So...I found out about this article today about the St. Louis Cardinals and I just had to share it. This article makes me wish that I taught English more than I do right now...it is an AMAZING example of voice and audience. So any English teachers out there....consider using this on my behalf :)
So with audience: this article was written by a columnist that presumably lives in New York at least works for the CBS affiliate of New York. The title of the article is: "House of Cardinals; Is St. Louis America's Team?" He argues that the Yankees dominated in the 1990s, so they demanded respect of their baseball prowess. But then on the other hand, the "Evil Empire" spent enormous amounts of money on their players so they were more like a business than a team. I want to quote now from the article to show you some of his voice...which I find oh so amusing
Yep we are awesome like that--we are all about baseball and not about the business of things. He then proceeds to remind us that the Cardinals recently lost people from their organization--and so did the Yankees but look who is still able to keep going. The Cardinals--because we work from the bottom up. He even gets rid of the argument that the Yankees are better because they have a long standing tradition of greatness...but so do the Cardinals--we even beat the great Mickey Mantle. Then he says this:There’s a crack in Darth Vader’s mask. And the St. Louis Cardinals have slipped through it, blooming like a rose from Middle America.While the Yankees lick their wounds and grab their wallet, the Cardinals are deep into another fall run toward the Fall Classic. If they can squeeze out four games against the talented but tormented Dodgers, St. Louis will be the hub of America’s pastime yet again.And they do it with a fraction of our budget and our bombast.
Again awesome writing...and it is all true in my book. This weekend the Dodgers came and visited...two regular players and one coach use to be former St. Louis Cardinals. Skip Schumaker (2005-2012) and Nick Punto (2011) plus Mark McGwire...in a Yankee situation they would have been booed out of the park. These men were applauded in a high-stake game not booed. This is why St. Louis is the best baseball town ever! I also liked the idea of us being in the heart of the country and therefore baseball.And they play in St. Louis, appropriately placed in the middle of the map, like the aorta of baseball. Almost every player, foreign or domestic, preaches the Cardinal Gospel. St. Louis is a special place, they say, the real Field of Dreams, a pastoral wonderland where players are beloved no matter their last plate appearance.They don’t even boo their players. This is the land of Stan Musial, who stayed like a spiritual buoy for over 90 years. The land of Bob Gibson and Ozzie Smith. They can find victory in virtue.New Yorkers don’t understand that. It singes our elitist sensibilities. To us, it is our prerogative to torture whomever melts on the mound at Yankee Stadium. We serenade opponents with vulgar chants, get the middle finger from our own pitchers (Jack McDowell), and applaud while our old owner (George Steinbrenner) warned another pitcher (Dennis Rassmussen), “Columbus, here I come!”
I also love how in this article he basically calls all New Yorkers entitled and self-centered...it takes guts! (Again he is insulting his audience...great example of audience)
New York City can’t fathom why anyone would want to play anywhere but here, despite the car wash we put them through. We don’t acknowledge a world west of the Hudson River. The rest is for rednecks. Right. Now we are paying for our excess, our sins, our arrogance. We have become the land of A-Rod and TMZ. We are the new country for old men and bloated contracts.Finally he ends with this quote....which puts the icing on the cake:
And New Yorkers will look longingly toward St. Louis. Not that we will ever admit it.GO CARDS!!!
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