Change is Nothing New for True Cardinals Fans

A new season is yet again upon us. Many of us still are in the drunken haze from the Cardinals—again—doing the impossible: winning a World Series title. Was it really all that impossible?

Some now say that they knew all along the Redbirds had it in them and never gave up hope. Others wrote them off and hibernated until March and spring training games began. That is, until, they began to hear the rumblings about what was happening down off Eighth Street by Paddy O’s.  You see, what really happened with the 2011 Cardinals was consistency through an arduous season.

I’m not going to go into details about the 2011 in-season stats that our star, World Series pitcher would more than like to never see on the back of his trading card, or the fact that our icon has found a new home and no longer has his name attached to a ticket pack you can purchase for the season. No, what really happened was consistency, but the fans never saw it until David Freese smashed a Game 6 winning homerun late on a Thursday night at the end of October. All we, as fans, saw was change; change of a possible new first baseman; change of coaching style wanted; change of tempo in our games (one has to admit that our double plays did look a little sluggish through our high heat-index days which were too many to count); the changes that were never talked about until it was all said and done hung over our heads all season long.

As a town, we wanted answers, and we respected those people who wished not to discuss them until the time was right, but on their terms. The time wasn’t right until they finished playing the game the only way they knew how to—consistently. We knew that the Cardinals were taking BP each day, stretching, practicing drills, etc. All we saw were the change-ups striking out Holliday, the miscommunication in the infield and the wearing look on our skipper’s face. What else could we see?  Changes upon us.

I remember another big change in this town a few years ago our town seemed adamantly opposed to: Old Busch Stadium was being demolished, and we didn’t like it. I still miss the crown as the center piece of our city. What happened?  They dropped the ball on that one, too. Engineers cried that the wrecking ball would easily smash all the way through each level of the stadium and the demolition would be a snap. The wrecking ball bounced off the roof of the stadium and fell off the side of the building. My mom and I laughed hysterically. It was going to take more than just an average sized wrecking ball to take down Busch Stadium.

The woman who won the contest to push the button initiating the demolition didn’t realize what had happened; she thought she did something wrong. She didn’t. She or the engineers couldn’t break what we hold so dear to ourselves in this city—tradition. Old Busch stood for that. Over time, we grumbled as our dear stadium was slowly taken from us, and all we had on our minds was the uncertain change going into the 2006 season. Fast forward and you will find our tenth World Series title.

What am I trying to say? Give change a chance this year. Welcome him with open arms, and pass him a Bud Light. Don’t write us off yet for this season. We have new faces to our franchise—we always have new faces to our franchise. Our new skipper was one of our players. He has his own outlook and it’s already apparent during spring training (and he’s been coaching our team for just two weeks to date).

Remember, when the front office is happy with its decisions, the club is happy.  Sometimes we as fans are not ... OK, many times we’re not happy. We don’t get the privilege of sitting in front office meetings regarding the outlook on the team or the season. They know they need time to develop. We need to take that time as well to watch their outlook unfold.

As St. Louisians, we love our traditions. We hate it when they’re messed with. It’s 2012 folks. I’m not saying were getting another World Series title this year because of these drastic changes. I’m saying that with all these drastic changes that have plagued the organization in the off-season, we can be assured that the players will be consistent each day, will understand what their outlook for the season is, and will give us one heck of a ride. Good luck, 2012 Cardinals. We’re behind you each day.