Who Are The Cardinals?

With Pope Francis recently passing away, the College of Cardinals is set to meet to select a new pope. While it seems unlikely that Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow will be part of this process (though maybe the Vatican will allow for special guests!), I've been curious about who makes up the College of Cardinals. Being an American sports fan, I have some questions.

Since we’re considering Cardinals, are we allowing the St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Cardinals, or a combination of both to select the new pope? And are we considering current players, former players, and/or the owners and front office staff? For example, Ozzie Smith, Albert Pujols, and Adam Wainwright seem to be good representatives from the St. Louis Cardinals. However, they are all retired. Should Victor Scott II or Lars Nootbaar get more consideration as active members of the team? I love including Lars Nootbaar in any blog post!

From the Arizona side, I’m all for Larry Fitzgerald getting a say in the new pope. Actually, of all of the Cardinals, he would get my vote as pope (if I was a cardinal). Fitzgerald just seems like an amazing person and just gave a great commencement speech at the University of Pittsburgh.

I know what you’re thinking. This is the COLLEGE of Cardinals. I identified professional cardinals. Do the University of Louisville Cardinals have a say? The women’s volleyball team has been excellent. What about the Ball State University Cardinals? Actually, that’s the answer. The next pope should be selected by Ball State’s most famous graduate, David Letterman. Done!

Yes, this is one of the dumbest posts I have written in the 20+ years of Sean’s Ramblings. These are the things I think/write about when I'm waiting in line at the DMV!

Photo of Lars Nootbaar by Steph Chambers/Getty.

Random Ramblings

I cut myself shaving pretty badly this morning causing me to bleed my own blood on and off for nearly an hour. It's times like these when I would love to grow a Brett Keisel beard.

I'm about 75 pages until the end of Stephen King's 11/22/63. I'm not a horror fan, so this is the first Stephen King book that I'm going to finish. Despite being approximately 850 pages, it is an amazing book that I highly recommend. I guess I should probably update the "What I'm Reading" section of this blog.

Pope Francis is apparently a big soccer fan. As the Pope, can he tell Brazil to get him tickets for all of the Argentina games at the 2014 World Cup? My guess is yes and Brazil would also have to say yes, right?

I haven't filled out my NCAA bracket yet, and I really don't know what to do about Pitt. In my heart, I think they can Wichita State and the #1 seed Gonzaga. In my head, they'll probably lose in the first round, and I'll be disappointed.

Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to seeing Kentucky play at Robert Morris in the NIT. I may need to find a bar showing this game and the Penguins-Capitals game side-by-side. Seriously, when was the last time Kentucky played a game at a venue that seats less than 3,500?

I had one of my worst experiences as a soccer referee over the weekend. During a tournament that included teams from well outside the DC area, I worked with two other officials that were very nice but completely overwhelmed and lacked the experience to work these game. I was and am embarrassed by some of the calls they made, but I really couldn't do anything about it. I agreed with all of the comments and criticism by the coaches, but I would never tell them this. Fortunately, the final score was 7-0 so the bad officiating didn't have an impact on the result. I sent an e-mail to the referee assigner with my thoughts though I haven't heard back and I'm not sure that I will. If that's the case, I'm not working for him again.

Next Pope

Being away this weekend, I have not been able to follow the news as much as I would like. I have heard that the Cardinals who are under the age of 80 will select the new Pope in two weeks. My question: does it have to be current Cardinals or do former Cardinals have a say? I think it's a lot of pressure to have only current Cardinals like Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen decide on the new Pope. I hope that former Cardinals who are a little older like Ozzie Smith, Stan Musial and Joaquin Andujar have a say. I wonder if they'll let Mark McGwire have a say especially after the Congressional steroid hearings.