When your first baseball memory is watching the 1920s Cardinals as you stare out your window at an orphanage — which is your home because your parents were gunned down in an armed robbery — the binding ties are not easily undone.
Just ask the Howensteins. Paul Howenstein lives in Running Spring, Calif.; his wife and son live in Whitehall, Wisc. But all of them root for the Cardinals.
Ask Paul Howenstein why and he'll take a breath and tell a tale of bittersweet allegiance.
He said his grandparents owned a five-and-dime in St.