St. Louis Cardinals: In hindsight, are you happy the season happened?

The 2020 season almost didn’t happen for the St. Louis Cardinals. Even after a disappointing season, would you prefer it hadn’t happened at all?

219 days ago, things really got weird. We had all heard about the Coronavirus and what it was doing around the world, but it wasn’t yet personal for most of us. All the way back on March 13, we had no idea how much things were going to change between then and now. March 13 isn’t an arbitrary date. If you’ll remember, that was the final day of the “normal” spring training for the St. Louis Cardinals.

This is not the place to discuss how social aspects of the world have changed since mid-March, but we don’t even need to go that far to dig into the big question I have today.

Are you happy the 2020 St. Louis Cardinals season happened?

After the NBA shut down, the NHL shut down, and finally, the MLB stopped spring training, things got real. No longer did spring have the excitement of the impending season. At that time, the only thing that quickly became clear was that the delay in the 2020 season would be much much longer than just two weeks.

After the talks of a return to play resumed between the MLB and MLBPA in May, things quickly turned sour as we saw the ugliness between the two sides. While the NBA and NHL easily agreed to return to play plans, the MLB stuck out like a cyst.

It was around this time when fans began just hoping they’d call off the season entirely. There was no end in sight and it somehow just kept getting uglier and uglier. The MLB couldn’t (and wouldn’t) let the season be completely scrapped though.

There were many times during this break that all I wanted was to be angry at a Cardinals game. At least we would’ve had baseball.

When the deal finally was forced between the MLB and the MLBPA, there was a light at the end of the tunnel for a regular season. The buildup was tremendous then finally, there was baseball!

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Of course, the Cardinals then suffered from the worst COVID-19 outbreak of any team, causing a 17-day break. Again, during this time the calls for a scrapped season got louder. When the team finally came back, they had to fit 53 games into a grueling 44 days, all leading to a quick exit in the first round of the playoffs.

It was amazing that the Cardinals made the playoffs in the first place, the schedule took a toll on the offense and regardless of the circumstances, it was painful to see the Cardinals go out as they did.

Now, I know it’s hard to answer this while the postseason is still going on without the Cardinals in play, but really, would you have preferred nothing at all?

If nothing else, this season was a phenomenal lesson in gratitude. It might not have been at the top of your mind, but I’d hope that deep down, all of you who are angry at the Cardinals at least appreciated that you had something to be angry at. I know I am.

I’m sorry this isn’t analysis or a trade article or anything like that, I just want to know if anyone truly would’ve preferred no St. Louis Cardinals baseball this year. If your answer is yes, I would guess that you are either deeply jaded or not that big of a Cardinals fan.

Gratitude is never a bad thing and no matter how this season ended up going, I am glad that it happened. We had some great moments, some moments to forget, and a laundry list of things to improve on.