My hat is off to every Springfield Cardinals's fan who marched through
the gates for the last three home games. At a time when the team was
suffering from the longest non-win drought in franchise history (seven
straight loses) , with a second-half record of 1-7, a record regular
season crowd of 10,139 fans turned out to cheer the team along and
hopefully gain a much-needed win.
On Friday night more than 8,000 fans showed up to show their support
for a struggling team and their faith in new team members and former
Springfield Cardinals, Travis Hanson and Shaun Boyd.
Everyone seemed to be doing their part. The field was in magnificent
shape. The front-office had promotions planned to encourage every fan
to turn up at the game. Friday night was a night of fireworks after the
game--but none during the game. The Cards lost.
But, those terrific fans showed up in record numbers the next night.
They did their part. On Sunday, manager Chris Maloney did his part--he
got tossed for arguing a play with the umpire. Anything to get the team
going. Saturday night, before that record crowd, they lost. Sunday,
after Maloney made his long, slow walk to the dressing room to watch the
rest of the game on TV, they won. The crowd went wild. The team
rejoiced as if it had won the World Series. The home office promised $1
hot dogs for Monday's game. The field crew went to work immediately to
prime the field in anticipation of a second-in-a-row win. The team did
their part as Shaun Boyd made a terrific catch in right center to end
Sunday's game and give the Cards a win. And the fans? Expect a
seam-splitting crowd at Monday night's game. They are now 2-8 and once
again on a mission. It may not be the easy way--but it is the Cardinal
way!
You can write John Brayfield at johnb@positech.net