Hacksaw wrote:
Snow, this wasn't about LA winning or StL fans hurting,, just BM and JT (mostly BM). Yeah they're the top dawgs but quite frankly a few articles I've read over the years (while my team played there) have turned me off on BM. Especially the 'Get over it LA' article some 20 years ago. Unforgivable.
Still, I remember the sadness and frustration and that is an awful dark feeling. Certainly nothing to be happy about from anyone's perspective.
I just went back and read it and I have to say that I COMPLETELY understand now:
STOP WHINING, LA; WE DESERVE ANOTHER CHANCESt. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) (Published as St. Louis Post-Dispatch) - January 18, 1995
Author/Byline: By Bernie MiklaszThe Rams are vanished, headed to the Midwest, and in Southern California they are in the early throes of a hot-blooded tantrum. Some rather vitriolic analysis is coming over the transom as angry journalists and bitter team boosters accuse the Rams of treason and other high crimes.
Georgia Frontiere is being cast as some sort of football version of Ma Barker - a sinister character who hijacked a Brinks truck and singlehandedly caused Orange County to go bankrupt. The woman with a team and no conscience.
I gather that they will not be throwing Georgia a farewell soiree in LA. In Orange County, she is is about as popular as a liberal Democrat pushing a tax increase.
And you know what? I don't care what these people say.
I don't care what Georgia Frontiere did, or did not do, in Orange County - though the record shows that she has owned this franchise for 16 seasons, and it has made the playoffs in eight of those years.
The first day of the rest Frontiere's life began on a glorious Tuesday afternoon in downtown St. Louis, in a jammed, jubilant convention center room that's a long Jerome Bettis touchdown gallop from the rising stadium.
Sorry, this is our party, we deserved it, and sore losers are not invited. We lost a football team seven years ago, and no one felt sorry for St. Louis. As we had our little revival meeting Tuesday, we easily could disregard the caterwauling from the land of milk, honey and dangerous, high-risk investment strategies made by irresponsible government officials.
Orange County defaulted on its team. Get over it. We hear that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland is lovely this time of the year.
As for the Rams and Frontiere, I care only about what happens from this day forward. The Los Angeles Rams are dead. The St. Louis Rams are alive.
This city has been assailed for its alleged indifference for football. Frontiere has been condemned for her alleged indifference for the Rams.
Today, we both start over.
We will judge Frontiere and on how she handles this franchise, this city, and our trust, when the Rams kick off in 1995.
And in her St. Louis homecoming, Frontiere scored. The University City-born Frontiere was a smash. She was funny and poignant, charming and sentimental. She dazzled and conquered a room of awestruck dignitaries.
That's saying something, because everyone came up big. The politicians - former U.S. Sen. Tom Eagleton, Congressman Dick Gephardt, St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. and County Executive Buzz Westfall - found the right words in their rally speeches.
"The effort to bring the Rams to St. Louis has really been something more than sports and more than economics," Gephardt said. "This effort proves that the people of St. Louis, together, can set a goal and work together to achieve it."
Frontiere clearly was moved by the reception that awaited her in St. Louis. Her eyes, shining in the spotlights, were twinkling with tears. When Frontiere was introduced, the crowd applauded for a full minute. The spirit of this reunion was genuine and powerful.
"I just felt like this is where I have to be - this is home," she said. "To be greeted like that almost took my breath away. It was hard to keep from crying. I mean, the spirit of St. Louis has kind of gotten into me."
St. Louis and Georgia Frontiere are teammates, and our scars still show from previous defeats.
Frontiere is tired of losing. St. Louis is tired of losing. It is time to change all that. It is time to change all that starting now, on this new day.
"There are so many things in our lives that are depressing and bring us down," Frontiere said. "It's so wonderful to have a team to root for and feel good about - like the fans have won something, too, and not just the team. I know I've lived a lot of years of winning and losing. And winning is much better. It's very depressing to lose, and I don't like to be depressed. And I don't want to make anybody else depressed."
For now, it's our party, and we'll laugh if we want to. If we end up crying, just like the doomsayers in LA insist we will, we'll accept the consequences. For now, we hope for the best.