Heat might be on the firemen
03/30/2008
Closer Jason Isringhausen anchors a bullpen the Cards relied heavily on in 2007.
JUPITER, Fla. — The reason the Cardinals' bullpen smelled faintly of watermelon for a few days last summer was that one melon met its spectacular demise there.
For kicks one afternoon, several of the relievers stuffed explosives into the belly of the fruit and lit the fuse. Crouched just outside the bullpen, they laughed as they waited for the splatter and a fog of melon mist.
Nothing brings a team together quite like detonating produce.
"Yeah," Russ Springer said. "There's some extracurricular activities going on."
The relief corps was the backbone of the Cardinals last season because they confined their blowups to fruit. Led by closer Jason Isringhausen — just as they were for the Great Melon Bomb — the Cardinals' bullpen had the fewest blown saves in baseball. They worked the fourth-most innings in the National League and were the reason the Cardinals lost just twice in the 62 games they led after the seventh inning.
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Heat might be on the firemen
Heat might be on the firemen
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