No baseball fans loved their guy more than Cardinal Nation loved Albert Pujols this time last year. But one October later, he has become the civic punch line.
While Cardinal-for-life Stan Musial is treated like the pope in Vatican City, Pujols inspires more Busch Stadium signage than any of the guys still playing in St. Louis.
"Albert, enjoy your tee time.''
"Alive without 5.''
"No Pujols, no big deal.''
Even for the people making the signs, it must be hard to believe this is happening. The Cardinals appear headed back to the World Series without their greatest run producer since Musial, and they're doing it with rookie manager Mike Matheny and first-year pitching coach Derek Lilliquist.
This would be the Cardinals' fourth trip to the Series in the last nine years, and only pitcher Chris Carpenter and Yadier Molina, a rookie then sharing catching duties with Matheny, were around when the Red Sox swept the 105-victory team in 2004. Adam Wainwright was pitching out of the bullpen when they beat the Tigers in the 2006 World Series, and the influx from then until last year, when they rallied to crush the dreams of the Rangers, included Kyle Lohse, Jaime Garcia, Jason Motte, Allen Craig, David Freese and Jon Jay.
This year's World Series roster would include 10 newcomers from a year ago, the most notable being Carlos Beltran (replacing Pujols), emergency shortstop Pete Kozma and relievers Joe Kelly, Edward Mujica, Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal.
How do they keep it going? General manager John Mozeliak has been successful in trades and free-agent signings in the five years since he took over for Walt Jocketty, but the real secret lies more in the organization's ability to scout and develop players, which dates back to Branch Rickey.
George Kissell, who should be in the Hall of Fame, oversaw Joe Torre's transition from catcher to third base and worked with a large-hipped young shortstop named Pujols, who later would migrate from third base to left field before winding up at first base. Shortly before Kissell died at 88 in 2008, from injuries in a traffic accident, Mozeliak hired Gary LaRocque as organizational shaman.
Baseball is a game of supply and demand, and somehow the Cardinals always seem to have the supply. Consider how Kozma, for much of the season a Triple-A second baseman, was ready to step in when shortstop Rafael Furcal tore a ligament in his elbow making a throw Aug. 30.
"He has swung the bat great,'' Matt Holliday said. "We needed somebody to come up and play defense, and he has done that. Just young players, you know, really stepping up and having big success in the postseason has made our lineup even tougher to deal with.''
Like second baseman Daniel Descalso, Kozma is doing all the things a team needs its middle infielders to do.
"Doesn't matter who is on the team or who's hurt," Holliday said. "There's an expectation that young guys come up and fill the void and veterans step up. We have guys like Carp and (Wainwright) and Skip (Schumaker) and guys who were here long before I got here. (They) provide that Cardinal way. They teach us and the young guys, 'Hey, we're the Cardinals, and we're going to play in the playoffs.' "
Wainwright sees the Cardinals building success from the ground up, not the top down.
"What Matt said about Kozma, he's not afraid of the big situation,'' Wainwright said. "That's bred in us over here in St. Louis. From the bottom up, the organization just makes you believe you're a winner from the very first level on."
Badly missed: Some of the long obituaries written after the Tigers swept the Yankees failed to mention the worst thing that happened to the Pinstripes — Derek Jeter's broken ankle in the 10th inning of Game 1.
With Jeter, the Yankees had outscored the opposition 20-14 in the playoffs; without him, the Tigers won that battle 15-2. You can't say Jeter would have saved the day, but he would have had plenty of chances in the 3-0 loss in Game 2 and the 2-1 loss in Game 3.
Now he becomes the biggest question of the offseason. Even bigger than whether to trade Alex Rodriguez and how manager Joe Girardi can reconnect his overmanaged team is whether there will be any greatness left in the 38-year-old Jeter after surgery to repair his ankle.
You know Jeter is going to bust it to go out the right way, whether it's after 2013, the last guaranteed year of his contract, or '14, for which he holds a player option for $8 million. But don't the Yankees have to acquire a shortstop this winter as insurance, if nothing else?
It's a thin free-agent market (Alex Gonzalez, Ronny Cedeno, Marco Scutaro, Cesar Izturis and Yuniesky Betancourt), so general manager Brian Cashman may have to tiptoe into the trade market, looking to find a versatile player who could be an everyday shortstop. This a much more delicate situation than anything involving Rodriguez.
Lingering questions: While the Stephen Strasburg shutdown is the biggest issue hanging over the Nationals, you can argue that they would have knocked off the Cardinals if not for manager Davey Johnson's use of his bullpen.
Scouts said there was a buzz when Johnson used Drew Storen to pitch the ninth inning of an 8-0 loss in Game 3, as well as when he brought Edwin Jackson into Game 5 for an inning of relief. Both decisions blew up on him, with Storen imploding when Johnson needed him to close out the deciding game.
Storen not only was pitching three games in a row, as he was the winning pitcher in Game 4, he was also coming off his most pitches in an outing (26) since surgery in April to remove bone chips from his elbow. He had told TBS' Craig Sager before Game 5 he could pitch if needed, but it was clear he was tired, which made you wonder why Johnson hadn't used someone else with an eight-run deficit in Game 3.
The Nationals had 12 pitchers on their playoff roster, but Johnson used Mike Gonzalez and Tom Gorzelanny only once each. Gorzelanny, who had a good year in the bullpen, was a forgotten man after throwing three pitches in Game 1. It's hard to figure out why if he was healthy.
In a Washington Post column, John Feinstein argued that the Nationals' biggest mistake came when they allowed Scott Boras to talk them into signing Jackson as part of the plan to build the pitching depth they would need to protect Strasburg. He remains baseball's ultimate tease, a beast when his slider is on and an easy mark without it.
The last word: "I'm not going to turn myself into the Bronx Bunters because all of a sudden we didn't hit for this week in October." — Cashman, saying he plans to continue building around power hitters.
Twitter @ChiTribRogers
