{"id":17883,"date":"2017-08-07T15:03:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T21:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=17883"},"modified":"2017-08-07T15:03:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T21:03:38","slug":"a-boomers-journal-its-been-slumping-summer-for-a-spoiled-cardinals-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=17883","title":{"rendered":"A BOOMER\u2019S JOURNAL: It\u2019s Been Slumping Summer For A Spoiled Cardinals Fan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tom<\/a>
Tom Anselm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Tom Anselm<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Well, here it is August and we who have any interest in St. Louis Cardinal baseball are looking at a disappointing year. I will be the first to admit that I am lukewarm on the local product this year. It is well documented elsewhere that the boys with the birds on the bat have played like, well, not like people who are at the elite level of their profession.<\/p>\n

Mistakes on the bases, mental and physical errors, bullpen blowups. Some have questioned the managing of Mike Matheny, which to these critics is proof that he should never have gotten the job. However, he isn\u2019t the guy who takes a third strike or misses the cut-off man.<\/p>\n

Last week there is this kerfuffle between said skipper and the future Hall of Fame catcher, Mr. Yadier Molina. It\u2019s a lot of social media \u2018He said what about me\u2019 from the catcher, and \u2018No, I meant this\u2019 from the manager, then the upper room guys got in on the act.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, they are backing their manager in this one, which is no surprise, since they hired him after all. If you ask me, the first two are acting like kids on the playground who can\u2019t get along. Just talk it out, for Ol\u2019 Abner\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

I guess a losing team is going to have these dustups. But the funny thing is, this bunch still has a chance to win the Central Division in the National League. In spite of a lackluster record. In spite of not having many superstars, save for Yadi and maybe Adam Wainright. And also in spite of having at one time six starting players who spent a lot of last year at the Triple A minor league club in Memphis. To be fair, some of these kids are playing some fun baseball, and making it hard not to watch. Their joy is contagious.<\/p>\n

\"700px-Homeplate\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 But back to me being a spoiled fan. Rottenly so, actually. I looked back at the records of this franchise since 1998 when they had consistently drawn over 3 million fans a year (one outlier, 2003, missing by 8700 folks). In that almost-20 years, we saw 9 first place winners, 5 seconds, and 3 thirds. Treated to 12 post-season appearances, 4 World Series and 2 World Championships, the 2006 matchup with the Detroit Tigers and, of course, the 2011 adventure versus the Texas Rangers. Pretty good run there, even though both World Series losses were to the dreaded Red Sox. Ugh.<\/p>\n

The teams of the \u201860s and \u201880s. Gibson, McCarver, White, Maxvill, Javier. Flood, Boyer, Sadecki, Carlton. Maris and Shannon. And of course, Lou Brock, St. Louis\u2019 best \u2018gotcha\u2019 to Chicago of all time. Ten years later it was Ozzie, Willie, Herr, Simmons, Whitey Ball. Names like Worrell, Coleman, Porter, Sutter, Pendleton, Tudor, Van Slyke. Jack Clark and Jose Oquendo. And of course my fave, Joaquin Andujar.<\/p>\n

So there sits a heritage that any era of teams would find hard to live up to.<\/p>\n

\"cards\"<\/a>Still, I have hope. Chances are this current flock of \u2018Birds won\u2019t fly far this year. But history shows that they will be back in the hunt for a Red October, sooner than later. Until then, I will recall those boyhood summer nights listening to Harry Caray.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoyer with a drive\u2026way back\u2026 it might be outta here\u2026 it could be\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahhh. Baseball in St. Lou.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tom Anselm Well, here it is August and we who have any interest in St. Louis Cardinal baseball are looking at a disappointing year. I will be the first to admit that I am lukewarm on the local product this year. It is well documented elsewhere that the boys with the birds on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columnists","category-entertainment-travel","category-sports","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nA BOOMER\u2019S JOURNAL: It\u2019s Been Slumping Summer For A Spoiled Cardinals Fan - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=17883\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A BOOMER\u2019S JOURNAL: It\u2019s Been Slumping Summer For A Spoiled Cardinals Fan - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Tom Anselm Well, here it is August and we who have any interest in St. Louis Cardinal baseball are looking at a disappointing year. 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