Cardinals Rising

Hey, it's the pathetic fanboy looser post of the day!

I saw the three-game series with Milwaukee on the slate, and I figured out that the Cards would be in the hunt with a sweep. Funny, I predicted that the Cubs would win the World Series.

If the Cards win the Central, it means two things. First, it's a pretty damned unlikely situation. This is a team that has lost pitchers to everything from drunken driving deaths to surgery. Mulder hasn't pitched all season, and Carpenter hasn't pitched since April 1. Preston Wilson hasn't played since early May. Adam Kennedy is now probably out for the remainder of the season. They added Mike Maroth. He's on the DL. Hell, they have one guy in drug rehab. Their starting catcher was out for almost two months. Their sluggers, Pujols, Rolen and Edmonds have fallen off considerably from their best years. I mean, these guys made 29 roster moves just in July. People are bouncing all over the place.

The thing is that it wasn't really a good team even with Wilson, Molina, Kennedy and Mulder healthy. And they're still four games under .500. This is clearly one of the worst divisions in baseball. And yet it's the division of last year's World Series champ, a team that wasn't even predicted to make it out of its first playoff series. So I'll go on pretending that the Cardinals have a shot to win it all again, and everyone else can live in reality.

That is all.

 

You have the pathetic fanboy part right, at least. LOOSER!

 

It could be worse. I could be a Cubs fan and know that there's not a chance in hell that they'll win the World Series even if they manage to make it that far.

 

You think shit like that bothers me? Here's a clue: Cubs fans don't give a flying fuck about St. Louis or the Cardinals. Can't say the same for your fan base's obsession with our fair city and its team.

 

St. Louis will be done like dinner by next Monday night.

 

Actually, I wasn't even aware that you are a Cubs fan. Didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. I just tend to make off-handed remarks about the Cubs at every opportunity.

And your statement really only holds true for Chicagoans. Drive down to the central part of the state, and you'll find a strong rivalry between Cubs and Cards fans. But it's all in good fun. I feel for the Cubs.

 

Which proves my point.

Damn. Don't see too many people hanging pitches like that outside of Philly these days.

 

The self-proclaimed Best Fans in Baseball deserve nothing more ... than to see the Cubs in the playoffs. What a horrendous division when a sub-.500 team is talking division title.

 

Or perhaps the division with the most parity. Probably a little of both. The only reason the Cards have a shot is that they're 27-20 in division play. The Central's teams have fared well against the West, but they're abysmal against the East. I think everyone can agree that the East is a monster this year.

 

As I pointed out, folks in the central part of the state happen to be neighbors. We slam on each other's teams all the time. It's tradition. It's part of what makes it fun to live in Central Illinois. If you don't happen to live there, then you're probably not accustomed to the trading of jabs. As for it being one-sided, that's the nature of things when the Cubs tend to suck it up for years and years.

 

There's no parity in the NL Central. It just sucks. The Brewers would be, what, maybe the fifth or sixth best team in the AL? Behind NY, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Anaheim, Seattle...

make that the seventh best team in the AL.

A confluence of factors have made the NL Central the shittiest division in baseball. That's the only reason the Cardinals are still around.

 

I'll say this ... if the Brewers completely choke, I'd prefer the Cardinals to the Cubs being in.

But my Cardinals annoyance factor went way up last night having to listen to Dan McLaughlin and Al Hrabosky talk like it's a done deal.