October and Baseball Rivalries

As of today, the St. Louis Cardinals lead the LA Dodgers 2-0 in the NLCS. I've spent some time online today reading the trash talk coming from those in LA bemoaning the fact that their storied franchise is falling apart in such a fashion. Exorbitant salaries and aggressive recruitment of top talent has not bought the city a national championship since 1988, while the Cardinals with their young, much less handsomely compensated talent won most recently in 2011 and again in 2006. In fact, the Cardinals are second only to another extraordinarily well-paid team - the NY Yankees - in the number of World Series titles (11) in all of baseball. Those of us residing in 'flyover country' are well acquainted with the disdain heaped upon our Midwestern communities and the unjustified opinions of those on the coasts that our victories are undeserved. Reading the various commentary from LA papers about St. Louis have ranged from an attempt at humor to being just plain snarky. While admittedly much more a fan of NoCal than SoCal, I understand that those who expend so much energy in an attempt to be physically perfect can't conceive of baseball imperfection. Can't you buy that perfection? Well it appears not. Come in a little bit closer and I'll tell you what you need to get there. Hire a manager (Torre, Herzog, LaRussa, Matheny) who understands team dynamics and bring players to a community where they can afford to buy a house on a salary that allows them to live extraordinarily comfortably on a fraction of the price it requires on the coasts. Use your veterans as mentors to the young guys who you build up in a farm system located in similar mid-sized cities who have great love for their home teams. Bring those rookies to baseball heaven - Busch Stadium - and introduce them to Cards legends, Brock, Gibson, Smith, Musial many of whom settled their families in the city and have grown old here. Indoctrinate them in Cardinal history - take them out on the field in a stadium whose attendance is routinely among the league's highest, and is consistently among the top three in MLB in local television ratings, despite a 'midmarket' status. St. Louisans love their baseball, and feelings between the players and their fans are mutual. Go to bat and feel the love. Do something well and feel even more love. Do something wrong and we'll forgive you. Heck, play for another team and visit and we'll still cheer for you when you come to bat for our opponents. That's how we roll. There's no pretense here. We don't necessarily feel like we're better than anyone else, but we've been doing this for a really long time and it works. We don't just start loving baseball in October - we love it all year long. It's not the only thing we have going for us here in St. Louis, but we've been doing for a really long time. Go Cards!!