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Book Review: Wild Cards

Posted on November 15, 2011 at 9:50 PM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals
Someone has to be first.

As the story of the 2011 Cardinals unfolded, you knew that it was going to spawn numerous books.  I even said a few times on the various podcasts that the comeback that the Cards needed was the type books were written about.  There are going to be a number of works of literature that are going to be composed about this team, and someone has to be first.

It appears that prolific Cardinal author Rob Rains is the first out of the chute with his book Wild Cards: The St. Louis Cardinals' Stunning 2011 Championship Season.  Rains chronicles each game of the playoffs as well as some of the themes and highlights from the season as a whole.  Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, David Freese and Jason Motte all come in for a feature article as well, talking about their seasons.

While the book is a nice stroll down memory lane, it doesn't come without its flaws.  I'm not sure if Triumph Books doesn't have a strong editing section or what, but I've noticed punctuation errors and misspelled words in some other books by Rains and my expectation was I'd find them in a book that had to be hurriedly put together.  There were some, though I will say not as many as I thought there would be.  Periods missing, no beginning quotation marks, things like that.

The biggest glitch in the book is such a glaring one that you wonder how it got out of the publisher like this.  Rains writes up a couple of pages on the last game of the season, the Chris Carpenter shutout vs. Houston.  What you see on page 72 of the book is "The Final Night" and the beginning of that story.  Page 73 has a picture of Carpenter and Yadier Molina after the final out.  Page 74 finishes the story and page 75 has a picture of Allen Craig after his home run.

Fine and good.  Then, after a two-page spread about Matt Holliday, we pick up with page 78--which has a very familiar picture of Carpenter and Molina.  Page 79 is entitled "The Final Night", which is the exact same story as is on page 72, though the format of the subtitle is different and the first paragraph is not popped out like it is the first time around.  Then, pages 80 and 81 are carbon copies of 74 and 75, save the caption for the picture is a little different.

You have to expect these things, though, on a book that lists its publication date at November 1, which was just three days after the World Series wrapped up.  The layout of the book, with the Series first, then the season, then the NLDS and NLCS, makes you think that some of the book got started after the Cards got into October, with the Series stuff hurriedly tacked on.  That is reinforced when you read the Freese feature, which talks about his spectacular NLCS without a mention of his World Series heroics.

The other thing that is disappointing about the book is that it is not in-depth, again a feature of it coming out so quickly.  For example, the writeup of Game 2 of the NLDS is six paragraphs, with room left on the page.  Game 5 of that series gets more column inches, but a majority of it focuses on the relationship and history of Carpenter and Roy Halladay, There's little to no discussion of the actual game, just the backstory and then some of the history of the moment and an extended discussion with Tim Wilken, who was responsible for drafting the two pitchers.  Not surprisingly, the quotes from Wilken were already used in a story by Rains right after the game.  When you are turning around something this quickly, you have to scavenge from game stories, packaged quotes, and your own writings.

I don't mean to harp on these points--the book does stand as a nice memento of the season and if you are one that doesn't want to wait for a more detailed book maybe a few years down the line, this well may be for you.  If nothing else, the pictures in the book, which take up a lot of the 128 pages, are outstanding.  There's an Opening Day shot of Albert Pujols hugging on Stan Musial that might be worth the price of admission right there.

If you like the idea of the book but don't want to clutter up more of your bookcase, you can also find it in all the digital bookstores (iBooks, Kindle, Nook) and read it on your iPad or your phone.  I'm not sure you can get the real impact of the pictures on a phone, though they'd probably look very nice on a tablet.

Again, there will be other books--in fact, I believe another one is on the way to me for review soon--but if you can't wait, this one's for you.


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Heroes
Matt Holliday (5)
Matt Carpenter (4)
Rafael Furcal (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
Yadier Molina (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Lance Berkman (1)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
David Freese (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Marc Rzepczynski (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Fernando Salas (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Eduardo Sanchez (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 12
Happy Flight %: 58%

Through 5/20

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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