My least favorite Cardinal

So, every year I pick my least favorite Cardinal. It's a process that develops over time as I don't always have this individual pegged right out of spring training. Don't get me wrong I usually have the candidate pool down to 2 or 3 light hitting, no glove, over-valued players who for some reason I just don't like. The Cardinals to me are like a family who I watch every day, every day me and the Cards at a party called baseball.... and my least favorite Cardinal is that member of that family who does the worm in the middle of the dance floor of this party and they knock the cake over, yet they don't know they knocked the cake over. My least favorite Cardinal is that guy.

Eli Marrero started it all.

Eli Marrero who was apparently attacked by a bear was my first least favorite Cardinal. How do I know he was attacked by a bear...just look at his face, he had to have been attacked by a bear. But Marrero was my first ever least favorite Cardinal because he always seemed to strike out with the bases full of runners, always popped up, always put in during crucial situations, always displaying his swunt abilities, just another symptom of the disease that is LaRussa. But then he went and got cancer of the brain which was bad, but then he amazingly recovered and made a comeback to the big leagues...even playing for the Cards again.

So, it was 2003 (I think, I have a 9 month old sleeping on my chest so I really don't feel like doing research right now) and the Cards are at Wrigley against the Cubs. It was Mother Day I believe or maybe it was one of those years we had an April Easter I don't know...but the game never should have been played, it was raining, windy, I think Puljos went deep twice, hell I even think Taguchi homered, the score was in the double digits and it was only in the bottom of the 4th. Cubs up, not sure who is at the plate but whoever it is hits a sky high fly to left to Mr. Eli Marrero. Now, I'm not sure of his exact stats, but Marrero was having a very good year up to this point, really the fact that he was playing was just amazing but he was playing well, very well.

So, this lazy fly ball gets twisted all over the place by the wind, Marrero is racing in and has to adjust at the last minute and somehow dives akwardly and tears up his knee, ankle I don't know but he tore something because he was done for the year, probably his career year and it was over with and it was only May (possibly April, but most likely May). The stink of it all as Maverick would say in Top Gun (actually it really should be TOPGUN), the stink of it all was the game was called, Eli Marrero tore up his knee or ankle or whatever during his career year and the game was called in the bottom of the 4th on Mother day (or Easter). The game didn't count.

So, begrudgingly I took him off the list as my least favorite Cardinal....I had no choice, Cancer, coming back, career year, year ending and eventually career ending knee injury in non-existent game......

I will announce my new least favorite Cardinal by the end of April plus I will go back and historically annoint this title to a player on each team since 1980.

One last piece of information, after Marrero the title was given to Hector Luna who wore his crown proud and did not disappoint with his inability to throw from 3rd to home in a playoff game. Then came the One the villagers had whispered about since I was a boy, the One who would eventually turn his name into a noun, a verb, and and an adjective and maybe an adverb.....So Taguchi.

UPDATE: The above post has some inaccuracies that I will now correct. The date was May 11, 2003. Marrero had a severely sprained ankle that kept him out the rest of the year. It was not career ending as I mentioned for dramatic effect as he went on to play for the Atlanta, KC, Baltimore, Colorado and NY. Also, it was not a career year for him but he was coming off his career year where he had hit 18 HR in 131 games and there was some hype that he would continue to trend up. Furthermore, he was not in LF but in RF........and its not Mother Day, its Mother's Day. The wind was blowing at 40 mph strong and gusting up to 70, there were 7 HR, a grandslam by AP, two by Tino and 5 by the Cubs. The game was called in the top of the 5th with the score 11-9 Cards.