The only good thing about the past weekend’s sports trauma is that since the Cardinals are now officially done with their season, Brendan Ryan can finally shave his mustache. As disappointing it was for the Cardinals to be swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in post season play I am slightly relieved at the thought of the mustache reminiscent of middle aged men in muscle cars in the 1970′s being left in the 70s…

All kidding aside, the Cardinals did not look their best in their last three games in the National League Division Series. Or, let’s be honest, most of September. And now that their 2009 season is officially over there are a lot of questions left in Cardinal Nation. Like what will happen with the coaching staff? And yesterday, Tony La Russa said he is no where near making a decision on coming back to manage next season. Rumors have been circulating ever since the exit of his son that pitching coach Dave Duncan wants out. The Cardinals are trying to find a way to get a contract in that would make Albert Pujols a Cardinal for the rest of his career while hopefully also negotiating to keep Matt Holliday, Pujols’ protection, in a red bird uniform. Holliday is a pending free agent who was hitless with runners on base in the NLDS and made a game-losing error in the ninth inning during the second game of the series. However, once acquired mid-season Holliday was a game changing factor for the Cardinals. It’s a lot to put on a plate for a ball club that has taken its fan base on a roller coaster ride.

From the two games I watched in the series the Cardinals just seemed to fail to execute. It’s hard to recover from mistakes without a high level of execution. In game one I felt like I saw nearly every other batter strike-out watching the pitch. And when we seemed to make it to the bases we couldn’t seem to make it home. But you can’t blame three games for a season of ups and downs. The juggling of players in the time between clinching the central division and starting the NLDS seemed to prove harmful. I like La Russa for a variety of reasons, but I can’t say I understand the frequent changes in line ups. Throughout the season I felt like we’d have a game where everything clicked and the line up was solid and the defense strong, and inevitably the next day there would be a new third basemen and center fielder. Or new short stop and right fielder. And, yes, there were injuries galore. By no means were the Cardinals participating in a cake walk, but at times it felt like there was a shuffle between average players and no one got to stay in one place long enough to get comfortable and make a name for themselves. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Cardinals are likely to release Rick Ankiel and Troy Glaus. Maybe Joel Pinero, too. Spring training should prove to be interesting, to say the least.

I like to think of October as my month of sports heaven. It’s a bit of a trifecta with post season baseball, college football and the beginning of hockey season. But this weekend was ugly. Mizzou’s hard fought loss to Nebraska on Thursday, the Blues losing to the Thrashers on Thursday, and again to the Kings on Saturday, and then the Cardinals being eliminated from the post season on Saturday. I had little hope for the Rams against the Vikings on Sunday. Even my fantasy football team lost (I haven’t looked at the stats yet, but I’m sure it was no small factor that my opponent had Adrian Peterson on his team). I just couldn’t get a win in! The Twins losing out to the Yankees was just icing on my sad sports weekend cake. I did take refuge in Oklahoma’s win, but I am sure I’m in the minority there. But on the bright side, at least I know Brendan’s ‘stache will enjoy the winter off.

Annie is the Sports and Fitness Editor for Girls Guide. She writes about all kinds of sports related topics and then really goes out and plays sports almost every evening. You can contact Annie by emailing her at annie [at] girlsguidetothegalaxy [dot] com, and we are still trying to talk her into getting a Twitter account – no success yet.