The Phillies Stink! And So Do the Cardinals (for now)

Cardinal Nation, the name for the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals’ s fans have been going apoplectic this season because the team is already thirteen games out of first place.  They were the favorites to win the division. Fans and broadcasters are trying to analyze their problems.  But the truth is that baseball can be enjoyed even if your favorite team stinks!

I say that as someone raised in Philadelphia during the fifties and sixties.  That team had many losing seasons but we fans still found a way to enjoy them.  No matter how bad they were there was always a player or two who had a pretty good season and we wondered how many homers or what their batting average would be on a daily basis.  There were a few games on TV then and we read about them in the newspaper (if one’s family got the morning Inquirer instead of the afternoon Bulletin) and watched morning TV to see the score.

I remember 1957 when Ed Bouchee and Jack Sanford were co-rookies of the year. The Phillies finished with a five hundred record and all us young fans  who went to games at Connie Mack Stadium were excited.  Unfortunately, the next year Bouchee was suspended for exposing himself to little girls and Sanford has a sophomore slump.  Sanford was eventually traded to the Giants and has a decent career. Bouchee was rehabilitated (He “stuck it out” we used to joke) and had a modest career ending with the Amazing Mets in 1962. Then the bottom fell with four straight losing season capped by a  47 and 107 season in 1961 the highlight of which was a 23-game losing streak. Near the end of the season when the Phillies won three in a row the state legislature passed a resolution congratulating them!

The other way we Philly fans enjoyed baseball was picking a secondary favorite team. Ours was the Dodgers because our father grew up in Brooklyn.  Cardinal fans might try something similar during a lean year.

The best example of baseball being a team sport with individual players was when they traded for Steve Carlton in 1972 who won twenty-seven games for them while the entire team won only fifty-nine!

Maybe the Cardinals will turn it around this year and maybe not but its still baseball!