Bullet points, mostly about the Cardinals but also partly about the modern condition

Let us now observe and cope with the season and life to date

Today’s harried sales professional – and in the end, we are all sales professionals – requires digestible quick hitters that can be read on one’s mobile device while navigating rush-hour snarl-ups or feigning attentive conversation. So let us now consume a sequence of bulleted points regarding the squadron and existential phenomena that bind us. 

• As you’re all painfully aware, the Cardinals have lost every series opener of the season thus far. That makes them 0-8 in such games, and that’s the worst such streak for the team since 1988. In what’s been a thoroughly annoying season thus far, this stands out as the flagship single annoyance. 

• Despite the team’s 9-14 starts, Baseball-Reference still projects the Cards for 86 wins and gives them a 59.7% chance of making the playoffs. Coming into the season, however, they were given an 87% chance of making the playoffs. It’s still early, yes, but already the Cardinals have done significant damage to their chances. 

• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu is the best book I’ve read in quite some time, and I make a habit of recommending it often. In some ways, it’s a “pandemic” novel, but it’s also a deeply affecting meditation on grief.