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Spirit of St. Louis

Thanks to Will Clark, Cards hanging onto first place

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By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

	• Storylines • Series to See • All Thumbs • Heroes & Bums • Short Hops • Yogi-isms

Where would the St. Louis Cardinals be without Will Clark?

And where the heck was Will Clark -- this Will Clark -- in Baltimore?

Now that all that trading frenzy has settled down a bit, it's clear to see which National League team did the best in the annual mid-season maneuvering.

Clark, shipped from the Orioles to the Cardinals July 31, is hitting .386 (through Monday's game). Will Clark has hit seven home runs. He's driven in 17 runs.

All in just 24 games in red.

Not bad for an emergency fill-in for Mark McGwire.

"When you go from 12 games out of first all the way to the pennant race, you're excited," Clark told Sports Illustrated in explaining his hot streak. "It's a long trip from the outhouse to the penthouse, and I was happy to take it."

The Cardinals are hardly tearing it up without McGwire. Since he started his sit-out on July 26 with a bad knee, St. Louis is 24-23.

But, goodness gracious, where would they be without Will Clark?

Is Will still The Thrill? In St. Louis, he is. But he's also been The Pill: Just what the doctor ordered.

On to The Week at a Glance, which asks this: Subway Series, anyone?

The answer: Hold on, now, hold on. We're not there yet.

The National League East Not since late April has this race been this close. And it can't get any closer, if you're measuring. The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets have some fighting left to do, too. Six games in September, in fact, which could decide the whole thing.
Ripken's back A bad back has kept Cal Ripken Jr. out of almost the entire second half of the season, but he's planning on making a comeback in September. If all goes well, the 40-year-old creaking Iron Man would like to be back for another year in 2001. We say, with the shape the O's are in, half a Cal is better than nothing.
The NL West A true pennant race still might be had here, too, if the Diamondbacks don't get any more games like that last one out of Randy Johnson. And what if all those suspensions the Dodgers had to endure for the Wrigley mess really end up hurting them?
The NL Central The only division in the senior circuit without a real race, it may be the one with the quickest postseason exit, too, if Mark McGwire doesn't heal up and the St. Louis Cardinals don't start playing a little better than they have been -- they are 23-21 after the All-Star break -- it could turn ugly quickly in St. Louis. But then there's that Will the Thrill guy.
Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays, Sept. 1-4 Two teams that are looking like also-rans, but each with a little breath left in them. Neither is out of the postseason yet, but it's almost September. Enough fooling around, already.
New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals, Sept. 1-3 The Cards have not been particularly impressive in the second half, but they did a number on the Braves last weekend, winning three of four games at Turner Field. Now come the Mets, who have been unconscious lately. New York was 6 1/2 games out on July 26 and since then has gone 24-9.
The Bugs . All the crummy pitching, millionaire crybabies and featherweights pounding the ball out of the park are bad enough, especially considering you have to pay $40 a ticket to see it. Now, you have to watch it through a swarm of bugs? We think, somehow, Bud Selig is behind this.
The Dodgers . As bad as things have gone in L.A. this season, at least the Dodgers can admit when they've screwed up. By making amends with two patrons chucked out of the park for a spontaneous kiss -- a kiss! -- the Dodgers have shown they truly know this is a game for everyone.
The Pirates . Small-market, small-time ... sometimes, they just go together. No way this should be the worst team in baseball. But it is.
The Expos . The thumb's just showing which direction they're heading. After playing .500 ball before the break, the small-market Expos -- oh, here we go again -- have slipped into the NL East cellar with a 13-31 mark since the All-Star break.
Hero -- Jim Edmonds: 'Cause we're in a giving mood, we'll point out his major-league best four homers last week -- not the .179 average.
Bum -- Derek Bell: He's after the WAAG's Hero-Bum award, kind of like the CatDog thing. This week, the Mets' outfielder is a dog: Oh-for-18. Not to mention that pitching outing.
Hero -- Jorge Posada: A baseball-leading 13 RBIs for the Yanks' catcher, and a .407 average, to boot.
Bum -- Al Martin: The Seattle outfielder was 1-for-19 (.053), which wasn't in the Mariners' trade agreement, we're sure.
Hero -- Adrian Beltre: The L.A. third baseman hit .538 (14-for-26) on the week, with 11 RBIs.
Bum -- Mike Stanley: Three-for-27, or .111 in layman's terms, is not good, and it may be a reason the A's are sliding.
Hero -- Andruw Jones: Then again, even a week like Andruw's -- .483 (14-for-29) and nine RBIs -- couldn't help the Braves.
Randy Johnson retired just seven batters Friday night and failed to record a strikeout for the first time in more than 10 years.
Boston's Carl Everett homered Friday night, becoming the first Red Sox center fielder since Tony Armas in 1984 to hit 30 homers in a season. .
The Detroit Tigers are attempting to become the first team since the 1996 Red Sox to finish the year above .500 after being 14-games under at any point in the season.
Tim Salmon's 30th home run of the season Sunday gave the Angels four players with at least 30 home runs this season, becoming the first AL team in history to accomplish the feat.
Tampa Bay's Fred McGriff homered on Saturday, giving him home runs in 37 different ballparks, tying the major league record set by Mark McGwire. McGriff needs two more homers to join Frank Robinson as the only major-leaguers to hit at least 200 in each league.
Our tribute to the banal banter of baseball "I just forgot." -- Astros pitcher Jose Cabrera, on why he made a move to commit a balk on Monday night.

Statistics are through Sunday's games unless otherwise noted.

CNNSI.com baseball producer Lonny Krasnow contributed to this report.

The Baseball Week at a Glance appears every Tuesday.

 

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