St. Louis Cardinals: Nihilism and the MLB offseason

Fans of our St. Louis Cardinals are already sharpening their pitchforks to walk down to Busch Stadium and riot because the Cardinals haven’t done anything yet. Acting a little more nihilistic about the offseason would make everyone a little bit more agreeable during the long winter.

St. Louis Cardinals’ Twitter is getting a little bit too much for me. It seems like every time I log on, I see more and more fans writing their “dear John” letters to Mo and Co. While some are writing their own sob story, others are just getting plain angry. I am not saying that this is not without reason, but wait…well I kind of am.

First off, it is the very beginning of December. Lots of deals are still to come around the league and the Cardinals will no doubt be part of them. If they aren’t when February or March comes around, then by all means, feel free to sharpen the pitchforks. That’s when you would have a legitimate reason keep your hard earned money out of the DeWitt’s hands by not buying any Cardinals gear or going to games this upcoming season.

The point I am trying to get to here is that people should look at the offseason with the lens of a certain form of nihilism. Not the moralistic kind where there are no morals and nothing matters. That is depressing and not self serving. BUT, if fans, Twitter trolls, and respected writers were to look at the offseason without expectations, without the quick triggered anger that we are seeing daily, then maybe everyone wouldn’t be so grouchy.

As the great @STLMattinals said on Twitter, “hear me out… Imagine a world where fans just let the front office do whatever it is going to do, and then reacted, at the end of the offseason, to what they did. How different would that look?” There would still be trade polls, there would still be wishes and wants, but when the Cardinals didn’t happen to sign a man like Josh Donaldson, people wouldn’t act like the world was being set on fire.

Fans could realize that it doesn’t matter what Mo did or didn’t do in the moment, what matters is the end result. If the Cardinals haven’t done anything to improve by Spring Training, and still feels fielding a team with only marginal changes from last year is acceptable, then by all means, I will join you on the march to Busch.

But until then, it is impossible to connect the dots looking forward when all you are doing is looking back. As upsetting as it may seem, you have to keep things in perspective. At the end of the day, the St. Louis Cardinals being good or bad doesn’t affect your career, your family life, or your security (unless you work for the team).