"The Cardinal Way"

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Shots fired, by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bill McClellan (who's obviously about to have the most breezy, stress-free summer of his life).

The series against the Los Angeles Dodgers was framed as a morality play. The Dodgers were the bad guys, the show-offs. The Cardinals were the good guys who believed in the Cardinal Way. They were a bunch of Luke Skywalkers playing baseball. May the Way be with you. Some of it was hard for me to understand. For instance, when a Dodger hit a double and stood on second base pounding his chest, it was because he was an egotistical show-off. When a Cardinal hit a double and stood on second base pounding his chest, it was because he was happy for his team. He was pounding his chest because he believed in the Cardinal Way... When I arrived here in 1980, St. Louisans weren�t calling themselves the best fans in baseball. They seemed to consider themselves good fans, very good fans, the equal to any fans in the country. As good as fans in Detroit. As good as fans in Chicago. As good as fans in Pittsburgh. Better than fans in Philadelphia. (They boo too much.) But not the best fans. Of course, St. Louis was a Midwestern city back then. Midwesterners are understated. Over the years, Missouri has slid down the map and taken St. Louis with it. We�re Southerners now. Southerners aren�t understated. ... I am imploring the Best Fans in Baseball: Please, stop.

(Were I him, I probably wouldn't leave my coffee around Bernie Miklasz' desk, either.)

[Ceetar]

Next time someone gets criticized (not on the Cardinals) for being showy I want them to claim they were doing it "The Cardinal Way"

(Next time someone gets busted for PEDs, I want him to talk about how Jeter was always his idol)

[bmfc1]

Tremendous column (thanks for posting). I'm sure that it made Bernie Miklasz weep.

[metirish]

Great stuff.....

[Frayed Knot]

- I'm not sure I get how StL is 'further south' (symbolically speaking) now than they were in recent years, particularly than they were in the days when they were MLB's most southern (and western) town prior to the mid-50s, and when the signal from KMOX radio made them even mores. I mean unless the shift of Mizzou to the SEC has caused some sort of wild mind-set alterations I'm not sure I quite buy this guy's explanations.

- I always looked at that whole 'BFiB' thing (as the Astros fans I used to kibbutz with would derisively mock the 'Best Fans ...' label) was a concoction of FOX and their StL-heavy crew (Buck, McCarver) and that Cards fans picked it up from there and ran with it.

-

[Edgy MD]

"When being the best fans in baseball
be not like the hypocrites, blowing a trumpet before them,
proclaiming themselves 'the best fans in baseball.'
I say to you that even the Yankee fans do the same.

When celebrating success,
do not congratulate yourselves for restraint in celebrating.
Rather, in celebrating,
never let the lefthander know what the righthander is doing.

When you lose,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be noble.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you lose,
cheer your team and drink your beer,
so that you may not appear to be losing,
except to Northeastern elites
Who always thought you were losers anyway."

[list:2li5ifur]--- Jesus (Alou, I think)[/list:u:2li5ifur]