A Well Deserved Cy

Back in late September, I had a conversation with Chris Carpenter that really told me a lot about him.

At the time, he had had a couple bad starts in a row after having basically nothing but quality starts all year. Needless to say, he was not in the best spirits. "Yeah, it's been a good year," he said, "but lately I feel like all the innings I've pitched are catching up to me. I just can't locate my pitches the way I did earlier in the season."

I tried to reassure him. "You've been the best pitcher in the league all year, and you'll get it back together."

"I sure hope so," he said as he dropped his head, his eyes disappearing beneath the brim of his cap. "I feel like I'm letting the team down with my performance lately. I just don't want to screw things up for them."

"Chris, that's ridiculous," I said. "The team wouldn't be anywhere without you. You've been its star all year. Sure it's been rough at times, but you've carried us through. And yeah, we're in ninth place right now, but without you we wouldn't be above 12th or 13th place. I'd say the team is pretty proud of you."

Slowly, as he thought about what I had said, he began to pick his head up, and he looked at me with a sideways glance that was at the same time frustrated and amused. He stared at me for a couple seconds, and then he said, "I'm talking about the Cardinals, skip, not the Crickets!!"

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The Crickets were born out of my friend Adam's fantasy baseball league. It was my first time playing fantasy baseball, and to say that I screwed up the draft would be a tremendous understatement. My first two picks were Edgar Renteria (ranked #39) and Joey Gathright (ranked about #800), and while a few fantasy nerds would tell you that those were not the best choices, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. But my best pick was the first pitcher I chose, Mr. Chris Carpenter. I later told Adam about the pick, and I said that I was able to get Carp because some people thought that his great 2004 year was a fluke. Adam said that, yeah, he kind of thought that it was a fluke, too.

Apparently Carpenter was listening, because he put together a remarkable year. I was lucky enough to see him pitch twice this year; in the first game he pitched eight shutout innings to defeat Andy Pettitte, and the second, also in Houston, was his 20th victory. I was honored to be able to attend that game, which at the time made a Cy Young seem almost certain. Carpenter slipped a little down the stretch, and you could make a great argument for Willis or Clemens or Pettitte (though they went a combined 0-4 against Carpenter), but it's great to see him get the Cards' first Cy Youong award since Bob Gibson. He started three of the Cardinals' five postseason victories, and he was one of two players on the team who really deserve whatever postseason accolades come their way. Way to go, Chris. There's a spot in the 2006 Crickets' starting rotation waiting for you.