I was never a big sports fan at all growing up. Nothing against pro or college sports, I just always thought it was too big a commitment, trying to keep up with everything. Plus, I didn’t know any of those guys and they sure as hell didn’t know me (pardon my French).
But that all changed in 1998. Much like everyone else in St. Louis, I found myself paying attention to the Mark McGwire – Sammy Sosa home run battle. By extension, I was watching all the games and started giving some attention to what was going on with the team. Question: Is it grammatically correct to say, “Jen and I became big-time Cardinal fans” or “Jen and I became big-time Cardinals fans”? I’ll just say it this way, “Jen and I became big-time fans of Cardinals Baseball around that time.” We also became St. Louis Rams fans then and climbed on the “Greatest Show on Turf” bandwagon during the rise and reign of Kurt Warner. But that topic is for another time. It was a great time to be a baseball and football fan in St. Louis and the timing was perfect, we fell right into it. (Speaking of grammar, I’m pretty sure the word “but” shouldn’t immediately follow a “,” OR a sentence shouldn’t start with “But,”, but I don’t care. I don’t like the word “However”, this ain’t the SATs and I’m not trying to get into college so I can become an English teacher.)
When they beat the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series, we were watching it from my hospital room. We were there still because my stroke just occurred a couple months earlier. After they won, it showed the players all jumping around and celebrating in the locker room and pouring beer and champagne all over each other. I was busy laying there, feeling ticked off (popular emotion in those days) and throwing myself a pity-party. I remember thinking, ‘Great. My team just got crowned World Champions and honestly, I couldn’t give two sh_ts.’ I wasn’t exactly riding an emotional high at that time. That lasted a good several months (or a year, or maybe two).
By the time 2011 rolled around and they won the W.S. again over the Texas Rangers, I was in a much better headspace and I actually enjoyed watching it. That Game 6, the David Friese game, was easily the most exciting game I had ever seen – in any sport. After they squeezed out a Win that game, I knew they were gonna win the Series. Even when they were down two runs early in Game 7, I wasn’t worried a bit because they were playing the game with all the momentum that carried over from the night before. By the end of the game, I was feeling kinda sorry for the other team’s manager, what’s-his-face Washington, because he looked to be absolutely shell-shocked the whole game!
We were fairly big-time fans throughout the 2000s and for most of the 2010s (‘fairly big-time fans’, is that even a real thing?). That all changed 5-6 years ago when we decided to “cut the cord” and say ‘Adios!’ to Cable TV for good. Of course, that meant no more Cardinals games. ‘That’s OK, ’, we figured, ‘surely the organization will be offering a standalone streaming app where we can go and watch their games, any day now.’ Thus far and many seasons later – crickets.
When we ditched cable, we still wanted a way to get network (local) channels. So we plopped an eight foot, NASA-grade antenna, clearly visible from out in front of our house, on our roof. Between that and the solar panels mounted on the frontside of our roof, also visible from the street, our house is starting to look like some kind of government installation. I wonder why our longtime neighbors keep moving away? Hmm, weird.
Anyway, back to the Cardinals. Being forced to miss watching them play nearly every day wasn’t too awful, if I’m being honest. We still kinda followed them and paid attention to their highlights on the nightly news (courtesy of the monstrosity on our roof). The fact that they haven’t done too well lately has helped lessen our FOMO. I know that makes us fair-weather fans – guilty as charged – and that we we’re super spoiled by always watching them play Playoff Baseball, but that’s just how it is – not our fault 😊!
Now that MLB is all intertwined with sports betting, I hear that Fanduel is putting out their own streaming app for this season. We’ll definitely give it a shot. I hope it’s not too annoying to watch with all the gambling stuff all over the screen like banners, crawlers, etc. cluttering things up. I also hope the team starts doing better in the coming years. I kinda miss watching exciting games that matter to the standings and seeing them play deep into October.
I should probably cut these guys some slack. I mean, what do I know about playing baseball, anyway? The last time I set foot on a baseball diamond was at Endicott Park, on the back field by the playground, when I was in the 1st Grade. I clearly remember being in the batter’s box and having the opposing team’s pitcher drilling me with a blistering 32 mph fastball. The ball was coming right at me and when I turned away, it plunked me right in the small of my lower back. I’m pretty sure it was intentional because I obviously looked like a home run threat. As I trotted down the first base line towards my awarded bag with tears welling up in my eyes the writing was on the wall, that at-bat marked the beginning of the end of my very promising future in baseball. The conversation between me and my mom later that night went something like this:
ME: ‘Mom, I think I wanna quit the baseball team.’
MOM: ‘Are you sure? Because once you quit, you can’t un-quit. Besides, chicks dig athletes.’
ME: ‘I think I’m out. I know I’m still too little to know what the word ‘sucks’ means but I’m pretty sure that playing baseball sucks.’
MOM: ‘OK, wuss. Maybe we can still get you into a tap or ballet class with your little sister.’
Just kidding! Mom didn’t have a mean bone in her body. She would never berate me (not publicly, anyway).
I ran across this quote about professional athletes vs. the rest of us somewhere along the way. I don’t know about its accuracy but it felt about right. I can’t remember how it was worded exactly but this was the gist of it. Hope I make it make sense:
“Individual ‘A’” = The absolute worst baseball player in all of professional baseball.
“Individual ‘B’” = Of all the people you know, the one person who is the best at what he/she does at work all day.
Given these two things, Individual ‘A’ plays baseball at a much higher level than Individual ‘B’ can perform his/her job.
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In conclusion, I was telling Jen about how I was trying to come up with a decent conclusion. How was I gonna tie all this together and put a bow on this post? She said, ‘Who cares? It’s your blog and you can end it abruptly if you want to. Just close it out with your stupid little German sign-off thing and quit writing. Besides, it’s not like you’re gonna win a Pulitzer Prize any time soon.’ She’s right, I think I’m just gonna hit the brakes on this. So, I’m outta here!
Gehen sie Cards!
— Jim
lockedinjim 
When I saw the title of this installment of ’lockedinjim’ I knew it would be a good one – and wasn’t disappointed!!!
Good stuff, Jim, some laughs, memories (good and bittersweet) and of course I love the pics ❤️
Thanks Julie! I wrote the first couple sentences but after that, it pretty much wrote itself.
Hey Jim
We cut the cord on U-Verse a year or so ago and Ballys was definitely the hardest part to live without. Missing Blues games is especially painful for me but I’ve found the condensed 9 minute highlight reels on YouTube are a decent replacement(if you can stay away from score updates for an hour or so). My attention span is shot anyway for trying to watch a full game, so it’s much more in line with what I can handle nowadays.
I’m glad they’re finally gonna start streaming Cardinals games, now that half their fan base has moved on!
Hi Jim,
Not sure if you remember us but sense we move from STL to Parrish we still follow the Cardinals and hope for one day to see the Cardinals & Rays in a World Series. Wow we have been down here for 15 years both retired now. Sandy retired from NISC back on 07-19-2024 and I retired from Allstate in January 2025. (Yep 2nd employer after I left NISC in 2008.)
We are more Hockey fans (Tampa Bay Lighting) but have gone to several RAY’s Games at the Tropicana until the pandemic. Now with the roof blown off the Tropicana not sure if we will make it to an future games.
You guys are a great couple and how time flies.
Keep on keeping on Jim.
Take Good Care
Greg
Hi Greg –
Of course I remember you and Sandy. In fact, I was going through my pictures the other day and there was one of you two at a Halloween party at Les Martin’s house one year. Sandy was dressed as a groom and you were her bride! HAHA!
I also heard from Dave Sickels, Ken Jones and Mike Jankowski on here, and now you. Blasts from the past!
Take care,
– Jim
Hey Jim,
Wow that’s right. It was Sandy’s idea for the costume. By the way you were one of the best programmer’s / developers / analysists when I was still at NISC (Nuts In St Charles) Keep on posting dude. It’s good the hear from you.
Take Good Care
GFS
Thanks for the kind words. I could say the same about you. All of us in programming didn’t mind getting Bluesheets or CRs from you (or Lou Ann Klump either) because that meant the addendums would have been written very thoroughly, we wouldn’t have to constantly try to track you down for more information. I kinda miss working there (most days, anyway!)
We tried to cut the cable cord a while back, but Rick had massive sports withdrawal, so we’ve inched our way back little by little, catching baseball, football and hockey where and when it was available, but it wasn’t quite enough. Currently we pay a million dollars a month for Direct Stream+sports pack, Fandual, and Red Zone…but hey it’s all worth seeing Rick smile 🙂
We got rid of cable because it started getting ridiculously expensive. But now, several of streaming services have merged with each other and the cost keeps creeping up. We, all the little people, can’t win.
Also, the heck with the cable bill, gotta keep Rick from rocking back and forth in the corner while mumbling to himself!
Showing my age. attended cardinal and browns games at sportsman park on Grand ave. was part of knot hole gang in left field bleachers. Florissant street car to Grand ave. street car.
must’ve seen some great games!
Great memories Jim!
I for one will always relish the Sosa -McGuire home run race! That’s all we talked about at the time. Strangers on the streets of Clayton would stop to discuss- Great time in St Louis.
Remember when we went on that tour before the new stadium opened? I remember sitting in that one section and saying ‘oh hell no’. You had to have your head turned all the way to the right to see home plate. I still think of that when I go to the stadium and glance at that section- and pity the poor people with the stiff necks!
I saw a buncha pictures from that stadium tour just the other night when I was going through my old pictures. I apparently had just gotten a new camera and I felt the need to take about 200 pictures that night. i was going through my pictures for a project I’m working on because Julie had come by that evening and her and Jen started talking about their jobs. That was my cue to take the opportunity to check out of the conversation and start working on something else by myself (if you’re reading this Julie, nothing personal!)
great to relive the great moments in our life time in Saint Louis sports. I still have red Tshirts from both WS seasons. Thanks for putting this down.
JackasS
Yeah, I liked recalling all that stuff. BTW, when did you start going by ‘JackasS’? Does Nancye call you that or something (ba-dump-dump)?
wait a minute, I thought this was your dad – Konrad – but I just took a closer look at the username, ‘pct…’, is this Matthew?
Spring training is my favorite time of year. I love the stadiums and the laid back feeling. We weren’t able to go this year and we both really miss it. Jack and Rob still go to every home opener.
Do you guys live near Arlington (don’t the Texas Rangers play there)?
We lived in Nacogdoches. It’s considered deep East Texas. We went to Houston for a few games.
great stuff as usual Jim. That 06 postseason was incredible. My son Matt, and I attended those games. Game six and game seven are the two best games I’ve ever attended live. I think