Cardinals continue improbable postseason run

How about those Cardinals?

And who would have thunk it?

Not many people, I would venture to say, after that mediocre 83-win regular season and the way they limped into the playoffs after nearly blowing a huge division lead.

But look at them now.

St. Louis is in the World Series, having completed an improbable run through the National League by beating the Mets 3-1 in Thursday's classic Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

It was an unbelievable ending to a back-and-forth series that contained about as many peaks and valleys as the Cardinals' regular season.

And speaking of improbable accomplishments, what were the odds -- based on his regular season at the plate -- that Yadier Molina would be the Cardinals' offensive hero of Game 7? Who could have anticipated his tiebreaking, two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning?

But perhaps it was fitting, considering the Redbirds' underdog theme throughout the postseason.

And that will continue in the World Series as the Tigers are regarded as solid favorites.

Given what has transpired over the last few weeks, however, you can bet that Cardinals fans aren't about to give up hope.

After St. Louis won Saturday night's opener in Detroit, why should they?

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If the Southeast Missouri State football team had the chance to play Saturday's third quarter over again, you can bet the Redhawks would do it in a heartbeat.

But they can't, so they'll have to live with a 27-0 Eastern Kentucky advantage in the period that proved decisive in the Colonels' 27-21 victory on Southeast's homecoming.

The Redhawks totally controlled the first half, but led just 7-0 even though they had at least two more really good scoring opportunities.

And how often in sports do we see wasted chances come back to haunt a team? Plenty.

Give the Redhawks credit for a nice fourth-quarter comeback as they nearly came all the way back from a 27-7 deficit. But a late, time-consuming drive by the Colonels basically sealed the verdict.

So now the Redhawks have suffered three straight losses during their toughest three-game stretch of the year, which includes defeats at nationally ranked Division I-AA Eastern Illinois and nationally ranked Division I-A Arkansas.

The Redhawks, 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Ohio Valley Conference play, still have a chance to finish strong over the final four weeks of the season.

But in order to make Tony Samuel's first year as Southeast's coach significantly better than most people expected, winning at struggling Murray State next Saturday is almost a must-win proposition.

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It was great to see many of the guys who played football and coached at Southeast from 1984 through 1987 as they gathered for a reunion in Cape Girardeau during homecoming weekend. I was able to catch up with them prior to Saturday's game.

The players in town all either played for or were recruited by Bob Smith and his staff, with several of those former Southeast coaches -- including Smith -- also at the reunion.

I started working at the Southeast Missourian in 1984, which coincided with Smith's first season at the university. He took over a struggling program and eventually led it to a co-MIAA championship in 1987, which was his final year here.

I got to know many of the coaches and players on those teams well and became good friends with quite a few of them. It was a lot of fun reminiscing about old times.

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Just when it looked like OVC football might settle down somewhat after a fairly unpredictable start to the conference season -- it does anything but.

After the first few weeks of the campaign featured several results that most people considered significant upsets, that trend continued Saturday when Tennessee State won at Jacksonville State.

So now the OVC preseason favorite (Eastern Kentucky) and team picked to finish third (Jacksonville State) both have been basically eliminated from title contention with about half of the league schedule still remaining.

Eastern Kentucky already has three conference losses while Jacksonville State has suffered two league defeats. The last time the OVC champion finished with more than one loss was 1962.

And, while defending OVC champion Eastern Illinois is playing up to expectations with a 4-0 conference record, the other two teams without a league loss are upstarts Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin, both 3-0.

Go figure.

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The father of Jared Van Slyke, a senior quarterback at John Burroughs School in suburban St. Louis, recently told KFNS radio in St. Louis that he was leaning toward playing his college football at Southeast.

If the last name sounds familiar, it's because his father is former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder and current Detroit Tigers coach Andy Van Slyke.

Two of Andy Van Slyke's other sons are currently playing minor league baseball.

Through seven weeks, Jared Van Slyke has completed 52 of 75 passes for 935 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions for unbeaten Burroughs.

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A couple of quick observations after catching two Southeast men's basketball practices and one women's practice during the first full week of official workouts.

Who knows how good they'll be, but first-year coach Scott Edgar's Redhawks have plenty of athletes. I can guarantee you they'll be fun to watch.

Talk about getting up and down the court. The practices I attended were conducted at a break-neck pace, so I can just imagine what the actual games will look like.

Several players really impressed me, including freshman point guard Roderick Pearson, who figures to play a lot from Day One and might even end up being the starter, if not right away then at least eventually.

As for B.J. Smith's women, who lost six key seniors from their NCAA tournament team, I think their starting lineup will still be plenty talented, but qualify depth with the backups could be a problem.

The lack of depth could mean Smith just might have to adjust his preferred style of play -- which has been fast-break offense and full-court pressure defense at virtually all times -- although that remains to be seen.

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After last week's tough loss at Texas A&M, it was nice that Missouri's football team bounced back with Saturday's 41-21 homecoming win over Kansas State.

Sure, it would be great if the Tigers were undefeated right now, and they very easily could have beaten Texas A&M.

But who among MU followers would not have been elated if, prior to the season, they had been told the Tigers would be 7-1 at this point for their best start since 1969? Not very many, I'm sure.

Now the Tigers will get ready for another home game, next Saturday against seemingly vulnerable Oklahoma -- which has lost star running back Adrian Peterson for at least the rest of the regular season -- followed by a huge Big 12 North Division showdown at Nebraska.

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Expectations certainly don't appear high for the Missouri basketball team this year -- at least not from those outside the program.

The Tigers have been picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 by the conference's coaches.

Kansas, which returns all five starters, is the overwhelming preseason favorite.

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One more college hoop note:

An interesting rules change for this year is that a player will no longer be granted a timeout while flying wildly out of bounds or into the backcourt as he grabs the ball.

Most coaches seem to like the change, and so do I. If a player can't establish himself in bounds before calling a timeout, he shouldn't get it.

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Maybe the Rams' string of good fortune finally caught up with them last Sunday as they lost to visiting Seattle 30-28.

St. Louis had won four of its first five games to start the season, with every one of the contests going down to the wire and the four victories decided by a total of 20 points.

The game with the Seahawks also went down to the wire -- but this time the Rams couldn't pull it off.

Not that they didn't come close. Torry Holt's amazing 67-yard touchdown reception from Marc Bulger with less than two minutes to play gave St. Louis a 28-27 lead.

But Seattle came back with a drive that ended in a 54-yard field goal as time expired.

Now the Rams have a bye before they continue with a rugged part of their schedule that will tell fans where this season might be headed.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.|