Long Way to Nowhere

I am in a foul mood.  My beloved St. Louis Cardinals have been eliminated from the National League Division Series (NLDS).  Even more disturbing is that the loss came at the hands of the dreaded Chicago Cubs. 

I am one competitive dude.  I hate to lose.  I would have been upset regardless of the opponent; but it stings a little bit more to lose to your chief rival. I should have known something was amiss when Donald Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican party and Spain Park High School shuts out Hoover High in football in the same year!

Throughout the season the Cardinals were the best team in baseball.  At least, that is,  if you buy into the team with the best record is the best team.  The Redbirds won exactly 100 games this season.  This was two better than Pittsburgh and three better than the Cubs.  Limping into the playoffs, figuratively and literally, the Cardinals were far from the best team in the field of playoff ball clubs.

There is no mistake that over the last month and a half the Cubs have been on a roll.  They took that momentum and stream rolled their way to the NLCS.  This is a team that can win it all.  God forbid we have to hear "Go Cubs Go" blasting for the entire off-season!

The long and storied franchise of the Cardinals has won as many World Championships this century (2006 and 2011) as the Cubs have since the turn of the 20th Century. Consider that the last time the Cubs played in a World Series there was no television.  That last time they won one, there was no such thing as radio!

The baseball world has grown weary of the Cardinals; much the same way most outside of New York feel about the Yankees.   Nobody, well at least most people, roots for Goliath!

But sports is a "what have you done for me lately" kind of thing. The Cardinal Way has become a punch line when St. Louis falters.  It has been twisted and distorted to reflect an arrogance by many Cardinal fans. Since the DeWitt family purchased the ball club in  1996, no National League franchise has matched the success of the Cardinals. No wonder there is Cardinal fatigue! 

The Cardinals had "nothing" to gain and everything to lose in this series with the Cubs.  The Cardinals were the pre-season favorites and made the post-season for a franchise record fifth straight year.  They were picked by many to play for another World Series Championship.  They have the pedigree.

The Cubs had nothing to lose. After all, they are the 'loveable losers".  They are the up and comers.  They are "a year ahead of schedule".  Most reasonable people never expected this big of a turn around in this short of a time.  But here they are trying to go all "Back to the Future" on us.

100 wins and a Central Division championship for the Cardinals showed the team's resilience during an injury plagued season. This was not the team manager, Mike Matheny started out with. They overcame the loss of Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, Yadier Molina, Matt Adams, Jordan Walden and Jon Jay for most of the year.  They lost Carlos Martinez before the playoffs.  Overlooked this season, by many, was the loss of top prospect Oscar Tavares, who died in an automobile accident nearly one year ago.  For this team, they offered no excuses or alibis.  Instead, it was next man up! 

True Cardinals fans don't make excuses or alibis either.  The Cubs outplayed the Cardinals and at this point in the year are the better club...period.  But when you are a Cardinals fan it is not enough to just get to the dance, you want to be able to lead it. 

"Act like you have been there before" is a common bit of advice given to athletes.  For the Cubs, they should ignore that advice. They should relish in this moment.  So should the Cubs fans. There is still a long way to go to win a World Championship; eight more wins to be exact. 

The Cardinals and their fans will always be disappointed when the season ends without a World Championship.  Call us greedy;  but that is what winning is all about.  That's why we play the game.  For the 2015 Cardinals, 100 wins and a division championship were just a long way to nowhere!  We are not ungrateful; we are unsatisfied.

Thanks for a great season.  Pitchers and catchers report in 120 days!