Woof.
Another weekend of baseball for St. Louis. Which equals another losing weekend for St. Louis. How bad is it? The past 6 weekends have produced a 3-15 record (courtesy of Joe Strauss), including dropping 2 out of 3 at Busch Stadium to the very mediocre Cleveland Indians.
After the sticks went silent on Friday, it was the bullpens chance to show they could contribute to the month long meltdown when “closer” Jason Motte entered a tied game in the top of the ninth, put 2 runners on and served a Andy Benes-esque meatball down the pipe to Jason Kipnis who promptly took the ball deep and the score out of hand for the feckless Cardinals.
Again, I say woof.
Meanwhile, the Reds were losing at home to Detroit allowing the Pittsburg Pirates to claim first place in the Comedy Central. That’s right, the Pirates are in first place… now becoming an annual tradition before they fall off to a sub .500 team.
The Cardinals are the most fortunate team in Major League Baseball. Maybe in professional sports.
The Comedy Central is bad in 2012. And it’s been pretty bad for the better part of 10 years. Houston and Pittsburgh are perennial doormats. The Cubs? They’re on pace as of today to finish with the worst record in Cubs history. And the Reds and Brewers are in the same mid-market, we’ll take our chances with what we’ve got and hope for the best mind-set that the Cardinals have.
Only 3 teams can legitimately win the NL Central in 2012. And if the Brewers can’t manage to dig themselves out of a deep funk, then it’s down to the Cardinals and the Reds. Who by maintaining a slightly over .500 record will have around a 50/50 shot of making the playoffs.
We’ve seen what happens if you can just get to the show.
I’m not complaining. I love watching my team in the post-season. But it’s starting to feel like we’re rooting for the backdoor, no? Excusing all sorts of crap play and losing moves because we know that it’s not really going to matter in the end. Get to 85 wins and you’re probably going to get in the playoffs. We’re not demanding excellence, we’re just making sure the Cardinals don’t fall off the map. It’s hard to get outraged at a losing every other game when that’s actually good enough to get to what we want in the end.
I guess this is just taking advantage of a circumstance. We can’t change the fact the Cardinals reside in the worst division in baseball. But as the seasons tick by and the Cardinals refuse to do more than just what is needed to get in the playoffs, it’s hard to deny other teams cries of the Cardinals being lucky.
Because they’re doing nothing to disprove exactly that.
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