St. Louis Cardinals: Hacking incident shows haters’ wrath

One week has elapsed since the first report surfaced accusing the St. Louis Cardinals organization of hacking into internal servers belonging to the former division-rival Houston Astros.

No doubt, if you are a Cardinals fan, you’ve already been accused of supporting cheaters. Maybe your ethics have been called into question. Maybe you’ve even been called an ass … or more likely, the longer version of that word.

A funny thing happened on the way to this story becoming the Major League Baseball version of Deflategate.

It didn’t have legs. This turkey died at the box office.

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Yes, people need to understand there are those out there that hate the St. Louis Cardinals. They hate everything the Cardinals stand for.

To which I reply: It’s hard to argue with eight National League Central championships since 2000. Let the haters choke on four National League pennants since 2000; coming in 2004, 2006, 2011 and, lastly, 2013.

Because I live in Michigan, which is Detroit Tigers country, people do look at me funny when I wear Cardinals gear. Contrary to what some think, it is possible to be a fan of more than one team in this state.

It doesn’t matter. People don’t need an excuse to hate the Cardinals. So when the hacking story began to die off, people were disappointed.

I’m sure Bill Plaschke, the notable columnist for the Los Angeles Times, was disappointed. After all, he wrote a story that all but hinted the Cardinals rigged the National League Division Series. As if Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw had to have help in going up in smoke.

Bill, you’re a good guy… but really? Really?

If it turns out a high-ranking official in the organization was responsible for this, that person should be punished. There is no reason for anything like this to happen. I could even argue this wouldn’t have taken place if former Cardinals executive and current Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow had changed his passwords.

As it turns out, the FBI is having trouble locating the hackers. A New York Times story from Tuesday’s paper speculates a few Cardinals statistical analysts executed the hacking when they were staying in Jupiter, the Cards’ spring training home.

Those people obviously forgot the Astros aren’t even in the NL Central anymore. The era of those herculean NL Championship Series showdowns is over.

It may be that a few misguided people wanted to have some fun. That is no reason to send a whole franchise’s name through the mud and stain the fans and followers of it.

Just because you want to follow the NL’s best team shouldn’t subject you to being called an ass by people. Or a cheater. Or a crook.

So keep your heads high. You are Cardinal Nation. The Cardinal Way wins championships.

Anything less is a disappointment.

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