So, signing with the Red Sox is "a dream come true" for Edgar Renteria? The Red Sox "really tried" to get him. Call me jilted, but I sense a bit of a backhanded slap at my beloved Cardinals. No way I buy this crap about his "first choice was to remain in St. Louis". If he really wanted to stay in St. Louis, why is it a dream come true to play for Boston? If someone really wants something, and it is within one's power to do so, then why not do it? I guess someone made him do something he did not want to do. Apparently Edgar is a child who has decisions thrust upon him he has no control over. Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, any way you want Edgar, you still won't make me so dizzy as to believe your inconsistent story.
Although the situations are different, I can't help but feel a little bit like I did after 1987 when Jack Clark expressed his love for the St. Louis Cardinals, only to bolt to the Yankees. Clark could have been included in the pantheon of great Cardinals if he only would have stayed. Now he's just a passerby in a glorious bygone era. Respected, yes, but not beloved.
I guess I just don't want to eat the crap other people are serving up. ER, please don't insult me by telling me how much you would have rather stayed where you were (STL), when you obviously didn't want to by your actions (signing with Bosox).
The folks over at the Birdhouse are going to greet Edgar with applause when he comes back to St. Louis this year for the Red Sox-Cardinals inter-league series. My take is, I applauded and yelled for Edgar when he was a Cardinal. I will not do so for a player who made a conscious decision to leave the team. I will not show my approval for a man wearing another uniform by his choice. My loyalty is to my team, not individual players. I'll save my cheers for a man like Jim Edmonds. Edmonds stayed in St. Louis when he could have gone elsewhere for more money. That is loyalty, and that is a man worth acknowledging when he comes to the plate. So next year, when Boston is in town, let's give Jimmy a series of standing ovations when he comes to the plate. I can think of no other way to show appreciation to the man who stayed than to do it in the presence of the man who choose to leave.
When the dust settles on this period of Cardinals history, and the Cardinals are back in rebuilding mode, make no mistake about it. Jim Edmonds will join all the other Cardinal greats in being immortalized for his loyalty and his play. Edgar Renteria will just be a footnote, remembered even less than Jack Clark.
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