Slide into the Cardinals' New Season

After a short—and necessary—hiatus, I’ve still been following what’s been going on with the Cardinals from different areas of the world. Bottom line: They’ve been winning.

The Cardinals are 10-4-1 from March 17 to April 1 (stlcardinals.com 4/2/2012).  The Sunday Edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (April 1, 2012) came with its annual Baseball Preview (Section S) where a 40 page layout outlines the approach of the Cardinals to the 2012 season. Page one: an image of a powerful stance by our new skipper, Mike Matheny. “The bottom line is we have to win,” (page S2) Matheny stated to reporters. Obviously!

How is he going about doing that? He knows he has to show St. Louis he’s the right man for the job, and he’s doing that by showing his players that he wants them to perform because he cares about them. TLR could walk into any MLB organization and the players will have an immediate understanding of what his expectations would be. His reputation precedes him and people know of it. Matheny gets the chance to work with a team that did the near impossible, and he’s been excited for the opportunity to be with this team since day one of Spring Training.

I worked with a coach that once said, “It’s easy to babysit great athletes.”  Matheny says that it’s about managing people. Lance Berkman is quoted in Sunday’s article about Matheny’s managing approach as, “a good manager isn’t nearly as much about the technical stuff as it is managing people…you can learn one a lot easier from the other,” (page S4). Matt Holliday echoed Berkman’s comments with, “You prefer somebody interested in your family at least as much as whether you can hit-and-run for him,” (page S2).

Matheny has already made a strong impact with the team and front office, and I want to say one thing about the upcoming hardships and successes this year; there will be both, and no one can predict what’s going to happen this year. It doesn’t matter which periodical you read or which reporter you follow—they have no idea about what is to come. OK, 2007 was a bad year after we won in ’06.  That happens. The Yankees also have been able to repeat World Series titles before.

That’s the beauty of the game or sports for that matter—unpredictable all around. You swing just a bit too soon or too late, something happens we don’t like to see—the player sees something he doesn’t want to see. Hit it just right, get enough lift on the ball, be a half inch closer to the bag, and it will happen just right for the player. We can’t sit around and dwell on the fact that this is a huge undertaking by Matheny. He knows that! If he didn’t want to be in those kinds of trenches, he wouldn’t have even bothered interviewing for the job!

Sports are exciting because the unexpected happens and it’s entertaining, and we feel a love for the game when it’s our favorite player or team involved in the magic. It irritates me when the “experts” say that they know what’s going to happen with athletes and the outcomes of games. I love it when they’re wrong. 

As Baseball Heaven, we have an opportunity to really sit back and watch our favorite team and pastime. If we slump and can’t get anything going, I’m pretty sure you’ll be following along, attending games and talking about it around the water cooler the next day anyway. You’ll be upset, and rest assured the players and manager will be upset. I’ve said this before, they know their plan for the season, so let’s let them take their course and take it in due time.

It’s going to be a hot one this summer, and I like to think that the Cardinals are in a pretty relaxed state at this moment. They play in Springfield, MO tonight (Monday April 2, 2012) before heading to South Beach to visit the Marlins for the first game of the season two days later. Then it’s off to visit the Brewers, and then we heat things up at home with a Friday night opener against the Cubs.

The season is upon us; get excited, folks! The players have been enjoying playing the game they love so much, and they’ve been playing really well this spring.  Every day, win or lose, they get to play baseball.  Let’s enjoy watching them.

Oh yeah, and one final note … when the Cubs are in town for our Home Opener, let’s continue to show them how much more appropriate fans we are than they are!