JUPITER, Fla. _ The Cardinals, yes, were the franchise of Chris Correa, the rogue team executive who hacked into the Houston Astros' computer system. That happened.
But in the past four months, the Astros:
_ Have had an executive fired for taunting female reporters about the success of a pitcher who had a domestic violence arrest.
_ Were exposed as sign-stealers in the championship season of 2017, and in 2018, too.
_ Had a manager and general manager who consequently were suspended and fired.
_ Had players who poorly handled the cheating accusations publicly.
Then, on Monday, an Astros pitcher was suspended 162 games by baseball for his second positive test for performance-enhancing drugs.
The more news that comes out about the shamed franchise from Houston makes you appreciate the Cardinals that much more. No, integrity can't make a curveball sharper. And many bad teams can have integrity. But integrity is an integral characteristic of the Cardinals organization, which became a division-winning organization again last season.
And while the disgraced Astros, based 13 miles away this spring in West Palm Beach, loom over baseball, the Cardinals opened their full-squad camp Monday with grace. Legend Ozzie Smith and chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. spoke to the whole team. So did manager Mike Shildt, who spoke of history.
"Respect the history of the organization _ we're all part of something bigger than us," the reigning National League manager of the year said. "Appreciate the past, grow from it. Let's do this together, and let's do it the right way on and off the field ... . Play the game the right way. Fundamentally clean and sound. Be prepared. Compete. Give nothing away and take everything."
Sometimes, the Cardinals are chided for being so tradition-oriented, but having a foundation for doing baseball right is a pretty important thing these days. And as the daily grind churns, sometimes you don't fully appreciate integrity until you see an example of it spectacularly lacking.
"I feel like what's happened recently has been a healthy purge," Shildt said of the revelations of the Astros' cheating, the biggest news of baseball this winter and spring. "The sign-stealing stuff has been talked about and alluded to for several years ... . There's been a huge step forward in cleaning it up that I hope people can appreciate. Now, let's get back to playing baseball ... .
"There is still integrity in this game, it's still a great game, there's still a lot of high character in this game, there are still people who represent a lot of what's right about this game. We do our best to do that. We're far from perfect _ we're going to stub our toes, we're humans. But this is a great game, this is a great industry, and there are a lot of wonderful people. But there's also a shared responsibility for us to continue to maintain the integrity of the game, but also appreciate and move forward and celebrate the good things that are taking place. There are a lot of exciting young players, we have exciting players, we have a great fan base and we have a wonderful game. It's just about continuing to remember what's positive."
There are splashes of the Cardinals' organizational integrity onto the field itself. For instance, stars of the organization epitomize work ethic, notably Jack Flaherty, the ace. And on Monday during practice, there was the Cardinals' current No. 1 hugging No. 1, Ozzie Smith. Respect permeates here. Paul Goldschmidt captured it all nicely when asked about the Cardinals' dedication to defensive greatness.
There's this sense that the Cards will be good at defense in 2020 because they were good at defense in 2019.
But, the first baseman explained, "We know you've got to start over. That's what you see _ guys not resting on last year, knowing there was a lot of hard work put in last year, we have to put it in every single day, every single year. That's where the focus has been. It hasn't been like, 'Oh, well we did well last year, so it's just going to happen again.' We have to start from square one and do it again. For defense, it's a priority ... . Defense can win games. It just can kind of get overlooked. We don't want that to happen."
Goldschmidt, who was a Houston teen in the stands for the Albert Pujols' 2005 homer off Brad Lidge, was honest about his offensive inconsistencies in his first season at Pujols' famed position. Goldschmidt knows that an .821 OPS is good for many people, but that's underachieving for him. It was surprising and a little unfortunate Monday that Goldschmidt didn't share his thoughts about the Astros cheating scandal. Many big sluggers in the game have been vocal about it to and through the media, but Goldschmidt wasn't.
Come to think of it, maybe he was showing some integrity for not trashing his hometown team. Or _ he just didn't want his thoughts in the papers.
Camp continues here Tuesday, until the first spring game on Saturday. The Cardinals play the Astros for the first time the following Wednesday. Then, in March, five more times.
Two franchises forever linked by the hacking scandal now are in very different places, while just 13 miles apart. But both were playoff teams last season _ and could be again.
Last season, the Cardinals played to restore their proud franchise as a winning one. This season, the Astros will play to simply try to restore their once-proud franchise.
