Every week the Top 7 column will be enhanced by the newest addition to the JoeSportsFan Radio Network, Seven Minutes with Jason Major, where our Top 7 guru rants on the current topic, touches on previous lists and also vehemently defends his Cardinals bias...all in around seven minutes.



One of the media’s favorite storylines is (fill in player) can’t come through in the clutch.  Sometimes they’ll even take it a step further and say (said player) will never win a (fill in name of title).  Sometimes they’ll even go further than that and say (said player) can’t win because of (fill in random psychoanalysis that is completely not provable but sure sounds good).  Once this player comes through in the clutch or wins the title, the same media members will do more psychoanalysis to figure out what finally happened in their head to make them able to win.  Someone will try to connect A-Rod’s World Series title with him getting some kind of secret ooze from Derek Jeter, which is how they won.  It will happen.

Once the player has their clutch moment or their title, a new person must come along to take their place, and the cycle repeats endlessly.  Same storyline…they never will win a title, unless they do.  Here are the Top 7 guys who got their redemption in the clutch.

7. Barry Bonds
Bonds may be the most notorious underperformer in the playoffs of all-time in baseball, especially since there wasn’t such a massive amount of media around when Ted Williams and Willie Mays were stinking up the playoffs themselves (point being, Bonds wasn’t the first great player who struggled in the postseason).  Then came the 2002 World Series, where Hulk Bonds hit .471 with a .700 OB% and four homers, including one that went about 7,000 feet.  He didn’t win the Series, but it sure wasn’t his fault.  I’m not too familiar with that series, but I’m sure Giants fans would say it had something to do with Dusty Baker…that seems to always be the culprit with his teams.

6. Tony LaRussa
This spot almost went to Mick Foley for his finally winning the WWF title, then I remembered LaRussa, and it’s always fun to rip on his detractors.  Mostly due to him not living in St. Louis year-round, there is a small percentage of Cardinal fans who will never accept him, and used to go so far as to say that the Cards would never get to a World Series while he was manager.  This “faction” even ran a hilarious campaign to try to get him fired prior to the 2004 season, flying a banner over the Cards Spring Training facilities.

The Cards then won 105 games and went to the World Series, so the theory became “the Cards will never win the World Series with LaRussa as manager.”  Then LaRussa won the World Series with the Cards, and the people immediately tried to disregard it, saying he got lucky.  So their platform apparently all along was “the Cards will never make the World Series with LaRussa as manager, unless they do, in which case they will never win the World Series…unless they get lucky.”  Makes total sense. 

We don't do a lot of local stuff here at JSF. It's mostly high quality stories about losers wearing personalized jerseys, mustaches, knuckleheads, Bacott's underpants and how they apply to modern ice skating techniques, et al.

But today, in the spirit of JSF's hometown of St. Louis, we offer some quality information about a local event and opportunity to meet me and tell me how stupid I am.

Our friends at Charter High-Speed® Internet (shameless plug) -- who were kind enough to pimp the 'Stache Bash free of charge -- are hosting a one-day football contest and trivia tournament on Sunday, Nov. 8, from noon 'til 4 pm that will pit anyone who enters and attends against local media "celebrities" including The Morning After's Tim McKernan, sportscaster Frank Cusumano, radio dudes Dave Glover, Bo Matthews, and Jamie Allman, as well as others like Joe Buck's dope looking sister.

So here's how it works: go enter your picks at Charter.upickem.net, and even if you don't show up at the event you get a chance to win a relatively sweet Logitech Webcam. But then, if you are local, you come to the Fox & The Hound in Chesterfield (just west of St. Louis) on Sunday where you can win some Rams memorabilia, a firm handshake from me, and other stuff from Charter.

Charter will be setting up multiple computers to keep you up to the minute on your pathetic fantasy team and player standings and here's the "nice" part -- Charter will donate $1,000 in honor of the best celebrity picker.

For information, e-mail me at abe@joesportsfan.com or call 877-STACHE-1.

Carry on.

November 5th, 1996

Today is a day that national media member will never forget.  For it is on this day that the collective group of Derek Jeter lovers could tangibly express their affliction for the Yankees new shortstop.  The actual love affair spawned

Jeter went .314 AVG/.370 OBP in 1996, which was deemed exponentially better than his successor, Tony Fernandez, who went .245 AVG/.322 OBP the previous season.  But most importantly, Derek looked decidedly more dashing doing so.  Wayyy more dashing.

Impress your co-workers: The following men finished behind Derek Jeter in the 1996 American League Rookie of the Year voting: Tony Clark (DET), Darin Erstad (CAL), Tony Batista (TOR) and Jeff D'Amico (MIL)

Just five weeks in, the new 30 for 30 documentary series has proven to be one of the more promising developments to come out of the programming department at ESPN in quite some time. It seems that there is something about a well put together, intriguing documentary that trumps watching Woody Paige act like a moron on an episode of Around the Horn every time. Who could have guessed?

But for every one of the 30 documentaries that ESPN selected for this project, we have to believe that there were several that didn't make the cut. And thanks to our inside sources roaming the halls in Bristol, JoeSportsFan.com can give you a peak at some of the titles of the unlucky documentaries that were on the outside looking in when the final selections were made.

On the cutting room floor....

King's Ransom 2: Wayne Gretzky Heads to St. Louis

Stylin' and Profilin': The story of Karl Malone's draft day outfit

Zubaz?

Teen Wolf Too: Destroying Scott Howard's Name

Sometimes Steroids Don't Work: The Neifi Perez story

Stained Shoulders: How the jheri curl changed baseball

Lamarr Hoyt Gets Trashed and Reads "Clifford the Big Red Dog"

Go Teal or Go Home: Expansion in the 90's

The Legacy of the Neck Tattoo

Philadelphia Eagles: The Kotite Years