Rain Must Fall: September 28, 2016

T.S. Eliot correctly predicts the end of the 2016 season

Throughout April, we have reviewed the worst losses the Cardinals experienced from 1996-2016. We end this month’s retrospective with the last loss of the 2016 season, which effectively eliminated the Cardinals from the playoffs.

Twenty years ago, I went to Mexico. I was teaching in Phoenix at the time and accompanied a group of faculty and students to build two homes in Tijuana.

We caravanned along I-8, through the desert, past Yuma County, where we debated if Paloma meant dove or pigeon in Spanish and I propagated an urban legend (told to me by a woman named Paloma one Phoenix night) that the man that had drawn the US/Mexico border following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was still drunk from the night before and that is why it is the border is so crooked. We cut through San Diego and with a wave were in Tijuana.

We worked sun up to dusk, mixing, hammering, mudding, building. At the job site, I quickly befriended Ian, an ex-patriot who was the only person on the block with indoor plumbing. In the mornings he would check on our progress and help carry bags of cement where trucks could not travel. "How you doing today, Ian?" I greeted him one morning, unsure of whether he was ending the night or starting the day. Through a smirk, he replied, "A lot better than I deserve."

One afternoon, the neighborhood cooked for us. Parents, young and old, grilled meat and peppers in the middle of the street as the children kicked a soccer ball back and forth. I sat on an upside down bucket and ate the greatest carne asada taco I will ever have and felt closer to nirvana than I likely ever will. I meditated on Ian’s quip - better than I deserve - and the absolute truth contained in such few words.

Better than I deserve.

***

They had no one to blame but themselves. For the entire 2016 season, the team struggled to put together a substantial winning streak. Every step forward was seemingly met with a step backwards. The second to last series of the season against Cincinnati was a microcosm for the entire year. Facing a Reds team with more than 90 losses, the Cardinals lost the first game of the series 15-2, won the second game 12-5, and now trailed 2-1 in a game where they had runners on second and third with one out in the eighth and yet still failed to score.

“Is this the season?” Dan McLaughlin wondered aloud as Kolten Wong took a series of practice swings in preparation for his pinch hit at bat to lead off the bottom of the ninth.

McLaughlin voiced the trepidation that surely all Cardinal fans were feeling at that exact moment. It was the bottom of the ninth. The Cardinals were not only losing but trailing the San Francisco Giants by one game in the wild card standings. There would be only four more games after this one, time was running out.

But it had been the bottom of the ninth before. Time had been on the verge of running out before. They had been down to their last strike before. And they had delivered. What had the last five years taught us except that we should never doubt? Isn’t that the reward of faith, getting to see what you believe?

Not letting the gravity of the moment overcome him, Wong drilled a 2-2 pitch 334 feet off the wall in right field. Sprinting around the bases as the ball caromed into the outfield, Wong slid safely into third with a sly smile on his face. A lead-off triple!

The game was far from over now! Only one of the next two batters had to hit the ball into the outfield to tie the game!

But Aledyms Diaz grounded to third for out number one; Greg Garcia popped up to shallow left for out number two; and Jedd Gyorko, representing the Cardinals’ last chance, grounded out to third. Out number three. Wong still stood on third base. The game (and effectively the season) ended like Eliot predicted, with a whimper.

I felt like an idiot for believing.

***

But then I was reminded of Ian. A lot better than I deserve.

Did you know that since the end of World War II until their World Series win in 2016, the Cubs had only seven seasons where they won 90 or more games and 23 seasons where they lost 90 or more games? Conversely, during that time frame, the Cardinals had two seasons with 90 or more losses and 19 seasons with 90 or more wins.

Did you know that the San Diego Padres became a franchise in 1969 and when the Cardinals swept them out of the divisional series (thank you Brian Jordan), it marked only the second time in their franchise history they made the playoffs? Two playoff appearances in 27 years and one was a sweep with only one game in San Diego.

Did you know that when the Pirates made the playoffs in 2013, it was the first season the Pirates had finished above .500 since Barry Bonds left after the 1992 NLCS. Not the first time they made the playoffs since 1992 - the first time they finished with a winning record. Their win over the Reds in the 2013 Wild Card, represented the first time in 34 years they had won a playoff series.

Did you know that between 1996-2016, 352 players recorded at least one at bat in a Cardinal uniform. During that same time frame, 130 players recorded at least one at bat in a postseason game. Meaning that 37% of Cardinal players with an at bat in the regular season had an at bat in the postseason. To put that in perspective, the Cubs only had 77 players take a post season at bat, despite 409 players getting at least one regular season at bat – a 19% ratio. The Royals were even more dismal – only 9% of their players that had an at bat in the regular season had an at bat in the postseason during that same time frame.

A lot better than I deserve.

And so now when the bullpen blows it, or when the team forgets how to hit with runners in scoring position, I try to remember those moments where the real reason I follow this team reveals itself. Those moments where I was released from myself where I felt connected to something greater. Those moments - win or lose - that left me with a story to tell. Those times that I could nothing but smirk, knowing I was experiencing better than I deserved.