On the doorstep
It’s just about time for the playoffs. To compare this year’s Cardinals team to the only other playoff team I’ve been on, the 2007 Rockies, the clubhouse is similar. The guys get along similarly and the chemistry is similar. I think this team has stronger pitching, but we had a lot going for us that year as far as momentum. We basically played playoff games for the last two weeks of the regular season and that prepared us to play well in the first couple of rounds.
But overall I think this team is better. It just all depends once you get to those rounds, though, because everybody is playing well and whichever teams execute the best will move on. So thats our job, to try and execute and play well so we can move on.
It takes another step up when you go from the regular season to the playoffs. Every pitch is so extremely important to the outcome of the game. You can just feel the intensity and the speed of the game at such a high rate because everyone knows the importance of it. The players are more rested because weve had a few off days and everybody has the adrenaline going. Its a very high level of baseball.
It can be hard to sleep the night before the playoffs start. You want to get some rest but you also want to get out there and play. It can make for a little bit of restlessness, but I think we will be ready and prepared to play.
As the playoffs get closer, you will feel the excitement for playoff baseball and the opportunity to win a championship.
Im sure the fans will be excited, as will we, to see the kind of enthusiasm and intensity that the crowd will bring. It will hopefully be a big advantage for us.
Matt's Blog 
It’s nice to see good guys get hits. It’s even better to see great guys get hits. Then there is you. Thanks for being amazing on and off the field. I hope you have the BEST October that you could ever imagine. God Bless.
Matt! I am so glad that I found your blog. I was just tickled when you came to the Cardinals this year. I have followed your career for awhile now – found you because of Fantasy Baseball! Thanks for helping me win a championship last year – and thank you for all you will do to help us win a REAL championship this year! I hope you are able to stay a Cardinal for a very long time!
Matt, I bought a Pumpkin to support St. Jude Research Hospital for kids with cancer, I put your name and number on it because you seem to be the kind of guy that would support that kind of fundraiser, Good Luck in the playoffs!
I’m so glad you guys are in the playoffs! It’s going to be a Cards/Rox NLCS!
I miss you!
Love,
A Rockies fan
We are wishing you the best luck in the world!
Linda
Matt,
I see you as such a vital part of this team. However, the Cardinals are a team with many parts. Look for Albert to do something big in front of you in game 2. The Dodgers need to win game 2. I think the Cardinals will win both home games. The pressure is still on LA.
Go out and enjoy what you do. The Cardinals easily can win 3 in a row. It is still the Cardinals series.
I enjoy watching you play. I stayed up the night you hit the walk off to beat the old Cubbies. Keep making memories. The Cardinals are the team to beat!
I am wearing red all day, Don’t get mad get even. And smile, you are still in the playoffs!! GO CARDS
You guys will do great tonight, I can just feel it. The Cardinals are a great team, and will get revenge! And then it is back home on Saturday where you will have the best fans in baseball rooting you on! You can’t lose with a scenario like that!
RED OCTOBER here in Saint Louis!
Linda
I can’t beleive what happened tonight… Wow
Matt,
I love you and all, but I think after tonight you owe it to STL to return (for a reasonable amount) next yr and attone for your mistake tonight.
Matt,
I love you and all, but I think after tonight you owe it to STL to return (for a reasonable amount) next yr and attone for your mistake tonight.
Matt,
I love you and all, but I think after tonight you owe it to STL to return (for a reasonable amount) next yr and attone for your mistake tonight.
Matt, I feel horrible for you after all that went wrong for you in game 1 and 2 and I do hope you get to redeem yourself hopefully in the next three games. Baseball is not fair, we deserved that game 2 but oh well. Thanks for that HR by the way.
I hope you don’t take it the wrong way if you get booed at Busch at your first AB on Saturday. Us Cardinals fans are passionate and heart broken and need to point fingers at somebody regardless of whether or not it’s right to blame them or not. It’s part of the process.
Best wishes to you and your family and I hope this blows over quick. Get us the next three wins and all is forgiven 🙂
If not I hope even after this you want to and get to keep the Redbirds uniform.
Matt, I was heartsick and literally almost sick to my stomach about the game 2 loss. While we fans are extremely disapointed we still love ya. I do hope we see you in a Cardinals uniform next season. I see it this way–without your help we might not have even made it to the post season. Make game 3 a real winner, please!!
Linda
a Cards fan
Stay positive Matt. This is an opportunity for the Team and the Fans of the cards to show what we are made of. Everyone has a bad day or a bad moment. You have made many plays that have help this team this season. One play does not erase that. Get yourself and your teamates ready.
We fans are more than ready to give you guys our support when you come back to St. Louis. You guys can still show the world what you and the Cards are made of.
Scotty
Go Cards
Matt, As a true Cardinal fan, I never expect our players to be perfect. I just expect them to play hard and play the right way. You have always been that kind of player. Please know that there are a lot of us who are really pulling for you, win or lose. No matter how this series plays out, I can’t think of any player in the league that I’d rather see in a Cardinal uniform next year.
First of all Matt Holliday is a team player, playing a team game! What about the lack of run support. Matt accounted for 1/2 our runs. We can point fingers at a lot of players. What about Albert? Franklin? Carpenter in Game 1.
Matt Hooliday cares so much. All these players do. They are trying sooooo hard!! This is part of the struggle. The Cardinals want this bad.
Think about this… to win 3 out of 5 the Cardinals were going to need to win both home games after losing game one. This has not changed. The key is winning game 3. We need to get behind these guys. The Cardinals will pitch Pienero, Carpenter, and Wainright. In 1985 we had a very simular situation. It can happen. The Cardinals still need to win games. Don’t blame Matt Holliday. He is our guy. We are all in this. Thick and thin. Win or lose. Go Cards! Don’t be shocked if WE still win this!!!
Matt,
Yesterday’s game broke everybody’s heart, but things happen. The fat lady ain’t singin’ yet. Let’s make the Cardinals the first team in playoff history to come back 0-2. Keep your head up! Stay with us, St. Louis will always be baseball heaven!
Kevin
Quincy, Il.
Hey Matt,
I don’t know if you come on here and read the comments, but in case you do, I wanted to leave a comment to let you know that the fans support you 100%. Like any fanbase, we have some rotten eggs but I hope you understand that they are the fringe and that the majority of Cardinals fans are smart baseball fans who understand what happened to bring about that loss in Game 2 (and Game 1, for that matter) and I’m not talking about what happened to you in the 9th inning. Hopefully, you all will be able to take advantage with RISP from here on out. Anyway, I hope you all continue to support each other in the clubhouse and we fans will be there to support you in the stands and in front of our TVs on Saturday. I have not a doubt in my mind that, with the tremendous talent on this team, you can come back and pull off an upset by winning the next 3. Thanks for helping us get to the postseason, good luck in the remainder of the playoffs, and I hope we will get to see you in a Cardinals uniform next year!
Matt,
I am another long time Cardinal fan as is my wife. My first live Cardinal game was at the previous Busch Stadium as an 8th grader in 1965.
I just saw the headline from NY Times crediting you with losing last night’s game. What idiots they are! Rarely does one individual lose a game for a team sport. Last night was no exception. No one individual lost that game. Personally, I appreciated the intensity I saw on your face as you went after that ball. Half-hearted play is worth criticizing but such was not case in this instance. Keep up the good work. Cardinal fans appreciate it and are loyal. We will always choose to drink the red Kool-Aid.
Steven
Cape Girardeau, MO
I watched the Cardinals Nation special they had on TV tonight. I watch Cardinals Nation-Wings of Hope every Sunday morning during the season also. Watching it tonight gave me some hope for a great game tomorrow. You guys can do it! We will be behind you all the way!
GO CARDS
Linda
St. Louis
I watched the Cardinals special they had on TV tonight. I watch Cardinals Nation-Wings of Hope every Sunday morning during the season also. Watching it tonight gave me some hope for a great game tomorrow. You guys can do it! We will be behind you all the way!
GO CARDS
Linda
St. Louis
Matt,
I do not know how often you read these but we appreciate your contribution this year. Keep your head up and you guys need to scratch and claw your way back into this series. We will continue to stick behind you and the rest of the TEAM no matter what. Don’t sweat the fielding error and just go out there and continue to play hard. Thanks again for helping to get us to the playoffs and just do what you do……play some great baseball!
Matt, Come play for The Braves and Bobby Cox!!
Its his last year!
Mattie, hope you have a great game today! Don’t try to do too much. Don’t feel you have to make up for anything. Guilt trips just add pressure. Just be yourself. One at bat at a time, one inning at a time.
Matt, we would not be in the playoffs if not for you. Hang in there and have a great game on Saturday! Thanks for an exciting 2009 season and I sure hope you are with us in 2010!!
Matt, Keep your head up Big Man! Disregard the comments about “atoning”. You atone everyday, and Franklin still shoulda been able to close that out. However, I will say, Please Come Back to the Lou next season. We love ya, man.
Matt, sorry for the how the postseason ended for you guys! I am disappointed but already looking towards 2010 for the Cards,which I hope you will be a part of. Just remember, the team and you gave us A LOT to smile about throughout the regular season. We have to take the good with the bad. I still bleed red, and always will!
Go get some rest during the winte,r and hopefully we will see you in a Cards uniform next spring. Regardless, thanks and good luck in your career whether you play here or elsewhere.
Thanks,
Linda
a die-hard Cardinals fan
Hey Matt—thanks for playing so hard and so well for us this year. As you’ve no doubt figured out already, one thing that characterizes Cards fans is loyalty; we’re in this for the long haul, and I hope you are too, because there’s nothing that would make me happier than looking forward to having you back in the spring.
First, though, rest up, have a beer, and know that you helped bring a lot of joy to the Redbird faithful this summer. Thanks.
I always thought when you retired you’d be compared to another famous player… I just didn’t realize it would be BILL BUCKNER!
Matt, I am a Dodger fan who was at that game, waving one of those 50,000 white flags. I happened to be on the first base side of the stadium. Without a doubt, those white flags blinded you from seeing the ball.. While I cheered that you lost the ball, I also felt bad for you.
I suggest you forget about your “error”.. You cant catch the ball if you dont see it. The scorer should have given the hitter an double. Your “error” only cost the potential tying run to get to 2nd base. However, other things cost the game to the Cardinals. #1 your relief pitcher had a melt down. He should have gotten out of tha jam and prevented the tying run from scoring. #2 your relief pitcher walked the winning run (Casey Blake). #3 if each of the cardinal hitters had hit a home run like you did, then everything would have been ok.
Your best baseball years are ahead of you. Dont let anyone compare you to Bill Buckner, who unfortunately for him, was at the tail end of his career. Errors and lost balls in the sun, or against white flags, are part of the game.
If the Cardinals don’t want you, move on. You are an impact player who can contribute.
Matt,
I really doubt you read any of these, but if you do you should know St. Louis fans are proud that you wear the birds on the bat and play for the Cardinals. I hope you stay with the team to become a part of its rich history, because if you do stay, that’s certainly most likely to happen.
Even though it’s been a short ride, thanks for the memories, and I’m hopeful there’ll be many more.
Eric
Matt,
I’m a die hard STL cardinal fan but also a fan of MLB primarily the NL. Things happen so quickly in baseball that it is difficult for many fans to understand how you could drop the line drive in left field. Balls like that are hit hard, they knuckle, they move. Sometimes they handcuff the fielder, the lights get in the eyes and sometimes the fielder just makes an error. Whatever the reason you missed that ball, you should NOT feel that any true STL cardinal fan does not want you back in 2010. The whole team scored 3,2,and 1 run in 3 games. You can’t beat the LA Dodgers in the playoffs with that type of production. This team also has tremendous offensive potential. For whatever reasons, the baseball Gods said no to St. Louis for 2009. I personally hope you return in 2010 for another go round. Pujols, Holliday, Ludwick..thats a power trio no one wants to face again. I hope they have to. Good job in ’09.
Matt:
I have been a St. Louis Cardinals fan since 1964, a year after my family and I had moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado from Grand Forks, North Dakota. So when the Cardinals beat the Yankees, I (as a Twins fan at the time) was won over. I did continue to pull for one of my Twins heroes, one of the greatest players of that or any era, Rod Carew, but I had become a Cardinals fan (even if I didn’t realize it). Though I will be a Cardinals fan to the end of my days, I can tell you that the rest of my family are all Rockies fans (and my brother-in-law has a part-time gig playing music and sound effects at the Sky Sox games … remember them?). I pulled for the Rockies (for you, for Helton, Hawpe, Francis and Tulo) in 2007. My mother, at 85, still makes the Rockies games regularly and had tickets for last Monday’s game, their last of 2009. If my wife and I lived near St. Louis these days, though, we would be regulars at Busch Stadium. The point of which is to say that the Midwest is where baseball is played and appreciated in its truest form. Win or lose!
Now, as to what happened the other night. We’re either fans of the Cardinals, and of you, or we’re not. I apologize for feeling defeated by adversity after you dropped that fly ball on Thursday night. I apologize for forgetting that you had provided solid run support for one of the greatest pitchers I have ever watched, Adam Wainwright. It took a while this time, but now (because of this blog) I can take the advice my mother gave me last Saturday and thank you for the contribution you made to the Cardinals this season and for the “classy” (my mother’s word) way you conducted yourself, even in defeat. I have lived through the worst of times as a Cardinals fan and have rejoiced at the best of times. (I can still here the roar of that crowd as Wainwright’s curve ball pinned the tail on the Tigers in 2006.) But I have also endured Vince Coleman’s leap into oblivion (taking the Cards season with him), and I have endured Joaquin Andujar’s melt-down in the locker room after one bad call at first base in Game Six at Kansas City. They “lost the game for us,” too! But, you know what, I remember Lou Brock, and Ozzie Smith (“Go crazy, go crazy!”) and even John Tuter (whom I admired so much for his “quiet aggression” on the pitcher’s mound). For the true Cardinals fan, it’s always about what comes next. And I will say this final thing about your exceptional contribution to the Cardinals success in 2009. Whatever you decide about where you will play in the future (and I sure hope it’s with the St. Louis Cardinals), we should all look forward … to the next spring training camp, the next opening day, the next season, the next game and the next step on your journey to Cooperstown! Thanks for the memories!!
Matt,
I’m sure it’s tough going into the off season when the playoffs ended like they did. I’ve been a Cardinal fan all my life, and really enjoyed watching you boys play this year. I live in Hawaii, and it’s not always easy to catch the games (especially when football season starts and I’m still watching baseball) You were a great addition to the team, and I really hope we’ll get to see you come back wearing the birds next season! And hey, why don’t you guys take a vacation and come to Hawaii to play a game or two?! Just a thought . . .
Aloha!
Kathy
matt, i know you have better things to do besides read your blog but tell me,you said you loved it in st.louis, then re-up with them cause you wont find a better team.If its about money how much can a person spend. Here is hoping you sign with them cause they gave up alot of prospects and besides you can make up for that error that cost us the series!
Matt, We love you in St. Louis, brother. We want you here really bad, and certainly have all the confidence in the world that you will LOVE St. Louis as long as you stay. HOWEVER, I would like to say that you, sir, are NO ALBERT PUJOLS. And for your p.o.s. agent to ask for a bigger contract than Albert got, shows just how out-of-touch with reality he really is. I LOVE baseball, but guys like Scott Boras are killing the game with their greed. PLEASE be reasonable, Mr. Holliday. You ARE WITHOUT A DOUBT a great major leaguer, and you are worth big money. But to ask for Pujols money is beyond ridiculous!!
I’m right there with you slforre77. Matt, we would love to have you back…our line-up wouldn’t be the same without you. Nontheless, if you like it in St. Louis, then hurry up and sign-up and quit waiting for a better offer. It’s not all about the money. You’re not going to find a better place to play. I understand you want to make your money…that much money would make a huge difference for your kids, grandkids, and so-on. But coming from someone who will probably never see that much money in my lifetime, it is kind of a slap in the face for you to be so greedy. Hopefully, you not jumping all over a contract for 8 years, $16 mil a year is just your agent being a jacka$$, and not you thinking that’s not enough money. Have you thought about if you don’t use up all the Cardinals’ money, they might be able to put a better supporting staff around you, Pujols, Carp, Molina, Waino, etc??!! It is all about winning right??!! Or is it all just about the money? I hope not.
Dude just sign already so that we can build a better team around you. This has gone on long enough.
Glad you finally made a deal with the Cards! Looking forward to the season starting!
Matt:
I’m glad u decided to come back to St. Louis. Somehow, I always knew this was where you’d end up. You can check out my blog at:
http://dizzy17.mlblogs.com
Let’s give a big Cardinal nation welcome to The Stillwater Stinger.
Great season opener, guys! Good luck in the rest of the season!! GO CARDS!!
Great start of the new season guys, stay healthy and play to the best of your ability.