The emotional effect of the Cardinals’ 2009-10 offseason
The 2009-2010 offseason will go down as one of the most momentous in the annals of Cardinal history. Unfortunately, rather than progressively exciting us about the upcoming season, the series of signings and events has left us wishing that we could just cancel the 2010 season.
Cardinals lose NLDS to Dodgers: Sure, the Cardinals stank during the playoffs. But we’re wise enough to know that the short series could just as easily have gone the Cardinals’ way. With most of the team’s best players returning, and a few of the duds leaving, we couldn’t wait for a few smart offseason pickups and then the start of spring training.
La Russa returns as manager, McGwire to coach: We were somewhat indifferent prior to the announcement — "LaRuncan should stay, principally out of lack of alternatives." But if getting another year of La Russa is like buying a used Camry, getting McGwire in the deal is like finding the trunk full of highly enriched uranium. Uh, on second thought…
Cardinals sign Penny: What is the record for a contract given to a player who was released the previous season? La Runcan evidently sees Penny not as the pitcher whom Boston released last August, who has pitched 200 innings only twice in his 10-year career and who apparently has a bad work ethic, but someone who will apparently solidify the rotation.
Freese arrested, charged with DWI: With the Cardinals keeping their piggy bank intact, intending to give it to Matt Holliday, they had all but given the third-base job to rookie David Freese. And what does he do? He drinks at least seven beers and gets behind the wheel of his car. The drunk-driving arrest would be disturbing by itself, but it was at least his second such cretinous decision. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggioThurston?
Holliday signs seven-year contract: Yes, it’s a point of prestige for Cardinal fans that the team signed the biggest free agent on the market. And yes, he will certainly help the team in 2010 and at least a couple of years after that (we found back in October that recent corner outfielder free-agent contracts generally start losing money in year four). But considering that the Cardinals had no clear rival bidder and that they probably ended up overpaying, it’s hard to get too excited, knowing that, come 2015, Cardinal fans are going to have forgotten all about how proud they were to have outbid the Yankees and Red Sox back in 2010. If they booed Jason Isringhausen, who gave fans several good years and made much less than Holliday, just imagine this town when this "Zito-like contract" matures.
McGwire issues statement: Easily the most depressing move of the offseason, from Bill DeWitt, Jr. to the steroided slugger himself. Our thoughts on this are well-documented.
Fans give McGwire standing ovation at winter warmup: It’s one thing for people to treat you as a rube. It’s another to open your mouth and prove that you deserve it. Everyone from DeWitt to John Mozeliak to Tony La Russa to McGwire is treating Cardinal Nation as they ought: a bunch of mindless lemmings. Seriously, it’s one thing to be ambivalent about a guy who admits to using steroids to break records and earn millions of dollars. It’s another to greet him like a conquering hero. Whitey Herzog said it best : "The people in in St. Louis give Mark McGwire a standing ovation the other day, and Jack Clark said every steroid user should be banned from baseball, and they booed him. Now, what the hell is the matter with society when that happens?"
Pujols equivocates at winter warmup: Not so long ago, regarding an extension to his $100-million contract, Albert Pujols said "It’s not about the money. I already got my money. It’s about winning and that’s it." Never mind that he said this in the midst of one of winningest periods in team history, but just weeks after the Cardinals basically sell the family farm to bring back Holliday — the single-biggest display of commitment to winning that the Cardinals could’ve done this winter — Pujols said at the Winter Warmup that although "It’s hard to even think about playing somewhere else," he added that "If I have to, I can play somewhere else" and that "My timetable is when I’m a free agent." Again, just days after the Cardinals decisively demonstrate their commitment to win, Pujols moves the fences back on the team, saying "It’s a commitment the Cardinals orgnanization will have to make." Will have to make? Pal, the Cardinal organization has made its commitment, time and time again. We had hoped that Cardinal fans had at least one remaining hero who had integrity. Now we’re not so sure.
More recently, of course, the Cardinals avoided arbitration and signed Ryan Ludwick: Great. At this point, we don’t know if any news is enough to revive our flatlined anticipation of the season. The damage has been done, but we’re open to suggestions. Can anyone help?
January 21st, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Well, I do agree with what Whitey had to say. It’s confusing at best that a guy who is paid to give his opinion takes a stand and, not only gets booed for it, but apparently earns a reprimand from the club. I was also more than a little bothered by Pujols seemingly backing water on his comments about the team making a commitment. However, my excitement level is still through the roof; I’ve been marking the days on my calendar since Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m still naive enough to let the childhood rose-colored glasses take over my objective assessments. I think I’m okay with that for a little while, though.
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:48 am
Who’s “us”? Who’s “we”? See, those of us who like baseball are looking forward to seeing a Cardinals team that should be clear favorites to win the division in 2010.
Why do we cheer McGwire? Maybe because we’re sick and tired of holier-than-thou preaching moralists tell us that we shouldn’t. More to the point, what do we care about? Whether or not McGwire can help Cardinal hitters in 2010. Not what he was shooting into his buttocks 12 years ago.
Brad Penny? Well, we COULD kvetch about him getting released by the Red Sox, but instead we note that he has a career 4.01 ERA in the NL and that Hardball Times was bullish on the deal:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/cardinals-sign-brad-penny…-for-7.5-million/
Matt Holliday? Well, we’re pretty stoked to have a legitimate cleanup hitter, and we note that the very article you link to in discussing the “Zito-like contract” goes on to say that “All that’s true, of course and it’s unlikely that the Cardinals will end up burdened with a Barry Zito or Vernon Wells-like contract down the road”, and in fact is pretty positive on the deal.
Pujols? We worry that he will be playing for the Yankees or Red Sox in 2012. But we laugh at your notion that he lacks integrity by exploring his options. Albert Pujols is entitled by MLB rule to sell his services on the open market after the end of the 2011 season and no one can say he lacks integrity if he does so.
We booed Jack Clark because saying every steroid user in baseball should be banned was stupid.
Freese? Actually, we agree with you regarding David Freese.
But we’re excited about watching what should be a pretty good Cardinals team.
No, wait, we forgot we’re supposed to be angry and bitter because we don’t like the hitting coach. Maybe we should find another way to fill our time from April to October of 2010. Maybe you should too.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Vidor, thank you for summarizing the St. Louis sports fan’s sheep mentality so eloquently.
Just sit back and let the establishment tell us how to think and act; leaves more time to focus on more important things, like mainlining Busch Light and complaining about highway construction.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:54 pm
I wasn’t aware that the Hardball Times was the establishment. I further wasn’t aware that the “establishment” says we must cheer Mark McGwire. Pretty sure the “establishment” agrees with you that we must cast him into a vat of hungry pirahnas. If anyone is engaging in a herd mentality it’s everybody lining up to hurl stones. It’s also richly ironic that you accuse someone else of not thinking for themselves when you are so very angry that everyone else doesn’t think like you.
But the “establishment” probably wouldn’t approve of your misleading, deceptive link to a Matt Holiday article that makes the very opposite of your point. So there is that.
Anyway, if you guys are so down on the Cardinals you can take up a hobby. Better hope that they aren’t good, though. Better hope that they don’t wind up in the playoffs with a strong chance to make the World Series. Because then you might have to let go of some of that precious, precious anger.
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Wait, what’s wrong with Busch Light?