Not a baseball blog, remember
OK, so the dream of the undefeated season lies in ruins, after today’s Cubs loss against the Reds.
No need to push the panic button or flip out. The Working Man, forced into duty as our number-two starter, gave up four runs — which is what we should expect — although at times it looked as though he was placing the ball on a tee for the Reds batters. They were sitting, waiting, and raking everything.
Remember - no comment on the Cubs coaching - but at some point, don’t the Cubs batters, from outstanding vantage points in the field, watch all of their division rivals take pitch after pitch, wearing out the Cubs starters before feasting on meatballs, and don’t they wonder? Don’t they say, huh? What a novel idea! Hey, I could take pitches! Alas, no. Bronson Arroyo is no world-beater, but he had a couple easy innings in which Cubs batters jumped all over his first offering. I’m just wondering out loud.
Mike Barrett didn’t have a good day, Jerome Williams has fallen down a well (Honestly, we spend $6 million for two good relievers, and Dusty wants to always save them till the end? Seriously, if we keep trotting Jerome out there, we’ll never see if the rest of the ‘pen is improved.). Deep breath. it’s game two, it’s the Reds, and the only pitcher we have that they don’t dominate is Kerry Wood.
Also, in baseball, today I saw, for the first time (via Deadspin) pictures of the new “Busch Stadium.” It’s admittedly really cool, and looks like a great park (Now I’m wondering why the world’s greatest fans tried to convince themselves for years that the old Busch Stadium was anything other than a pathetic, abysmal, concrete hole. C’est la vie.
However, after reading about the stadium, once again I was treated to a congratulatory self-pat-on-the-back that is customary between, from, and about Cardinals fans to one another. I can’t help it. I know I’m a Cubs fan — the sworn enemy — but what is with this? Why must we always hear this tripe out of the mouths of Cards fans? Always, always, always trying to sell us their greatness. A day at the new Busch must feel like a time-share convention.
(from Deadspin’s article)Fans
This part didn’t change, the best fans in baseball in the best baseball town in America. It still has that sea of red effect as you look around the stadium.
Excuse me, for trespassing upon sacred ground. Excuse all of us, for thinking that the legendary stream of ridiculous self-congratulation between Cards fans would ever wane in a new ballpark.
Honestly, I don’t know why Cardinals fans are so insecure. In all of their discourse with each other, and all of us, they incessantly pat one another on the back, as though being a Cardinals fan elevates a person upon a holy pedestal. It does not.
Sure, St. Louis is a fine baseball town. No better nor worse than Dodgertown, Boston, Baltimore, the Bronx, Wrigleyville, or anywhere else. Their fans? Again, Cardinal nation is loaded with pompous gasbags, insecure louts, and uncouth clowns, peppered with rational, light-hearted baseball fans — just like everyone else’s fan base.
So I don’t get where the dialogue comes from. Everyone thinks their own team’s fans are “the best,” of course — but we’re not so condescending and narcississtic as to continually berate or scoff at others, toasting ourselves despite these poor souls who, ahem, root for a different team. We don’t slap one another on the back in a bitter, pathetic attempt to convince one another that we’re somehow better people because of, honestly, the sports team we root for. Get a grip. Get a life.
In addition, somehow this Cardinal-exultation always spills over from just the deluded, insecure fan base into the national consciousness — if only because lazy sportswriters and announcers deduce that the same old milked-over self-congratulatory tripe passes for fact, truth, or evidence. It’s annoying, it’s false, and it’s ridiculous. It even allows Cards fans to inexplicably escape any national vilification at their tendency to have regular-season success but blow it all away in the playoffs. (Honestly, how are they any different than the Minnesota Vikings? And we make fun of the Vikes!)
Regardless, this is but a cry, a sermon, and also a warning — as the new Busch Stadium is unveiled in all its glory — expect to hear all kinds of notions about how great Cardinal nation is, was, and continues to be, forever more, we should all be so lucky to bask in their red glow for even a second, and how they continue to be the example for all of us deluded, pathetic, paean baseball fans of other teams.
Really, Cubs fans aren’t dumb enough to cite the 1908 title as fan legitimacy. Yet Cards fans cite 1982 and all the ones before it. Yeah, if you’re my age, I’m sure the ‘82 title was great. I’m sure it meant a lot. WHEN YOU WERE FOUR. Honestly, we’re in the same boat, Cubs and Cards fans. The only difference is, our visible angst comes from years of dashed hope, theirs is masked by self-delusion and failure. I hope we sleep a lot better at night.
Of course, I doubt we sleep any better at night. The point is, we should.