Always strange to play against the Cardinals, the team I grew up watching in St. Louis, and later worked for as a broadcaster. For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in STL and followed the Cardinals as a boy, loved watching Stan Musial (he retired when I was 10) and reveled in World Championships in 1964 and 1967 with a tough Series loss to the Tigers in ‘68. My sister Judy went to work for the Cards in ‘67 in the group sales office, and works there to this day, as Director of Baseball Administration for GM Walt Jocketty. She handles all the player contracts and transactions, so a very important job. When the Nats played at St. Louis in May, we had a surprise party for her, celebrating her 40th anniversary with the team.

As a Cardinals broadcaster, I became good friends with many of the players, especially Albert Pujols, who is a great guy and a future Hall Of Fame player. Albert cares about people, and he and I connected in a spiritual way, as we’re both very active in our Christian churches. I was always welcome to attend Sunday morning chapel with the players on the road, and I helped Albert in fund raising for his Pujols Family Foundation. He and his wife Deidre have opened an orphanage in his native Dominican Republic and his name in baseball is doing a lot of good for many people. They have a Downs Syndrome daughter, Isabella, and the Pujols have raised much money in the St. Louis area to help those kids.

I came to the Nats after having my TV schedule reduced by the Cardinals year after year, and I finally decided to seek a full-time baseball job, and here I found it in DC! I have loved my almost 2 years here, and hope it continues for many more.

Coming to the ballpark Friday for the series opener, I stopped by the Cards clubhouse and saw many old friends including Albert, Scott Rolen, (I always tell Ryan Zimmerman he’s the next Rolen), David Eckstein and others. They are a team with great character, even though they’re struggling through a horrible season that saw the death of teammate Josh Hancock, season-ending injury to Chris Carpenter and a string of walkoff losses, like the one we handed them tonight.

Once the game started, I forgot I was from St. Louis and wanted the Nats to win, as I do in the booth every night. Tim Redding was outstanding, and I knew he could pitch against the Cards after he faced them 11 times with Houston. It was frustrating watching Ryan Church strike out with the bases loaded in the first inning, but we got a great night from Redding, timely hits from Felipe and Zim walked off with the 3-2 “Curly W.” It was our 7th walkoff win of the year, remarkable, and Zim has had a hand in 3 of them. I felt bad for the Cards, but hey, I’m a National now!  I felt Don and I had a very good telecast; we paid tribute to the Negro Leagues, Debbie Taylor had cool interviews with one of the old time players and the evening went quickly despite the 3 hour and 25 minute time of game. As a play-by-play man, I always enjoy the big moments in the game, and the walkoff win was lots of fun. Debbie grabbed Zim at the dugout, and he was still winded from celebrating when she interviewed him. We call it “Maximum Access” on MASN, and that was quick access!

After the game, I was able to spend time with Mike Helling, Tom Mee and Brian McCann, old TV friends from the Cardinals crew. They used to be to me what MASN’s Chip Winfield (producer), Doug Yalacki (director) and Josh Hull (graphics coordinator) are to me now with the Nationals … great TV people who really know baseball and know how to present a game. I wish you all could be in the booth or truck sometime during a telecast … it’s a blast. In fact, I think 3 Girls With Heart need to be invited some night so they can do a blog on an evening with Bob and Don.

I will always treasure my time in St. Louis, and I have a World Series ring from 2004, but I want Nats fans to know I’m very happy to be here. More than anything, I want you Nats fans to experience baseball in October! There’s nothing like it, the whole town buzzing and a “Sea Of Red” as we called it in STL in the stadium. I know it’ll happen here, hopefully soon, and if you think you love baseball now, wait until you’re in that beautiful new stadium for a playoff or World Series game!

Having the Cardinals in DC brings back those October memories for me, and I hope you all get to experience that special time of the year. With that in mind, Go Nats!

Bob Carpenter
Nationals TV Announcer
Friday 8/3/07

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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