I Am Not A Cardinals Fan By Nature

Congrats to the Cards! Very few people expected it, but the Cards pulled off a huge World Series win. I was surprised to see both the Tigers and the Cardinals in the WS, but what do I know.

I am a Braves fan from way back in the Dale Murphy days. Powder blue gaggy unis. Lots of losing seasons. Pascual Perez. Biff Pocoroba. Rufino Linares.

I became a Cardinals fan this year, for at least a season, while I was the chaplain for the State College Spikes, the short season A-ball team of the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the inaugural season for the Spikes, and they were in the playoff hunt right into the last week of the season.

I was surprised to see how many of the young ballplayers were interested in spiritual life, and got to know many of them off the field as well. We had lots of great conversations about real life stuff. It was a sad day when they all pulled out of town.

They won’t be back.

Next year the Spikes will be the property of the one and only Pittsburgh Pirates.

New guys, new manager, new opportunities to encourage…

I’m still not sure how I feel about getting the Buccos team in town. Jim Rome describes the Pirates brand of ball as “unwatchable.”

Well, at least we’ll have the mid-inning sumo wrestling!