Why I Love Baseball, Part 8

The St. Louis Cardinals.

I'm not a Cardinals fan, but I have to admire them.  Busch Stadium is very high on my list of stadiums to get to next season (it's probably the one that I haven't been to yet that I want to get to the most).  They have great fans and they're a great franchise.  You might not realize it, but the Cardinals are probably the best franchise of the last ten years.  During that time, they've made it at least as far as the NLCS five times.  They've been to the World Series three times and won two.

What they've done the last two years has been amazing.  I was rooting for the Rangers in the World Series last year, but I had to appreciate the way the Cardinals won.  Twice in Game 6, they were down to their last strike.  They came back to win Game 6 and then they won Game 7.  I was rooting for the Nationals in the first round of the playoffs this year, but again, the Cardinals won in amazing fashion.  They fell behind 6-0 and I figured the Nationals had it.  They clawed their way back to 6-5.  It looked like it was all for naught when the Nationals tacked on a run.  Twice the Cardinals were one strike away from elimination again, but they fought back to win 9-7.

That's the perfect way to win.  There's nothing like a hard fought win.  I dream that I'll get to see that from the Dodgers some day.

On the other hand, you have the Nationals.  I feel bad for their fans, but it shouldn't be too easy.  They might as well have been an expansion team.  They moved to Washington in 2005 and had finished in last every year except for two (4th in 2007 and 3rd last year).  I was surprised to see that they were 81-81 in 2005, but they were still in last place.  This is the first time that they're legitimately good.  Now their fans know what the frustration of being a baseball fan can feel like.    It's all part of loving the game.  They have a young team and should be good for a little while, but winning a World Series won't be easy.

So the Cardinals are back in the NLCS again.  I need to root for them now to prevent the Giants from making it to the World Series.  Go Cardinals.