An F-minus for the St. Louis Cardinals? That’s ludicrous

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 28: A graphic honoring COVID-19 victims prior to the game between the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals on July 28, 2020 at the Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 28: A graphic honoring COVID-19 victims prior to the game between the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals on July 28, 2020 at the Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)

COVID-19 has stalled the St. Louis Cardinals’ season, but that’s not the same as diamond failure.

A CBSsportsline columnist has determined that the 2020 St. Louis Cardinals, through the first quarter of this season, have failed at baseball. No, worse than that. He gave the St. Louis an F-minus for going 2-3 and losing 10 games and counting to a COVID-19 outbreak.

Below failing? That’s worse than the midterm grades D-Day and Bluto received in Animal House. Their 0.0 GPAs were as bad as it gets without going into negative numbers. It would appear that the Redbirds, with that F-minus, have sunk below 0.0.

Is the below-failing grade a result of horrendous baseball? Nah. Two wins and three losses isn’t so bad. Is it because they bungled COVID-19 safety protocols. Nah. An MLB internal investigation found the Miami Marlins suffered a “lapse” in enforcing COVID protocols, and they received an A grade for the first quarter of the 2020 baseball season.

No, the Cardinals have the worst grade in baseball because a number of their players contracted COVID. How dare they! A student who misses two weeks of class due to a severe illness might receive an incomplete grade from a rational instructor, but there’s no such deliverance for the ailing Redbirds. Nor should there be.

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If they wanted to be a factor in the first quarter of the 2020 season, all they had to do was stay healthy. They failed. No, wait, they did worse than fail, they earned an F-minus. They mega-failed. They turbo-failed. It’s a good thing they’ll be wearing masks next time we see them so they can hide their mortified faces.

Whatever happened to baseline compassion? When a player gets hurt in a baseball or football game and has to be carted off the field, what do fans do? If they’re good fans, they stand and clap, in homage, not mockery, of the fallen one. It doesn’t matter if he plays for our team or their team. That’s what sportsmanship is all about.

The 2020 Cardinals got blasted by COVID two-plus weeks ago and have been sidelined since. So what is the right response? To boo them? To deride them? To rate them as the most wretched team in all of baseball? Because they haven’t been able to take the field?

This may be a doomed season for St. Louis. With more COVID breakouts, it could be a doomed season for all of baseball. But you can be sure that true Cardinals fans won’t gloat, mock, or find fault if the Cubs, Brewers or Dodgers get slammed by the pandemic.

That’s not who we are.

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