Belated Applause For the Cardinals

I still can’t believe that the Boston Red Sox are World Series Champions. It’s finally sunk in. Why did the Baseball Gods make us suffer so long? Maybe Red Sox Nation wasn’t ready or maybe there wasn’t a Sox team worthy of winning it, I don’t know but what I do know is that this 2004 Red Sox team was worthy and talented enough to beat a team with the integrity of the 2004 Cardinals.

After the adrenaline of the victory settled down I was a little disappointed in Red Sox Nation. The reason being, that I didn’t hear anything about how great is was for the Cardinals to display the fine character that they did throughout the series and after. They could have insulted the Red Sox players but they didn’t. They could have made accusations about cheating but they didn’t. When Manny and Yadier Molina, the Cardinals catcher, were having a disagreement at home plate, Molina could have started a fight but he didn’t. He talked it out like a gentleman. I applaud his character as a player and as a person. The Cardinals took the loss like men. They knew the better team won and took it in stride.

I know the series didn’t have the flare of a Sox-Yankees meeting but it did have two great baseball teams that have integrity and strong morals competing for the World Championship. To me that is much better than steroid-junkies yelling stupid comments to newspapers and turning the series into a street brawl. I thank the Cardinals for not putting any blemishes on one of the greatest moments in sports history.