Opening Night Rivalry
Cubs vs Card’s
Rivalries in sports are naturally made by geographic proximity, and the five hour drive from Clark and Addison to the front door of Busch Stadium makes the Chicago/St. Louis sports landscape fascinating.
The Midwest is known to be a more relaxed place compared to the coasts, where major rivalries are drooled over by ESPN and sports publications. This makes Cubs/Cardinals affairs even more thrilling in my opinion. With passionate fan bases in both cities, they ironically show a mutual friendship to each other, despite what their favorite team is doing on the field.
Cardinal fans would usually turn to Bartman, 1908, and curses for friendly teasing, while Chicagoans recently would focus their attention on the lack of an NFL team in St. Louis for a comeback.
For us, thankfully, the Cubs have shed the “choker” label and are finally champions of the highest variety. Thanks to Theo Epstein, the Cubs are loaded with talent in almost every position and are in the enviable state of possibly trading top young talent in the minors for pitching depth.
The Cardinals definitely have their holes at the big league level, but their minor league system is full of young talent to either groom or trade for veterans to add to the big league club. Epstein even noted when he took over that the Cubs must look at what the Cardinals are doing and copy them.
The Cubs of 2016 had a starting eight that was centered around young draft picks made by Chicago or players acquired through impeccable trades (Rizzo, Baez, Russell, Bryant, Schwarber, Contreras, Arrieta, Hendricks, Strop). Only a few players were plucked from the free agent market with big money contracts.
I wish I could assure you that the Cubs and Cardinals would flip their usual spots in the standings — the Cubs at the top for a good decade or more, with the Birds stuck in the cellar and struggling to remain relevant in baseball. Even so, the two teams always seem to be playing each other close in the head-to-head season series.
Chicago only went 10–9 last year against St. Louis, and the Cubs still won the division by mid-September. This says more about the Cubs and Cardinals individual seasons than it does how close the two are in talent level.
While the talking sports heads spend their time on the Yankees/Red Sox or Giants/Dodgers, the two Midwestern National League Clubs have built themselves quite a rivalry over the last century. For the first time in quite a while, both teams are set to be contenders for the long haul.
The Cubs have the money and deep pockets to basically do and spend what they want, when they want to. The Cardinals don’t have that luxury, but they always seem to win the award for Most Shrewd Move of the Season.
Time will tell if this rivalry moves away from the friendly, lazy summer night feeling or if it will heat up to high intensity, bean balls, and brawls. The Red Sox and Yankees have met in the ALCS a few times recently and this has only increased the pure hatred between players and fans alike. I can’t imagine the two cities if that becomes the fate of these two teams. But first, they have a season-opening game to play Sunday night.
Play ball!
Chris Schomaker has a love-hate relationship with the cities of Chicago and St. Louis. He is a a fan of the Cubs in baseball and therefore hates the Cardinals, but loves the Blues in hockey, so by nature, despises the Blackhawks. He finally discovered what a championship is like last November. You can follow him on Twitter @cjschoe.
