The Missouri Tigers Are Number Two (And I Don't Mean Their Seed)

I gave up televised sports 24 years ago for two reasons. One, the football Cardinals moved from St. Louis, and two, and more important, I realized that my children weren’t interested. I would sit for hours in front of the TV and listen to the kids playing and laughing outside, so I quit, cold turkey, and haven’t missed it.

Which explains why I had no idea that the Missouri Tigers got knocked out of the NCAA basketball tournament in the first round this year, despite a No. 2 seed. I grew up a Mizzou fan, and thought it might be fun to catch them in a Sweet 16 game this weekend.

I’d heard they were having a good year, ranked near the top all season, and I saw they won the Big 12 tournament, which is a big deal. There must be a lot of disappointed fans who have probably never gotten used to the disappointment despite many opportunities. I think the Tigers have that reputation, that they can’t win big on the national stage, no matter where they are ranked.

Of course, I also grew up a fan of the football St. Louis Cardinals, too, the NFL team, the Big Red. Talk about disappointment. Except for a year or two in the 1970s, when they were the Cardiac Cardinals, they were consistently bad. I always joked that the only reason I was a fan of the Cardinals was that I enjoyed watching kick-off returns.

It seemed that most of the teams that played against Missouri and the Cardinals made it to the top of their leagues at least once over the years, but never my guys. Of course, the Arizona Cardinals finally made it to a Super Bowl a few years ago, and I did watch part of that game, but I didn’t enjoy it much because I didn’t know any of the players, and it just wasn’t very interesting.

The baseball team in St. Louis has been successful many times over many years, but I don’t watch them anymore, either. Once every other year or so, if I’m home alone, I’ll try to catch part of a game, but it is just so DULL, I can’t do it.

There are just so many better things to do.

What do you think?