Baseball’s ‘forever spring training’ idea would be terrible for the St. Louis Cardinals

I want to see St. Louis Cardinals baseball again pretty badly.

But I don’t know if I want to see it badly enough to have the Cardinals, who thought they would go ahead and let their cleanup hitter walk away without replacing him because they were only fighting the sagging Chicago Cubs, the retooling Milwaukee Brewers and the curious Cincinnati Reds for the National League Central championship, play in a spring training forever format. Having to play in the same division as the defending National and American League champions, the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros, is another proposition altogether.

The latest proposal being floated about for putting baseball back in business calls for teams with Florida spring training, including the Cardinals, to be in one league and the teams that play in Arizona, including the Chicago Cubs, to be in another.

Fans of the proposal suggest that the Cardinsls could end up doing something that has been impossible every other year in their existence: Playing the Cubs in the World Series, the ultimate face-off of their rivalry. But let’s be realistic. While the Cubs would have to be in the same division as the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants while the Cardinals would be in the same division as the Nationals, Houston, the New York Mets and the Miami Marlins. The best team the Cubs would face would be the Athletics, who won 97 games last year — but still finished 10 games back of the Astros in the American League West. The Diamondbacks finished eight games over .500 thanks to an 8-2 finish when the playoff picture was decided. The Rockies and Giants were hopelessly below the .500 mark.

As previously mentioned, the Astros and Nationals proved to be the best two teams in baseball last year and seem to be well-armed to contend again in 2020. The Mets were 10 games over .500 and on the rise in late 2019. Only the Marlins would be a pushover. And they look better on paper than they did last year with improved pitching and developing prospects.

So, are we in this just to see baseball again? Would it be worth watching if the Cardinals are ill-prepared to contend in the situation they’re thrust into and if fans won’t actually be able to go to the ballpark to see the games?

If they’re going to tear up the schedule to allow the redesigned leagues to play out, why not just organize it so that the teams stay where they’re supposed to play — but set up the games with teams they play in their spring training state at the start of the schedule and the others for after the transition back to their home cities later in the year? The Cardinals could play the New York Yankees and Mets, Boston Red Sox, Marlins, Atlanta Braves, Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates the first month of the season in Florida and the Cactus League teams back in St. Louis. It seems just as easy as they could rearrange the entire leagues.

Although we shouldn’t be surprised, this is just another example of the commissioner’s office going amateur hour on America’s Game. It seems as if he’s trying every gimmick he can think of to try to make baseball interesting. Isn’t it odd that we didn’t need this foolishness for the 150 years that baseball before Rob Manfred came along. Time clocks. Instant Replay. Oddball realignment and the worst part of all — using extended interleague play as an excuse to force the designated hitter across the major leagues.

I’m starting to think for the first time that maybe we’d be better off if they’d just go ahead and cancel the whole season.

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.