How Can a Cards Fan Cheer for a No Hitter from the Dirty Cubs?

Quite a few of you know me well know that I have a passionate love for sports. Despite my current love of international football, which I should probably call soccer, my heart has always belonged to baseball. Like many of you, I grew up in a different time, where baseball was not only more popular, but it was more accessible. Sure, it was on TV, and it still is, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Those my age and older will likely remember their childhood as a time when they could run and play outside with little parental supervision, before the fears of “stranger danger” changed society. You could always find enough kids for a pickup game of baseball in the yard, or the street, or the park. Sure, if you didn’t have a full team on each side, and a proper field, you might have had to make up a few rules, like ghost runners, who replaced you when you had to go to bat again, and would advance a base if you did.

It was also easier to gain access to your heroes, and claim ownership for them. Baseball cards were cheap, they were popular, and so many of us collected them and traded them that it was a big part of my childhood. A few years ago I looked at a pack of baseball cards, and not only do you pay significantly more for them now, but there are only a few cards in a pack. And you don’t even get a stick of gum! Granted, the gum that came in old packs of baseball cards was almost certain to cut up the inside of your mouth worse than eating a broken light bulb…but hey, it was still gum, dagnabbit!
                Many of you who are reading this met me when I lived in Nebraska. I imagine that the rest of you (those who I have met in person at least) know that’s where I’m from. A bit more of the story, however, is that I moved to Nebraska from Missouri (although I wasn’t born there either), from back in the days of Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Todd Worrell, and others. I loved the Wizard of Oz, and the rest of the redbirds, through their victories and defeats. So many times I’ve watched them do so well, only to be hit by key injuries to their players and fall short of expectations, or watched them inexplicably under-perform in the playoffs or the World Series (that 2004 performance against Boston still haunts me).

This season I’m a bit worried, however. The Cardinals had the best record in baseball last year, but lost several key players in the off-season, and didn’t pick up enough to replace them. To make matters worse, several of the players they lost went to the Chicago Cubs, who I would call our bitter rivals, but it’s hard to say that about those lovable losers. Except they aren’t so lovable anymore, given that they’ve been improving drastically of late, and even knocked the Cards out of the playoffs last year. With the upgrades to the Cubs, and the losses to the Cardinals, I hate to admit that it’s possible that the redbirds might not even make the playoffs. It hurts to even think that.

With that in mind,  Jake Arrieta of the hated Cubbies threw a no-hitter a few days ago. For the uninitiated, that means that none of the opposing team reached base via hitting the ball, but some might have as the result of getting walked, or by an error (avoiding any base-runners counts as a “perfect game”) As the game progressed, and he was coming closer and closer to throwing his second no-hitter in his last eleven starts, I kept mentally willing him to blow it. Fortunately for him, I am not strong in the force, and he pulled off the rare feat.

So the game is over, and I have a choice. Do I respect what Arrieta did, and congratulate him (from afar, of course, it’s not like he actually knows me or cares what I think), or do I grumble because a member of the other team did something that hasn’t been done by a Cardinal in quite some time? In fact, the Cardinals have only thrown ten no-hitters in their history, and haven’t had one since September 3, 2001 (per http://redbirdrants.com/2016/04/22/st-louis-cardinals-last-no-no/). Yeah, I’m jealous. But I immediately sent out a tweet of respect, because it’s an incredible accomplishment, and he and his team earned it. Ugh, I might have to wash off my hands after typing that.

The truth is, however, that as much as I love the Cardinals, I love baseball even more. And what he did is a great thing for baseball, and for the fans. He didn’t cheat (as opposed all of the Home Run record breakers of the last twenty years), he just played the game, and he and his team played it nearly perfectly, as they also scored sixteen runs. Yes, SIXTEEN! Ugh, anyone have any bleach? But yes, as a fan of baseball, I have to render them their due. That’s amazing.

So I was thinking about this in the shower this morning, and it occurred to me that this is a really good lesson for life. Whether we’re talking about sports, politics, business, or anything else, I have a choice to make. Do I love my team more than I love the game? Do I love my party more than I love my country? Is my personal career trajectory more important than the well-being of my company? Do I want others to fail, so that I can look better? When I phrase it like that, it’s easy to say what the answers should be, but in reality, I don’t always take the high road as consistently as that jerk Arrieta throws the ball (yes, I know he’s probably not a jerk, but still…). But maybe we all should learn a lesson from the Cubs, and perhaps even from the grumblings of a jealous Cardinals fan.

Now excuse me while I go soak in some bleach for a while.