I love our Message Board. I
really, really do. There are so many interesting people and opinions expressed
there. Just last night, I caught a gallows discussion about a Jayson Stark story
from ESPN in which he called out the Cardinals as being among the Winter
Meetings’ losers.
In my book, that is like calling a
team “May losers” when they play from April through October. So what? We’re
talking a small sample size. It’s like clocking a sprint while running a
marathon.
Joining in the pile-on, one
particularly peeved poster banged out a list of the Cardinals players lost so
far this fall – a number of big names – to illustrate his point. You already
know them by heart. The poster then tapped out a list of the Cardinals’
additions so far this off-season. It was littered with names that frankly,
aren’t all that impressive.
But, I shouldn’t just call out
message board posters and Stark. A piece I read from a link in our “Cards in the
News” feature on Thursday includes a respected but semi-retired Cardinals
blogger singing the same song of pain. One of the main Post-Dispatch columnists is calling out
team ownership, and so on. More new complaints every day.
Like they say, the Cardinals are
obviously rudderless. The owners are carpetbagging cheapskates. The GM is
clueless. The manager is a puppet. The team’s window of opportunity is closing.
They are getting too old, too slow, too complacent.
Yeah, right. When have I heard all
that before?
Oh yeah, I hear it every year at
this same time. I just want to tune it out, but the incessant complaining is too
loud; too pervasive to get out of my head.
So, as I have done so many times
before, I started to type out a thoughtful reply on the message board. But, as
its length grew and grew, I decided I wanted to share this with more people in
hopes they would recognize themselves and accept an offer of help. So, here it
is. Take it or leave it as you see fit.
Let's start by trying to
establish just a bit of perspective here. Fortunately, we don’t have to travel
back to the ancient days of World Series Championships in St. Louis to ground ourselves.
Stepping into our time machine, we'll rewind the dial just 12 months back in time to December 2004, shortly after
the team had last played for one of those elusive Championships. We’ll check in
on the state of our beloved Cardinals coming out of last year’s Winter
Meetings.
Subtractions since the end of the
2004 season:
Steve Kline – the top lefty in the
pen the previous four seasons
Mike Matheny – three-time Gold
Glover and manager of the staff
Edgar Renteria – “The Captain”,
four-time All-Star, three Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves
Woody Williams – heart and soul of
the rotation, winner of 45 games in three-plus years
Tony Womack – coming off a career
high .307 average and 26 of 31 in stolen bases
Ray Lankford – career Busch home
run leader
Marlon Anderson – even played left
field (sort of)
Star players who were
hurt:
Chris Carpenter – had missed the
playoffs with a mysterious biceps ailment
Albert Pujols – heel spurs in both
feet so painful that surgery seemed likely
Jason Isringhausen – torn labrum
in his hip led to surgery
Matt Morris - #2 starter underwent
shoulder surgery.
Additions to
date:
None
That’s right. None. As of this
date last year, General Manager Walt Jocketty had neither signed anybody new nor traded for
anyone.
Now, you can imagine the hue and
cry erupting from all corners of the Cardinal Nation. Perhaps you might even
remember it if you really, really try hard.
Jocketty had exited the 2004
Winter Meetings with nothing but frustration to show for his efforts. Walt was
so focused on his futile attempt to re-sign Renteria that he was paralyzed. Woe
is me and woe are the Cardinals. The off-season was lost and so would be the
upcoming 2005 season.
Get my point yet? See a bit of
yourself in the mirror, perhaps? Now, can we please stop all the whining? Or,
won’t you at least wait until the 2006 team is fully assembled?
Despite all those losses from 2004
and more offseason injuries by key returning players than any time in recent
history, the 2005 team ended up coming together quite nicely, in fact.
How did that happen, again? In
case you have forgotten that part, too, here is the rest of the story. Four of
these men played key roles in the 2005 Cardinals’ 100-win
season.
Additions in the next month
following the 2004 Winter Meetings:
Einar Diaz – free agent signed
December 15
Mark Mulder – trade on December
18
David Eckstein – non-tendered free
agent signed December 23
Mike Myers – free agent signed
December 24
Abraham Nunez – free agent signed
to a minor league deal on December 30
Mark Grudzielanek – free agent
signed January 6
I conclude our time travel with a
final reminder to those Cardinals’ fans and writers with high blood pressure and
strained vocal cords due to short memories.
"Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it." -
George Santayana
Brian
Walton can be reached via email at brwalton@earthlink.net.