Some things are just hard to accept. For example, Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker's father. Right now, I'm having a hard time accepting former Atlanta and M-Brave (rehab assignment, OK, I'm stretching it) John Smoltz as a... Cardinal? Some people, especially those that know me may have a hard time understanding why I'm in such a state of flux over this. I mean, I know how the "business" side of baseball is- players change teams very frequently. Very few baseball players spend their entire career for one team. It's all part of it. But, as a Cardinals fan in the South this is very, well, weird.
It's not that I think this is a bad move or anything. I mean, the Cardinals do have Dave Duncan after all, and he has salvaged many a pitching career through the years. Smoltz has shown that he can start and relieve, and even the talking heads on MLB Network are talking about what a good move this is for the Cardinals. Smoltz has also appeared in more postseason games than any pitcher in Major League history, something that will serve the Cardinals well in the postseason should they get there. The Redbirds are basically asking him to be a fifth starter, and he can be a good mentor for some of the Cardinals pitchers like Jason Motte and is well respected by Adam Wainwright. And yes, I know that Smoltz is 42, has struggled this year in Boston, and has an arm that has had just about every known surgery known to man.
But it's none of that. It's that growing up as a Cardinals fan in the 90's, the Braves were the bane of my existance. Early in the 90's, the Cardinals were very cheap until a group led by Bill DeWitt bought the team and started to resurrect the franchise. They did this by getting Tony LaRussa, and essentially a bunch of new players and renovating Busch Stadium II. This was 1996. Ever since then, the Cardinals have enjoyed a good bit of success and continue to today. Now, when the Cardinals were building up, there was one team in the National League that they had to go through. The Atlanta Braves.
The Braves were the class of the National League in the 90's. I liked them in 1991. After that, I loathed them. I think a lot of it had to do with their snide announcers like Don Sutton, and remember at this time, there were very little baseball watching options, and it was either Braves, Cubs, or hope that ESPN would show someone other than those two. All you would ever hear about was the Brave's pitching- Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Steve Avery, and Denny Neagle/Pete Smith/Kent Merker or whoever. ALL THE TIME. Then you would hear all about basically how the Braves did "everything right" and it came across as everyone else in baseball was basically a big ship of fools. And here I am a Cardinals fan hoping that my team can get five solid innings from Rene Arocha. And then I got to watch the helpless Cardinals hitters take every pitch that was five inches off of the corner and the Braves get the call every time. I think if MLB Network had been around, I would have had fewer annoyance issues towards the Braves.
And then there were the bandwagon Braves fans. I loathed them worse than the actual Braves themselves. They're the people that would go out and buy Braves gear circa 1991, and ditched it all for Yankees gear circa 1996. I like REAL Braves fans though- like one of my very best friends from Tupelo. The bandwagon Braves fans were easy to identify- they usually try to disguise themselves with a Dale Murphy reference, but then ask them about Bob Horner, Rafael Ramirez, Rick Mahler, Andres Thomas, and then Biff Pocoroba, and you could spot them fairly easily. And for the record I don't like any bandwagon baseball fans. I can respect fans of any team- even Cubs fans. But bandwagon baseball fans don't have to suffer through hard times like other "true" fans of teams.
So, for the Cardinals that were trying to re-emerge, the Braves and their pitching staff were the team that they had to go through. The Braves were the bad guys. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz were the main bad guys for me. It's just the way it was. Heck, there was even the now infamous "Chicks Dig the Longball" commercial where it showed Mark McGwire, the Cardinals main star of the late 90's, hitting home runs and girls going nuts over him, and the Braves pitchers- Maddux and Glavine shaking their heads and learning how to hit home runs to try to impress the women. That's just how the Cardinals and Braves were in the late 90's. The two did meet in the playoffs, with the Braves winning in 1996 4-3 and the Cardinals winning in 2000 with a three game sweep. And now, here we are and one of the main bad guys is now a good guy? I just can't process it.
Let me put it this way- This is like Ernie Banks becoming a Cardinal and Stan Musial being a Cub. It's like Willie Mays being a Dodger. It's like Ted Williams being a Yankee. It just doesn't seem right. For me, this is like the cowboy in black joining forces with John Wayne. It's just crazy.
I'll bet I get over it though- especially if Smoltz helps lead the Cardinals to the World Championship. Until then, I'm doing double takes and shaking my head.
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