At Tuesday night’s Game 3 of the World Series, I found myself
sitting behind one of the most blindly drunk fans to ever attend a
baseball game. As far as I could tell, he was having a good time;
but he clearly had little to no clue as to what was going on around
him. The next day, he probably woke with a terrible headache and
hazy recollections of time spent at the World Series, leaving it to
his buddies to fill in the gaps. The St. Louis Cardinals may be
feeling the same way this morning.At one point during the NLCS
against the Astros, the Cardinals showed every sign that they had
rolled over and died. After falling to 3-2 deficit, I sat down to
write what would be the ultimate “Cards blew it” diatribe. Then
came a miraculous Game 6 and a spectacular Game 7. Thankfully, I
never got to finish that article. Unfortunately, after four short
World Series games, my gripes are extremely similar.

As all Cardinals fans surely know, the stats are bad; they need
no repeating, but bear my doing so, for the good of the land. Think
of it as a cleansing.

Besides scattered hits from Larry Walker and Albert Pujols, the
heart of the Cardinals lineup just could not hit. Scott Rolen, Jim
Edmonds and Scott Rolen, combined, had one hit in four games. They
were absolutely handcuffed by almost every Sox pitcher–Curt
Schilling could hardly stand up on his injured foot, but he was
somehow able to keep the Cards from scoring an earned run. The
one-time sluggers squeezed the bats so tight they might have
bruised the lumber. Impatience became a contagious disease up and
down the lineup. The Cardinals offensive machine that worked over
pitchers all season long got absolutely worked, swinging from their
heels so hard it’s a wonder their cleats didn’t wear down to nubs.
Well, maybe that explains the Game 3 base-running gaffes.

All year the pitching has been consistent; but everyone knew it
was not overpowering. The World Series made the latter glaringly
obvious. Going back, championship team after championship team had
at least one pitcher that could pull back and flat-out dominate.
The Sox had Schilling and Pedro, the Marlins had Josh Beckett, the
Diamondbacks had Randy Johnson. No such pitcher on this squad. Case
in point: The Red Sox have swung and missed at less than 20 pitches
offered by Cardinals hurlers. No one was fooled. And as for Tony
LaRussa, he is 0-8 in his past two World Series appearances–also
being swept by the Cincinnati Reds, while he was with the Oakland
A’s

The four-game set was hard not only for the players and manager,
but also the fans of Cardinal nation. St. Louis became an island
during this series. We are the only city in America that has
sympathy for the Redbirds. Blame it on Babe Ruth.

See, curses have become the most popular aspect of baseball
since Mark McGwire’s homerun chase. It’s a strange phenomenon. If
curses have been around so long, why do we only hear about them
when those supposed “cursees” are enjoying success? Either way, it
generates sympathy. Sympathy generates a fan base. And while they
were no underdog, America was behind Boston. It became difficult to
turn on even public television without hearing about the Sox.

Years from now, St. Louis fans may recall the NLCS–the Jim
Edmonds homerun, knocking out Roger Clemens in Game 7; but this
series, and 2004, will be only about the Boston. Then again, even
if the Cards somehow won–it would still be about the Sox, and a
curse that just won’t go away–but late Wednesday night, the shadow
of Ruth finally vanished.

It was a great season for the Cards. From the beginning, though,
it was clearly the Red Sox’s party–and maybe, like the tipsy
patron in front of me, sometime next week the Cardinals will
realize they were actually at the World Series. Then, they can give
their buddies in Boston a call and find out how much fun they had
at the Redbirds’ expense.