Cubs vs. Cardinals: A brief history of baseball’s midwest rivalry
With the Chicago Cubs traveling to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals this evening, here is a brief history on the rivalry between the two popular ball clubs.
Great rivalries typically spawn from divisional foes seeing a bit too much of each other every year (Red Sox/Yankees), geographical proximity (Cubs/White Sox), or a history of brawls (Dodgers/Giants). The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals just happen to have all three of these criteria covered between them to form their fantastic rivalry.
The Cubs/Cards rivalry has more history behind it than most people give it credit for. The NL Central divisional foes see each other frequently throughout the season, so it’s a no-brainer why they aren’t the best of friends. In recent years, the Cardinals have dominated the Cubs in the division. But it wasn’t always that way. The Cubs and Cardinals have been duking it out before most of the players on each team picked up a baseball. And the hatred for each other has grown ever since.
The loathing of one another began sometime around 1964, when the Cubs and Cardinals made one of the most lop-sided trades in the history of baseball. Much like the Babe Ruth trade that cursed the Boston Red Sox, Lou Brock was sent from the Cubs to the Cardinals in a trade that gave the Cubs Ernie Broglio. Lou Brock would go on to be a hall of famer and lead the Cardinals to two World Series rings (1964 and 1976), while Broglio produced awful numbers and ultimately had to end his career due to injuries. This trade was completely miserable for the Cubs and leaves that much more of a bad taste in the mouth of Cubs fans about the Cardinals organization.
The Cubs and Cardinals both were suffering from World Series droughts before this trade took place. For a long time following the trade, the Cubs were anything but a competitive baseball club and the Cardinals were flourishing. Obviously, this led to some heated temperaments, especially in a day and age where throwing at opposing batters is more or less accepted as a part of the culture. Tempers finally boiled over in a 1974 match up between the two ball clubs. The rivalry was so heated that this bench clearing brawl happened because the Cardinals pitcher was taking too long to throw a pitch to the batter.
That’s right. These two teams hated each other so much that something as childish as a lack of patience caused a fist fight. The whole altercation is below.
Even though the disdain between the two ball clubs was heated throughout the 70s and 80s, the Cubs weren’t really competitive again until the 1990s. In 1992, the Cubs acquired one of the best hitters to step onto the dirt at Wrigley field in Sammy Sosa. It seemed that Chicago would finally be able to overcome years of being beat up by their rival. In response, the Cardinals signed a veteran slugger in Mark McGuire, setting up what was the most epic home run chase in the history of the MLB just six years later.
As the 1998 season got underway, it was clear that the 37 year old single season home run record set by Roger Maris might finally be in the cross hairs of a major league slugger. As the season continued it was clear that the record would be broken, but the only question was: by who? Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire entered into the most entertaining spectacle of home run hitting in the history of baseball. McGuire would go on to edge out Sosa with 70 home runs (Sosa ended with 66) but the Cubs beat out the Cardinals for the Wildcard spot in the National League. Although the Cubs would go on to lose to the Braves in the playoffs, it set a precedent in Chicago, that losing to the Cardinals is unacceptable year in and year out.
While the Cardinals have made the playoffs instead of the Cubs every year since then (2003, 2007, and 2008 are the exceptions) the rivalry still holds strong today. People don’t realize that the battle of these two teams is one of the best rivalries in baseball. Even if the competition isn’t always as fierce because of the Cubs lacking talent, the games are always entertaining. The rivalry does lack the classlessness that the Red Sox/Yankees possess, but it does hold a mutual dislike in a professional way. This is the type of rivalry that makes baseball great. And with the Cubs and Cardinals both sitting atop the standings this year, the first series between the two ball clubs to be held at St. Louis this week will be sure to be everything the fans of each team could ask for.
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