5 Things On My Mind: Losing Robert Thomas puts struggling Blues in tight spot, even Coldplay can't help them
After a few weeks of research, it turns out working out is still hard ass work.
I need some energy, friends. Does anyone have an extra tank of “get up and go” that I can borrow? There’s a certain earnest desire that is required to go to the gym after a nine-hour workday of labor. Moving plumbing supplies isn’t nearly as hard as installing them, but the toll is present as the afternoon breaks itself in half.
The question becomes, as I leave work, “do I want to do this?” Due to the brain reminding me that chicks dig scars and biceps, I clock in and get to lifting. There’s just zero trace of extra energy around 4 PM for me. There was a guy who was crawling around the floor in the open workout space like a muscled-up gorilla, kicking his core around for multiple twists and tightening. I sat on an unused bench, and marveled at him as I nearly fell asleep. Getting older means the body likes being lazy if you allow it.
Before I get too tired, let’s start this breezy round of the latest stuff that has entered my brain and isn’t getting up to leave.
1) Goodbye until 2025, Mr. Thomas
The Blues just lost their number #1 center for at least six to eight weeks. When your broken ankle is being reevaluated in six weeks, you’re not climbing into a game for an extra few weeks after that date. As Blues writer Nicholas Hand tweeted last night, that’s roughly 20 games without arguably their best player.
Hand thinks they will be fine as long as someone or maybe a couple players step up, and help ignite the other lines to produce more. Still, it’s not going to be a smooth ride when the team is still gelling and fighting for each win. Starting 4-3 isn’t bad, but starting every game at a deficit or flat-footed will turn that record into crap very quickly.
Thomas logged 86 points last year, and basically runs point on the top line. Pavel Buchnevich will step up and most likely take over that top slot, but that means another young Blue or possibly someone that has been scratched or isn’t on the roster can help.
This is similar to what happened to Jaden Schwartz years ago. The ankle was roughed up, and the prognosis was as good as a wet fart. For a troubled Blues team, Thomas was the second to last player behind Jordan Binnington who couldn’t go down for a long time. He did what Jamie Benn has swore he will never do, and that’s go down. This could very well be the defining stretch of the season.
If the Blues can ride that Philip Broberg (helluva steal from Doug Armstrong) thunder on defense and hold the fort, this team could be a playoff threat. Their work is cut out for them. Any optimistic way one will slice it, losing a caliber of talent like Thomas is a gauntlet the Blues will be fighting for the next two months. As I urged at the end of my articles over at St. Louis Game Time, I advise you to drink more bourbon.
2) Hold up on Venom 3
I’ll eventually see it, but the first two films weren’t enjoyable at all and that’s with a very dedicated Tom Hardy. He invests himself in the comic book character that was best known for giving Spider-Man a hard time, yet has now chewed up three movies without a duel. There are big fans of this material, most notably comic book fans of the character. Being a former comic book lover who strayed towards the DC side of things, Venom came off as a big, loud, angry dummy to me.
Hardy made the first two barely digestible. Part Three can wait at least until the weekend, or possibly next weekend or the one afterwards. Save the carnage for someone else. This is a movie that I can immediately slap a “wait and see” label on.
3) St. Louis weather never ceases to amaze
Last week, it was a brisk 35 degrees in the morning when I left for work. This week, the temperature has climbed into the upper 70s with ease. This city keeps its lower population due to steady crime, lots of political bullshit, and a heavy helping of multiple personality disorder from the weather. We’re in the somewhat summer, kind of spring, and slightly fall season of the year, following the dreadful late summer heat kick.
For the next few weeks, the temp will change drastically as much as 35-40 degrees from one week to the next. It’s an endless cycle of massive indecision that leads to colds, flus, and a lot of bitching and moaning. I can ride to work on my scooter in three layers, and be in shorts and my second t-shirt by the early afternoon. Cold is my preferred game, but I’d like it to be cold and stay cold.
It’s too bad I don’t live in Colorado.
4) Cardinals hire new faces
Brant Brown is the new hitting coach, Willie McGee moves into the assistant to Mozeliak spot, Jon Jay is a bench coach, and Rob Cerfolio takes over the assistant general manager job for the local baseball team. I won’t sit here and act like I even knew Brown existed before this week, but he had some great success with Miami’s offense before struggling in Seattle. He looks like the beloved suburban dad who wins the chili cook offs in October.
The Mariners fired the poor dude two months into the 2024 season while Turner Ward spun the Redbird wheels here. Cerfolio worked with the Cleveland Guardians organization, and Jay has become a respected big league coach. I just can’t get over the fact that this team is one Nick Punto hire from completely reviving the 2011 fever pitch.
Good for Willie in getting out of that dugout. I know he loved to be close to the game, but I don’t think that’s an ideal dugout for the Cardinal legend. The rumors that the team wouldn’t let him work with the young outfielders sounded like a smack in the face to the guy who helped the team win a World Series. Do they win that 1982 thing without him? Did he have an unconventional swing, and strike out on three pitches during his first at-bat? Sure, but so did Stubby Clapp and he’s coaching a base.
Baseball Reference, or any notable website, will tell you that McGee is a straight-up average hitter (100 OPS+), but it will also inform you that he hit .295 at the plate. In a time before steroids changed the game and analytics drove it to the woods, McGee knew how to get hits.
A dying quail or groundball with eyes both counted for hits, and he knew it. Dan McLaughlin noted on 101.1 ESPN this week that he would have been a perfect candidate to work with Victor Scott II, a burgeoning talent that needs a sole set of eyes on his work to unlock his next step. The Cardinals said no, but also decided to bring back a guy (MO) who drove the team into a ditch. This team, restarting like an old Macintosh or not, is a weird group.
I like the hires. Outside voices are what the team needs. They don’t need 25 adoring aunts who never say a bad thing about you until someone in another building asks them.
5) Bravo, Coldplay
It’s not easy for bands to stay alive and prominent over the decades. Once people know your sound and how it will go, the limits cast doubt over their next record and they fade away. Like any band, Coldplay has learned to evolve and stay themselves in order to stick around. Instrumentally, they have tried it out. Techno, rock, rockno, alternative, R & B java rock, you name it.
While I may love classic rock and adore groups like The Dave Matthews Band and The National, Coldplay goes about as far back as Matthews and company. It was my wife who stuck this band in my ears, and really hit PLAY. Instead of drowning in the land of YellowwwwwwwBLLUUEEEE, I found their earlier gems like Don’t Panic and Spies (played in Wedding Crashers when Owen Wilson thinks about talking to Rachel McAdams) to be so riveting and enjoyable. When the former turned up on Rescue Me, the show climbed to a level that the band left yesterday.
Clocks and Speed of Sound are like a Pumpkin Spiced Cold Brew: potent and digestible 24/7. Arena rock can easily sway, but give me A Rush of Blood to The Head during a hard time. As Chris Martin belts the tunes, you feel the bruises.
Their new album, Moon Music, is a great addition to their versatile arsenal of releases. It’s experimental and soulful in places, and maintains a wide array of listening charm. Martin shares the microphone with various artists, owning the spotlight when necessary. His voice hasn’t aged since I started listening over two decades ago.
Coldplay gets the wrath of amateur comedians and people looking for an easy way to detach from a popular band, but they’re still cracking out gems and maintaining their sound while bringing in something new. One World is my favorite.
That’s all I have to say. Thanks for reading, paid subscribers. I appreciate your generosity.