2012 MLB Season

[CS85]

Reds fans suicide watch: unexpectedly high

[Funky Bunky]

Damn, that was a nice drive by Cain, too bad it was pretty close to Bruce.

[STL FANATIC]

The Wings' legendary low-round drafting was less about luck and more about exploiting inefficiencies in overseas scouting. Fortunate, yes--all draft picks come with the inherent peril of busting--lucky, no. The Cardinals rehabilitate everyone else's busts, screwups, drunks, and otherwise lost souls into minimally functional cogs, and their success rate is way higher than it should be for such a plan.

Yeah. That could be luck. Or it could be one of the better coaching tandems ever (La Russa/Duncan) and a winning culture that brings out the best in players.

The former is more arguable than the latter, but I think culture plays a bigger role than people sometimes want to admit.

The Cardinals have only lost one of their co-aces each in back to back years, among a poop-ton of other injuries, but hey yeah. Their success is due entirely to luck.

The Cardinals, as is true with most franchise, receive good fortune every now and then. You only hate them for it because they receive it while on route to winning. I'm sure I'm just making it worse, because nobody likes a fan that defends the team they're picking on.

Success breeds contempt. Almost makes me feel bad for not liking the Yankees all these years (but not enough to make me like them).

[STL FANATIC]

As for the Reds, could have been a terribly costly bit of rare bad luck. The primary reason they never had a real slump was because the had 5 healthy starting pitchers the entire season. That's a huge part of a formula for success, and it's rare to see it happen.

Then 8 pitches into the playoffs their ace goes down. Fortunately, Cueto appears more or less okay and sounds like he'll start one of the next two games. They're saying just back spasms.

I have trouble calling it fortunate, because Johnny Cueto is such a punk, but I want to see teams at their best (at least health-wise), and I'm glad the Reds will be able to compete with theirs.

[Mings]

Yep, Cueto is a punk for defending a teammate after Molina started a fight. Got it.

Another reason we all hate your type of Cardinals fan. You see everything with your head up someone's backside.

[STL FANATIC]

Nope. I'm sorry. Challenge us on all the other crap you want. On that, Reds fans are completely delusional.

Brandon Phillips VERBALLY spouted off some immature non-sense. Yadi Molina VERBALLY defended his team against that non-sense. (So far, no problems, just a good ol' fashioned rivalry.) They got in each other's face and so the benches cleared and everyone got in each others faces.

We're still okay at that point.

Then some pushing started. That's not a good thing, but it's not the worst thing.

Cueto finds his way up against the backstop and starts THROWING CLEATS anywhere and everywhere. He cuts up Carpenter's back and Jason LaRue's face. LaRue sustains a career ending concussion (because it led to post-concussion syndrome).

Afterwards, Johnny Cueto refuses to apologize and defends himself as a victim. And you know what, I'm willing to believe he did panic with his back up against the backstop and did something that he thought was defending himself but was really stupid (none of the other players in the same situation did that).

But regardless, it was a stupid action and it ruined someone's career (and had lasting effects on their life). Man up. Take responsibilities for your actions. Sincerely apologize.

Johnny Cueto did none of those things. And he still won't. He's a punk.

He proved it again this year when he and the rest of the Reds whined about some made up All Star Game selection conspiracy by Tony La Russa. You might recall Cueto said something to the extent of La Russa being mad at him because Cueto went out with one of La Russa's (fictional) girlfriends.

Cueto is immature and he's a punk. I wish he'd grow up, but he hasn't.

There's being a homer. I'm good at that. And there's being ridiculous. And Reds fans who defend what Johnny Cueto did are being ridiculous.

[The Six]

Giants are done.

[Raysfan12]

Terry Francona will be Indians skipper according to Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Indians/status/254721558151565312

[Mings]

You calling anyone delusional is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on these boards. It is impossible to even have a conversation with you when it comes to the Cardinals.

[STL FANATIC]

You calling anyone delusional is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on these boards. It is impossible to even have a conversation with you when it comes to the Cardinals.

This isn't 2006 and I'm not 18 anymore. I have plenty of rational conversations about my teams.

Might be productive to address my actual post. Or you could stand by the suggestion that Cueto was somehow defending Brandon Phillips against Yadier Molina by kicking Jason LaRue in the head.

[Mings]

No. I'm done. A rational conversation involves give and take, which you have proven time and again that you don't wish to do. When it comes to the Cardinals, talking to you is like talking to a brick wall.

[STL FANATIC]

I already gave. I'm waiting for your take. But you're certainly entitled to leave things as they are.

[Cujo]

Things are looking grim for the Giants here. I'm not so much worried about the Reds plating more runs. I simply fear the Giants' O is totally tapped out, which has always been kind of a problem for them.

[CS85]

I'll agree that with any franchise success will breed jealousy and contempt, but the real way to make people truly hate you is the fan-created mythos of superiority.

Cardinals fans - "The best fans in baseball"

Cowboys fans - "America's team"

Yankees fans - "$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$"

etc. You can throw the Patriots and Heat in there too, I'm sure. At one point you could've had the Bulls in there.

Admiral has said it a million times better and more eloquently than I, but TL;DR = Cards fans breed the hate because they believe their own hype and victory only makes the preening more justified and horrific.

edit: and just to clarify that as a Cubs fan, I'm baseball-retarded so anything I post in here is simply jealousy and doddering brain-feces built up over years of watching my team shoot itself in the sack.

[STL FANATIC]

I hear you on that. I don't like to get into the best fans stuff. The Cardinals have excellent fans. Super knowledgable, super passionate. Other fan bases have lots of fans like that too. ALL fan bases have idiots, too. Best fan base isn't a necessary claim to make.

Do I like the title? Yeah, everyone likes being told how great they are. Do I spout off about it, nah. (Not saying I never have, but I don't anymore.)

Some fans do. But a lot of it is media generated. And the teams will, of course, use it in marketing material, because frankly, it helps build brand loyalty and sell tickets.

Honestly, though, the Cardinal hate on this board surprises me. I was once a brash immature homer, and I'm sure that didn't help, but I haven't been that for years and years (especially on this board). For a while I stopped discussing my teams at all on this board, and now when I do, I think I take a reasonable stance. (I'll always be homer, but that doesn't mean I can't have honest discussions.) And Mockba, McCall, and the others? I don't feel like they do anything but talk rationally about them either.

Maybe my posts from 6-12 years ago made an irreversible impact. They seem to have with Mings.

[CS85]

Yeah, you've never come off to me as douchey about it, nor have the other Cards fans on here (that I can recall, anyway), but 95% of the ones I meet every time I visit Busch are total jackasses. Same thing with the Cubs "bros" at wrigley who make us all very sad indeed.

I get pretty up in arms about the Cardinals because of those negative experiences and from being constantly ribbed for rooting for the woeful Cubs. When the tireless preening becomes too much on various other social media/friends/family, I keep it bottled up to them but when I come on here, bam - it all comes out.

[Mings]

It was done. Why do you attempt to draw me back into it?

And for the record Pat and Kevin are far more reasonable than you are. You still have a way to go to reach them.

Now I'm truly done. I'm not going to speak any more on the subject.

[STL FANATIC]

Yeah, you've never come off to me as douchey about it, nor have the other Cards fans on here (that I can recall, anyway), but 95% of the ones I meet every time I visit Busch are total jackasses. Same thing with the Cubs "bros" at wrigley who make us all very sad indeed.

I get pretty up in arms about the Cardinals because of those negative experiences and from being constantly ribbed for rooting for the woeful Cubs. When the tireless preening becomes too much on various other social media/friends/family, I keep it bottled up to them but when I come on here, bam - it all comes out.

Yeah, I hear ya. My hate for a team like the Blackhawks is probably in that same vein. When I was in Champaign, the Blackhawks were making their run, and the Blues were still spinning their wheels trying to get good again. Personal interactions with fans dogging your team while riding high on theirs is frustrating as hell. I can see where you're coming from for sure.

[STL FANATIC]

It sure got interesting in the 9th. Reds insurance runs in the top half may have been huge, although ultimately the Giants only got one run in their half.

Chapman struggled with his control and his velocity still hasn't returned to what he had mid-season. I doubt the velocity will come back right away, but the control might have been first post-season game jitters. It'll be interesting to see how he does if more games come down to the ninth inning. From the Giants perspective, they should use that 9th-inning as proof they can score off Chapman. From the Reds perspective, Chapman is as good as it gets if he can get his control and a little more velocity back.

The rest of the game was much of what you'd expect. The Giants didn't hit much and the Reds hit more. Giants had some well struck balls, but they were either right at Reds players or Reds defenders made excellent plays on them.

This could be a sweep or go 5, but either way I imagine it's going to be a tightly played series.

[Lights Out]

I'll agree that with any franchise success will breed jealousy and contempt, but the real way to make people truly hate you is the fan-created mythos of superiority.

Cardinals fans - "The best fans in baseball"

Cowboys fans - "America's team"

Yankees fans - "$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$"

etc. You can throw the Patriots and Heat in there too, I'm sure. At one point you could've had the Bulls in there.

Actually, Heat fans and Bulls fans aren't really that bad when it comes to that crap. The Lakers' fanbase is the absolute dirt-worst. "We're entitled to your superstar, oh and by the way, we'll be there to troll your fanbase and rub it in whenever anything bad happens to your team. LOLZ 16 RINGZ KOBY!"