Is That .500 I See Just Above?

Either that or a cliff’s edge called September.

It’s hard to get too excited about the Cardinals, even while it is fun to watch a title battle involving the Cubs. The Sisyphean task of getting back within striking distance of .500 has been gutting. The club is Swiss cheese everywhere but in the bullpen. There are holes in the lineup. Holes in the defense and holes in the starting staff.

It could be written that the past two seasons have been the fun ones to watch with all the warts on full display and weekly setbacks that appeared to doom the season. Some silly wag will undoubtedly write it. But not me. I loved the 2004 and 2005 campaigns. Watching brilliantly executed baseball day in and day out was a joy. Decimating all of the sub-.500 clubs who dare set foot in Busch Stadium. Quaint concerns about Larry Walker's back. Having Ned Yost tell his young Brewer club to watch the Cardinals closely and learn from how they went about their business.

Last year’s championship and this year’s efforts have been like watching sausage being made. And not the good kind that only contains 25 percent pigs' assholes and rat shit.

Still, I’m nothing if not a realist. If this team stalks the Cubs and drags them down for the kill, pulls off a post-season berth and even makes a deep run into October, I’m sure we’ll someday see a crotchety old Southlandish beginning an August 27, 2039 GASL post, “This gutless Cardinal team needs to look to the gritty, determined Redbird teams of 2006-7 who never gave up...”