the glaring omission in derrick goold's article on the unrest in cardinal nation is any acknowledgment from any team official --- dewitt, lamping, anyone --- that the product is substandard this year. two 8-game losing streaks; blowout losses in marquee games; series losses / sweeps vs terrible teams (cubs royals pirates) --- they should be as disappointed in the cardinals as we are.
but judging from dewitt and lamping's comments in goold's article, they seem to regard the problem as mainly one of fans' heightened (read: unrealistic) expectations, rather than any failure on the organization's part to field a team that is worthy of a passionate fan base. sure, it's a "first-place" team --- but st louis fans are not stupid. and don't really like being treated as such.
i disagree strongly with the sentiments voiced at the end of that article, viz.: "cardinal fans are spoiled." in my book, you can't even be satisfied, much less spoiled, if you haven't won a championship in 24 years. cardinal fans are hungry. if dewitt & co find the burden of feeding us too odious, then sell the team already, cash out, and give us an ownership group that wants to win as badly as the fans do.