The Tony LaRussa Analogy
 

Bear with me here...I know nerves are on edge and tempers are high...

The St Louis Cardinals hired TLR and Walt Jocketty in 1996 after nearly 15 years of failure. They hadn't gone to the playoffs since 87 and hadn't won a WS since 82. It was one of the longest stretches of Cardinal ineptitude in their history.

TLR proceded to really piss people off. He kicked Ozzie Smith to the curb. He played favorites in the clubhouse. He ruined many young pitchers (anyone remember Rick Ankiel?) by meat grinding and playing head games. Jocketty didn't seem any better. Ron Gant and Danny Jackson were signed as free agents. We had a 3 ring circus with doper Mark McQwire. And that's just the beginning....

Yet, as much as they pissed me off, and with as many seemingly bone headed moves as they made, from 2000 to 2011 this Cardinal team had one of its best runs in its long storied history. Because TLR and Jocketty, in the end, knew what they were doing.

I believe the same is going to happen here. I believe Reid and Dorsey are in this for the long haul. They could care less about what has happened the previous 30 years. And yes, we might get Alex Smith or we might not. And yes, we might draft Geno Smith or we might not. Further they are gonna make some of you really angry.

In the end, however, winning fixes everything. Just as TLR and Jocketty had a plan, so do Reid and Dorsey. They are not going to tell you what it is, nor should they. And just like it took TLR and Jocketty 4 years to turn the Cardinals around, it is gonna take a bit to make a 2-14 club into something that resembles a winner.

Ten years from now the Chiefs will have have won several playoff games played in a couple of SB. Maybe even won one. I truly believe that. And I am gonna enjoy watching it happen.

No matter who the we draft in the first round this year.

So yeah, go ahead and call me a dumbass and Truefan. I've been called worse.

Hope springs eternal.

Oh cool. Since that happened once with a team in another sport it will surely happen here.

The personnel machinations of football and baseball are so different as to be almost completely unrecognizable from one another.

The core of your argument is just trust these guys because you believe in them. It's tautological.

The common variable was hiring compentency. TLR/Jocketty and Reid/Dorsey have good track records.

No it's not. Compentency is the common variable.

Addendum:

You know what really changed the Cardinals' fortunes? New ownership.

Don't care about the Cardinals or Daniel LaRusso

How has John Dorsey proven himself as competent in his position as GM? The same way Scott Pioli did in New England?

Who hired competent people.

Clark Hunt has also seen the light, imo.

Getting Alex Smith shows selling tickets not long term winning is the goal.
9-7 and a first round playoff loss will be seen as progress by dumb ass true fans.
They told us to be patient and yet they sign a mediocre win now cast off.
And no one next year is worth waiting for. Besides we won't have a pick high enough to get a good qb.

So we're back to believing that he has because we've imbued these people with competence that they have neither proven nor disproven.

Hmmm.....*****/Haley or Dorsey/Reid...one of these things don't look like the other.

Reid has a bit of a track record and Dorsey came from the most successful small/mid market team in the country.

With the benefit of four years of hindsight, sure. What would you have said to

Herm/Carl or Haley/Pioli in February 2009?

And we used to say that about carl and herm. Same old BS.