The Midnight Ramble: Mann rides again, Contreras breathes, and South City burgers get an upgrade

Let's get into it as August ends and the weather starts its change.

Waking up to 61 degrees and a slightly chilly ride to the warehouse this morning was a great way to start a day that took on a variety of challenges before its end. Taking the good with the bad should be written in stone on a sports fan’s heart, but it can be taken in stride during everyday life as well.

I bet people would like to take back some of the wicked shit they said about Willson Contreras back in April or July, but I’ll take nothing back over the next six (teen?) paragraphs in a late night howling at the moon session that I like to call the Midnight Ramble. The key is the post has to be published at midnight, so that leaves us around 45 minutes to dice up the shit in my head.

Good for Contreras. The embattled St. Louis Cardinals catcher was the prized (and only) signing of the offseason, effectively replacing a legend of the game in Yadier Molina. Before we even got into the third week of the season (TLR voice), fans and teammates were turning on him because he wasn’t Yadi 2.0: someone who could calm a pitcher down, elicit their best work, and scowl at the baserunners all inside an inning.

The former Chicago Cub came as advertised: an adequate defender with a plus bat. Check in the latest home runs-a two-HR night in front of his parents on Wednesday-and his season is going just as advertised. It’s not Willson’s fault he can’t catch and pitch too. He has slashed .253/.348/.437, including a robust 115 OPS+ that includes 15 home runs and 26 doubles.

The positional split for Contreras has been right on target: 77 starts at catcher with 30 coming at the designated hitter slot. This is the right and future-trending path, especially with Andrew Knizner emerging as the defensive-minded with sneaky power backup.

If only the needy Cardinals fans could appreciate the bounce-back from a rough opening and someone who genuinely gives 110% out there. Have you seen him not hustle at any point this season during the downtrodden level of play? Has the passion ran out? He’s exactly what the team ordered.

They stopped ordering too soon, something that continued today.

Confession: I had half a story written about why the Cardinals should put a waiver claim in on Lucas Giolito. A durable, strikeout-heavy righty who would have cost them a million bucks to test drive for four weeks will now take those starts in Cleveland. The Guardians (what a stupid fucking name) also selected Reynaldo Lopez and Matt Moore from the Los Angeles Angels.

All three pitchers needed a change of scenery, but have pitched well for large chunks of the 2023 season. Giolito’s performance took a dive after being traded from the Chicago White Sox, but 29 years old and solid work as recently as July suggests he’d be a fan of Busch Stadium. While that can still happen this winter as he becomes a free agent, why not get the process started early?

John Mozeliak told radio listeners in St. Louis that they were acquiring three starters this coming offseason. He could have spent around $3-5 million on three pitchers this week, but instead chose not to. He also said the team had money to spend on midseason acquisitions. While the lights have surely dimmed this year, thinking about 2024 would be wise for a team that can’t fill half their stadium on a gorgeous night at Busch Stadium.

The worst teams have first dibs at waiver wire players, and St. Louis carries the fifth worst record in baseball. Get ready for a snoozy offseason from the Mo-Witts.

Michael Mann’s Ferrari won’t be a snooze this Christmas. A day after the teaser trailer premiered online, the movie had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival today. The reviews ranged from brilliant to being hindered by a pedestrian screenplay, but the acting and Mann’s touch are on point. That’s all I need to hear.

Filmmakers don’t change their ways; some critics don’t get that and want something more. Mann makes singular, testosterone-driven movies about complicated yet highly interesting men doing incredible things. Enzo Ferrari is a perfect subject, and the 90 second preview left me fast car-drunk and longing for Christmas trees.

Mann wisely selected the stripped down perspective to describe the Italian's impact on the car industry and world as a whole. Instead of delivering a standard young-to-old-age uprising with a nice cherry on top, he chose the 1957. The year that Ferrari pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table on one of the most dangerous races ever, the Mille Miglia. All the while, he swam in the deep end with his ferocious wife (Penelope Cruz, oozing Oscar attention) and a mistress played by Shailene Woodley, who reportedly wrestles with her Italian accent.

Don’t we all?

I look forward to an adrenaline rush, including a car crash scene that left a packed crowd hushed in shock and awe. Bring it. We go to the cinemas to be blasted.

Showtime’s Billions is an entertaining show with layers upon layers of plot twists and boatloads of pop culture references. Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders fame) engage in the Aaron Sorkin style of rapid-fire dialogue, but it can get exhausting after a while. Add in the fact that Corey Stoll does his best Bobby Axelrod impression to mixed results, and it’s a good thing Damian Lewis is making a return for the final season.

We don’t watch to see Paul Giamatti’s rule-bending attorney take a billionaire down who may be dirty. We want to see Lewis’s Axelrod make it all look daring, hypnotic, and unpredictable. Seven seasons is enough time for a television show to tell its story.

My day job carries several rules, but the biggest one has to be "don’t smash your head or hand on a cast iron pipe.” Any pipe or appendage for that matter, but especially the cast iron. Today, my elbow took a hit while the more important areas remained clean. In the middle of removing 6-8 pieces from the back of a pickup truck, all I could think about was don’t screw up and let this thing pop you in the skull. Everything would turn bad afterwards: lunch, the rest of the day, any loud word, a busy car, and the ride home.

But it instills a certain kind of pride to be able to slide a piece of six inch by ten foot cast iron pipe onto my shoulder like Arnold in Commando before rolling it down to my arms for a quick drop. That two percent or more of carbon is a real asskicker.

A good burger only soothes the soul after a day of delivering and lifting. I found solace earlier this evening at the new south city restaurant, Jovick Brothers Burgers. The name may sound familiar because former Macklind Deli foodmaster Casey Jovick has a deli spot in Westport, which is fantastic. For a guy who has delivered pipe to Westport (7am in the morning!), I’ve dreamt about a Jovick sammy a few times.

The burger joint is both a return to form for the BBQ rub specialist, as well as an extension of the deli. But instead of trying to sell sandwiches to Macklind neighborhood patrons, he decided to smash some meat instead.

The result is delicious. My choice was the lean-into-it option. A triple cheeseburger with a little mustard and ketchup. It’s like trying a pizza out correctly: cheese, sauce, and crust. The menu features wicked burger combos, but kicking it old school was a necessary first move. The execution of a great burger isnt rocket science, but one can get lost in the details. Jovick wisely chose a combination of burger meat to compose his crispy-edged beauties, and the taste follows you back to the house and into the nightly tv show. I could have eaten another burger, but that would have been pushing it.

The meat was the star, but the bread and cheese made the taste come together. A long-winded way of saying Jovick Brothers can make sandwiches AND burgers. I’ll be back.

For more burgers and more rambling. It’s midnight. Good morning. Who made coffee?