CARDINALS FOR 4 GENERATIONS

When the new stadium opens in April 2006, I'll be looking for one brick. It reads "4 Generations/Cards and Quinns/Mt. Vernon,IL."

I tried to trace our allegiance back one more generation, but I couldn't make it happen. Not that we know of anyhow. So I'll have to begin the Quinn relationhip with the Birds on the Bat to my father.

This 1926 Cardinal team is likely his first association with the team. Mine was probably not until 1955. At least those tv pictures on Topps baseball cards were the first I remember. And I never thought about following another team since.

Scott's first Cardinal team was probably the Birds of 1980. It could have been one year earlier, but for awhile, sad to say, he was a cub fan. When WGN was proud of the cubbies and they showed nearly every game, Scott would watch sometimes without me. One of his favorite players was Scot Thompson, whom he dubbed "Misspelled " Thompson because he was lacking the appropriate number of t's in his name. We went to one game at Busch and I actually rooted (or told Scott I did) for the cubbies of Dave Kingman. He was Scott's other fave as I recall. I'm glad that intellectual and emotional blip didn't last long for him.

Grant's favorite color is blue. When I asked him his favorite team he diplomatically said he rooted for all the teams. I also heard him call the northsiders the cubbies, so I thought a little re-education might be in order. But it wasn't necessary. As far as Amelia, she's been to several Cardinal games, so she was an easy sway. Nathan has yet to attend a game, but as much as he loves any kind of ball, it's not hard to see whom he will gravitate to.

So there you have it. 4 generations. And while it's not written in granite, it is written on brick.