Dunlap: Hard To Admit, We Hate The Cards Because They Win
No one cares about a loser.
And many love to hate a winner.
That's probably what the truth is in all of this; probably where the certainty rests as it pertains to those best-record-in-baseball St. Louis Cardinals who are in town through the weekend against the second-best-record-in-baseball Pirates.
You see, my heart tells me otherwise, but we'll get back to that in a moment.
First, on Thursday morning on The Fan Morning Show, we participated in a little exercise, as I pressed people to take to Twitter --- and use old-fashioned means by calling in --- to explain just why they can't stand the St. Louis Cardinals, who have that 55-30 record and are 4 ½ games ahead of the Pirates as play begins Thursday.
We even came up with a neat little hashtag, called it #HateTheCards as it gained a bunch of traction.
Most of the feedback centered on the old Tony LaRussa days.
And Dave Duncan.
And the way the Cardinals franchise seems to carry themselves as if they are above everyone else.
And the haughty, conceited attitude of their fans.
And how Yadier Molina thinks that every pitch near the strike zone should be called a strike for his pitchers and it is his God-given right that said pitch is called a strike.
And how they were recently embroiled in a computer-file stealing controversy so deep that the FBI decided it needed to get involved.
And a bunch of other things that seemed to perturb Pittsburghers to heights much higher than the pinnacle of Mt. Washington.
To a degree, I agreed.
Shout it from everywhere, paint it on the sidewalks and put it on billboards: #HateTheCards.
And these were all the reasons why we should, in fact, hate those Cards.
But, back to that matter of the heart for a moment …
You see, that's probably just what our heart tells us as to-the-core, Heinz-ketchup-running-through-our-veins Pittsburghers.
Those are all great answers, it is all great stuff for talk show fodder and trending topics on Twitter, but enough with the heart and time for the head.
Does your head tell you --- as I hate to admit, but it does --- the same thing that my head tells me? That this city can't stand the St. Louis Cardinals because, well, they win.
They don't just win, they win a lot.
And they are the winning impediment between our winners and the ultimate winning prize (or at least a shot at it) in the World Series.
Logically, that's what it all is. We hate the Cardinals because of their success.
We hate them because they bested the Pirates in that ever-memorable five-game series a few seasons back.
We hate them because, since 2000, they have posted 90 wins or more in nine different seasons and are almost-surely going to add onto that number this season.
We hate them because they've been to the World Series four times since 2004 and won it twice.
You see, much of our hate in the recent past was reserved for the Brewers and the Reds. We, as a city, despised and detested them; we couldn't stand to hear them mentioned and booed at even the thought that they'd be coming into town.
But --- as much as we still don't like them --- they don't seem to rise to the top of the list anymore in terms of the dislike. Know why? Because the Brewers and Reds are a combined 34 ½ games behind in the division. In many ways, at least this year, they have become inconsequential.
The Cardinals, however, never seem to be.
They always seem to be not just good, but among the best in baseball.
Try as we might to find other reasons --- and even with our hearts telling us otherwise --- that's the real reason we as Pittsburghers mostly hate them.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.
