The Stanley Cup in St. Louis (for real!)

How long can I write baseball posts that have nothing to do with an actual game? As long as it takes the Cardinals to remember they're paid to hit and catch and throw, even in April, even when it's cold, and even when they're the only game in town.

The Blues' home schedule fizzled out last week, but it turns out the Stanley Cup was at Busch Stadium Tuesday night. I'm not sure why the greatest trophy in all of sports (oh yes, it is) was in St. Louis, unless it was a part of a cities-whose-teams-will-not-win-it-in-this-lifetime tour, but its mere presence does illustrate one thing that makes the Cup great: it travels.

While other trophies pass the years in hermetically sealed glass cases, the Cup gets out there and goes. Not only does each player on the NHL's championship team get his name engraved on one of the Cup's silver rings, but he also gets to spend 24 hours with hockey's holy grail, doing, well, whatever. That players drink from it goes without saying, but the Stanley Cup has also been on roller coasters, jet skis, and motorcycles, and in a sauna, an igloo, and Red Square. Players have eaten from it, slept with it, and used it as a baptismal font. Doug Weight even brought it back to St. Louis last year after winning with Carolina, and it sounds as if he had a great day. Say what you will about hockey, but that, sports fans, is a trophy worth winning.

A few years back, when the Blues made the Western Conference Finals, the Cup even visited a local shopping mall as part of a promotional campaign. We stood in line and had our photo taken with it, but I'm chagrined to say that too many years of "look, don't touch" brainwashing kicked in and I didn't put a finger on the most touchable trophy there is. When I realized what I'd not done, it was too late; given the current state of the franchise and my poor prospects as a hockey professional, I'm not sure I'll have another chance. I did, however, feel a little less like a dork when I read that Chris Carpenter, a one-time hockey player, declined to lay his hands on the Stanley Cup when Brett Hull and Kelly Chase brought it by the Cardinals' clubhouse last night.

Meanwhile, the Redbird faithful just hope his failure to reach out and touch it really is about sporting respect and not about the sore elbow he later disclosed. If Carpenter can't pitch, April really will be the cruelest month, no matter what hardware comes to town.