We all know what today could be. This might be the last day we have baseball of any sort but particularly Cardinal baseball. The Cards are relying on a rookie in Michael Wacha to keep them alive and force a winner-take-all game, the kind they spent all summer trying to avoid to start the playoffs. There’s no doubt the situation could appear grim to both players and fans.
So there were two different options yesterday when St. Louis’s team plane was significantly delayed, keeping them in the plane and on the tarmac. There was the negative way, where you wondered what else could go wrong and take that as an omen for what is to come. Not surprisingly, the Cardinals–and the fans–went in another direction.
Yesterday afternoon, I saw the reports that the Cardinals were getting delayed taking off and then I saw this tweet from a former UCB blogger:
Shelby Miller tried to stow away in the landing gear.
— Malcolm P (@RedbirdMenace) October 29, 2013
Suitably inspired, I tossed off one myself and added a hashtag to it.
Plane has too much weight but Matheny won’t let them leave Mujica behind. #cardsplaneproblems — Cardinal70 (@C70) October 29, 2013
After a couple more, Jenifer Langosch picked up on one.
These are getting funny. MT @C70 Shelby Miller knows how to fix plane, but Matheny is keeping him for a bigger moment. #cardsplaneproblems — Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) October 29, 2013
When you get Matthew Leach involved, you know it’s going to be a good day.
Holliday fixed everything that was wrong with the plane, but it was too early in the day. #cardsplaneproblems #amidoingthisright
— Matthew Leach (@MatthewHLeach) October 29, 2013
Of course, this cried out for people with Photoshop skills.
Ugh, friggin’ Middlebrooks. #cardsplaneproblems — pic.twitter.com/irCg47C4TG
— Matt Sebek (@MattSebek) October 29, 2013
Soon people were going crazy with it, crazy like Ozzie Smith had just hit a postseason home run.
Matheny shooing away the plane mechanics because he has faith in the plane getting out of it #cardsplaneproblems
— Aaron Munoz (@Munz0) October 29, 2013
You know it’s getting big when the players and former players get involved.
.@Joe_Kelly_Jr is having a stand-off with the plane. #cardsplaneproblems — Cardinal70 (@C70) October 29, 2013
@C70 planes is winning — Joseph Kelly Jr. (@Joe_Kelly_Jr) October 29, 2013
On the bright side really getting to know some of my teammates children #bonding #cardsplaneproblems — Matt Carpenter (@MattCarp13) October 29, 2013
Cards are adamant that they won’t overpay for spare replacement parts. Will trust their in-house supply chain #cardsplaneproblems — Randy Flores (@RandyFlores34) October 29, 2013
Eventually, it got really big.
@C70 the 1st mention of the #cardsplaneproblems hashtag appears on your TL. Now is Trending Topic in United States! #trndnl — Trendinalia USA (@trendinaliaUS) October 29, 2013
And still, the Tweets rolled out. I’d highly recommend reading the entire hashtag, but here are some of my favorites.
Cards could’ve hopped on a different plane, but Matheny wanted to show loyalty to the one they used all year. #cardsplaneproblems — Art Lippo (@ArtLippo) October 29, 2013
Pilot has done a lot of video prep for flying but has never actually seen the controls. #cardsplaneproblems — Cardinal70 (@C70) October 29, 2013
Jon Jay provided another bad route to a destination, so they missed their flight window. #cardsplaneproblems
— Sean C. (@2xAught7) October 29, 2013
The plane is stalling so Matheny can get Maness up in the bullpen. #cardsplaneproblems
— BaseballUnrated (@BaseballUnrated) October 29, 2013
Oquendo just kept waving the plane on and it ran out of gas. #cardsplaneproblems — Sean C. (@2xAught7) October 29, 2013
Shadows. #cardsplaneproblems — Matthew Leach (@MatthewHLeach) October 29, 2013
Mike Matheny wants to to fix the plane by letting it taxi on the runway until it feels more confident about itself. #cardsplaneproblems — Marilyn Green (@Marilyncolor) October 29, 2013
Joe Kelly started dancing, and one of the pilots reported a “shimmying” issue. #cardsplaneproblems — Dennis Lawson (@gr33nazn) October 29, 2013
The plane tried to run on Yadier Molina. #cardsplaneproblems. — Marilyn Green (@Marilyncolor) October 29, 2013
Wainwright and Molina keep insisting that the other gets on the plane first #cardsplaneproblems #badatdecisonmaking — Tyler Landahl (@TylerLandahl) October 29, 2013
The team is actually waiting on 2 separate planes to arrive, because Matheny called for a double switch. #cardsplaneproblems — Dennis Lawson (@gr33nazn) October 29, 2013
#cardsplaneproblems Mujica was the last man on the plane and couldn’t close the door. — Matt King (@MattKing_Sports) October 29, 2013
It stalled with runners in scoring position and less than two outs. #cardsplaneproblems
— Chris Reed (@birdbrained) October 29, 2013
Don’t worry guys, it’ll be fine. Jaime Garcia just called and assured me it’s a simple mechanical issue. #cardsplaneproblems
— MPH (@DadExperiment) October 29, 2013
#cardsplaneproblems Air Traffic Controllers unable to clear flight because they’re using same computer as Obamacare website. — THE Fake Ned (@TheFakeNed) October 29, 2013
Turns out the airplane engine doesn’t have “The Best Fans in Aviation” #cardsplaneproblems — Aaron Munoz (@Munz0) October 29, 2013
Pete Kozma was asked to sit down on the plane, but that would require him to make contact with something #cardsplaneproblems #StillGrounded — TMART (@KingKurmudgeon) October 29, 2013
Matheny decided to try out a new defensive shift. The right side of the plane is now too heavy. #cardsplaneproblems — Tara Wellman (@tarawellman) October 29, 2013
There was even some history involved.
Billy Beane traded it to us for prospects #cardsplaneproblems — MPH (@DadExperiment) October 29, 2013
Pujols’ home run off Lidge just today made contact with an incoming 757. #cardsplaneproblems — Bradley B (@BBernsen) October 29, 2013
Oquendo making bid to sit in every seat on plane #cardsplaneproblems
— Ryan G. Reynolds (@RyanReynolds) October 29, 2013
It was frozen by Adam Wainwright’s curveball #SorryCarlos #cardsplaneproblems
— Chris Reed (@birdbrained) October 29, 2013
Tony LaRussa called for a “plane”, and they thought he said “train” #cardsplaneproblems — Joe Roderick (@joeroderick) October 29, 2013
Jeffrey Leonard is the pilot of the Cardinals charter and one of his flaps is still down. #cardsplaneproblems — Bob Netherton (@CardinalTales) October 29, 2013
Seriously, read the hashtag. I could go on and on posting them, because it really brought out the best in Cardinal Nation. It was good that the players were loose and relaxed during this mishap and hopefully that will carry over into the game tonight. You think we need one more? All right, we’ll get one more.
During the regular season, it was the Cubs official plane. So it doesn’t work in October. #cardsplaneproblems
— Cardinal70 (@C70) October 29, 2013
Let’s keep the fun going tonight, Redbirds! I’m not ready to write the season finale post just yet!
