The Cardinals have been perpetually confident and perennially proud, from the ownership to the front office to the coaching staff to the players. And during the past eight years, when these confident folks’ hope was extinguished in late September, or early in the playoffs, they still pointed to a whole bunch of regular-season success (and minor-league development) as fuel for the next year’s confidence.
They believed — and believe — the way they’re doing things is the right way, and that surely, someday, the odds and the baseball gods would put them in their first World Series since 2013.