cardinal pitching staff, you really wish you could wear body armor up at the plate. Cause they are the team nobody wants to play.
