Just when half of Cardinal Nation (or so it seemed) was ready to bail on the team — after all of 30 games (!) — the hometowners have put together a modest two-game winning streak to put a hold on the haters’ plans to spend the rest of the summer bellyaching about how bad the team is.

We’ll get to that winning streak in a moment. But first, a few words for those misanthropes. While we acknowledge a fan’s right to complain, lament, criticize or angrily rant (we’ve done it ourselves a few times), we’d like to introduce a few ground rules for people who fancy themselves fans.

1. Refrain from booing a guy who’s playing at less than 100% health, or one who merely stinks. Every team has scrubs (yes, even the Yankees), so if you’re planning to be a fan, get accustomed to the idea that not everyone who takes a bat up to the dish is an all-star. Besides, if a bad player is in the game, it’s not his fault; it’s the manager’s. And we have yet to hear a crowd who can give such a nuanced boo as to make it clear that it’s aimed at the manager. Save your boos for players who don’t hustle. Or who flip the bird on their way off the field.
2. If you write, blog or talk about your team, do so with a foundation of love. Being a baseball fan is like any relationship: Just because you call yourself a husband/friend/parent or whatever, it doesn’t automatically give you bitching immunity. Reasonable people tire of hearing your negative attitude and, quite frankly, after a while, your comments indicate more that you are a loser than your team is. A fan’s initial attitude should be to give the benefit of the doubt, and later, he should be maintain circumspect hope. This isn’t to say that a fan shouldn’t be a realist. Just not an utter pessimist.
3. Remember that baseball is a long season. 162 games, to be exact. So drawing conclusions about the worthiness of your team over short sample sizes is ridiculous, especially when the team proves you wrong (all those who wrote off the team at any point during the 2006 season, please step forward). For example, if you find yourself exclaiming that so-and-so "sucks!" after he goes 0-for-4 one night, gives up a hit to that Mendoza-line-hitting 8th-place hitter, or loses a ball in the lights, you’re probably not being reasonable.
4. If the team isn’t playing .600 baseball while its ace pitcher and starting right fielder are disabled, you’re probably playing a little too much fantasy baseball (or you’re a Yankees fan). Like last year, the Cardinals already have a significant handicap with injuries to key players. Don’t treat them like they’re playing sub-.500 ball with their best team on the field. Oh, and you may want to cut them a few games slack for unexpected deaths in the family.

If you’ve succumbed to any or all of the above peccadillos, you probably weren’t able to enjoy the last two wins, likely as you were to lapse into the conventional negativity ("But Taylor Buchholz shut them out for six innings!" or "Look at all the runners they left on base!"). But there’s still hope and time for you. Part of being a fan is sticking with the team through thick and thin, and sometimes during the thin, you can find more things to appreciate. Like watching Aaron Miles scoot around the bases with his three hits. Babyface Thompson turning in a gutsy effort, the longest stint of his major-league career. Ryan Ludwick getting on base. Chris Duncan’s 121 GPA+ (like OPS+, only with GPA). Braden Looper’s 3.46 FIP. The staid manager breaking convention like he’s Charlie Finley.

It’s not the "old-time Cardinals, turning over the batting order," despite their imitation this afternoon, as Miles noted after today’s win. But a team need not have a Murderers’ Row to be worthy of support. And let’s face it, how hard is it to be a fan of a team that wins 100 games every year? Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that Cardinal fans are being forced to appreciate the difficulty of churning out wins and first-place finishes. Lest Cardinal Nation start to look like Braves Nation (if such a thing exists), we hope Cardinal fans take a look at themselves and the reasons why they cheer for the Cardinals. Even if the Cardinals don’t win a division or pennant in 2007, there’s a lot for fans to enjoy. To paraphrase Lou Gehrig, the Cardinals might have been getting some bad breaks, but their fans have an awful lot to cheer for.

This entry was posted by Pip on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 11:24 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.