Meanderings

-The Blues loss to Vancouver on Tuesday was one of the most painful since the Dave Checketts regime has been in place. To finally have the fans geeked up on playoff talk and then blow two, two-goal leads. Wow...not what the doctor ordered for sure. But, no matter what happens for the rest of this season...(and I know Andy Murray wouldn't like to hear this) the team's best days are at least months away... and more likely a year or two. The thought of having a healthy group (dare I have that thought?).. and the continued infusion of some of the budding stars who haven't even put on a sweater with a blue note yet...is exciting to no end. I still tend to wonder who's going to be playing in goal when these guys hoist The Cup though.

-I see where Chris Carpenter passed his first "on the mound" test with little difficulty. Even if he shows no ill effects from all the surgeries this year, you tend to wonder how many innings he'll be able to go. I'm guessing LaRussa and Duncan will have a pretty quick hook with him most nights if he shows signs of struggling. Carp's importance to the '09 possiblities is obvious and how he will be used..and how much...will be very interesting to see.

-This California woman who had the octuplets...is doing a really bad Angelina Jolie impression...and now has 14 kids...deserves some sort of punishment. But you tend to think that dealing with 14 kids will be enough. Maybe the doctor who implanted the embryos should have to kick in some bucks for support too.

-I'm starting to get into American Idol mode a bit. I watched most of last night's show because we're getting to the point where all of the silly stuff is over...and the real talent contest begins. I also see that one of the top 36 has already been eliminated. No explanation given by AI as to why 23-year-old Joanna Pacitti (pic) was disqualified. But I'm willing to bet that they decided she was too professional to continue. (Annie on Broadway as a kid--sang on the soundtracks of two movies...and she even had a CD released on '06 that sold 16-thousand copies.) If someone like that goes on to win...all of a sudden the show loses the "out of nowhere" appeal that the contestants have had so far.

-I read today that there's a guy here in St. Louis who claims the Blues...and more precisely Jim Woodcock, former Blues VP and now at Fleishman-Hillard...used his ideas when they came up with the team's new third jersey. Here's an article about it that ESPN put together. This fellow...Darryl Swint (pic)...claims that the final look of the third jersey is way too close to ideas and drawings he submitted to the team back in '03...and as a long-time Blues fan he has his feelings hurt. Well, no disrespect intended Mr. Swint...but, A) the logo you came up with isn't really that close to the new logo. (No circle surrounding the Arch and Bluenote. The old "flying Blues" script in yours...doesn't appear in the new logo.) Yes, it has the Arch as part of the design...but if Joe Blow was coming up with a new logo for a St. Louis sports team, I think even Joe would think of including the Arch. B) Everybody was doing darker-scheme uniforms back in '03. So the idea of going with a darker blue (navy) would also be something that Mr. Blow would consider immediately. Heck, ordinary fans were talking about doing that when some of the other third jerseys in the league started showing up on TV. And even if there were more similarity between the two designs...if you really wanted some credit for the idea you should have covered yourself legally. What do you really want now? Should the Blues have you drop a puck before a game, or wave to the crowd during a TV timeout, while they announce you as the inspiration behind the new jerseys? We all know that ain't gonna happen.