While for some reason it doesn’t feel like the holiday season, the calendar says it is.
It’s time to celebrate whatever holiday fits your faith. It’s time for hope, and spreading good will among mankind and companions. It’s also time for me to wish, and tell you what I want from my sports teams and athletes.
Locally, it has not been what I would deem a very good year. Just look at some of the records. With that, I will still ask.
For the St. Louis Cardinals: More patience. They have shown a lot so far in the Matt Holliday free agency situation. The Cardinals have not fallen prey to tactics of Holliday’s agent Scott Boras. They have held the course and have a plan B. I would like to see Holliday back in a Cardinals uniform. I love him at four years and $65-70 million. I would just not like him at anything more. Stay with the course.
What I would also like for Christmas is an African American in a Cardinals’ uniform. For the first time in 50 years, there are no African Americans on the 25-man roster, as well as coaches that are from Alabama, California, Florida, Texas or any of the other states in the union. While baseball has become a worldly sport, how about the world coming back to the United States?
The St. Louis Cardinals has been an institution that has encompassed the entire community and was reflective of that in the past. There is time to remedy the subject as opening day is still a few months away.
From the St. Louis Blues: Leadership. This is a team that has no leadership anywhere. The on-ice product is running out of excuses with respect to its youth. The players say they are still working hard. From where I sit, the only thing they are working hard at is getting their coach fired. As for the coach, stop babying these guys. Stop all the excessive meetings and let them figure it out for themselves. If they are not that smart, then you now have bigger problems.
There is no team leader on the Blues, and the ones who should be leading have proven in the past that they could not lead an alcoholic to a new year’s eve party.
That leads us to the top of the organization. When is someone in a suit and tie going to walk in the locker room and let players know that they will be gone before the coach? When will they stop allowing the inmates to run the asylum? Forty-plus years and still waiting for a Stanley Cup. The wait has gone too long.
From Saint Louis University: More players who have more than two years experience. I like what Rick Majerus is doing at Saint Louis University. You can see things starting to come together. He does not have a junior or senior on the team, which means the young guys have to play whether they are ready or not. I love it. There is passion and energy on the floor. When the coach speaks, they look and listen, which means they trust him and they want to do better.
His next challenge is getting a few players from this area who can handle him. It is not always easy, as he can challenge you. The program as well as the athletic department is in better shape than they were three years ago. They are deserving of local support as they are trying to do the right thing on all fronts.
From the St. Louis Rams: One wish came true already: Rich Incognito is no longer a member of the St. Louis Rams and hopefully a member of this community. To say that Incognito was problematic would be an understatement to say the least. He was a flat-out embarrassment to his team and this city in every sense of the word. It was “never his fault” – I am sure we all know someone or have worked with someone of that ilk.
St. Louis lost nothing when it came to talent. With the team at 1-12, his body of work speaks for itself. He was a distraction that needed to be eliminated. For Steve Spagnuolo to wrestle with this decision is unfortunate. He never saw it coming. Like the coaches before him, he thought he could coach this loser up. No chance.
Luckily for Spagnulo he is in the first year of coaching the team. If not, it would have helped him to the unemployment line. While the cutting of Incognito will not solve a terrible season, it will make my Christmas better when I now think of the Rams.
Next week, I will have my Christmas wishes for all. Some, by the way, will be deserving of that lump of coal.