To many baseball fans, the rivalry between the Chicago Cubs and the St Louis Cardinals is second to none. Even the years that the Cubs just could not seem to get it together on the field, playing the Cardinals was like being in the World Series for their fans. The Cardinals have been one of the most consistent teams in baseball since the year 2000 and have brought home two World Series victories in 2006 and in 2011. It would appear; they built a program in St Louis that works year in and year out.
In 2003, the Cubbies made their best run in recent years by making it to National League Championship Series. They succumbed to the Florida Marlins in game seven of that series. Game six was extraordinarily unfortunate for one lonely fan by the name of Steve Bartman, who was in the wrong seat at the wrong time. Bartman reached for a pop out and prevented Moises Alou from catching the second out in the eighth inning of Game Six of the NLCS, with Chicago ahead 3–0 and holding a three-games-to-two lead in the best of seven series. The Cubs never rebounded from the Bartman incident and neither did Mr. Bartman.
That is, until last year. These two clubs had never faced each other in postseason play and one thing was absolutely positive last year, the Cubs wanted the Cardinals, and the Cardinals wanted the Cubs. It seemed like playoff baseball all throughout the month of September due to the intense play of the Cubs, the Cardinals, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs beat the Pirates in a one game, winner take all playoff game to face their longtime nemesis, the Cardinals. You could cut the tension with a knife heading into and during that series.
The Cubs, for the first time in their history, got the better of the Cardinals and beat them three games to one in the National League Divisional Series. There were definitely some heated moments in the series, but after all, would you expect anything less form these two rivals? The celebration at Wrigley Field that the players, the coaches, and most of all, their fans coveted for so long, had finally arrived. They were not only going to play in NLCS for the first time since 2003, they steam rolled their arch rival to get there. They knew going into that series that they had great shot at beating the Cardinals and it looks like they were correct. It was just a young group of ball players out there having a blast.
However, the Cardinals were not about to back down. They knew they had injuries to key players like Yadier Molina (thumb), Matt Holliday (quad), and Randal Grichuk (arm), and Carlos Martinez (arm). But in their eyes, they had been dealing with major injuries to their starters all year. On April 26th, Adam Wainwright went down just three weeks into the season and on May 26th, Matt Adams joined him on the Disabled List. This was also a ball club that had lost a family member and teammate in Oscar Taveras on October 26, 2014. The team had the off-season to mourn the loss of their friend and future star, but a cloud was still hanging over the organization. Players like Martinez, who grew up with Taveras, were still shaken when returning to the field not having him out there. Although having Jason Heyward helped fill the hole of their missing teammate, it still wasn’t Taveras.
Both, the Cardinals and the Cubs, came up short of their ultimate goal of winning the World Series last year. The Cubs went on to play the New York Mets who happened to have a one man wrecking crew in the middle of the lineup named Daniel Murphy. He hit .529, cranked four bombs, and had 22 total bases against the Cubs pitching in a four game sweep of the north siders. One would think that swinging a hot bat like that, they would have just walked him. Joe Maddon out maneuvered Mike Matheny in the NLDS in several situations, but it was the opinion of many Chicago fans the he made the wrong choice in not pitching around Murphy in the NLCS. The club suffered greatly from the loss of Addison Russell in the NLCS from a hamstring injury. The Cubs bats were silenced against the Mets pitching staff, scoring just eight runs in four games. The Mets however, seemed to be right at home teeing off against the Cubs pitching, scoring 21 runs in those four games.
The focus now, again goes to getting back to the post season and winning the World Series. The Cardinals will be looking for bounce back years from Holliday, Adams, and Wainwright. The Cardinals had to sign pitcher Mike Leake after Lance Lynn was lost for the 2016 season after needing Tommy John surgery. The Cubs know they have more work to do to get to the World Series so they made the most noise this off season by signing former Cardinals Heyward and John Lackey. The signing of Ben Zobrist was no big surprise to people who are familiar with Joe Maddon. Zobrist played for Maddon in Tampa Bay from 2006-2014 so the fit just made sense. The Cardinals General Manager, John Mozeliak, remains steadfast in his opinion that the Cardinals will be contending once again this year. “For us, our success has really come from our pipeline, and I think we’re really going to lean on that.”
After all that action, there’s only one thing left to do. Grab your glove, lace up your cleats, and play better than the other team. The equation is quite simple: just go play fundamental baseball and win. The Cubs are vastly improved from where they were at just two short years ago. And as for the Cardinals, well, they will still be the Cardinals. It seems that everyone in the Midwest is rearing to go again already. Its Cardinals vs. Cubs again, so by all means, boys, play ball!
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