Maybe you thought the Rams should have picked a wide receiver earlier in the draft to give St. Louis’ newest leading man, Sam Bradford a target for  his first year in the bigs, but ESPN’s Sports Science is here to tell you that the Rams did just fine getting a wide receiver in the fourth round with Mardy Gilyard from the University of Cincinnati.

In this clip from earlier this year, the white guy with that same hair cut every TV host not named Regis has walks you through why Mardy (yup, with a d) is no slouch.

We love this video and really are more excited about Gilyard that we were oh about 5 minutes ago. The guy has some interesting skills and seems like a pretty cool guy at that.

Also, ever since we lost the great Brian Barton, we need a new skinny black guy with dreads around here. If you disagree, you’re a racist. There we said it.

Yesterday was a big St. Louis sporting news day!  Tony LaRussa made his decision to return to manage the Cardinals for at least 2010 official and confirmed the rumor that Mark McGwire would be on board as the team’s new hitting coach!

This is a major local news story that broke through the bounds of St. Louis and got national coverage.  Obviously the network synonymous with sports, ESPN, picked up and story and when they needed that local view they turned to the obvious radio station choice…KMOX?!?!

Ouch.  Now that’s gotta sting over the local ESPN Radio affiliate WXOS, 101 ESPN.  Its one thing to have a falling out in private, but to have your old flame have their new slut’s name all over the place?  Wow.  So sad.

Lets relive it shall we?

What do you have to do to not even get a phone call from the company you pay to broadcast their content?

We love ourselves some Pujols out here and the world knows it, but from time to time its good to see someone else on the team to get a little of the spotlight.  From our extensive research, we’ve found that if St. Louis had to pick a second favorite Cardinal, most would say the same guy: Yadier Molina

Guess who got the next cover of ESPN the magazine and is sporting a pretty bad-ass catcher pose?!

Bam!

You can read the cover story in the next ESPN issue, or online right now (if you are an ESPN Insider subscriber).  Here’s a taste:

Molina is a throwback, a catcher in the grittiest sense of the word. He’s a master of an art driven underground by a collective lust for the long ball. In the early 1980s, when offense exploded and home runs became all the rage, many clubs started signing catchers for their skills at the plate rather than those behind it. In the ’90s, Mike Piazza became the poster boy, and the nuances of the position began to fade. But no catcher can drive in as many runs as he can prevent. The stat geeks have yet to master next-level fielding metrics for catchers, so Molina’s defensive prowess is more anecdotal than measured, but his pickoff and caught-stealing numbers are telling.

They also have a video up that we have posted below of a quick interview during the photo shoot.  Of course, as we in St. Louis could have guessed, Yadi is subtitled.

In the most recent issue of ESPN The Magazine (July 13, 2009) they released their annual Ultimate Standings where they grade all NBA, NFL and MLB teams in things like “Stadium Experience,” “Fan Relations,” and “Ownership.”

In the “Bang for the Buck” category, which is “wins over the past year per revenues directly from fans, adjusted for league schedules”, the Rams came in dead last, as in 122 out of 122.  Well done guys.

Other notable St. Louis team appearances are the Blues coming in #3 the “Swag” category (for their “free food” nights) and the Cardinals tied for #1 in the “Title Track” category along with the Los Angeles Angels and the D-Town Red Wings, which measures “Championships already won or expected within the lifetime of current fans”

The overall rankings have the Blues at #10, Cardinals at #26 and the Rams at #112.