On a Plane Ride from St. Louis
Cardinals talk, Cy Young talk and I created a new JoeBlogs Connections game!
A few quick thoughts while on my flight back from St. Louis—I still won’t go into details about why I was there (or why I was in K.C. the week before, or why I was in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a couple of weeks before that), but soon, I promise. I think the idea will make you super-happy.
Oh, and at the end, I’ll unveil the link to the latest JoeBlogs Connections Game!
— Normally, when I go to St. Louis, I find the baseball vibe to be pretty inescapable and fun. Whether the Cardinals are good or bad—and, of course, they’ve been mostly good—it feels like Cardinals talk rules the land.
This time was different. I will say that I was only in town for a couple days, so I could easily have misread the moment—it’s a super-small sample size—but I sensed a different kind of resignation about this Cardinals team. Obviously, they’ve more or less played themselves out of playoff contention—and I was pretty outspoken in my belief that their run of good baseball from mid-May to mid-July felt super-fluky to me—but I got the feeling that the malaise goes beyond this year. I think there’s just a feeling that this Cardinals team is not very interesting and not on the right track and there’s a desperate need for a major reset, something you almost NEVER think about with the Cardinals.
Obviously, I fully expect Cardinals fans to let me know if I’m off-base on this one.
— We just added two WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL tour dates in North Carolina (which was just listed among Kirkus’ most-anticipated books of the fall!).
On Oct. 1, I’ll be in Charlotte, at our beloved Park Road Books. This will be two days after my pal Wright Thompson will be at Park Road, talking about his new book, The Barn, with my pal Tommy Tomlinson. I’ll be at that one for sure.
Then, on Oct. 9, I’ll be doing an event at the wonderful Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, N.C. More details as we get closer.
Let me add: Thank you to all who have requested a tour stop or are talking to their local bookstores about bringing me in. Keep them coming. I’m hoping that we can add some more tour stops.
— Man, those Astros.