Daily Archives: October 27, 2006

St. Louis Cardinals

WORLD CHAMPION ST. LOUIS CARDINALS!!!

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World Champions

The Peoria Chronicle congratulates the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals on winning their 10th World Series Championship. GO CARDINALS!

Picture credit: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

I was 12 years old the last time the Cardinals won the World Series. I watched them lose in ’85, and again in ’87. Then the long, grueling wait through the ’90s, aka “the Atlanta years.” Then two years ago, I was convinced they were going to go all the way. 105 wins — the best in all of Major League Baseball that year — and their first trip to the World Series in 17 years. It seemed like their destiny to win. Instead, they were swept by the suddenly curse-free Boston Red Sox. To add insult to injury for me, the Red Sox were the wildcard that year, and I have hated the wildcard since it was instituted.

I got to hate the wildcard again last year. After winning 100 games — 11 more than Houston — the Cardinals had to play Houston again in the League Championship Series because Houston was the wildcard team. What a farce. So the Cardinals were denied back-to-back World Series trips thanks to a system that allows second-place teams a second-chance.

So this year was sweet revenge. They only won 83 games this season, but still won their division. They got in by the skin of their teeth, but they were just getting started. They beat San Diego. They beat New York. And tonight, they beat the Detroit Tigers. Finally, no more hearing about how the Cardinals have gone up three games to one only to lose the series — twice. No more hearing about how the Cardinals “backed into” the postseason. And to make the victory even sweeter — they beat the AL wildcard team.

No doubt there will be a lot of talk on the sports shows and ink spilled about all the Tigers errors that helped out St. Louis. Whatever. Bottom line: the Cardinals played better baseball. They made the fundamental plays. Their pitchers could field the ball better. Their fielders (except for Chris Duncan, who needs to be sent back to the single-A minors) could run in the outfield without falling down and make routine catches. Their offense got the clutch hits. And, most importantly, their pitchers shut down the Tigers bats.

Best of all, now when anyone talks about the Cardinals for the next year, I can say, “you mean the World Champion Cardinals?” Ah, music to my ears!

Kellar Branch

O’Brien, Pioneer Rail reopen old wounds

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O’Brien Steel’s letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) regarding the service they received from Pioneer Railcorp several years ago has the two businesses sparring again. Pioneer fired off a response claiming O’Brien was acting as the City’s lackey because they want the City’s help for their expansion plans:

I [J. Michael Carr, President of Pioneer Industrial Railway Co.] am also informed and believe that O’Brien’s letter to the Board was prompted by a desire to get common carrier service ended on the Kellar Branch, so that they can expand their operation over several blocks near the Kellar Branch, and turn the Kellar Branch tracks into a private in-plant rail line. O’Brien likely filed the letter at the behest of the City of Peoria, in order to curry favor with the City, from which they are seeking assistance for said project.

O’Brien quickly countered, stating in a letter submitted yesterday:

Admittedly, O’Brien Steel is a growing business and has hopes of expansion plans in the immediate area of our facility consistent with our previous growth. However, all future expansion plans at the existing location will be limited by public infrastructure including the Kellar Branch, a Greater Peoria Sanitary District (GPSD) sanitary sewer easement, an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) highway, a P&PU line and City of Peoria streets and
alleys. Effectively, O’Brien Steel is landlocked. There are no current or contemplated expansion plans that have included making the Kellar Branch a “private in-plant rail line.” If the Kellar Branch were to be vacated as suggested by Mr. Carr, the expansion he implies could still not be implemented without a concomitant vacating of the street that serves the Detweiller Marina by the City of Peoria and a 39″ sewer trunk line by the Greater Peoria Sanitary District. I have confidence you would be able confirm that neither of those vacations will ever occur.

However, they did admit that the City reviewed their letter before they sent it to the STB:

Although the letter was reviewed by City of Peoria Corporation Counsel prior to submission directly to the STB, the contents were drafted without input from or modification by the City of Peoria or its counsel.

That would indicate to me that they wanted to make sure the letter didn’t have anything in it that would hurt the City’s case before the STB. Since it passed the test, so to speak, there were no modifications or input necessary.

Pioneer and O’Brien did confirm that the contention between them was largely due to demurrage (a charge payable to the owner of a railcar due to failure to unload the car within the time agreed) — or, as O’Brien Steel put it, Pioneer’s “aggressive issuance of demurrage charges” — that accrued “due to O’Brien being unable to unload cars due to their plant tracks being blocked,” according to Pioneer.

All of this is diversionary, however. O’Brien’s purpose in writing their original letter (ostensibly) was simply to indicate to the STB that they didn’t want Pioneer providing common carrier service to their plant. No problem! Pioneer isn’t asking to provide service to O’Brien Steel, only Carver Lumber. There’s nothing saying Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) couldn’t continue to service O’Brien while Pioneer services Carver Lumber at the other end of the line. So, the whole issue is a red herring.