St. Louis Cardinals: An open letter to Adolis Garcia

The St. Louis Cardinals were oh so close to tying the game on Wednesday night to avoid the Brewers sleep but then it just tripped away from them.

The St. Louis Cardinals lost the game on Wednesday night long before Adolis Garcia tripped on his run home on the infield bouncer from Jose Martinez that would have tied the game at 1-1 facing the Brewers. While we would all love to blame the loss on Garcia – well, some of us (not me) – the pitching was poor yet again and this was really the cause.

Additionally, the Brewers’ offense was just too much for the St. Louis Cardinals this time around. That and a little luck on the side of the Brewers (and some bad luck to the Cardinals from the umpires). The series was in the hands of the Brewers from the onset as they are the ones riding the successful wave at the moment.

But here’s the deal, Adolis Garcia was not to be blamed. Garcia was doing what he knows to do: he was running at full-speed in all efforts to score and reset the game in favor of what was quickly slipping away.

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Garcia is a rookie and had a fantastic season with the Memphis Redbirds. In fact, I witnessed his abilities at the plate, in the field, and running on the bases. The slip of Wednesday night was not something that I witnessed all season in Memphis. In fact, I would wager that the slip was so odd that the odds of it happening were so astronomically high that Las Vegas would likely not even categorize it.

With that said, and with the notes that Garcia was too upset to talk with the press following the game on Wednesday night, I feel it necessary to pen the following open letter to Garcia…

Dear Adolis Garcia,

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and let’s move on. Both figuratively and literally. Falling sucks and falling as you did was not ideal but could have happened to anyone. We ALL know that you would have scored had you not tripped. At the very least know that you would have scored.

The fans of the St. Louis Cardinals are called ‘the best fans in baseball’ for a reason; they will move on and forget this and so will you.

Just ask Kolten Wong. Remember that he made the mistake of being picked off of the bases in the postseason. I remember only that his pick-off happened, not when or the game or the actual circumstances. Yes, there are data houses that can cite the specifics, but a fan may not.

Continuing the Wong example, I can tell you that when he returned this season from injury, I was excited to have him back– I never once thought of his mistake, I was just glad to have the powerful player back. The same will be said for you.

You are young and have a bright future. You will recover from this. And I hope we ‘best fans in baseball’ have the opportunity to see you wearing the birds on the bat for the St. Louis Cardinals in a daily playing role in 2019.

Again, pick yourself up and rebound.

Yes, I felt the trip was a perfect metaphor for the 2018 St. Louis Cardinals but I hated it to happen to such a great, young guy.