The Long and Short

Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images And just like that, it was over.

Every year, at some point, I pen those words. Well, just about every year; when the Cardinals win another title, I will not describe it in this way. The end of the rainbow does not call for a small, bitter smile. But when the season closes short of the promised land, there is always a moment for sadness at the sudden stop.

The end of the baseball season always sounds like Billie Holiday in my head. Most years, it’s the sudden, too-soon end of a long and occasionally too-long season, Valentine’s Day to nearly Halloween, absorbing some small percentage of your brain for eight months of the year, bringing both comfort and…