BASEBALL SEASON IS OVER FOR 2010

That saddens me. Oh for some it will go on. But why bother? For some--the usual suspects, it's been over since before Spring Training. Low budget teams, mid-low market spenders just can't compete anymore. Along with one noted but loved perennial loser from a Midwestern state beginning with I.

But for Cardinal Nation, great things were expected. Coming off a quick playoff end to the Dodgers last season, the team was expected to win again. Fortified by the signing of a long term deal to Matt Holliday, it looked like a cinch for the birds to take the weak NL Central.

Didn't happen. But what did happen was exasperating. They beat all the good teams. They had a winning record against all the division champs. But they couldn't beat the low lifes. Teams that couldn't win at least half their games, feasted on the Cardinals this year.

Now how did that happen? A Cub pitcher (no, that's not an oxymoron) who surrendered 6 runs to the Cardinal AAA team a week before, was the winning pitcher against the parent club allowing only 1 earned run in 6 plus innings. And that's just one example.

So a team built around Pujols, Holliday, Rasmus, Molina, and .300 rookie hitter John Jay. So a team stabilized by pitchers Carpenter, Wainwright, and rookie of the year candidate Jaime Garcia, strengthened by the addition of Jake Westbrook. So a team whose save guy was an All-Star last year and is flanked by three relievers who consistently hit 95 plus on the radar gun. So a team managed by the third winningest skipper in ML history. So all those so and so's can't play/ can't produce a better team. At least a team that whips the likes of the Pirates, Astros, Diamondbacks, Cubs, and Mets.

Well the baseball season has been as strange as the weather this year. No one could sum it up better than Charlie Brown. In only 200 days, though the 2011 baseball season will begin. I'm ready. But only if the Cardinals get back to their winning ways.