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And what girl doesn\u2019t want a big ol\u2019 diamond on her anniversary (amiright)? <\/p>\nMy wife, Ellen, and I were married on July 4, 1992 at St. Angela Merici Parish in Florissant, Mo. in North St. Louis County. <\/p>\n
The Cardinals were playing the San Francisco Giants in California that day, so we did not attend the game. Had the game been in Busch Stadium II \u2026 she might have ended up at the ballpark in her wedding dress at some point. <\/p>\n
We ended up in Chicago and Wisconsin for our honeymoon. We attended games at Wrigley Field and Milwaukee County Stadium, where the Brewers used to play. <\/p>\n
So I decided for our 33rd anniversary that we would take the train for a day trip to Chicago to watch the Cardinals and the Cubs. With both teams\u2019 colors being red, white and blue and baseball being America\u2019s Pastime (it\u2019s not anymore, having been passed by football years ago, but just go with me) it sounded perfect. <\/p>\n
And what girl doesn\u2019t want a big ol\u2019 diamond on her anniversary (amiright)? <\/p>\n
We hit a little pregame rain, but we hung out in the Cubby Bear across from Wrigley and had lunch. There were a few Cardinals fans sprinkled through the venerable bar and grill and we had great food and cold beer. <\/p>\n
We made it into the stadium grabbed more beer ($15 apiece for at 16 oz. Busch Latte, including the tip, of course) and sat in our seats in Section 204. We had two seats on the good side of a support beam and the Cubs fans around us were fun. <\/p>\n
Then Miles Mikolas took the mound. <\/p>\n
Mikolas has had one great season for St. Louis. He went 18-4 as a starting pitcher, was an all-star and finished in the top 10 in National League Cy Young Award voting, the award given to each league\u2019s best pitcher each year. He was also an all-star in 2022. <\/p>\n
But he hasn\u2019t been very good since then and has always had a little trouble with giving up home runs, at least 25 a year in every season since 2018 except for the COVID-shortened 2021 campaign. <\/p>\n
But there he was in the bottom of the first inning facing the arch-rival, division-leading North Side Small Bears. <\/p>\n
First batter, left fielder Ian Happ, hits one to the track. Close, but no cigar. Man, a cigar would\u2019ve been great to have yesterday, but they don\u2019t allow smoking in ball parks and my wife hates them. I have like one a month, so let\u2019s not act like I\u2019m Winston Churchill. <\/p>\n
After the second out, the Cubs get back-to-back home runs from DH Seiya Suzuki and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who just looks like he\u2019s going to be a stud. And these are no doubter homers. Just bombs. <\/p>\n
Since the Cardinals entered Friday\u2019s game having been shut out by the bottom-of-the-division Pittsburgh Pirates in THREE STRAIGHT GAMES, two runs already felt insurmountable. <\/p>\n
After St. Louis went down 1-2-3 in the second, tra-la-la-la-la, here come the Cubs again. First baseman Michael Busch (Ellen\u2019s comment: \u201cShouldn\u2019t he be playing for us?\u201d) and catcher and former Cardinal Carson Kelly each with tape measure shots. I mean these balls probably showed up on the air traffic controller screens at O\u2019Hare Field. <\/p>\n
Giving up four home runs before getting four outs? Not winning baseball. <\/p>\n
Cards\u2019 offense remains on the side of a milk carton in the top of the third. Bottom of the third, Pete Crow-Armstrong is back. Man, this kid already has a lot of jerseys in the stands. And he shows us why with another home run. Two batters later, not to be outdone, Busch bashes another as well. Neither of these balls are cheap homers. Mikolas is getting beaten up like called their mamas ugly. <\/p>\n
Since Busch just homered again, I guess I\u2019ll have another of the beers he was named after. <\/p>\n
Six home runs in the games first three innings. Wrigley Field day games in perfect weather have always been hitter friendly, but for the love of Pete (Crow-Armstrong on this day). <\/p>\n
Cards get a run in the fourth inning. A homer by second baseman Brandon Donovan. A run. Yay! <\/p>\n
Mikolas then proceeds to sit down the Cubs 1-2-3 in the bottom of the fourth. There he goes. He\u2019s just settling in! <\/p>\n
But wait. PCA (that\u2019s what the kids call Crow-Armstrong) only gets a single in the fifth. After a Dansby Swanson groundout, Busch is back. If he doesn\u2019t homer, I won\u2019t have another beer. <\/p>\n
RBI single. Whew, thanks for saving me that money, Mike!<\/p>\n
Mikolas pitches a scoreless sixth. I get sometimes having to have a pitcher wear one just to save the bullpen for the rest of the series, but letting him allow six home runs? And the guy has stunk it up all season? <\/p>\n
John King comes in the seventh. Maybe homerfest is over. Time for a hot dog.<\/p>\n
King gets the first two outs before another PCA hit, just a single, thank goodness. <\/p>\n
But Swanson joins the homer party by hitting Chicago\u2019s seventh of the game. Now Busch is back. It\u2019s the seventh. Last chance if I want beer. I\u2019m in line to get a hot dog and I just order a Coke Zero go to with it. <\/p>\n
Then I hear the roar. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Three home runs from Busch and EIGHT home runs given up by the Cardinals. <\/p>\n
At least the timing saved me from another $15 beer. The $9 Coke Zero was a much better deal. <\/p>\n
So I eat my hot dog on the way out (we had seen enough) and Ellen and I grab an Uber to Union Station and catch the train home. I got to see history and spend a great day at the ballpark with my girl. Good day. <\/p>\n
I get up early to take the dogs out and do my morning MRN duties (yes, on a Saturday on a holiday weekend. News never stops. Brittany Boll and I are cranking content today) and I read Steve\u2019s Daily Dirt with this headline:<\/p>\n
Are you freaking kidding me? After what I just saw with my own two eyes and after what I\u2019ve watched the last two seasons? <\/p>\n
No, Steve. Oli Marmol should not be National League Manager of the Year.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
J. Robert Gough is the publisher and general manager of Muddy River News. Ellen Duffy-Gough is known around MRN headquarters as \u201cThe CEO\u201d or \u201cSt. Ellen.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My wife, Ellen, and I were married on July 4, 1992 at St. Angela Merici Parish in Florissant,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,24,21694,3385,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-153829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-fourth-of-july","12":"tag-home-runs","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-st-louis","15":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","16":"tag-stlouis","17":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114800985667113977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}