Good morning. I hope your day is off to a nice, stress-free start. I’m looking forward to some baseball tonight as the Cardinals get back to work after their Monday day off to begin a three-game series with the visiting Pirates at Busch Stadium.
Have another cup of coffee or tea and let’s go sampling.
The Continental for May 19, 2026
— NL Central fight club: Beginning Tuesday evening, the Cardinals will play 15 of their next 18 games against NL Central rivals. This won’t be easy, because the NL Central is the toughest division in the majors. It’s not even close. Every club in the NL Central has a winning record, and that’s no small thing considering that the other five divisions house at least three teams with losing records.
— And the NL Central is the only division that has all five teams on the “plus” side of run differential. Not to belabor the point, but take a look at each division’s collective run differential:
* NL Central +142
* AL East +20
* NL West +4
* AL Central minus 38
* NL East minus 40
* AL West minus 114
— The NL Central is a rough neighborhood. Mean streets. Danger lurking around every corner. No place for the weak, the vulnerable. Are the young Cardinals ready to rumble? I think so, yes. After all, they're 6-1 in division play so far. But we’re going to find out more between now and June 7.
— I’m one of the rare baseball fans who doesn’t care about ABS, and doesn’t want to read 163,000 stories on ABS, or listen to people whine about how their team is, or isn’t handling ABS challenges properly. There’s better things to look up at Baseball Savant.
— I loved Season 1 of Jon Hamm’s “Your Friends and Neighbors” on Apple TV … but I’m loving Season 2 even more. What a fantastic cast, and Hamm is, well, perfect.
— Wemby, wow. Just wow. Victor Wembenyama, San Antonio’s elemental force, altered the geometry of the game on both ends of the floor in his team’s 122-115 win at Oklahoma City in Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals. At 22 years and 134 days old, the 7-4 Wemby attacked for 41 points, 24 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists in 49 spectacular minutes of play. He became the youngest player in NBA history to record a 40-point, 20-rebound game in the playoffs, breaking a precedent-setter previously held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1970. He also joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to have a 40-20 performance in their Conference Finals debut.
— The latest Wonder of the World: how does a 7-4 Eiffel Tower of a man drain a turnaround three-pointer late in regulation and an off-the-dribble, deep three to force the second overtime session? He scored 9 of the Spurs' 14 points in the final period to close out the win. This was an extraordinary performance. I suppose Wembenyama was offended by finishing third in the 2026 NBA MVP vote to OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
— Nobody asked me, but my policy on trade or no trade for the St. Louis Blues is this: Jordan Kyrou, hell yes. Gotta go. Robert Thomas, hell no. Don’t be stupid.
— Debate me: the best oatmeal flavor is maple and brown sugar. There is absolutely no question about this, and if you disagree I question your patriotism.
— In May, Jordan Walker has 40 percent of the Cards’ homers, 22% of their RBIs, 21% of the runs scored, 23% of the doubles, and 27% of STL’s extra-base hits. The big man could use some help from his mates.
— Chuckling at the idea, pitched by others, that the Cardinals could sign Walker to a contract extension for Pete Crow Armstrong money. Which is six years, $115 million. Not a chance.
— Stuff I didn’t know about: Abraham Lincoln was a championship wrestler who purportedly won 300 of 301 documented matches and is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. I recently made a visit to Springfield, IL to see Lincoln’s home, library, museum and tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
— Jim Bowden, The Athletic, on the Redbirds: “The Cardinals have been the biggest surprise team in baseball. They are building a strong core of young players. The team is playing with positive energy and enthusiasm, which is a direct reflection of their manager Oli Marmol, who is doing an excellent job developing this young team.”
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a fabulous day.
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach.
Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams.
Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball.
Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows.
And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.