Almost always, we take an elevator to reach a higher/lower floor in a large building. But…I’ve thought of the possibility, as a youngster that it would be fun riding it up & down. Let’s do that now..

….As the door opened, we saw what looked like lots of businessmen.  We had stopped at the MLB HQ for General Managers. Each was trying to improve their team. But…like many things.. it comes down to money. 2 teams had team salaries over $300,000 (Mets & Yankees), 8 teams had team salaries over $200,00 (less than $300,000)—in order—Phillies, Astros, Rangers, Blue Jays,Braves, Cubs, Giants. The Cardinals are 11^th in team spending @ $179+m. It sure didn’t seem like a good place to “hang out” since it was so uneven. Sooo….we hopped back to the elevator, closed the door, went upward.

….next time the door opened, initially it looked like a mirage. It couldn’t be real!  But… now after 1/3 of the season Shohei Ohtani is REAL! As of today He leads the league in batting–.364; is just 1 HR behind the MLB leader with 12 HR’s; is 4^th in Runs Scored; has the highest OPS in MLB @ 1.108. This guy REALLY is for real.  As we turned around to go back to the elevator, we were still in disbelief!

…We jumped back on & the door closed quickly…When the elevator door opened next, immediately it was cold…real Cold. Somehow, the Blues had made this entire floor have a frigid temp. None the less, we slipped around on the ice to watch. Clearly, the “new” leaders are Robert Thomas & Jordan Kyrou. Thomas really excelled last year. Somehow, some fans want Kyrou to be something that he isn’t..he’s a scorer….not a checker. My eyes caught Kyrou doing shooting drills by himself in the corner of the ice.  A crowd favorite, Pavel Buchnevich who scored 27 goals, was working by himself on handling the puck (since the turned it over so often last year). It seemed to my untrained eyes that Kyrou & Buchnevich were almost shadows of each other.  I got cold on this floor so slipped my way back to the elevator.

…..the elevator continued upward….when the door opened, we saw 30 different teams trying to walk on the high plank of playing post-season football. Most have made the playoffs in recent years. The longest playoff draught is 13 seasons by the NY Jets. Denver has missed the playoffs for 8 years. Atlanta & Carolina have each missed the playoffs for 6 straight years. After that, several teams have missed the NFL playoffs for 3 years!  Now.. I know that most StL sports fans hate the NFL due to Stan (boy, I hate using that 1^st name for this guy) Kroenke. But, one must admit that their parity of their league keeps the fan-bases engaged. In the MLB, the current longest playoff draught is 9 years—LA Angels & Detroit Tigers. The longest draught w/o a Division Championship has 3 teams–Colorado, Miami, Pittsburgh. Each has each gone 31 years w/o a division title!! The teams with the longest World Series draught are: Seattle Mariners (47 years)-they’ve NEVER played in the World Series! For the Pirates it’s been 44 seasons  (1980) and Milwaukee Brewers 41 years. We felt like we’d better leave quickly or we’d see the Cardinals fall off the high playoff plank again!  It was painful last year!

….we continued going upwards in the elevator. As we reached the Tiger Level, we hopped out. There we saw Brady Cook throwing to multiple receivers. He looked sharp!  Cook had really made a “mark” last season. This Chaminade grad shined in 2023. His stats show it…He had nine-200 yd passing games; threw for a career best 3,317 yards (8^th best @ MU) and held a 157.2 passing efficiency ratin–3^rd best mark in MU history. His passes were “key” passes—he had  21 TD passes ( tied for 9th on the Tigers’ single-season chart). Further his 38 career TD tosses rates 7th all-time in program history. He’s decided to return to Columbia. I wanted to catch a pass from him but I was told to “move on”…Soooo…we did.

….Now we moved slowly upwards in the elevator, it made me think that we often forget about the “real”life of these professional athletes. Then I remembered reading that LeBron James had gone recently to watch his son, Bronny, compete at the NBA draft combine. Just like any other parent would do (if they could get by the barriers to get inside. But Bronny has already gone through “tough” times. In late July, he went into cardiac arrest probably due to a congenital heart defect during a basketball workout at USC and needed surgery. These talented athletes are parents, spouses, friends, etc too! …suddenly, the elevator came to a quick stop (which threw me off-balance). Before I could regain my balance, I wondered—how long will it be before the Cardinals are “good” again? Our current two “stars” aren’t going to take us there.  That off-balance feeling depicts the 2024 Cardinals….the Cards are tied for last in the MLB in HR’s with only 25 round trippers in 36 games. Looked upon in the Pre-Season as stars—Paul Goldschmidt went through an 0 for 23 skid in May! Meanwhile, Nolan Arenado (brought in for power) has just 2 home runs for the season! On the other end of their careers—Victor Scott & Johdan Walker are both back in the minor leagues! Remember, if a player plays 171 or fewer days in the MLB, it will NOT count as a full year of experience towards reaching free agency. Thus, he’ll be considered a rookie the following year!! I’m speculating that the when there is isn’t enough days left in the season to reach that 170 game mark, we’ll see Scott &/or Walker up with the Birds. I was still off balance back (finally!)

….This time we began moving downward, yet I was still off-balance when I read (it’s dangerous to read while on an elevator) that Michael Wacha has “learned how to pitch over the past two years, knowing when to dial it up and dial it down”  Wacha is known for his special downward plane he gets on his fastball and for his elite changeup. He’s. He went 11-2 with a 3.32 ERA with Boston in 2022 and then 14-4 with a 3.22 ERA over 24 starts for the Padres last year. The Royals got a real bargain when they landed him on a two-year, $32 million deal this offseason. (Wacha has a $16 million player option for 2025.) It made me wonder about the quality of Cardinals pitching coaches & their development coaches!  I was really off-balance now….

…as I was clinging onto the bar in front of me as the descent began quickly…I thought…yes Wacha is good in ’24. But, who’s been the best pitchers through April & May? Who has the best Earned Run Average? That seems to be a better barometer than using “WINS” to find the good pitcher. Heck, starting pitchers on the Dodgers & Yankees will almost always have more win.  Sooo….as I was thinking, a group of pitchers entered. They all had low ERA’s…how about Shota Imanaga, Cubs (1^st-ERA, 0.96), Ranger Suárez, Phillies (3^rd-ERA, 1.50), Seth Lugo, Royals (4^th-ERA, 1.66), Javier Assad, Cubs (5^th-ERA, 1.70),Ronel Blanco, Astros (8^th-ERA, 2.23)  Kutter Crawford, Red Sox (T-9^th-ERA, 2.24),Tanner Houck, Red Sox (T-9^th-ERA, 2.24). I didn’t recognize most of those names!!  The door opened as all these pitchers exited

…suddenly… the door closed, we began, a quicker descent. It made me think of the quick change of momentum in any athletic contest. Just this week, StL City had a penalty kick blocked  early in the match by GK Hugo Lloris. That “save” seemed to change the momentum as City fell to LAFC 2-0. A 2^nd yellow card to CITY SC’s Anthony Markanich changed the momentum  as LA FC raised their record to 6-4-3(W-Draw-L). City fell to 3 wins, 7 draws, 2 losses for the season. In the standings, a team receives 3 pts for a win and 1 point for a tie. The season runs from February to October with generally a game/week.

….At the next floor, several college players jumped on the elevator with us. Most were tall…really tall. Soooo..never one to stay quiet…I said to them…. Are you guys basketball players? They all smiled! One finally said, “yea, we just signed with Mizzou”. MU signed 5 players this spring (as of this moment).. Annor Boateng-6’6″, 210 lbs, Little Rock, AR; Peyton Marshall-7’0″, 300 lbs, Atlanta, GA; Marcus Allen-

6’6″, 190 lbs, Miami, FL; Trent Burns-7’3″, 210 lbs, Houston, TX; .O. Barrett-6’4″, 180 lbs,  Branson, MO. WOW, I thought!  MU has didn’t take long to “rebuild”.

…..Now…I squeezed myself to the front of the elevator, we were heading downwards. The sudden stop made me wobble, but I kept my feet. Off we went…what a ride it had been!!  Your thoughts on any of my “stops”?  Bob