The St. Louis Cardinals are in post-season baseball again. It's amazing to me that they manage to make it into post-season, but I am always excited when they do. I'm excited and nervous. I get nervous because, well, "I am" a member of the team. I am a co-manager, co-owner, bat boy, a pitching coach and the batting coach. For most of the 162 games in a given baseball season, I am not as involved in the day-to-day games, in fact, I am more like a hot dog vendor. However, when it comes to post-season, that's when I'm called up, that's when my team needs me to play a vital role in the Cardinal's post-season success.
Well, that's at least how I feel.
And it's really no picnic. I'm sometimes relieved when the Cardinals don't make it into post-season because I won't be a nervous wreck for late September and most of October. When I say nervous, I should say an anxious, pacing-the-floor, face-palming, mouth-frothing basket case. I go from utter extremes and saying things like, "They suck. They don't deserve to win" to "Is this team unreal? They are unbeatable!" I try to pretend I'm not interested, but it's just no good. As soon as I think they are completely out of a series, they rally in the ninth inning on a 3-2 count. And they really do this! They rally on a 3-2 count! They just did this against the Washington Nationals. The Washington Nationals were the new hopefuls and the Cardinals ruined their chances.
The Cardinals were in the post-season last year. They made it in on the Wild Card and then won the whole blasted thing against the Texas Rangers who were in the World Series a second time in a row! And I believe the Cardinals were one out away from losing it all. Then David Freese hit a beautiful home run that sent in three runs for a walk-off victory.
I was raised a Cardinal's fan. And in small towns in southern Illinois, you were pretty much three things: Christian, Republican and a Cardinal's fan. The Cardinal fandom is largely due to the AM radio frequency of KMOX. Most people in southern Illinois, Arkansas, northern Kentucky, southern Indiana and almost all of Missouri listened to KMOX out of St. Louis for sports. KMOX had all the Cardinal games. They gave up the rights for the broadcasts for a brief period, but now they are back to running every Cardinal game. Their best broadcaster was Jack Buck. I grew up listening to him on a crackly AM radio while riding in the truck out to visit my grandpa. It's another one of those warm nostalgic feelings.
I have not always been a baseball fan, but I've always been a Cardinal's fan. By that I mean, my passion and zeal for baseball has not always been there, but my default setting has always been the Cardinals. Much like some Christians are Christians in name only. They've not stepped inside a church in twenty years, but when they are asked on surveys they usually mark Christian.
I stopped being a fan for a variety of reasons, but I think some of it was tied to some weird rebellion against my dad. Dad and I didn't always get along. I was a difficult, jerk-of-a-kid at times. I really was. I don't think it was just normal adolescent/teenager stuff because I continued to be a jerk, especially towards my dad, long into college and graduate school. Why? There are a variety of reasons, but I'm not sure it's important to go into those things here. Nothing bad or horrible happened between us. Nothing like that at all. My mom and dad were both incredible parents that did an amazing job raising me and my sister. I was a very difficult person to get along with for a long time. I'm sure my parents would say I wasn't that bad, but it's in the past now.
Back to baseball. I think when I started to really reconnect with my dad is when my interest in baseball was rekindled. And when I started to get back into baseball, I really started to reconnect with my dad. There's something about talking baseball with my dad. I expect some men out there have similar feelings, but perhaps the sport is football or basketball, but not soccer. Never soccer. Just kidding. Sorta.
Over the past ten years I've been following baseball and my Cardinals with greater frequency. Been following spring training. Listening to the Cards games on the radio, which is still my favorite medium for following baseball, streaming radio, TV or an app called Gameday which gives play-by-plays with pitch placement, at-bats, etc. But there is still nothing like post-season baseball. There's this excitement and electricity in the air. As I said, I go from a passive watcher/follower to a member of the team. I feel like an overenthusiastic mascot that really believes he is instrumental in his team winning. And no matter what time it is, if the Cardinals clinch a post-season series or world series, my dad is the first person I call. After all, we both know the Cardinals couldn't have done it without us.
