Card's...WHY CAN'T I QUIT YOU?

Cards-I Just Can’t Quit You

I’m not sure why but I just can’t quit the Cards. It hurts. It hurts to admit there will be no post season. It hurts. It hurts because I feel some players on the team are playing like they’ve quit on us. It hurts. It hurts, because I, like Erika and so many in Cardinal Nation, have a horrible uneasy feeling that something MAJOR is wrong with this team. It hurts to hear the recriminations and autopsies already starting. Believe me there is plenty of time for those. I’m not ready. My mind just can’t wrap itself around the fact that the regular season is almost over and we aren’t gonna be anywhere near the post season. It just hurts. I’m not ready to do my own anthropological study of why we reached this point. Oh….I will. You’ll not be able to stop me when it starts. It’ll flow like the River Styx. But it hurts.

So for today…for Thursday, September 23^rd with 11 games, and one more Thursday left in the season, I thought I’d just give you my Thursday Thoughts. A Vulcan Mind Meld Stream of Conscious thoughts I have rumbling round. With my little twist….of course.

Welcome Back, Kotter. Luddy was loudly welcomed back last weekend with a long standing ovation, including one from the dugout. I knew I missed him. But absence does make the heart grow fonder. I want him back. He wants to come back. He never wanted to leave. Why did he have to go? Sounds like a Diana Ross and The Supreme’s song, yes?

Since we made this dubious trade on July 31^st, we have won a grand total of two games pitched by Jake Westbrook. Totally not his fault. He has a respectable 3.77 ERA.  He lost the other four due to LACK OF SCORING. Hmmmm. Can’t figure out why trading away an above average right fielder, hitting an .827 OPS, would affect that. The night before he was traded, Luddy drove in three runs. The Cardinals woke up on Aug 1^st with a record of 59-46 and a half-game lead over Cincinnati. Since then we have gone 19-27, and now stand eight games back. 

The Player Never to be Named. Shhhhh….This might still be classified info, be we have a pitcher on our team by the name of Brad Penny. He has not been seen or heard from since he hit a grand slam on May 22^nd. He has a record of 3-4 with a 3.23 ERA. He stretched, strained, sprained, tore something, somewhere on his body. He is making $7.5 million per year. That’s $136,364 per inning, $625,000 per game and a nice round $2,500,000 per win to spend some time with his hot WAG, INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY PITCHING A BASEBALL FOR THE TEAM THAT’S PAYING HIM. But I’m not bitter.

I’m In Waste Management. Just like Tony Soprano, I can’t help but feel that’s my lot in life. Standing by and watching the Cards just throw a season away. A season in which Albert Pujols is once again in the race, not only for MVP of the National League, but for the elusive Triple Crown. Adam Wainwright has had a stellar season as usual and will be going for his 20^th win. He’s in the hunt for the Cy Young Award he was robbed of last year. Jaime Garcia has had an outstanding rookie season and has a good chance at Rookie of the Year.  All these great performances have gone to waste in the Cardinals year from hell.

Bull Durham will teach you everything you need to know about baseball.

As Crash Davis says “You just got lesson number one. Don’t think. It’ll only hurt the ballclub.” This seems to be a major problem of the Cards. They look tense. When they come up to bat, a lot of them do not look comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as anyone can look with a sphere hurling at them between 90 and 100mph. They look like they are concentrating on everything but keeping their head down, eye on the ball, hands inside the ball and swinging through. It’s like they are trying to over think instead of relaxing and concentrating.

Baseball is a game of timing. It takes focus and concentration. Thinking and remembering takes away from the ability to focus. Just stop thinking so much. Just say NO TO THINKING.

And finally as my heroine, Annie Savoy, says "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."  And that’s our real problem. We can’t seem to put all three aspects of the game together very often in the same nine innings. When we hit well, our pitching fails us. When we pitch well, our hitting is nowhere to be found. When we manage to pitch and hit, we can’t seem to catch and throw the ball in the field.  And don’t get me started on base running.

And then there’s a game like tonight. EXCRUTIATING! INFURIATING! We just lost to the Pittsburg Pirates. A team who has lost 98 games. We are in danger of being swept by a team that will lose 100 games. Thank God for the Baby Birds.

So, Cards, why can’t I just quit you? The reason is simple. Once again, Annie, says it for me. “I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball.…… It's a long season and you just gotta trust. I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.”

At least I keep telling myself that. It’s getting harder and harder.