Greetings from a Nationals fan.  I'm the guy whose comment from Federal Baseball ("Wow, the Cards are just ... awful.  They were in first place") got reposted in the game thread here on Wednesday.  Reposted, it looked like some brash trash talking - which would be pretty hilarious coming from a fan of a team whose goal (right now) is to finish out of last place.  And believe me, nothing is farther from the truth.  One of the guys on FB tipped me that my comment was quoted here, and this was as early (with the two day delay) that I could post an apology.  Which I now offer.

Until the Nationals came to town, the Cardinals were my NL team, in honor of my maternal Grandmother.  She lived for years in Alton, and always referred to the team as "My Cardinals."  The first MLB game that I attended was when my Grandfather took me to a game in old Busch Stadium.  I was really young at the time and don't remember much about the game except that the Cardinals beat the Astros and the Cardinal bird flying around the scoreboard and saluting at the end.  That might have been 1970, but I'm no longer sure.  Tempis fugit, as they say.

For the comment, the baseball adage "you're never as good as you seem when you win, or as bad as you seem when you lose" really holds true.  Yes, the Cardinals played awful against the Nationals (like you need me to tell you that).  But they're not an awful team - they may have the most awesome 3-4-5 heart of the order in the game, and the team has some decent pitchers as well.  In DC we have the Redskins, the Wizards, and just recently the Nationals lost an astonishing 206 games in two years.  Trust me, we know awful, so take it from me - the Cardinals are not awful even if they occasionally play that way.  And for family reasons, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Cardinals.

Although admittedly not for Tony LaRussa ...