The Cinco de Mayo Chat Thread

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. I'm on my third margarita of the day as I attempt to wash the unpleasant taste of last night's game out of my mouth. Actually, I take that back. This might be number four. Okay, so I'm just drinking a bottle of tequila alone in the bathtub at 11:30 am. Fine, you caught me. Feel better now?

Okay, so I'm not really drinking alone before lunch. I do, however, need something to get that game out of my head. Just ugh. The odd thing is, it really wasn't a bad game, by any means. The Cardinals got shut down by a guy who has been brilliant in the past and may very well be brilliant again; this wasn't Randy Keisler putting the hurt on our boys in red.

Still, the fact the Cardinals are now probably staring at a split at best is grating on me much more than it should, largely due to the fact I put far, far too much emphasis on this series. Coming in, I think we all understood this was our chance to see how the Cardinals stacked up against the class of the National League this year. If the Cards really showed up against the Phillies, suddenly they look much, much more legitimate. Consequently, I've somehow managed to go into Playoff-Watching Aaron Mode, in which I can't eat or sleep properly after a loss and I obsessively rock back and forth while exhorting various deities to help my team, often promising favours I have neither the inclination nor the capacity to follow through on. (Come to think of it, I still owe Yog-Sothoth a temple and two hundred gallons of lymph fluid in exchange for a strikeout of Jeff Kent in 2004. Crap.) It was, of course, still a single game in early May; I've just turned it into something it isn't.

Regardless, the Cards now need a win tonight like nobody's business, because strong start last time aside, Kyle Lohse against Roy Halladay isn't exactly a great matchup. I once saw a man bareknuckle box an elephant in Tijuana; Lohse vs Halladay is a much less even. (Reverse jinx engage! Engage! I said engage, damn it!)

So anyway, it's Cinco de Mayo today. The best margaritas in town are at Las Palmas up in Woodson Terrace and Pueblo Solis down on Hampton. (Las Palmas wins by a nose for me, but you really can't go wrong either place.) I highly recommend you make one or the other a destination if at all possible.

Now, in order to give myself a break from having to come up with an actual idea this morning when I don't at all feel like it (and also because I haven't done one of these in a while), let's have us a chat. I'll be here until about 1:45 or 2:00. Ask away. Any draft picks you want to ask about, what it was like the one and only time I attended a game at the old Veteran's Stadium in Philly (spoiler alert: it was awful), how the floor refinishing in my house is coming, whatever. Or, you know, baseball, I guess.

And lastly, remember Ernie Harwell. We lost one of the all-time greats. Look for his audio scrapbook; it's one of the best purchase I think I've ever made.

The Baron's Playlist for the 5th of May, 2010 -- The Long and Short of It

"Siberian Breaks" - MGMT

"Avalance! Oh, Avalanche!" - Gregory and the Hawk

"You Are the Generation that Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve" - Johnny Boy

"7" - Prince 

"Tiny Dancer" - Elton John

"72" - the Orb