Tag Archives: Octavio Dotel

Five Years Ago Tonight: A Game One World Series Victory

Posted on by
Reply

Certain images immediately come to mind when thinking back to October 2011 and the road to the St. Louis Cardinals 11th World Series championship. The squirrel dashing near home plate in Game Four of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies. Chris Carpenter’s primal scream at the end of Game Five. David Freese spiking his batting helmet as he ran toward home plate in Game Six of the World Series. Lance Berkman raising the World Series trophy.

And, when recalling Game One of the World Series, there is this.

cc-5

Yes, Chris Carpenter’s dive toward first base in the first inning to retrieve the throw by Albert Pujols (oops … I mean That Guy Who Used to Play First Base) after he fielded a grounder by Elvis Andrus.

The play, and the Game One win, was five years ago tonight. Knowing now, of course, how the entire Series plays out it’s very interesting to read again about Nelson Cruz missing a catch that allowed a crucial run to score on a play involving David Freese. (Foreshadowing!) So relive the memories — especially of how cool it was for Octavio Dotel and Arthur Rhodes to each finally pitch in a World Series game. They are forgotten, bit-part heroes of that incredible October five years ago.

Team Effort In Cardinals Game One Win

Allen Craig had the game-winning hit, just for Torty

Allen Craig had the game-winning hit, just for Torty

It’s been a total team effort that’s gotten the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series. So it’s not a surprise that their 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers in game one was a result of contributions by many.

Starting pitching, relief pitching, great defense, timely hitting — each played a role in the win.

Chris Carpenter did something no Cardinals starter did in the NLCS: pitched six innings. He likely could have gone an inning or two longer, but was removed for pinch-hitter Allen Craig (which worked out perfectly). Carpenter allowed the two runs on a monster homer by Mike Napoli, but otherwise was very much his typical self. (So maybe next time he says his elbow is fine people will believe him?)

Continue reading →

Four More Weeks … Only Four More Weeks

Posted on by
Reply

When the last time we saw real St. Louis Cardinals baseball was more than four months ago, what’s four more weeks? Four Sundays from right now, we’ll have real baseball.

And four weeks, of course, is 28 days — which is an interesting number to look at in recent Cardinals history, since it hasn’t been used since 2011. So today is both Colby Rasmus and Octavio Dotel days until Opening Night at Wrigley Field.

First, the one who began 2011 wearing No. 28.

colbyChances are we’re all thinking about Colby these past couple days, after the now-Astro played against the Cardinals on Friday and Rick Hummel wrote a very interesting profile on him in yesterday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Reading it, I was actually glad things happened the way they did since, at age 28 (which is pretty much usually the prime of a player’s career, right?) Colby fully admits that “I haven’t got much more in me” when it comes to baseball.

Want a quick reminder of what things were like by about mid-July 2011? Check out this post from the AMF archives by Michael, as well as the multitude of comments.

And then, on July 27, Colby was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, with the Cardinals receiving Edwin Jackson (via the White Sox), Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel and — remember this part? — Corey Patterson.

Suddenly, there was a  new No. 28 — Octavio Dotel.

28And, by the time October arrived, that 28 was having a little bit of fun — thanks to the Rally Squirrel. Continue reading →

Just Imagine If There Was No Tommy John Surgery

Posted on by
Reply

All of us as St. Louis Cardinals fans — actually, all of us as baseball fans — should be thankful for Dr. Frank Jobe, an orthopedic surgeon who died a few days ago at age 88. You may or may not have heard of him, but there’s no question you’ve heard of his greatest contribution to baseball: ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery, better known as Tommy John surgery.

collage-Tommy JohnThat surgery is something we as Cardinals fans are quite familiar with, isn’t it? Jason Motte is still recovering from undergoing the procedure last May.

And just imagine what the 2011 Cardinals pitching staff would have been if there were no Tommy John surgery and a pitcher’s career — as happened with Sandy Koufax — just ended because of elbow injuries.

Of course there already wasn’t Adam Wainwright that season, since he’d had Tommy John surgery in February. But there also wouldn’t have been Chris Carpenter (who had the surgery in 2007), Jaime Garcia (2008), Jake Westbrook (2008), Kyle McClellan (2005 — and remember how good he was in the starting rotation early that year?) and Octavio Dotel (2005).

Just imagine … no happy flights and magical September and October without them, and that’s just one Cardinals season.

Also just one team. Last July Will Carroll, an expert on sports injuries, published a study at Bleacher Report that indicated one-third of current MLB pitchers at the time had undergone Tommy John surgery.That was 124 of 360 pitchers and even Carroll was stunned at the high number. Here’s his full list of the 124, if you’re interested.

Continue reading →