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A special thanks to A+E Networks Home Entertainment/MLB Productions for the awesome video.

WE at CardinalsGM have been allowed to give 3 copies of the 2011 World Series DVD to some lucky sports fans. For your chances to win, you can choose up to 3 ways to win.

Chance #1- Simply hit the “like” button on our CardinalsGM Facebook page.

Opportunity #2 – Add CardinalsGM to your twitter. Be a follower HERE.

Final Chance #3- Simply respond to this post with one or two sentences about what you enjoyed the most about the 2011 World Series.

NOTE: You can actually do all of these at the top of our BLOG.

Contest starts NOW and ends at Midnight CST on Thursday, December 1st, 2011.

Random drawing will be made on Friday, December 2, 2011

Winners will be announced on Saturday, December 3rd and A&E Home Entertainment will be sending the winners the DVD directly.

Good Luck!

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A special thanks to A+E Networks Home Entertainment/MLB Productions for the awesome video.

Are you looking for that great gift for the baseball fan in your household? Look no further, you can find it here.  The 2011 WORLD SERIES HIGHLIGHT FILM 2-DISC SET is just what Santa can bring!

What a feeling! I got to watch the 2011 World Series DVD of the St Louis Cardinals winning the whole thing. It was so insightful to hear interviews from Tony LaRussa talk about the strategy he used to manipulate the Cardinals through the series. Hearing Lance Berkman talk about the enormous heavy load he felt coming to bat with the last out of the Series on the line was priceless.

MVP David Freese used his pleasant personality to explain to how it felt to go from getting a fly ball off your head to a game winner in the 11^th. Jason Motte explains how he “soaked it all in” while coming out of the bullpen in the 9^th inning of Game 7. It was priceless! Reliving Chris Carpenter as he talks about losing Adam Wainwright to injury and how he felt honored to take the ball to win it all was awesome.

Many things fans didn’t see the first time come alive in this DVD that brings joys, fearts and tears to the fans of baseball.

The video had thoughts from members of the Rangers to offset their line of thinking throughout the entire series.

Some of the highlights of the DVD:

• Freese was unbelievable
• LaRussa never varied from his pla
• Carpenter dominated the postseason
• Berkman clutch with 2 outs
• Allen Craig smacks two home runs
• Seeing grown men turn into kids with the victory

This DVD is for every baseball fan and makes a great addition to a baseball collection.

 Want to win a copy of this awesome video? You can enter as many as 3 times to win this great gift from CardinalsGM. All the details will be released HERE at 8 AM on Thanksgiving Day.

2011 World Series DVD Press Release

In the OFFICIAL 2011 WORLD SERIES FILM, the annual, crowning program from Major League Baseball Productions, St. Louis native and narrator Jon Hamm (Mad Men) delivers the redoubtable Redbirds championship run, from first pitch to last in a pulse-pounding documentary format. Providing comprehensive highlights, exclusive access and interviews, plus breath-taking footage and sounds captured by MLB cameras and microphones throughout the series, this DVD is a perfect way to relive the epic battle against the Texas Rangers.

The OFFICIAL 2011 WORLD SERIES FILM will be released as a 2-disc set, featuring an exclusive bonus disc containing the complete NLDS Game 5 vs. the Phillies, a taut 1-0 pitcher’s duel which propelled the Cardinals to the NLCS and, ultimately, the World Series. Additional extras include behind-the-scenes interviews and bonus programming. Just in time for the holidays, the OFFICIAL 2011 WORLD SERIES FILM 2-Disc DVD will be available on November 22 and will also be available in the crystal clarity of a single Blu-ray disc on December 6, both currently available for pre-order on worldseries.com.

Bonus Material: This Week in Baseball – Dave Duncan on This Week in Baseball – Lance Berkman n Prime 9 La Russa Segment n NLDS Game 5 Last Out and Celebration n NLCS Game 6 Last Out and Celebration n WS Game 3 – Pujols 3 HRs n WS Game 6 – Freese Triple to Tie n WS Game 6 – Berkman Single to Tie Again n WS Game 6 – Freese Walk-off HR n WS Game 6 Postgame – Berkman and Freese Presser n WS Game 7 – Freese Double to Tie n WS Game 7 – Last out and Celebration n WS Parade— Buy the DVD set here.

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Today is Mr Musial’s birthday. Happy Birthday Stan!

November 21, 1920 Stan Musial was born in Donara, Pennsylvania. Here is an excerpt from wikipedia on Mr. Musial.

Stanley Frank “Stan” Musial (/ˈmjuːziəl/ or /ˈmjuːʒəl/; born November 21, 1920) is a retired professional baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals (1941–1963). Nicknamed “Stan the Man”, Musial was a record 24-time All-Star selection (tied with Willie Mays), and is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.^[1] He compiled 3,630 hits(ranking fourth all-time and most in a career spent with only one team). With 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 on the road, he is also considered to be the most consistent hitter of his era.^[1] He also compiled 475 home runs during his career, was named the National League‘s (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times, and won three World Series championship titles. Musial was a first-ballot inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 and is currently the longest tenured living Hall of Famer.

Musial was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, where he frequently played baseball in both informal and organized settings, eventually playing on the baseball team at Donora High School. Signed to a professional contract by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher in 1938, Musial was converted into an outfielder prior to his major league debut in 1941. Noted for his unique batting stance, he quickly established himself as a consistent and productive hitter. In his first full season, 1942, the Cardinals won the World Series. The following year, he led the National League in six different offensive categories and earned his first MVP award. He was also named an All-Star for the first time; he would be selected to every All-Star Game in every subsequent season he played. Musial won his second World Series ring in 1944, then missed the entire 1945 season while serving with the United States Navy.

I remember being able to see him play as a youngster and hearing my brothers talk about what a great player he is. One thing I can recall today is attending (not the ticket picture posted above) Stan Musial’s last game. Stan singled past a second baseman, a rookie, named Pete Rose.

People have been writing about Stan for years and his perfect demeanor and his ability to get along with people. Here are some awesome stories about “The Man”.

Stan Musial never got thrown out of a game. Never. Think about this for a moment. Musial played in 3,026 games in his career, or about as many as his contemporaries Joe DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky played combined. He played across different American eras — he played in the big leagues before bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, and he retired a few weeks before Kennedy was shot. He played when Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller ruled the Top 40 charts, and he played when Elvis was thin, and he played when Chubby Checker twisted. He played before television, and after John Glenn orbited the earth. And he never once got thrown out of a baseball game.

There was this game, in ‘52, that year the Today Show came to television and the Diary of Anne Frank was published, and the Musial’s Cardinals trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers by two runs in the ninth. The bases were loaded. There were two outs. Musial faced pitcher Ben Wade. The two battled briefly, and then Musial connected — a long home run to right field. Grand slam. Everyone in the stadium stood and cheered wildly — what could be bigger, a grand slam in the ninth to beat the hated Dodgers — and Musial started to run around the bases in his own inimitable way, not too fast, not too slow, all class. And it wasn’t until he rounded first and was closing in on second when everyone seemed to notice at once that the third base umpire was holding up his arms. A ball had rolled on the field just before the pitch. The umpire had called timeout.

Home plate umpire Tom Gorman realized he had no choice. He disallowed the home run. The stadium went black. The fans went mad. St. Louis manager Solly Hemus raced out the dugout, got into Gorman’s face and called him every name he could think of — finally Gorman had no choice and threw him out of the game. Peanuts Lowrey came in like a tag-team wrestler and picked up where Solly left off — Gorman tossed him too. Before it was done, Gorman threw out six Cardinals. He felt like a cowboy in one of those old Westerns clearing out the saloon, throwing out people through plate glass windows.

And then Musial, who in the confusion had not been told anything, walked over to Gorman. He calmly asked, “What happened Tom? It didn’t count, huh?” Gorman nodded sadly and said the third base umpire had called timeout.

“Well, Tom,” Musial said, “there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Stan Musial stepped back in the box while fists shook and boos and threats echoed around him. He promptly tripled off the top of the center field wall to score three runs and give the Cardinals the victory anyway.

“Stan,” Tom Gorman said after the game ended, “is in a class by himself.”

* * *

Stan Musial grew up in Donora, Pa., during the Depression. They were a family of eight in a five-room house. In Donora, the smoke and fumes from the zinc factory mushroomed so thick and poisonous that no vegetation could grow on the hill. That barren, brown hillside was a constant reminder that the air was killing them. Stan’s father, a Polish immigrant, worked in that factory and, not too many years after Stan started playing ball, died from the fumes.

Not that a tough childhood explains everything. Still, there was something about Stan Musial that did not let him forget Donora, did not allow him to change — “I’m so lucky,” he used to say every day, more than once every day, so many times that people would roll their eyes. But that seems to be how he felt, every day, lucky.

Harry Caray, who of course first gained his fame calling Cardinals games on KMOX, would tell the story of a beaten down Musial going hitless in a Sunday doubleheader. The heat was unbearable that day — hell could not be much hotter than a St. Louis summer day — and after the game Musial walked gingerly to his car. He looked beaten down. He looked beat up. Musial never seemed to think of baseball as a job, but a daytime doubleheader in St. Louis might be the closest thing.

“Watch this,” Caray said to a friend as they watched the scene, and sure enough when Musial got to the car, there were a hundred kids waiting for him an an autograph. Stan leaned against his hot car and signed every one.

Musial. People like to say that people have changed. I don’t see that exactly. The world has changed. Technology has changed. Movie and ticket prices have changed. Gas prices have changed,. Many of the rules have changed — the reserve clause is gone, Title IX is in place, they let people swear on cable TV, airplanes and restaurants won’t let you smoke and you can no longer hold your infant in your lap in the front seat of your car. But people? I don’t know. I get a little queasy when I hear old time ballplayers talk about how none of them would have used performance enhancing drugs, and a little queasier when I hear old-time politicians talk about how they always reached across the aisle. You will still hear a lot of people romanticizing America in the 1950s. Those people tend to look a lot alike.

Still, it’s probably fair to say that there was something unique about the time that produced Stan Musial. Maybe in those days people treasured what that thing they used to call class. Maybe they expected their singers to be dressed in tuxedoes, maybe they admired strong and silent types, maybe they liked football players who did not celebrate their own touchdowns or boxers who spoke quietly, maybe they wanted their children to believe in a world where baseball players drank milk and said “golly” and married their high school sweetheart. It seems to me that the quintessential hero today is Josh Hamilton, left-handed power, supremely gifted, fallen from grace, back from the depths, crushing home runs and driving in runners while covered in tattoos that represent a time he regrets. That’s a story for our time, a story about a lost soul redeemed, and it touches our 21st Century hearts.

Musial is from his time. He smoked under stairwells to be certain that no kid saw him doing it. Friends say he drank privately, and very little, Stan the Man could not allow anyone to see him at less than his best. He often said his biggest regret was that he did not go to college. And, yes, he married Lil, his high school sweetheart, on his 19th birthday, almost 70 years ago.

He wanted to be a role model. He seemed to need to feel like he was giving kids someone to respect. That, as much as anything, drove him. Teammates had a standing wager on how many times he would use the word “Wonderful” in any given day. They usually guessed low. He was terrified of making speeches (this, friends say, is why he started playing the harmonica in public) and yet he almost never turned down a speaking engagement. He played in great pain, but nobody ever caught him running half-speed. When he felt like his skills had diminished, he asked for and received a pay cut.

Joe Black used to tell a story — he was pitching against the Cardinals, and as usual the taunts were racial. “Don’t worry Stan,” someone in the Cardinals dugout shouted, “with that dark background on the mound you shouldn’t have any problem hitting the ball. Musial kicked at the dirt, spat, and faced Black like he had not heard anything. But after the game, Black was in the clubhouse, and suddenly he looked up and there was Stan Musial. “I’m sorry that happened,” Musial whispered. “But don’t you worry about it. You’re a great pitcher. You will win a lot of games.”

Chuck Connors, the Rifleman, used to tell a story — he was a struggling hitter for the Chicago Cubs in 1951. He asked teammates what he should do. They all told him the same thing: The only guy who can save you is Musial. So Connors went to Musial and asked for his help. Musial spent 30 minutes at the cage with an opposing player. “I was a bum of a hitter just not cut out for the majors,” Connors said. “But I will never forget Stan’s kindness. When he was finished watching me cut away at the ball, Stan slapped me on the back and told me to keep swinging.”

Ed Mickelson only got 37 at-bats in the Big Leagues, but he has a story too. Musial invited him to dinner — he was always doing that stuff — and there Mickelson explained that he felt so nervous playing ball, that he could hardly perform. Musial leaned over and said quietly, “Me too, kid. Me too. When you stop feeling nervous, it’s time to quit.”

Well, there are countless stories like that, stories about Musial’s common decency and the way he could make anyone around him feel like he was worth a million bucks.

“Musial treated me like I was the Pope,” Mickelson said, and he was still in awe more than 50 years later.

* * *

Those were the emotions Musial inspired in his time. He was so beloved in New York, that the Mets held a “Stan Musial Day.” In Chicago, he once finished first in a “favorite player” poll among Cubs fans, edging out Ernie Banks. Bill Clinton and Brooks Robinson, growing up about an hour apart in Arkansas, were inspired by him.

Of course, it was mostly the playing. Stan Musial banged out 3,630 hits even though he missed a year for the war. He hit .331 for his career, banged 1,377 extra base hits (only Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds have hit more), stretched out more than 900 doubles and triples (only Tris Speaker has more) and played in 24 All-Star Games. He had that quirky and unforgettable swing, that peek-a-boo stance, and he probably inspired more famous quotes by pitchers than any other hitter.

Preacher Roe (on how to pitch Musial): “I throw him four wide ones and try to pick him off first base.”

Carl Erskine (on how to pitch Musial): “I’ve had pretty good success with Stan by throwing him best pitch and
backing up third.”

Warren Spahn: “Once he timed your fastball, your infielders were in jeopardy.”

Don Newcombe: “I could have rolled the ball up there to Musial, and he would have pulled out a golf club and hit it out.”

And so on. Maybe pitchers felt in awe because there seemed no way to pitch him, no weaknesses in swing, fastballs up, curveballs away, forkballs in the dirt, he hit them all. In 1947, he had his most famous season, his season for the ages, .376 average, 46 doubles, 18 triples, 39 home runs, 135 runs, 131 RBIs. And yet, the thing about Musial, is that for more than 20 years he was pretty much always like that. Four other times he hit better than .350. Four other times he hit more than 46 doubles. He hit double digit triples eight times in all, he hit 30-plus homers five times, he walked more than twice as often as he struck out.

I suspect Musial can never be reflected in numbers because his resume is so all encompassing — it’s like Bob Costas said, he never hit in 56 straight games, and he did not hit 500 home runs (never hit 40 in a season), and he did not get 4,000 hits, and he did not hit .400 in any year. He was, instead, present, always, seventeen times in the Top 5 in batting average, sixteen times in the Top 5 in on-base percentage, thirteen times in the Top 5 in slugging percentage, nine times the league leader in runs created. To me, the best description of Musial through his stats is to say that 16 times in his career Musial hit 30 or more doubles. It might not make for a great movie. But all his baseball life Stan Musial hit baseballs into gaps and he ran hard out of the box.

* * *

Here’s the thing: A lot of baseball fans have forgotten Stan Musial. Anyway, it seems like that. His name is rarely mentioned when people talk about the greatest living players. He’s never had a best selling book written about him. A few years ago, when baseball was picking its All Century team, Stan Musial did not even received enough votes to be listed among the Top 10 outfielders. The Top 10.

True, he did not play in New York like the baseball icons, like Ruth and DiMaggio and Mantle and Koufax and Mays. True, he did not break the home run record like Aaron, he did not get banished from the game like Rose, he did not break barriers like Jackie, he did not swear colorfully like Ted, he did not hit three homers in a World Series game like Reggie, he did not glare like Gibson, he did not throw like Clemente and he did not say funny things like Yogi.

No, Musial just played hard and lived decently. He hit five home runs in a doubleheader, and had five hits on five swings in a game. He hit line drives right back at pitchers and then would go to the dugout after the game to make sure those pitchers were all right. He wasn’t perfect, of course, but he didn’t see the harm in letting people believe in something.

And maybe that sort of understated greatness isn’t meant to be shouted from the rooftops. Maybe Musial is just meant to be quietly appreciated. Every so often, even now, you can read an obituary somewhere in American’s heartland, and you will read about someone who “loved Stan Musial.” Everyone so often you will meet someone about 55 years old name Stan, and you will know why.

The above stories are an excerpt from HERE.

Albert Pujols may be the greatest player to play in St Louis…….. but Stan Musial will be the greatest “Man” to ever put on the Birds on the Bat!

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It should be illegal to bully a millionaire/billionaire into accepting qualifications like you have to move your franchise to a different league. Come on man, if I am paying hundreds of millions of dollars, don’t I want the final say? Sure I do.

What ever happened to “last one in, is the first one out?” Talking about you, Milwaukee. Wait, you got amnesty because you have an “in” with the commissioner. Ouch.

I think this was handled poorly along with several issues. I am thinking Bud Selig was not good for baseball. Look at the crazy things he has done… from DH, to interleague play, to All Star game counts, to forced realignment and now possibly interleague play every day of the year.

This is just so wrong on so many levels.

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I am making plans to attend a game in Houston this season since it is their last in the National League.

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Mike Matheny will be formally announced on Monday as the next manager of the prestigious St Louis Cardinals.

This is a team that just won the World Series with one of the most experience managers on the planet.

Now they go the other direction and hire one with NO experience. Is that a good move?

You bet it is. The coaching staff he has available to work with has tons of valuable experience for Matheny to draw from. Duncan can help him with the pitchers, though that is probably the area Mathey feels the most comfortable.

Base coaches and infield gurus are Dave McKay and Jose Oquendo and they have been cranking it out with success for several years.

Mark McGwire and Joe Pettini along with Murphy and Lilliquist can round out the staff quite well.

Now maybe one or two are deciding to move into another job or organization and that is fine. Matheny has the resources to draw upon a lot of great former Cardinals to help him out.

This appears to be a great hire but a risky move for John Mozeliak. He could have played it safe and hired someone with experience but he felt comfortable with this one. If Mike Matheny is good enough for Mo, then he is good enough for me.

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Makes you ready to play ball!

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We have had a great time doing this and we are just in the first 20% of the questions.

Today the questions is:

which player (or players) with ZERO previous major league experience will see time with the St. Louis club in 2012 and for what reason?

This question came from PitchersHitEighth and you can find the link HERE.

Roundtable #2 — RetroSimba

Roundtable #1 — I70 Baseball

Be sure to follow the previous questions at United Cardinal Bloggers.

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It’s a sad day. For the first time in FOREVER, Albert Pujols is not listed on the St. Louis Cardinals Roster. As of last night at midnight – he is officially an unrestricted free agent. Take a look at the roster below as of 11/3/2011 and just think about how WRONG it feels.

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The United Cardinal Bloggers have a really good thing going with 30 or so bloggers chiming in for the Question of the Day. Each day a blogger poses a question and the others fire their answers back. the blogger transcribes it and posts it on their blog.

Roundtable Question #3 – From August 25 to the end of the season, who was the Cardinals MVP?

Christine Coleman at Aaron Miles Fastball has given us the answer the bloggers have chosen.

========= If you want to see previous roundtable questions, they are listed below.======

Roundtable #2 — RetroSimba

Roundtable #1 — I70 Baseball

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So Bodog released odds on who the next St. Louis Cardinals manager will be. I find them pretty interesting. Take a look at these odds below:

Tony La Russa replacement Odds.

Who will be the next Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals?