FANS STILL FIND MAGIC IN ROOTING FOR THE HOME TEAM

I'm talking about St. Louis Cardinal fans. We're a diehard group. There are a lot of us, rooted in a Midwestern philosophy where baseball is a permanent part of the landscape.

With the Cards in the playoffs, Busch Stadium has been rocking and downtown St. Louis has been turned into one giant parking lot.

Thursday night's game against the Mets was no exception. Joni and I were among the 52,000 packed into the stadium.

Only Cardinal fans would view the Mets as "pond scum," a carry-over from the 1980s battles between the St. Louis and New York ball clubs and a sure sign that we care about the environment.

We cheered loudly Thursday night right up to the first pitch from the Cardinal's Rick Ankiel, who did his best to throw the baseball into the next county.

The Wild Thing ended up having to leave the game without getting out of the first inning. But being true Cardinal fans, we found reasons to cheer such as the fact that the team did eventually get through the first inning trailing only 2-0.

In the end, it just wasn't in the Cards. They lost 6-5, sending the team's disappointed fans to the parking lots and post-game gridlock.

It took an hour just to ease our van out of the parking lot. Talk radio was invented for times like these. What else are you going to do in a parking lot full of disgruntled people who just want to get away from the ballpark.

At least, Redbird fans don't turn it into demolition derby like they would in New York.

But the thought of a two-hour drive home seems a daunting task when you're still stuck in a parking lot at midnight and have already heard the sports radio host's best lines.

Still, you tough it out. As Cardinal fans, we know life can be for the Birds. But it's tough to keep flapping our wings forever. Every now and then, we have to come down to earth.

We hope the Cards still have some tricks up their sleeves. Perhaps they should get a few pointers from our oldest daughter, Becca.

At age 8, she has become mesmerized with magic. Becca the Great has a small "magic suitcase" full of important magic tools. It only cost $5, which is magical in itself.

With them, she can make coins disappear, push tiny plastic swords through a box leaving a plastic coin untouched, and do magic with picture cards.

She doesn't need it. Becca loves to perform. For her, the home is always a stage. Joni and I are routinely treated to her feats of magic.

We wish she knew some magic to help the Redbirds, but her "magic suitcase" isn't big enough to make all those wild pitches disappear.

Still, as parents, we applaud Becca's magic tricks. There's something to be said for all that hocus-pocus just as long as it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg.

It's great to have a hobby. So far, she hasn't progressed to pulling rabbits out of a hat or cutting people in half.

Personally, I'm glad of that. I don't want to turn our home into a hutch. Besides, if you're a rabbit, you probably get tired of being constantly crammed into a hat.

As for cutting people in half, it's probably best not to practice on your parents.

Surely, you need a license to do that.

As for the Cardinals, there may be no sparkling magic this year. If so, Cards fans will get over it.

In Cardinal country, there's nothing like rooting for the home team. It's got a magic all its own.