COLUMN: R&R Bandwagon falls apart before it starts rolling
By By Tony Krausz / assistant sports editor
Oct. 17, 2004
We shouldn't be writing this, especially while watching the third game of the National League Championship Series.
These words can produce nothing but trouble.
We should turn back, but no, the Rants &Rambles office must forge ahead. It's what we do, and Larry Walker just smacked a homer in the first inning of the third game of the NLCS.
It's not that we are superstitious, as we dry our lucky socks which were washed in the sink because they can't touch other clothing with a blowdryer in a counter-clockwise, circular motion always holding the drier in our left hand because frankly this has always worked, but we have refrained from truly firing up the bandwagon for a certain baseball team from the Midwest so far this year.
Heck, R&R was convinced after the first month of the season that this team was going to finish fourth in its league behind the Cincinnati Reds. Oh, how good it is to be so totally wrong.
Because our initial belief about how bad this team that plays in a stadium near the Mississippi River turned out to be so wrong and this band of players turned out to be so good, R&R believes the only reasonable thing to do is stay pessimistic.
This line of thought was good enough for 105 wins in the regular season and a 3-1 Divisional Series victory, we should keep it up.
But it's getting harder and harder.
We just can't hold it in any more.
The bandwagon must come down off its cement blocks, a fresh coat of red paint has to be plastered onto the side panels and the engine must roar load and proud again.
The St. Louis Cardinals, who simply ran away with the Central Division title, entered Saturday's Game 3 against the Houston Astros with a two games to none lead in the NLCS, and they were showing no signs of slowing down.
These Redbirds have found a way to do it all year.
Defense, how about four current gold glovers holding down the fort? Pitching, a bunch of no-names and castoffs finished the season with a MLB low 3.75 ERA. Hitting, a National League high 855 runs scored.
Of course after writing these lines, the Astros have just jacked the Cards for three runs and a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first.
Still, the bandwagon rolls on. We will not be denied. Especially since Jim Edmonds just sent a rainbow over the right-field wall at Miniature, er, Minute Maid Park to cut the Astros' lead to 3-2.
No Cardinal team has performed better than this bunch since 1985, and St. Louis could of had a championship then if a certain umpire wasn't blind.
But this is not about looking at the past, no this bus is rolling to the future.
St. Louis is often referred to as the "best team in baseball" by the television's talking heads, and those folks may have gotten this one right.
Castaway Tony Womack is bringing back memories of Vince Coleman at the top of the Cards' order, and if there is a better 2-3-4-5-6 order than Walker, Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Edmonds and Edgar Renteria anywhere in the game we haven't seen them.
And just for fun, journeyman Reggie Sanders, who is our pick every time to drive the bandwagon, can slap the ball out of any park hitting from the eighth spot. This isn't a murderers row, this is the baseball lineup version of the Corleone compound from "The Godfather," everyone in it can whack you.
Yet still with every word typed, the Cardinals continue to trail the Astros by a run in Game 3. Maybe we should stop, but we just can't this team is too freaking good.
And no sooner is the second o' in good when Carlos Beltran whacks yet another homer in the postseason. Can't commissioner Bud step in and make this guy go to the Yankees now? He's going to be in pinstripes next season anyway, just get it over with and get him out of this series.
So the Cardinals fall in Game 3, and we are officially pulling the bandwagon back into the garage and torching the place.
These guys stink. It's all over. Why even field a team?
Hey, it's worked so far this season.
