"Who's the Man Now, Dawg?"

Anthony Reyes - that's who...

Reyes pitched 3 strong innings today, allowing 2 hits, no walks, and sitting down the Mets' starters in strong fashion. I didn't see it...I had to settle for that god-awful, oxymoronic "Live" Box Score function from the Cardinals' website...but I heard about it. Okay, I didn't actually "hear" about it...I read it...about a half hour after the game ended because apparently no one can get their butts in gear after he left the game at the end of the 3rd and write a stinkin' article that Cardinals Nation is waiting on pins and needles for...

But I'm not bitter...

Actually, I'm anything but bitter after that start by Reyes. We feel pretty confident Wainwright will be Wainwright, but after that, what do we have? A bunch of question marks (?-?-?-?-?-?). Looper may or may not duplicate his semi-reliable performance of last year...Joel the same...Thompson and Wellemeyer are flipping a coin to see who gets to pitch on any given day...and Mulder may or may not be back to the Mulder of old (Thompson and Wellemeyer refuse to let him borrow their coin to flip for his fate).

But Reyes...previously a question mark (?), now perhaps a hyphen (-) representing the glorious position of stability and ground-zero-ness that he could never reach in 2007...is it too much to ask to expect an exclamation point (!) in his future??? Could he possibly harness the velocity, the command, and the sheer oddity of a flat-ironed cap for the forces of good?

Well, I don't know...but I know this: as I stared at the riveting numbers of the Live Box Score displayed on my monitor and reliably refreshed every 30 seconds, I couldn't help but envision a Reyes I once knew in my mind's eye...a Reyes that appeared rarely in 2006 and most notably in Game 1 of the World Series...a Reyes who could both locate and throw the piss outta' the ball...a Reyes, dare I say it, who could miraculously hold down a number 3 spot in a seedy St. Louis starting rotation. If only...

I know one thing after today's game, however...the St. Louis Cardinals are strong. This may not be another championship year...in fact, I would bet against it...but I now see what La Russa meant when he cautioned others to not count them out just yet...I do believe we can win now, this year...and perhaps Anthony Reyes can be just the man we were looking for...

Funny...just 2 months ago, most of us were begging Mo' to trade the little nut-job - and his little cap too...