Sorry, there’s really not much sympathy in New England for Cardinal fans
Patriot fans feel your pain. Sort of.
COMMENTARY
How does it feel, Cardinal fans?
Your team has the best record in baseball, a 43-22 mark that suggests St. Louis will be vying for another lengthy October run. The Cardinals’ five-game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Central (the Red Sox, now with the worst record in the American League at 28-39, would be 14 games off the pace) is the largest in all of baseball, and yet all of your team’s accomplishments have come into question this week, when news broke of the Cardinals’ alleged improprieties.
Take heart, St. Louis. Patriot fans feel your pain.
Sort of.
Oh, the hackneyed reaction to the Cardinals being investigated for hacking into the Houston Astros’ internal network , allegedly stealing closely-guarded internal discussions about trades and scouting reports, is to dub the Midwestern darlings the “New England Patriots’’ of baseball. That was inevitable from the moment the story broke on Tuesday, and within moments, Twitter was littered with an image of Patriots coach Bill Belichick, a longtime Cardinals supporter dating back to his relationship with former manager Tony La Russa, strolling through the locker room at Gillette Stadium wearing his Cardinals jersey.
Of course.
When do the Red Sox, San Francisco Giants and Chicago Blackhawks, all of whom have won three or more titles over the past decade, face the wrath of the faux-outraged nation? They cheated too, right?
How else to explain that two of our generation’s most successful sports franchises have gotten where they are today than by cheating? Clearly, it’s the only way to comprehend any semblance of dominance in today’s professional sports landscape. There are those who still believe the Patriots should forfeit their win in Super Bowl XLIX in the wake of the Wells Report’s investigation into Deflategate. That, of course, was the Super Bowl win that was supposed to shut everybody up about Spygate, shoving aside the inference that Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady hadn’t won the big one since they got caught taping opponents from the sidelines.
Oh, don’t worry. There will be something else, I’m sure, come January.
And whatever the issue is this time, I’m sure it will be covered by the breathless media with the ferocity of a national political scandal. See, we get it, St. Louis.
Then again, there is the fact that we’re talking about your baseball team possibly committing what might amount to a federal crime, so it’s not exactly like they’re lining Route 1 in solidarity for the Cardinals. Indeed, one of these things is not like the others; deflating footballs and taping opponents, both illegal under the parameters set froth by the NFL, or a technological corporate espionage deemed illegal under the laws of the government.
Based on how both stories have been covered in the media, a foreign visitor would be led to believe the Patriots are the stain of a region that for some reason also produced Dane Cook, while St. Louis, home of the “Best Fans in Baseball,’’ and its baseball team’s affair would be akin to counting cards.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Bernie Miklasz prepared Cardinal fans for “snide comments and over-the-top demonizations,’’ factors that Patriot fans — and to some degree, Red Sox fans (when they’re not being rightfully laughed at) — know all too well. Here, fans deal with outside perception much in the same way they deal with Mark Wahlberg’s fame — they ignore it.
Despite the videotapes, PSI readings, and that dope Carmine, the Patriots and Sox have seven rings between them since 2002, still leaving room for the other hand’s middle finger. Not even Roger Goodell can take away the pride of a Pats fan wearing his or her rooting interests while strutting around airports to the disdained eye of observers across the country.
But New Englanders have always been hardened, “bleep you’’ souls. Public perception is nothing in our Northeast bubble. But it’s a wonder how all this is being taken in the “golly, gee, shucks’’ portion of the country.
With that said, perhaps it’s a bit heartless to admit that we here in New England, while sympathetic to the plight of all Cardinal fans, are really sort of mocking the whole situation, mainly because of the ludicrous nature of the comparison between the two teams’ controversies. Yes, both cases have resulted in an embarrassing litany of revisionist history, with fans and columnists catering to the common denominator trying to pinpoint moments where the “cheating’’ may have impacted the game.
But as far as we know, Goodell and Wells never had to call in the FBI to investigate the Patriots.
This is next-level stuff that the Cardinals have gotten themselves into. New England fans can say they sympathize with St. Louis fans, but the only punishable crime we’ve seen committed here recently was Carl Crawford’s contract.
Oh, for sure, we understand that the Cardinals’ success over the years can’t be simply chalked up to hacking into the computer of a team that hadn’t seen relevancy before this season since MySpace was a thing. Just like it’s folly to presume the Patriots’ success is due to minor advantages the team takes in order to win.
Hey, who knows. Maybe Belichick still has the passwords to the Jets’ corporate system. You think they’re smart enough to change them? One day we may hear allegations of New York claiming that the Patriots head coach knew their schemes ahead of time thanks to the new geeky intern who showed him how to break in.
Until then though, sorry, St. Louis. You’re on your own here. Chin up, though.
Patriots 2015 schedule
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