Admittedly, we may poke fun of some of the people who populate Busch Stadium from time to time, but in the end it's mostly intended to be harmless. We are, after all, Cardinals fans just like them and we reserve the right to get defensive whenever an "outsider" chooses to take aim at us.
Cue Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan, a national baseball writer who took it upon himself to trash the franchise and the collective Cardinals fan base in his article today for no apparent reason. If you'll allow us a retort...
St. Louis Cardinals fans love to tell anyone who will listen how they're the smartest in baseball, and on Wednesday night they may have proven it.
They knew better than to show up and watch this team.
You line up whatever standardized test you want Passan, we'll put Cardinals fans up against anyone in the battle to be the "smartest".
Actually, it's becoming more of a media driven fallacy that fans at Busch Stadium view themselves as smarter than everyone else in baseball and the fans themselves are likely as sick of hearing about as anyone. St. Louis fans love their baseball and a good number of them are knowledgeable on the topic. No need to apologize for it, but it also doesn't mean we think we're smarter than everyone else. Except for this guy, he's like a genius.
Oh, the Cardinals won, an 8-3 romp over the National League champion Colorado Rockies, and that was well and good if not for the huge pockets of empty seats at the new Busch Stadium. For the first time in 165 games, and since the stadium opened in 2006, the Cardinals didn't sell out. They were nearly 8,000 heads shy of capacity, a rather damning indictment seeing as the season is two days old.
Really, it's a "damning indictment" that only 39, 915 people showed up to a Wednesday night game being played in 50 degree weather? If they averaged that number all year, thats 3.2 million people walking through the turnstyles.
I know that St. Louis fans set the standard high, but I didn't realize it was this high.
The Cardinals are a mess. Last week, they lost 10-3 to their Double-A affiliate, Springfield, in an exhibition. This week, their pitching coach, Dave Duncan, got in an on-air fight with a local radio gasbag. Earlier in the spring, they cut Scott Spiezio after police issued a six-count warrant stemming from an alleged drunken-driving accident, which happened less than a year after pitcher Josh Hancock died while driving drunk, which took place months after manager Tony La Russa was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
Here's a quick look at where these issues place in the power rankings of things that should concern Cardinals fans in 2008:
1.) Questionable rotation
2.) Albert Pujols' health
875.) loss to Springfield in the last game of spring training
5,336.) Scott Speizio's personal problems
1,234,786.) An argument between a coach and Kevin Slaten.
Yup, this definitively proves they are a mess.
"There's been a lot of change," Isringhausen said, "but change is good. The guys that are gone, some wanted to be gone. We've got a bunch of young energy now. We've got guys who haven't been in the big leagues before, and it's fun to watch them succeed.
"Things like that give older guys a shot in the arm. We need to stay young. We're not throwing out the team we threw out a few years ago when we won 100 games. Everybody realizes that."
True enough, though the Cardinals seem stuck in that abyss of mediocrity that swallows so many teams.
This team has exactly the same number of World Series championships as they do losing seasons this century. If that's being stuck in an abyss of mediocrity, then we'll take it.
New GM John Mozeliak sees enough in the cupboard not to clear it out completely, and so Pujols delays the inevitable Tommy John surgery that will keep him out for a year to play with a team that will acquaint itself with mediocrity only under the most fortuitous of circumstances.
OK, enough salt in wounds. Snapped streak aside, Wednesday was a pretty good night for St. Louis. Rick Ankiel affirmed his burgeoning-star status with a tremendous catch in center field, a superb throw and his first home run of the season. Ryan Ludwick, getting to play because of an injury to Chris Duncan, drove in three runs. And Rico Washington, one of the best stories of the spring - a 29-year-old who finally made it to the major leagues - got his first hit, a shot over Willy Taveras in center field and sponged in the chants: "Ri-co, Ri-co, Ri-co!"
"We've got great fans here in St. Louis," Washington said.
Didn't take long to brainwash him, either. Cardinals fans think highly of themselves because they clap for a strong throw or a well-executed sacrifice or hustle to prevent a double play. In reality, it's their blind loyalty that's most admirable, their willingness to pack stadiums even when the Cardinals stink.
As Jeff has so deftly shown us, only a most talented writer is able to rip on fans for being blindly loyal while, in the very same column, subtly mock them for bailing on the team at the first sign of mediocrity.
Granted, it's been a while, and even when the team did stink, the Mark McGwire show was in full effect. So this will be the truest test in years: Is success necessary for support?
Blocks of four tickets in the second-most-expensive section of Busch are available for today's series finale against Colorado. For the next home series, against NL Central power Milwaukee, you can get four at $95 a pop, the third-highest price point. Even for the first game of the season against the hated Cubs, one ticket in the most expensive section, costing $250, can be had.
And if they don't sell, hey, the seats in Busch are red, the same color as the majority of fans' garb. They'll be able to obscure what's not in the stands.
Which is better than they can say for what's on the field.
Nary a word from Mr. Passan about how the Cardinals have sold over 3 million tickets already for 2008, instead we are chastised for the handful of single green seats that are available when the Cubs come to town. How dare you Cardinals fans.
Its one thing to write this column if the Cardinals are 15 games out at the break and the stands are filled with 20,000 people a night. But it takes some deep-seeded anger to conclude that the team can "acquaint itself with mediocrity only under the most fortuitous of circumstances" and make assumptions that the fans are heading for the hills after just two games.
Reading a venom-filled article such as this, you begin to wonder what issues Passan has with the Cardinals organization and fans. Then you read his bio "Jeff Passan is an award-winning reporter who previously was the national baseball writer for The Kansas City Star."
Suddenly it all makes sense. That type of STL hatred can only be spawned in Kansas City.
Cue 
