The Cardinals are an example that you don't have to be "boom or bust." That gives me hope that the Brewers, under the correct management, can become a franchise that can expect to win regularly. The Cardinals never firesale their MLB team, but they always have a strong farm. They never gut the farm, but they always have a good MLB team. There is a mix somewhere between the "window strategy" and the "continual rebuild strategy" that can lead to prolonged success for a smaller market team. Hopefully the Stearns/Attanasio group can find that successful strategy, and if they do I hope Attanasio signs Stearns to a lifetime contract. I know that wasn't to the topic of "Cardinal pessimism." It's easy to dislike them, but it's hard to be too pessimistic about a team that rarely has a losing season, much less a prolonged stretch of ineptitude like those so prevalent in Milwaukee and Chicago. This is probably what it feels like to be a Bears fan. They hate the Packers because their team can't be like the Packers. The past 20 years or so the NL Central has been generally been pretty bad. Every now and then one of the other 4 (or 5) teams would put together a good year or two but it's really just been the Cardinals who have been consistency competent. Now I'm not saying their success has been because everyone else has been bad but it will be interesting to see how they do the next few years while the Cubs are riding high and the Brewers and Reds become legitimate.