From visits to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis.

1. A summary haiku:

Gentrification
Bike-friendly beyond all sense
Poor people moved…to where?

2. The dominant sectors are non-profits. Washington U once was located in a suburb. Now, along with St. Louis U, it is a colossus in the city. All three cities have vibrant hospital conglomerates, contributing to building booms and taking lead roles in philanthropic initiatives. We had people to visit in senior-living facilities in all three cities, and those facilities were very impressive.

3. Road construction projects are everywhere. Larry Summers should be happy.

4. Restaurants are another leading industry. Every chain, of course, but also many outstanding local restaurants. We ate better than we do in Washington (where we eat out very little).

5. In St. Louis, I biked from a suburban hotel to the arch, down a road where I would have feared for my life 40 years ago. With all the outdoor cafes along the way, it might have been Paris.

6. Went to a Cards game, of course. Those observations follow.

a. With his forearm-swinging Popeye walk, manager Mike Matheny came across to me as a guy with a favorite pastime of admiring himself in the mirror.

b. Rookie Oscar Taveras appeared to be pressing, and St. Louis may not be the place for him. He swung at some bad pitches, and when the Cardinal pitcher had to retrieve one of his throws from right field, you could almost hear 45,000 red-shirted fans gasp, horrified, “He missed the cut-off man!”

c. The fans also saw an infield hit on which the Cardinals made no play. First-baseman Matt Adams ranged in front of 2b Daniel Delscalso, made an impressive grab of the ground ball, but then had no one to throw to. You could almost hear 45,000 fans gasp, horrified, “The pitcher forgot to cover first base!” Pat Neshek indeed failed to cover, but perhaps the one who should have been covering first was Adams, with Delscalso having the best chance to throw out the batter.

d. For the most part, however, the Cardinals played superb defense and the Miami Marlins gave away the game. The score was 3-2 Cardinals, but it could well have been 4-1 Marlins.

e. The 2nd and 3rd Cardinal runs came on fly balls hit by Yadier Molina and by Taveras, each eluding Marlins right-fielder Giancarlo Stanton, who played his position like a born DH.

f. Although Miami scored no runs against Lance Lynn, his 6-inning performance was not impressive. Always in trouble, in one inning in particular the defense bailed him out. With two runners on, Molina turned a wild-outside pitch into a spectacular pickoff throw behind the runner at first, and this was followed by a diving play by 3b Matt Carpenter to get out of the jam. Taveras also made a nice running catch of a ball that would have evaded Stanton.

g. With his team ahead 3-0, fireman Trevor Rosenthal came on in the 9th and ignited a blaze. I believe he went almost 20 pitches before recording an out. Matheny seemed not to care, as he had no one else warming up. Rosenthal escaped, thanks to the bad baserunning and a crisply-executed Carpenter-Delscalso-Adams double play.

h. After the game, the Cardinal players seemed genuinely excited by the victory. I think that they care more than other teams.