Ain't Nothing 'Bout It Luck

"Baseball presents a living heritage, a game poised between the powerful undertow of seasons past and the hope of next day, next week, next year."

Jim Thorn

Dearest Birds,

Please do not look back and reminisce about last October.  The only time "World Champion" should cross your mind is when you receive your rings on April 14 and raise the pennant over centerfield on April 15.

Do not strut around like World Champions-- play with a chip on your shoulder.  Remember that there's always something to prove.  There are those who doubt this team can repeat, show them it's possible.  Play like underdogs.  Play with scrappiness, stubbornness, and abandon.

Repeating won't be possible if you let complacency settle in your gut.  Your heart should pound with the wish to return to the Fall Classic, and your gut should burn with the desire to make it happen.  It takes work to make it there, you know that from last year.  Put in the work.  Put in more work than last year.

Learn from the 2011 Cardinals, their resilience, their refusal to give up all year-- from February 24, when Wainwright underwent Tommy John surgery until October 27, when they did the impossible in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series.

That team made it so far because they refused to dwell on the members they'd lost.  They did not make excuses.  No one said or thought about how much better, how much easier, the season would be if Waino was available, because twenty-five other guys were.

Focus on the guys in the clubhouse, the ones who take the field, and do not make a presence of any absences.  Create an identity.  Look at past teams and take the best from all of them, become the ultimate Cardinal team.

Play hard.  Play smart.  Play like a Cardinal.  Have fun.  It's just a game. 

In summary, know your enemies and respect your friends. Your enemies are: complacency, contentment, doubt, what was.  Your friends are: resilience, hard work, faith, what is.

'Til Later

P.S. This post's title comes from a country song "Something 'bout a truck" by Kip Moore.  I like this line about luck, although I do believe that luck does have something to do with what happens over the course of a season.  Teams who stay generally healthy during the season are lucky.  I hope the Cardinals are lucky in health this year, especially since they had so much misfortune in that department last year.

I chose this line because you shouldn't depend on luck-- you should work hard and create your own luck.