God marks the Redbirds’ fall

Continuing a string of vaguely sports-related posts here, we bring you the Deadspin take on the freefall of the local ballclub:

If you’re looking for the moment when the Cardinals late-season disgorgement transformed from a local sense of nervousness to a national jeez-that-car-is-about-to-crash fascination, it was last night. The Cardinals lost again, the Astros and Reds both won, the wild-card number is at five for the sixth straight day, the division lead is 1 1/2 and … god, this is really happening.

So how do we feel? How can a Cardinals fan feel right now? This team never deserved to be in the playoffs — it’s the worst Cardinals team we’ve seen since the McGwire homer years — and it felt somewhat cheap that they had built such a large division lead with such a poor team in the first place. Obviously, we still want the team to win the division — and the odds are still in the Cardinals’ favor — and make the playoffs, but if they do complete the collapse, we can’t feel like we were cheated out of anything.

That sanguine approach may not be the sentiment of all Cards fans, as witness the anguish on daily display at the Post-Dispatch’s Cards Talk or Bernie’s Pressbox (as in chief P-D sports columnist Bernie Miklasz) forums. “We are owed”…”Boycott the Cards”…”We need leadership.” Ugly stuff, but not a surprise. You can’t lead a division for 117 days in a row only to give it all up at season’s end - or come unnervingly close - and expect fans to shrug it off. Fans here will feel cheated, and local villagers are lighting torches and sharpening pitchforks. Should the Redbirds fall, look for a very different kind of parade down Market Street.

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