MLB

Did Glenn Beck Cause The Cardinals’ Current Losing Streak?

St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols and manager Tony LaRussa may have escaped heavy political criticism for their attendance at Glenn Beck‘s “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, DC last week. But their performance on the field since the rally seems to have taken a hit.

Although we know that correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the Cards are 0-5 since the rally, and the Cincinnati Reds are now running away with the division.  Since the appearance inspired a good deal of media coverage, people are keeping track of this sort of thing.

Albert Pujols, a threat to win the Triple Crown, is hitting .118 with 1 RBI in the five games, and the Cardinals are now just seven games above .500 on the year. Throw in the momentum generated by the Reds’ flame throwing sensation Aroldis Chapman, and the Cards look to be in serious jeopardy of being out of the NL Central race.

Beck is a polarizing figure, as evidenced here. So for folks of the liberal persuasion, the losing streak could be viewed as a karmic payback to the Cardinals. LaRussa won the admiration of the conservative crowd by coming out in support of the controversial Arizona Immigration Law, and conservatives may view the losing streak as some sort of socialist conspiracy. Or maybe God just wants the Reds to be good once every twenty years.

But the cause of the streak is pretty simple: crappy baseball. Larussa puts it best:

“We’ve been stinking up the place,” he said. “We stunk today, and we stunk the whole trip.”

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