I took my family to meet my cousin's (Clint Davis) family in St. Louis, a sojourn not unlike that of my childhood when we'd head to Missouri to watch the Cardinals lose (this was the 70s, Cards fans). The difference was that the Redbirds are not losing but winning quite nicely these days.
We enjoyed 8-1 and 2-1 wins over the Mariners at the expense of Clint, a Mariner's fan. After sitting through 2 rain delays Saturday (I was glad because I wanted Ashley, Anna, and Jacob to see the grounds crew roll out the tarp, something I always enjoyed as a kid), Clint and I negotiated with the wives a successful arbitration deal in which we could leave at the 7th inning stretch (an already blow out) and the guys would keep the kids (they have three as well) while the women went out for the evening. In return, in the deal, Clint and I would return for the Sunday afternoon game.
As we sat in the outfield and watched Jim Edmonds rocket a throw from center to Matheny to put out Bret Boone of the Ms by three steps at the plate, we knew that this is what we came for, what keeps fans coming back. It was incredible. A frozen rope from center to home, but then Clint pointed out something I had missed as I was going nuts with the other Cards fans...
Bret Boone had gotten up after plastering Matheny and asked the catcher if he was all right and congratulated him on a good play. I told Clint that if you are losing 10 games in a row like the Ms, you've gotta come away with some kind of pride in your team. And, well, that was a class act that befit a winner, not a loser.
8:58:00 AM 
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