Interesting Lab Study

[docellis]

Man, I just love watching baseball...

Watching baseball is good.

[TimeForGuinness]

Man, I just love watching baseball...

Watching baseball is good.

Yes it is...even if Evil Carp is evil

[Radbird]

I did smell the roses. Nobody will be able to take that moment my son and I had, and I still remember floating around a store buying everything on the shelf the next day. I remember my drunk friend calling me from St. Louis. I collect commerative stuff. So I guess I shouldn't say I never think about it, it's just kind of back in my mind. But I don't think of this season in context of last seasons, it's an entirely new thing to experience - and that's what I am talking about.

But if they hadn't won, you would've never had those moments.

I have those "frozen in time" moments too. From all 7 championship seasons I have lived through. The only comparable non-championship moments I can recall are from the '98 HR chase - where you can recall where you were, who you were with, who called you, who you called, etc.

We can have both sustained excellence and some championships sprinkled in. Yeah, they're icing on the cake, but the memories I have of the '60s championship clubs can now be understood by my daughter, who finally has a comparable experience.

And now we've both moved on to the 2007 season.

[Jmodene]

The funny thing about both championships I've been a "part" of - I became a serious baseball fan in 1970, when I was 12, and although I remember the 1968 Series (that was the year we moved to St. Louis) I do *not* remember either 1964 or 1967 - is how I took it.

Both in 1982 and 2006, I didn't jump up and down or scream or cry or anything like that (I did, however, when I was at BOB for Jose Jimenez' no-hitter) - my emotion was, very strongly, a sense of quiet satisfaction and a very (to coin a phrase) peaceful easy feeling.

Dunno why I would get so excited over JJ's no-no but not over winning the WS. But that's twice that's happened to me now; I'll have to wait until we win again this year to see if it happens again.

[stlmark]

That's a tough question. I would have to go for the WS win followed by years of losing.

Talking to some Royals fans might help you. They've been there on that one.

True, but I only mean a few losing years after the WS win, not 22 years!

[vinsanity]

Admittedly I haven't read the whole thread. But Steve it is the perfect time for a such a question, as it doesn't happen often a team goes from Top to bottom that quickly. It's generally many years of contention, maybe a title, a few more years of strong contention and then maybe they start to slide a little.

But I guess my question is this: You watch the games to see your team win, no? You can sit there and tell me you enjoy the game and watching good baseball all you want. When you get blown out 10-2 or lose 3-2 you get the same disappointed feeling. So when you lose in the playoffs you still lose. We all want to win a WS.

So I guess the question is would I trade 3 or 4 more playoff appearances to have a WS? Yes. Because part of my favorite part of sports is transactions. Free Agency, trades, drafts and minor leaguers. I seeing who we sign. To me all teams are the Cardinals. It's not the 2004 or 2006 or 2007 Cardinals. All of them are the Cardinals. So if they are losing I can still enjoy watching guys like Dunc, Narveson, Hawksworth and Rasmus grow up and become ball players. While it's disappointing when a team finishes in 3rd or 4th, there's still some great baseball over 162 games and I get to see the players grow up and develop.

So sure, I'll overspend and over trade for a WS one year followed by a few years of mediocrity.

[The Third Man]

Most of you have been watching baseball a lot longer than me. I started watching baseball in the summer of 2003, though I didn't watch much - I remember that I knew that we had a pretty decent player named Albert Pujols, and that we were in a division race, but that's about it.

It wasn't until the next season that it really clicked for me. I was channel-surfing late at night and came across this game.

Boy, what an introduction that was. I caught it at the top of the 4th, coming back from the commercial, when Edmonds homered following Rolen's leadoff single. A few innings later, Rolen homered, Edmonds got hit with a pitch, and Z got ejected. I was hooked - what an exciting game!

I made sure I was awake the next afternoon to watch the follow-up. We were getting bombed, down 8-2 through 3 innings, but I, for whatever reason, kept watching. (I think I'm a glutton for punishment - I didn't stop watching when we had 2 outs in the 9th against Lidge in the 2005 NLCS either, and that worked out.) And of course, we ended up winning 11-8, with Pujols going 5-5 with a double and 3 homers - one to left, one to center, one to right, the latter the game-winner.

That did it. Two games, and baseball catapulted football and has remained, ever since, my favorite sport. Watching the 2004 Cardinals in those summer months, and leading up to the 2004 World Series, are my fondest sports moments. For three months, we simply didn't lose - hitter after hitter came up and knocked out base hits, we turned double play after double play, our pitchers locked down opposing lineups. It was just an amazing thing to witness.

I jumped and cheered and yelled, as an 11-year old boy, harder than I ever had when the Rams won the Super Bowl in 2000. That was the ultimate Cinderella story and I cherished every moment of it. But my very fondest games are the 2004 NLCS. I have never, before or since, seen such an exciting roller-coaster ride of games. Leads changed hands with dominant performances (Beltran vs. Pujols, The Unhittable Brad Lidge), heartbreaker losses (Kent's extra-innings walkoff, followed the very next night by Edmonds' companion shot), and I was on the edge of my seat for every minute of it. I scared the living daylights out of my cats when [url=mms://a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2004/open/topplays/archive10/102004_housln_edmonds_walkoffhr_350.wmv?ct3=-1&ct4=mlb&ct5=27-Apr-07]Edmonds hit his walkoff[/url], and still get chills just thinking about it.

Well, we lost the World Series. I pouted, but I didn't cry, because after 3 games, it'd had enough time to sink in that it was Boston's year.

Last year we won the World Series, and I cheered along with everybody else. Three days later, I felt no different than if we had lost, and though I do have fond memories of that series, they really just don't compare to the joy I get remembering and reminiscing about that 2004 team.

They were something else.

[Michael]

It wasn't until the next season that it really clicked for me. I was channel-surfing late at night and came across this game.

Boy, what an introduction that was. I caught it at the top of the 4th, coming back from the commercial, when Edmonds homered following Rolen's leadoff single. A few innings later, Rolen homered, Edmonds got hit with a pitch, and Z got ejected. I was hooked - what an exciting game!

That's the best game I've ever been to. I love baseball.

[fulldeck]

It wasn't until the next season that it really clicked for me. I was channel-surfing late at night and came across this game.

Boy, what an introduction that was. I caught it at the top of the 4th, coming back from the commercial, when Edmonds homered following Rolen's leadoff single. A few innings later, Rolen homered, Edmonds got hit with a pitch, and Z got ejected. I was hooked - what an exciting game!

That's the best game I've ever been to. I love baseball.

I was in the bleachers for this one. Loved it.

[doe_boy]

Came of age, baseball-wise, in the late 60s. Went through the good and bad times in the 70s (Lou-Lou-Lou, Carlton and Reuss trades, Simba and Al's hair, Vern Rapp, Tempy's bird). The '82 World Series was the salvation at the end of that 70s tunnel.

I suppose the same could be said about the 90s which sort of ended with McGwire's HR record. That set the stage for the subsequent run of 1999 to date. 2004 should have been the capper for that, but Red Sox mojo won out. 2006, then, was sweet and unexpected.

But, in the end, I agree with Doc: watching baseball is good. I'll watch the games and see what happens.