The cold, cold truth about being a fan

In the case of Elijah Dukes, another name immediately sprang to mind, one that I know will set people off immediately:

Albert Belle.

Then a couple of other names floated up--Brett Myers.  David Justice.  A very quick-and-dirty Google came up with a few more.  Armando Benitez.  Scott Erickson.  Wil Cordero.  Dmitri Young.  Julio Mateo.

All guys who didn't just threaten domestic violence, but actually reached out and struck their wives/girlfriends/etc.  

I didn't even bother going into the NFL and NBA, because I could have been there all day.  

What's my point?  Lots of guys hit their wives/girlfriends, so that makes it OK?  Hardly.

Major league baseball, as much as it is romanticized, idyllicized, fetishized and italicized, is a business.  The bottom line is making money and winning games, period.

You can say all you want that the Cardinals "don't need those kind of people."  But the fact is that the St. Louis Cardinals are a corporation, just like Edward Jones or Monsanto or Enterprise Rent-A-Car.  And bringing in Elijah Dukes will not decrease attendance by a single person.  It won't cost a single advertiser.  It won't sell one less beer.  And it might win quite a few games.

I love baseball and the Cardinals as much as anyone.  I've loved them my whole life.  But now that I'm a grownup, even while I am root-root-rooting for the home team, dissecting Tony's latest crazy managerial play, and monitoring Rick Ankiel's OPS, even while I am sitting in "baseball heaven" itself watching the home team with my daughter, part of me is very aware that my love requires, to a large degree, self-deception.

The St. Louis Cardinals, LLC, does not care about me.  It does not feel my love.  It will never reciprocate it.  When I scream and cheer for another Pujols blast, or a diving Edmonds catch, The St. Louis Cardinals, LLC does not hear me.  I know this.  

From a business perspective, acquiring Elijah Dukes is an easy decision if he can be had for a relief pitcher or two.  Just as acquiring a young David Justice or Albert Belle would have been a no-brainer, or Brett Myers.  There will be a PR cost--a couple of columns in the Post-Dispatch, maybe a week's worth (at most) of talk radio fodder.  But it will go away.  

My love for the Cardinals, my fandom, does not have anything to do with The St. Louis Cardinals, LLC and how it runs its business.  I can (and often do) pretend that it does, but I know it does not.