St. Louis – Opening day around these parts is a big deal. St. Louis Cardinals baseball is in the blood in this town. We love our Cardinals. And why not? They are the oldest franchise west of the Mississippi, the most successful National League franchise ever, in terms of world championships with 10 titles, more than anyone else in the league, and second overall only to the New York Yankees, the only team to have won more World Series titles than the Cardinals. Yes, that is true. (Interesting sidebar: the Cardinals 10 titles are twice as many as both Chicago teams combined.)

So you had to know when you woke up on this high holy day to 30 degree temperatures and snow, that this year’s opener would be especially memorable.

If you are a fan of baseball you may know that last year’s Cardinal team was much maligned, and deservedly so, for blowing 31 save opportunities. If you are not a fan, that means basically that the Cardinals lost 31 games they were winning in the last two innings.

Despite this, they still managed to finish the season 10 games over .500, not a terrible record at all. If they had managed to win just half of those games that got away, the winner of our division, the hated Chicago Cubs, would have finished a distant second to the Cardinals.

Seasons are not made over one game, certainly not in April in baseball. The conditions were terrible. A lot of players, including our closer, were making their debut, and the nerves had to be as big a factor as the weather in this sloppily played game. That said, was I the only Cardinal fan thinking ‘here we go again’ with a blown save in the first game of the season?

Here is hoping that the next six months are not as brutal as today’s game.

And I am not off the bandwagon, or a fair weather fan, no pun intended, so don’t yell at me. I still say the Cardinals are going to win their division this year. A position I promise not to waver from at least until the next blown save.

Take that, Cubbie fans!