All Sport Report

The defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals had begun the season with a less than impressive fashion.

The team currently sits with a record of 10-14, five and a half games out of the division lead, in a three way tie for last place. The ace of their pitching staff, Chris Carpenter, is on the disabled list as is another big arm from the starting rotation - Mark Mulder.

At the outset of the weekend a two word headline appeared in a St. Louis newspaper “No Chance”, speaking of the Chicago Cubs and their World Series hopes. The struggling Cubs were coming into town for a three game weekend series, and they now had extra motivation in the form of a newspaper article.

Cardinals’ manager Tony Larussa lashed out at the media before the series began, and in a story straight from a movie script - the jilted, insulted Cubs won the first two of the scheduled three meetings. The teams didn’t make it onto the field for the third.

Early sunday morning Cardinal’s relief pitcher Josh Hancock was involved in a fatal car accident. The twenty-nine year old’s SUV struck the back of a tow truck and Hancock was presumably killed on impact. Police reported that Hancock was driving at or very close to the speed limit, and there were no open containers in the vehicle. It appears Hancock just didn’t see the truck until it was too late.

This is the second time the Cardinals’ have lost a player in the last five years - in 2002, 33 year old pitcher Darryl Kile was found dead in a hotel room from heart failure.

In 2002 the Cards coped with the difficult loss and went on to win the central division and were later beaten by the Giants in the National League Championship Series.

The Cardinals were picked by many, as defending World Series Champions, to have another strong season in 2007 but they’ve got a long and difficult road ahead of them. After postponing the final game of their series against the Cubs on Sunday, the Cards dropped the first of a 3 game series agains the division leading Brewers.

The Cardinals will wear Hancock’s number 32 on their arms for the rest of the season to pay homage to a young man who will be remembered as a great friend, a great teammate and an integral part of their 2006 success.

St Louis Cardinals, Josh Hancock, World Series Champions, Darryl Kile