What Happened?

It was not long ago that everything was right in St. Louis. We have seen so many flashes of brilliance and so much promise, yet it all seems to be going away.

Yes the Cardinals are winning, but as any Red Sox fan will tell you it can hurt just as much when you seem to get so close without going all the way. Although it would be wrong to compare the death of Busch Stadium to other more painful tragedies in recent memory (Darryl Kile and Jack Buck), it was supposed to be a farewell party with fireworks and rings and trophies. Instead we said goodbye wondering where the pop went and why Tony Larussa can't win in the playoffs.

Now the wrecking ball seems to be crushing more than steel and concrete of Busch Stadium. The Greatest Show on Turf left town, with the ring leader, Mike Martz, worn down and exiled. I guess it takes a lot out of you to save a dying franchise. When the Rams came to town they were worse than mediocre. At least Martz kept things exciting. Even if the circus was more exciting off the field, at least it was exciting and people were talking about it.

The Blues used to be good. 25 straight years. Sure we never won it all, but we played good hockey. Now no one wants to by a dying franchise that is not only losing money, but now losing games too.

Mizzou was supposed to be on the way up with Quin "Call me Coach" Snyder. Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson were supposed to carry us to the Final Four. Instead the Ricky Clemens drama and Quin Snyder's inability to find and develop a good point guard cost them their chances of making the tournament, and Paulding's chances of being a lottery pick.

And will SLU ever be able to recruit another Larry Hughes, or a Justin Love, or a Marquee Perry, or even another Donnie Dobbs? And who could possibly be interested in those great new conference rivalries with Fordham and La Salle?

At least Larry Hughes is having a good year in Cleveland, but that's only consolation for me. Everyone else in this town seems to hate the NBA. I say fine. Don't watch the most talented athletes in the world. All the more for me.

So here's what we need to do. No one wants to buy the Blues and Savvis center? Well, I do. St. Louis needs to buy back it's hockey team. We should be proud to bleed blue. St. Louis should want to care about their hockey team again. It should not be the league door stop.

No I don't have $100 million, but if we all pitched in, we could find it. There are over 2.5 million people in the St. Louis metropolitan area, and between all of us, I think we can come up with that kind of cash. I'm sure that there are probably enough die hard hockey fans in St. Louis, that we could all buy the team. With a few heavy investments from some rich folk, and enough people to get a start, we could buy the team. If Green Bay can do it, certainly we can. And if we own the team, we'll fill the seats, because we own it.

And what's $100 million to 2.5 million people. Obviously not everyone here is a hockey fan, but if even one fifth of the people here put up $200 each, we would have enough. Let's buy the Blues because once we have the Blues, we can might be able to figure out how to stop singing the blues.