Erstwhile Cardinal and current Cub centerfielder Jim Edmonds received a hero’s welcome Friday night at Busch Stadium. Given Cardinal fans’ prior history, we wonder at Edmonds’s power to trump team loyalty with some kind of baseball Kavorka. Here was a player who, after the team very generously (and unwisely) extended his contract prior to the 2007 season, put himself ahead of the Cardinals this past winter and requested a trade. Granted, St. Louisans seldom boo players — unless, of course, they’re still Cardinals (see Mitchell Boggs Thursday or Jason Isringhausen, oh, just about anytime). But after another fan favorite, Keith Hernandez, was traded back in 1983, the fans’ response was decidedly different from how Edmonds was welcomed back. The captain of the 1982 World Championship team, a player who came up through the Cardinals’ system and cried tears of lament when he found out that he was traded (and considered retiring), was subsequently vilified and impugned by the locals. In Edmonds’s case, however, fans have been suckers for a player who rejected them (is it, like Bernie Miklasz proposes, the psychology of the spurned lover?). It’s odd, considering some of the facts and similarities:

• The Cubs are, dare we say, every bit as much a rival as the 1983 Mets were.
• At the time of the trade, Hernandez led the team in win shares as a Cardinal; Edmonds was only second (to Albert Pujols).
• When he was traded, Hernandez never derided the Cardinals as an organization; Edmonds has been quoted in less-than-fond words about his Cardinal tenure.
• At the time of the trade, Hernandez was in the prime of his career at age 29 (indeed, he went on to 149 more Win Shares with the Mets and Indians); Edmonds was clearly ready to be put out to pasture.

Perhaps that’s all there is to it, that, as Miklasz suggests, booing indicates a kind of respect, and Edmonds simply doesn’t pose much of a threat to the Cardinals these days (certainly not as much as Hernandez did in the mid-’80s as a Met). But we figure that Edmonds’s comments and current loyalties outweigh his deteriorated abilities. After all, what if Edmonds had homered last weekend?

With Edmonds, the Cubs now have two players on their roster who once earned 14 win shares in a season for their Central-division rivals. Judging from some of the initial reaction in Wrigleyville, the Cub fickle faithful weren’t exactly amiable to the idea of the Cardinal icon patrolling the "friendly" confines. We can’t say we blame them; after all, while the idea of someone like a post-prime Alfonso Soriano (we suppose we repeat ourselves) coming to wear the Birds on the Bat may not be as much anathema to St. Louisans as Edmonds was to Chicagoans, it might take some time to warm to him. Now, however, it’s a swoonfest at Wrigley (Cardinal fans aren’t the only ones susceptible to the Kavorka, it turns out).

Perhaps the newfound love of Edmonds isn’t so much due to his charm but the fact that Cub fans have gotten used to the routine. After all, it isn’t the first time a noted Cardinal has come to roost in Wrigley after spending his most productive years in St. Louis. Following is a list of some of the players who once achieved stardom with the Cardinals (with at least one 14-WS season; each player’s final Cardinal 14-WS season is listed) then moved on to the Cubs:

We aren’t old enough to know how Cardinal fans received former stars like Dean, Hornsby and Pollet (we’re guessing Osborne heard more that a few catcalls, if anything). We doubt whether Edmonds’s legs (shoulder, etc.), let alone fragile ego, will allow him to get much "Cubs history in [his] background," but judging from the reaction of the Cardinal "faithful" Friday night, Cardinal fans are all for it. Apparently, fans will give anything to be possessed by the Edmonds Kavorka.

This entry was posted by Pip on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 8:59 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.