ST. LOUIS — Wednesday night's Cardinals game went as many fans expected it to: not well. Even more upsetting, the Cardinals had the lead in the top of the 9th inning before back-to-back home runs flipped the game.
When the final score of 6-4 echoed through Busch, the fans bellowed out a collective "boo". The rumble of disgust lasted long enough the players may have heard it on their way home.
Before the symphony of sorrow, Cards fans probably walked by one of Karen Boschert's hot dog stands. As you can imagine, Boschert talks to a lot of fans,
"They're not happy," she said. "They're disappointed because the management has not made moves and they should have already had pitching. That's what I've heard."
As a fan raised on The Hill, Rick Seithel is going on 76 years of cheering on the Red Birds. Surely, Seithel has seen some slow starts to the season.
"Not many though, not like this," he said.
Well shoot, surely it's not all bad and it isn't for one fan we found. Clad in an Angels jersey, when asked how the Cardinals are playing this season, Clifford Boydstun smiled, "Horrible."
A grin like Boydstun's has to put a frown on some Cardinals fans' faces, but let's hear from trusty fan Seithel.
"I think they just need to get rallied around themselves, they just need to believe in themselves," he said. "They got a good coach, a good manager, a good front office... I think it will work out, gotta believe, it's early in the season."
As for the booing that erupted Wednesday night, Boschert said she has heard it before.
"I guess when La Russa left, that was the first year they booed a little bit, but it is worse now," she said.
Both Boschert and Seithel think that if you buy a ticket and come to a game, you can boo the team. That being said, you won't catch Seithel raising is hands to his face and hollering in disdain.
"No, no, I can't do that, that'd be sacrilegious," he said.
Now everyone probably has an opinion about booing, does it make you a fair-weather fan or a true fan? Seithel thinks it's not a sign of a true fan and after a long pause he says even if the rest of the season is bad too, he'll still cheer for the birds.
"Once a Cardinal fan, always a Cardinal fan."
The Cardinals' losing streak extended to six games Thursday afternoon with an 11-7 loss to the Angels.