Hello cards fans, I stumbled upon this blog on monday morning while at my internship out here in our nations capitol. Something perfect for me as a cardinal fan living amongst virtually no cardinal fans out here on the east coast.

I am a 22 year old college senior from Iowa (attend Iowa State University). I will graduate next spring and am currently interning with a lobbyist org. in DC. I grew up in eastern Iowa which is cubbie land, I'm one of the very few redbirds in our part of the state. Even at school in Ames (Central IA), with the abundance of chicago kids who couldn't get into Champagne crawling around our campus (not to mention the presence of the AAA I-Cubs in nearby Des Moines), it's lovable loser central. So a blog like this is a great opportunity for me to be able to acutally talk baseball with CARDINAL FANS.

As I read the gentleman from san fran's blog below it encouraged me to explain my unique fan history, so if you are bored on a friday like me read on....

I grew up on a farm in NE Iowa and both of my parents families come from farming roots. This included my sweet old grandmother, who grew up on a farm with all brothers. Her brothers were cardinal fans because at that time the only ballgame they could get in on the radio was the cards sprawling KMOX feed. Well during the day while her brothers were out slaving away on the farm she would stay indoors with her mother and was under strict orders to keep score in scorecard fashion with her ear up the radio. Then when the boys were done with a day of work they would look at the scorecard and discuss the game. My great uncle says my Grandma was to them what Karl Ravech, Dave Campbell, and Peter Gammons are to me.

Obviously this caused my Grandma to fall in love with the game of baseball and the Cardinals. Now, growing up my father was not a sports fan. SO, when forming my sports team allegiances I didn't look to my father as most kids do. Then, when I was probably 5 or so my Grandma had just turned 65, so as a reward to making it to Senior Citizen status, my mom and her sisters treated my Grandmother to a cardinal game. I saw Mets/Cards in old Busch in the astro turf days. I remember Grandma telling me about the Ozzie flips and his "sensational defense." From then on I was a cardinal fan and a Ozzie fanatic.

So as a kid when Mom and Dad would hit the town they would drop me off at Grandma's and I was in baseball heaven. Non-stop baseball, although we were unable to get cardinal games on TV unless they were playing the braves or cubs, we would huddle around the radio and she taught me how to keep score of course! Instead of lullabys, I was put to sleep with stories of the gas house gang, stan the man, and gibby and lou. The strike weakened our enthusiasm (I was only 9 at the time and was confused with the whole thing), but when TLR was hired we were back to "Baseball Like it Oughta Be" and that '96 run rekindled the fire. But when I really became a complete freak fan was that summer of 2000... Ankiel was amazing. And of course all this leads up to the first World Championship of my lifetime. My sister died in '03 (she was 21) and the Cardinals have been the best therapy for me ever since. Sorry for the length, but thats my story... Go Cards!