Cardinal Nation: You Aren’t Spoiled Rich Kids

Baseball season is long. It’s really long. It spans 75% of the calendar. If a team plays all of spring training and every playoff game, they could end up playing 210 contests. Thats twice as many as the NHL and 13 times as many as the NFL. It’s a sport in which the outcome rests in a man’s ability to whip his entire arm-his wrist, his shoulder his elbow-around in a completely unnatural motion 100 times a game. In short, baseball is unpredictable.

So when a team that has finished 1, 3, and 2 overall in the past three seasons struggles to score runs and has so many injured arms it would make Dusty Baker cringe, naturally, many fans of this team will naturally worry. That’s okay, I worry too.

But I’m starting to feel like there’s more to it than worry. It’s almost like a misguided arrogance that permeates through town when the team goes through a bad spell. And it really is misguided; the recent run of success has molded many fans to come to the park expecting a victory every day, as opposed to making people fully aware that this team, these players, the coaching staff, and the front office know what they’re doing. Have we forgotten 2011 already? If erasing an 11-game deficit in a month en route to a world championship isn’t enough to elicit some leeway from the fan base, I’m not sure anything ever will be.

I’m having this meltdown today because as I write this, the Cards have finally strung some really well-played, team oriented games together and the fan base is singing a completely different tune tan they were on Monday morning. The pessimism has suddenly shape-shifted (I’ve been watching a lot of True Blood) into swagger and the people that were calling for a trade that would push Kolten Wong to the bench and Matt Carpenter back to second are now silent. After two dongers (and one walk-off), Wong is once again the darling of Cardinal Nation, speeding around the base paths and looking like Rafael Furcal in his prime at the plate.

The down-troddenness is mostly expressed by passive Cardinal fans. It’s mostly people who were defending David Freese last year, or people who can’t name the bench coach or the bullpen catcher or anyone in the front office besides John Mozeliak, or the people who want to trade Carlos Martinez, Shelby Miller, Allen Craig, Matt Adams, Oscar Taveras, Kolten Wong, Randall Grichuk, Stephen Piscotty, and the statue of Stan the Man for David Price that are really down on this team and have been trolling the internet in full force lately. The educated fans are being patient, understanding this isn’t even the All-Star break yet, and putting their faith in guys that they know have done it before and can do it again.

The bandwagon is full again. This time, Cardinal Nation, don’t be so quick to unload. This isn’t the end of the struggles. Even if the team is turning a corner, there will be a time, probably sooner rather than later, that they hit a skid and lose three, four, maybe even five in a row. When that happens, stand by your team. Don’t say we need a change on offense, don’t say Craig can’t hit, and don’t say it’s time to fire Mike Matheny and trade all your prospects for David Price. These aren’t the “now is the time” Oakland Athletics who need to jump at opportunities like this to finally have a shot at a ring. They aren’t the Kansas City Royals who want to believe that they are contenders so much that they may be willing to trade a star-studded closer with years of team control for a power bat that’s nearing free agency. These are the 11-time World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, who go deep into October season after season, who have hoisted the trophy twice in the last 8 years. These are the tried and true, the ones who have brought you to the promise land before, and they will do it again. Stay up, Cardinal Nation. It’s gonna be okay.

-Naysh