Like everyone else, Mike Matheny is sick of “The Cardinal Way”

Mar 17, 2014; Fort Myers, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny (22) watches his team take batting practice before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Cardinals at JetBlue Park. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The Cardinal Way. It’s how the Cardinals do baseball. The right way. Every day.

It’s how the Cardinals win. With poise. With class. With unwavering soundness of baseball fundamentals.

It’s how their fans comport themselves. With dignity. With intelligence. With appreciation for the subtle nuances of the game.

The Cardinal Way. It’s been repeated so many times, it’s become a cliche.

A sickening, annoying, lazy, ridiculous cliche.

Unless you’re a Cardinals fan who slurps Cardinals kool aid on a daily basis, you are sick to death of “The Cardinal Way.”

You’re sick of hearing about it. You’re sick of the media leaning on it like a crutch. You’re sick of Cardinals fans waving it in your face like a flag.

You’re just like Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.

“I don’t even want to use the term ‘Cardinal Way’ anymore,” Matheny candidly revealed to Bernie Miklasz and the rest of the St. Louis media inner circle during a chat in the manager’s office.

It’s more than just Matheny himself being tired of the worn-out trite idiotic term.

Matheny thinks all the talk about “The Cardinal Way” creates resentment in other teams and makes them more eager to beat up on the Cardinals.

“It’s a compliment to us that there’s a lot of teams that are gunning for us,” Matheny said. “And some of it’s accidentally self imposed with some of this Cardinal Way stuff, and this ‘holier than thou’ [reputation] which is not what [we are]. I think you’ve heard a whole lot less of that coming from inside of here because this is a topic that we’ve thought about a lot lately.”

The Cardinal Way. It’s not a real thing according to Mike Matheny.

It’s an outside fan-and-media-created thing that helps put unnecessary pressure on the team.

By Matheny’s own logic, perpetuating the Cardinal Way is actually harmful to the Cardinals.

So maybe Cardinals fans should start doing it The Matheny Way. Which means turning their backs on their up-their-own-butts Cardinal Way baloney.

Yeah, Cardinals fans seeing reason.

That’ll be the day.

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