Cardinals swept the Padres in the first round of the playoffs last night. It was a nail biter until the very end, as it has been with the Cardinals all season long it seems. I cannot wait for Wednesday. My dad and I have tickets to the game at Busch Stadium Wednesday night. This will be the first game I have been to all season. I usually try to go to a few games, but I did not have time this summer. There is no better time to go than during the playoffs. I’m really looking forward to it. Let’s hope they get to the World Series again, and this time win. I also hope the Yankees lose tonight and get eliminated from further post season play.

As I sat reading Buzz Bissinger and Tony La Russa’s 3 Nights in August I began thinking of the phenomenon that is Cardinals Nation. Growing up, you hear those familiar questions: Where were you when JFK was shot? (not born yet) or when 9/11 happened (getting ready for my Anthropology class in college). We, the Cardinal Nation have different questions, and not just the familiar “Where’d you go to high school?” (Fort Zumwalt South). Our questions deal with the team we have come to worship. Where were you when Mark McGwire hit number 62? (sitting in my family room with my parents). The question that got me started on this little rant was “Where were you when Daryl Kyle died?” I remember this one vividly. I was at work at the time, and a coworker came and told me. I was shocked and saddened, but what I saw was something else. What I saw was just how deep the Cardinal Nation feeling really goes. If you would have talked, or even looked, at my coworker you would think a close relative died. I remember him calling his wife and telling her. That’s when I realized how deep Cardinal blood runs. Two tragedies happened that week, with the passing of DK and Jack Buck. People talk about how united the country was after 9/11, but I say, there is nothing like the unison that comes about through the Cardinal Nation, whether it be the deaths of two legends or taking a trip to the World Series. United we stand, but there is no dividing us. We are Cardinals fans.

I’ve got Cardinals playoff tickets!!!!!!!! Thanks to my lovely mom. I can’t wait.

“The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association have reached an agreement in principle on the terms of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement,” says the NHLPA in a statement.

How great is this! I can finally watch the Blues play again. Let’s hope someone buys the team soon.

You know, I don’t know what it is, but I love golf movies. I don’t care what it is, Happy Gilmore, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Tin Cup. It doesn’t matter to me. If it is about golf, I like it. Saturday night I watched Bobby Jones. This was the movie that starred Jesus (Jim Caviezel) and told the life story of the legendary golfer and Masters founder. It was an excellent movie. If anyone has any other golf movies to recommend, let me know. I’ll probably like it.