7..is a serious number (Matt Holliday)

Now playing: Johnny Cash - Hurt (followed by more JC)

This is about 7 weeks too late, but hey, I'm slow you know?

Matt Holliday is a long-term Cardinal. Sorry to repeat the details as I'm sure you've already seen them 317 times, but I am trying to make this as casual-baseball-fan-friendly as possible.

7 years, $120,000,000 for 2010-2016 with a club option + incentives:

> $50,000 for each All-Star Game appearance
> $50,000 for each Gold Glove awarded
> $50,000 for each Silver Slugger awarded
> $200,000 for finishing first in MVP voting, $100,000 for finishing second and $50,000 for finishing third
> $50,000 if named NLDS MVP
> $100,000 if named NLCS MVP
> $150,000 if named WS MVP (so in the next 7 years he's gonna make up to $1,050,000 - seeing as the Cardinals are gonna win the World Series 7 times in a row, although I can't guarantee he will be MVP every time)
> Gets a suite in every hotel on road trips (probably only a few hundred dollars difference per night, which sounds like a lot but if you divide his $17mil/year contract by at bats [581 in '09] he makes $29,260 EVERY time he steps up to the plate, even if he strikes out on 3 straight down the middle..damn)

Upon this resigning, he has also switched his jersey number from 15 to 7. Sucks for all you Holliday t-shirt buyers last season! Number 15 was of course Jimmy Edmonds' for 8 years from 2000-2007 before being traded away after a fallout with some part of the Cardinals organization. Some gave Holliday shit for taking #15 upon arriving mid-season last year which was a big scandal for no reason. Furthermore, some argue #15 deserves to be retired by the Cardinals in honor of Edmonds. However, when looking at the Great Ones that are forever ingrained in Cardinals lore, I'm not sure if he's quite qualified, even though he was amazingly entertaining to watch and a staple of the Cardinals decade.

Anyway, it seems Holliday had several more reasons to switch numbers. Maybe his 7-year contract. Maybe because Mickey Mantle, also an Oklahoma native like Holliday, wore #7. Maybe because great players often wear single digit numbers. Maybe because he's making (potentially) the rest of his life as a Cardinal great. Check out the list of current #'s retired by the Birds on the Bat:

#1 - Ozzie Smith
#2 - Red Schoendienst
#5 - Albert Pujols (well, not yet, but I can't just skip over him..)
#6 - Stan Musial
??#7 - Matt Holliday (gets 2 Q-marks because who knows what he'll do)
#9 - Enos Slaughter
#14 - Ken Boyer
???#15 - Jim Edmonds (long-shot)
#17 - Dizzy Dean
#17 - Lou Brock
#42 - Bruce Sutter
#45 - Bob Gibson
#85 - August Busch (number chosen because he was retired on his 85th birthday)

That takes us through 2016, and there's an option for 2017. I will go from 22 to almost 30 by the time Matt Holliday enters new contract negotiations or retires. Jesus H. That's hard to think about. But that brings us to the next point. 7 years from now, who knows what happens. However, we do have a thing called the past, so let's check out what was happening..

In 2003..

> The Marlins defeat the Yankees in the World Series. I fucking hate the Yankees, good work Sunshine state.

> The Cardinals finished the season 3rd in the NL Central division, behind *shudders* the Cubs. Bright spots: Albert Pujols. Mike Matheny, Scott Rolen, Jimmy Ballgame, and Edgar Renteria won Gold Gloves. TLR reaches a managing milestone, notching his 2,000th win.

> The Steve Bartman incident. Thank you from the bottoms of Cardinal Nation's hearts for destroying the Cubs playoff run. Probably one of the top 100 things I've witnessed in my lifetime.

> The St. Louis Blues finish their season 39-30-11 and go to the playoffs for the 25th year in a row. Damn. We finally made it back last season, and let's hope for a post-Olympic miracle and start another streak. Off the '03 team, Keith Tkachuk and Barret Jackman are still on the '010 team.

> The St. Louis Rams finished their season going 12-4, advancing to the playoffs but losing early. Since 2007, in 3 seasons, the rams have won a grand total of half the 2003 teams wins. 6.

> Facebook wouldn't exist even to Harvard students for another year. The idea of Twitter probably hadn't even been conceived by a group of stoners thinking up new ideas before forgetting them soon after. Now look at how integrated we are to social media networks..

> The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry into the atmosphere. 7 KIA, RIP.

> Iraq war begins and within 2 months, Mission Accomplished was formerly declared. Glad we wrapped that up back then. Dumbasses.

> Martha Stewart scandal. Can't blame her, if someone told me I was about to get fucked, I probably wouldn't bend over and let it happen.

> The International Olympic Committee named Vancouver the host of these amazing 2010 Winter Olympic games. You guys see that USA vs Canadaland hockey game? Goalie shit Batman.

> Xbox, PS2 and GameCube make their debut. Fucking Xbox is 2 generations older in 7 years and the Wii is fucking crazy and can give you tennis elbow from playing too much Wii tenis. But apparently lots of people use it for good exercise, so that's awesome. Gotta love technology.

> Cialis was introduced. In 2016 I might look back at this blog post and find it funny that I was making fun of Cialis when I might be needing it by that age..

> Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy was beginning, Matrix trilogy in the middle, LotR trilogy ending; Finding Nemo, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Terminator 3 came out.

> June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash died. RIP.

> Arrested Development premiered. RIP.

> Uday and Qusay Hussein died. Saddam was captured. RIPieces.

> Christmas was unfortunately celebrated. Hate that holiday. Like Holliday