The month of November has had its highs and lows for the Cardinals. It is wonderful to see the future Hall of Fame manager, Tony LaRussa, back in the saddle, signing a new contract extension. I was thrilled to see the Cardinals’ first baseman, Albert Pujols, bring home a third MVP award for his expanding trophy case. I am sad to see Hal McRae go as our hitting coach. He is a wonderful man and did a great job for this organization; he will be missed. At the same time, it is going to be interesting to watch Mark McGwire come in as our new hitting coach. There will be a lot of attention on him and the organization to see how he handles the position.
A very well-deserved congratulations to Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, who picked up their second and first Gold Gloves, respectively. Molina is the third Cardinal catcher to win multiple Gold Glove awards, Tom Pagnozzi and Mike Matheny lead the way with three Gold Gloves a piece. I was disappointed that neither Wainwright nor Chris Carpenter won the Cy Young award. It is a shame that those who have the privilege to vote, voted in another direction. Some of the voters never saw Adam or Chris pitch - I think this should be addressed by Major League Baseball. Carpenter did get the Comeback Player of the Year Award, so congratulations to him. Great job for the team getting to the playoffs, and the ownership did an outstanding job in picking up Holliday, Lugo, DeRosa and Smoltz. Pay close attention to the free agent market this offseason. The front office and management sure have a lot of work ahead of them, and it will be fun to see what direction John Mozeliak and the Cardinals lean towards during this off-season.
Outside of baseball I wanted to let everyone know it was an honor and a blast being the grand marshal of the St. Louis Thanksgiving Day Parade. What a way to kick off the holiday season. It is nice to be home for the holidays after travelling for the past month. After the season ended, I flew to Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia. There were several memorable moments, but at the top of the list were the Melbourne Cup and the Melbourne Derby. The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major thoroughbred horse race and also a national holiday. We went trout fishing in the world-renowned Lake Taupo in New Zealand. I caught and cooked the trout with my own special recipe. I also want to say great job to Destination Travel for planning and booking a great trip, which was perfect in every aspect.
As you are making your holiday plans, make some time to come see me down at Shannon’s. We have a lot of exciting things happening this holiday season downtown! We are celebrating the re-opening of Highway 40 with a great promotion. Our chef, Nick Zotos, has come up with a three course menu that you can enjoy for just $40 for the first 40 days of the Highway being re-opened. We are doing $15 Lobster Newburg and $5 glasses of wine every Lunch through December. Also, we are now offering valet parking at lunch.
Have a safe and happy holiday season from all of us at Mike Shannon’s Steak and Seafood and Shannon’s gift certificates are always a great present. If you spend over $250 in gift certificates, we will give you a bottle of the Mike Shannon’s reserve cabernet, a $50 value, which makes for a great stocking stuffer.
Have a great December and I hope to see you all down here soon.
