There is something about the game of baseball that makes it difficult for some fans to let go of setbacks. For years and years, Boston fans constantly refused to move past the Babe-Ruth trade to the hated Yankees, blaming 80+ titleless years on the unlikely “Curse of the Bambino” (I mean really, Babe Ruth became the biggest figure in the game—do you really think he spent two seconds caring about being traded from Beantown? Please. The Babe was too busy finding the next party to bother hurling a curse at the team dumb enough to trade him).
For many years, Cubs and Indians fans have suffered long title droughts, until they have learned to bear their pain with a certain dignity. Their long baseball angst has enriched the game’s culture with Chicago’s beloved “bleacher bums” while Cleveland inspired a gem of a baseball movie in “Major League”. Then there is St. Louis.
At least twice a year, Cardinals fans regurgitate another round of wailing over the championship that got away: namely the 1985 World Series against the cross-state Kansas City Royals. Never mind that Cardinals fans have been privileged to watch the greatest player of this generation (Albert Pujols) for a dozen years, or that they have been gifted with two titles in the last six years, or that their team has brought home more championships than any other besides the New York Yankees—none of those things matter. Still, they have to cry about 1985.
It’s like the neighborhood chum that grows up to marry a supermodel, who then comes home and is still bitter about the $50 he squandered on a promise ring for his eigth-grade crush who, with visionary prescience, turned him down. Grow up. Get over it. Everyone else has.
There is, however, a sort of elegant karmic equivalence in a certain group of Cardinals fans grasping onto the 1985 team as their avatar. The Cardinals really were the more talented team than the scrappy Royals, who were marginally capable at the championship level—but were incredibly mentally resilient. That talent, however, does not mean the Cardinals deserved the title. Instead the 1985 Cardinals lost for the most basic of all reasons—they blew it.
Rather than accept this reality, this greedy fanbase has pinned the blame on poor Don Denkinger for more than a generation. What’s even worse is they have taken a good team that should be celebrated and turned their legacy into something pathetic.
Baseball is one of the most mentally difficult games in the world. There is far too much time to think between plays before being asked to face 95-mph fastballs and hot-shot grounders. Even mentally strong teams can break—just as the Cardinals did in 1985—and commit a string of mistakes (dropped pop-up and a wild pitch that put the winning run in scoring position) that turn a narrow victory into a crushing defeat.
Such teams, however, do not deserve championships.
The real shame is in a fanbase that smears a gallant team’s memory by refusing to accept their defeat. Congratulations Cardinals fans, you’re the biggest whiners in baseball—at long last, you truly are the best at something.
http://thevirilview.com/royals/