BP #17: Royals. Cardinals. And a Dead Pipe Dream.

Well. That was...(wipes tears)...hard to watch. The St. Louis Cardinals made another deep run into the playoffs, before being axed off by the San Fran Giants in 5 games in devastatingly awesome fashion. Walk off fashion to be precise. So while many St. Louisans have now turned to the Blues, or (for some reason) to the Rams for their sports fix, I’ve decided to wallow on my Birds for a few more days, reveling in the fact that they're still the Cardinals, and the fact that they will most likely be back stronger next year. Hopefully.

But right now, as the Royals are primed to kick some Giants’ butt, I can’t help but entertain my shattered dream of a another I-70 Series. Oh what a great thing it would have been. Missouri’s two great cities, battling for greatness on the field...I just...

(More Tears)

Well it seems I will have to wait at least another year, and probably much longer, for that dream to again come down the pipeline. But it’s still fun to imagine what things would have been like, if the Royals and Cardinals played each other. It’s still fun to dream of it.

Point 1. I would have been at the Battleground.

Columbia sits right smack dab in the middle of the Missouri, and even though it is slightly more Cardinals than Royals, the out of towners rooting for the Cardinals demise give the Royals plenty of fans. From the shops on Main Street, to all 35,000 students, everyone and every entity in this town would be made to pick sides. Now add in 10,000 slightly hammered college students, and we have ourselves a full fledge battleground for the rivalry. And yes, there probably would have been blood, or at least a few bruised egos.

Point 2. Dollar Signs. And More Dollar signs.

Thats what businesses and Politicians see when they think of the I-70 World Series. In 2011, the Cardinals’ World Series run brought in almost 70 million dollars into the St. Louis Economy. You can easily say that with rising prices, and just the sheer number of Missourians and Out of Towners that will support the Game, you're looking at almost 150 million dollars. Thats a lot of extra dough.

Point 3. I was there. We were there. We saw History.

While all World Series are history, not all of them are Historic. 2011. 2004. 2001. 1997. 1985. 1986. These are Series that have went down History. And while 2014 will certainly go down in the books, if the Royals pull out victory, just the fact of an Interstate Series would have put it in the History books. And for Mizzou students from all over the world, they would have been able to say that they were in the middle of it. They were in the middle of a state consumed by sports unlike ever before. They could’ve told the stories of the nail biting games, and the sometimes comical reactions from local fans. They could’ve been part of history.

But I guess we’ll just have to keep waiting, and hope that sometime soon, maybe while we are here, that the Royals and the Cardinals can pull it together, and give us our series, our history.

(Tears),

Eichel

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