As any newcomer from the minors or another major-league club makes his way for the first time from the players’ parking lot to the Cardinals clubhouse, he is enveloped in history and greeted by its expectation.
The walls along the walk are chronicles of Cardinals achievements, past and present and soon to be updated. Nowhere within eyesight of a visitor is there any mention of where the current team sits, no outward sign of its place in this NL Central race. But all around them are the standings. The ones that matter most, as their manager pointed out recently. They hang over the players as they button up the Birds on the Bat at their locker and fly over them when they play at Busch Stadium — the championship banners, all 11. The season is a means to that one metric that measures every Cardinals club.
Bottomline, said their blunt manager, finish on top or forget it.
