(sorry)
Dubbing the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, “the worst World Series winners in history,” the Boston Herald’s Tony Massarotti writes “the question is whether to bury them or to praise them.” Guess which he ultimately chose?
For all of the praise the Cardinals deserve, there is one thing we simply can™t get past: They shouldn™t have been here at all. The baseball season is designed to weed out the weak, the mediocre, the inept and the brittle. The Cardinals simply slipped through the cracks. This St. Louis team won 22 fewer games than the last Cardinals club to reach the World Series, the 2004 edition that was steamrolled during the historic run of the Red Sox.
But at least those Red Sox won 98 games. They were championship-caliber. They were every bit as good, if not better, than any major league team that took the field that season.
But really, can we say that about these Cardinals? For all of the good baseball has experienced during the wild card era, parity has come at a price.
The San Diego Padres won the NL West last year with 82 victories. This year, the Cardinals won the NL Central with 83.
Neither of those clubs would have qualified for the postseason during another era and neither would have had a complaint.
Over the years, for whatever reason, one of the more popular theories in competition is that America loves the underdog. That is nothing more than rubbish.
What Americans truly love is excellence, primarily from our professionals, particularly over an extended period of time, from Tiger Woods to the New York Yankees to our very own Patriots.
The Cardinals? Let™s not put them there with the 1985 Villanova Wildcats or the 1968 New York Jets or even the 2001 Patriots. Those were good clubs that unexpectedly ascended to the heights of greatness at a time few expected.
WOW, East coast bias from another disgruntled Red Sox fan. Big suprise. Give it a rest and worry about your shitty Celtics. If excellence is what you crave then your loaded Sox and Yankees should win it every year right? Don’t whine because someone “slipped through the cracks” like Detroit and STL this year and won it all while you probably didn’t even watch the Series yourself because none of your coveted East Coast teams could cut the mustard. Hell, I don’t even like the Cardinals but they played well enough, in shitty weather to win it all.
regardless of what you might think of Massarotti, if you read him pretty often, it’s clear enough that he did watch the World Series, however grudgingly. Nor have I seen any suggestion from his end that the Tigers were an unworthy representative for the American League.
I will say this, not having missed watching a World Series since 1968: The on-field celebration immediately following the final out was about as thrilling as watching Barry Bonds hit a home run this year. I dunno—maybe they were i shock? And La Russa strolled on the field like a man heading toward execution. The Cards deserved it for sure, I’m just sayin’ is all….
I couldn’t pull away from the Small Wonder reruns to bother watching any of the Series except the final innings of the final game.
I’d like to think that I have an East Coast-West Coast bias. Dodgers/Yankees would’ve been good, as well as Oakland/Mets. I just fucking loath middle America and all of its obese, narrow-minded, Jesus-loving, gynormous vehicle-driving bullshit. Oh, and I hate David Eckstein too. The (S)crappiest Human Ever…..*yawn*
I am personally acquainted with middle americans who are a) thin, b) atheists c) cyclists and/or electric car owners.
Not many, mind you, but enough that an entire (large) chunk of the USA cannot so easily be written off. No Middle America means no “Amphetamine”, “Gacy’s Place”, F/i, Jackson 5, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Buster Douglas or Denny McLain playing his organ (in or out of prison).
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I find irrational hatred of the midwest far more distasteful than normal behavior, like planting drugs in Braden Looper’s carry on luggage.
Those fuckers voted for Bush…TWICE. I stand by my comments.
Word, GC.
not all of those fuckers, Rog. Kerry carried Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois in 2004. Gore took all of the above, plus Iowa in 2000.
Most people from that area that I know consider MN, MI, and WI to be ‘the North’ not the Midwest, but I’ll give you IL. Iowa, that meth-loving state, voted red in the last election and that’s what I have to judge them on. And thank God for Chicago or else IL would be one of those beloved Red States, too. Electoral maps within states are fascinating. A state that contains one gynourmous city will turn up Blue because people in big cities are evolved and frankly not nearly as stupid as your average suburbanite (and, therefore, swing the state).
MN, MI, WI — Central Division! (st. Louis, strangely, used to be in the NL East)
“A state that contains one gynourmous city will turn up Blue because people in big cities are evolved”
I guess that explains Wisconsin voting Democrat, then. Milwaukee = gynourmous city, evolved citizens include Jeff Dahmer and Bob Uecker.
If city dwellers are way evolved, how do we account for all the crap mayors NYC, Philly and Boston have elected over the years?
Oh, I thought we were talking about geo-political boundaries. Either that, or Bob Uecker is running for office.
I know Jeffrey Dahmer ate people, but he still probably had the good sense to vote Democrat. After all, aren’t all liberals pro-crime, at least to your TX-bred Republican leaders?
Bob Uecker is running for most unlikely stalker target of the 21st century.
There’s probably a way to look up whether or not Dahmer was a registered Democrat, but I think I’m gonna have to give up.
Rogmeister-
If you’re so concerned about the political differences between intellectual urbanites and Jesus loving middle America, perhaps you should actually visit Republican strongholds like East St. Louis, Madison, or Gary? Or at least check out what the know-it-alls at Wikipedia have to say about where the Midwest actually is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest
Who the fuck considers themselves from the North?
Who the fuck considers themselves from the North?
Northerners.
BTW, if it were me, I wouldn’t try to go around winning internet arguments by citing Wikipedia. Not unless you want to look like an uneducated Southerner.