Pujols hit a home run in the Inaugural Civil Rights game (another one for the record books), and now after nine games, he's added only one regular season home run.  ???  Are they pitching around him?  Is it just a slump?  Or is it the Cardinal Method...

For those of you who do not know the Cardinal Method, it is this:  We take our sweet 'ole time, play solid (but not inspiring) ball for four months, then take over the division and move on to the playoffs.  It's a tried and true system.  Look at last year.  Nobody picked the Cards to go to the World Series, much less win the **** thing!  Only Cards fans understood.  It was the Method.

Despite the obvious fact that the Cards are repeating the system this year, the media has yet to even pick up on it.  In fact, before the first regular season game had even begun, all the big-time media players were already jumping on the East Coast bandwagon.  The usual names were flying for the World Series this year:  The Red Sox, the Yankees, the Mets...blah, blah, blah...  It's the same thing every year.  Even Peter Gammons picked the Mets.  Where did this terrible East Coast bias come from?

The St. Louis Cardinals are the World Champions!  And they did it with a poor record.  A quick examination of St. Louis' lineup will tell you that they are actually stronger this year.  But nobody is picking the Cards to go all the way.  Nobody but the fans.  That's too bad.

Stay tuned, folks.  The Method is in full swing, the Cards have already moved into first place for the division, and a stunned media will watch another year of the Cardinals infuriating the main-stream media and the East Coast bandwagon jumpers.