Baseball is right to delay the start of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball season

There are two things I most look forward to every year: attending St. Louis Cardinals spring training and opening day of the regular season at Busch Stadium, in that order.

So it hurt Thursday as I sat in the stands at Roger Dean Stadium, the spring home of the Cardinals and my happy place, to learn that the coronavirus caused baseball to suspend the rest of spring training and delay the start of the season. As much as it bums me out, it’s definitely the right thing to do for the people of the United States, for Major League Baseball and for the Cardinals themselves.

With the way coronavirus is spreading, this was inevitable. Sitting in a crowd of 45,000 people is no way to protect yourself from the virus so, if the games were allowed to go on as planned, odds are fans would keep the disease alive and eventually make each other sick. I know if the Cardinals were playing games and I had tickets, I am going to be in the bleachers at Busch Stadium. By stopping the games now, letting the disease run its course and then start the season in an organized way is the best path to make sure an emergency that scraps the whole season doesn’t arrive later.

Cardinals fans come from a long way to attend games, both during spring training and the regular season. They probably have a larger geographic draw than any other team because of their history of being both the southernmost and westernmost team in baseball for decades. It was disappointing to many of us, including me, who had tickets to spring games that won’t be played. It was disappointing to people, including me, who were itching to see Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, Whitey Herzog and one of baseball’s newest hall of famers Ted Simmons ride around the Busch Stadium warning track on April 2. But people have planned their summer vacations around trips to Busch Stadium. It’s better to save the games during the summer months when kids are out of school than the early ones that typically have lower attendance. But, more than that, it’s important to preserve the integrity of the season, the playoffs and the World Series.

One of the most disastrous times in Major League history came in 1981 when a strike halted the baseball season. Because planning was poor, it was decided that -- for the only time in history -- having the best record for the balance of the season didn’t matter. The team that had the best record before the games were halted ended up playing the team that had the best record in the second half for the right to go to the league championship series. The Cardinals had the best overall record in the National League East Division, but the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos had the best record in each half and ended up fighting for the right to play the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.

The Cardinals are a punch line because they won the World Series in 2006 by winning only 83 games. But the real answer to the trivia question “which team won the World Series with the least regular season wins” is NOT the 2006 Cardinals. It is the 1981 Dodgers who won a total of 63. And like the NL East foe they beat, the Dodgers didn’t even have the best record in their division. While they were first in the pre-strike season, the were FOURTH in the second half. The Cincinnati Reds were second in both halves with the best overall record. How tainted can one championship be?

I’d rather see games pushed back two weeks or a month and then have all the teams know exactly how many games there are going to be, what the terms are, etc. before the contests begin.

Some good could come out of baseball’s delay

First, MLB leaders have been toying with the idea of going back from 162 games to a 154-game schedule and this might be a good chance to try such a move on for size.

Second, if baseball is shut down for two weeks or a month, they’ll have to find a way to shoe-horn extra games into the remaining schedule. The Commissioner’s Office has already indicated that it doesn’t want the World Series to be pushed back. So what about bringing back one of the great things about baseball that has been sacrificed over the years: the weekend doubleheader. Think of those people who come from Omaha, Nebraska, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, to see the Cardinals on a weekend at Busch Stadium. Wouldn’t it be great to make it worth their trip to have TWO games in one day? We’ve heard that it couldn’t be done because owners lose money on doubleheaders. But wouldn’t it be better to play games in that format instead of not playing them at all? It’s a win-win situation.

Finally, the delay could be good for injured Cardinals. Pitchers Miles Mikolas, Andrew Miller and Brett Cecil are nursing injuries and closer Jordan Hicks is coming back from Tommy John surgery. Every day the season gets pushed back is another game that St. Louis doesn’t have to play without those hurlers. John Gant seemed to sag from overuse in 2020. Yadier Molina and Dexter Fowler aren’t getting any younger. So playing less games means that they will be fresher at the end of the season than they would otherwise be. While I’d like to see the Cardinals play 154 games, I bet those guys probably wouldn’t mind playing about 120.

One guy that the shortened season would likely negatively impact would be longtime ace Adam Wainwright who was sharp Thursday in the last spring training game in front of fans -- at least for a while. This is his parade lap around the National League and I would love to see him have a chance to make 32 starts to run the table. It’s a shame to see that cut short as he plans to walk off into the sunset next season.

I typically feel sad when I leave Roger Dean Stadium for the last time every year. The easy-going atmosphere is a great place to enjoy baseball without the tension of the standings entering into things. It’s the excitement of opening day at Busch Stadium that gets me over it. There’s always a time clock in my heading ticking off the days, hours or minutes until the next game. It doesn’t matter if it’s in July or in November, either way, there’s something to look forward to. So it’s tough right now to just not know when baseball is going to be back. Just be patient, Cardinals fans. While it’s tough to wait, we know it’s going to be worth it. It’s our job to stay healthy and create an atmosphere for MLB, the NHL and NBA to get the games rolling again.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.