Starting today, the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals begin a three-day, four-game series that is absolutely pivotal to the NL Central standings.

Entering the series, the division leading Cards had a 3.5 game lead over the third-place Cubs.  Sandwiched in between the two heated rivals are the Milwaukee Brewers.  

 

Lurking behind the Cubs, both within a game, are the Houston Astros and the Cincinnati Reds.  With a few other good teams scattered through the National League, like the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, winning the division is probably the only way any team from the Central is making the postseason.  

St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa definitely realizes this is a big mid-season series.  He moved the ace of his staff, Chris Carpenter ahead of right handed pitcher Brad Thompson in the rotation.  Carpenter will still be pitching on three days’ rest.

The Cubs recalled pitcher Jeff Stevens from Iowa so manager Lou Pinella can have seven relievers at his disposal.  Stevens enters the series having never pitched in the Majors.

This is the penultimate series of the year between these two teams.  The next and last time these two rivals face one another will be in mid-September.

The Cubs have not fared well against the Cardinals in 2009.  In May, the Cubbies fell to 3-6 on the year after being swept in a three-game series in St. Louis. The Cubs lead the all-time series 1,148-1,079.  

Good news for Cubs fans, after a slow start slugger Derrek Lee is starting to return to his usual MVP-like form.  This month alone he’s hit five homers and driven in 14 runs.  He had six home runs in all of June.

The club returned third baseman Aramis Ramirez to the lineup this week after being out with a shoulder injury.  The Cubs also welcomed back center fielder Reed Johnson and reliever Angel Guzman.

As those players returned to the club, starting pitcher Ryan Dempster was forced to go on the 15-day disabled list—he probably won’t be back until August.  The 2008 rookie of the year, Geovany Soto, went on the 15-day DL on July 10th.  He’ll probably be out for at least a month.

The Cardinals’ new utility man, Mark DeRosa will have his partially torn tendon sheath in his left wrist looked at after the All-Star break.  While there’s no word on when he’ll return, the team is hoping it will before the end of July.

DeRosa being out may actually be bad news for the Cubs.  His roster replacement, Brian Barden, is batting .556 against Cubs this season.

The Cardinals are also getting a player back, starting pitcher Kyle Lohse.  Look for the right hander to start the second game of the doubleheader on Sunday.  A strained forearm flexor in his right arm has kept the hurler out of the rotation since June 4th.

The Cubs and Cardinals rivalry doesn’t receive the same amount of attention (at least from ESPN) as the rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.  While the Evil Empire and the Nation attract national headlines, the Cards-Cubs series is in many ways more significant. 

The best explanation of the difference between the two rivalries can be found in the words of Buzz Bissinger. 

"The Red Sox and Yankees is a tabloid-filled soap opera about money and ego and sound bites. But the Cubs and Cardinals are about... geography and territorial rights." 

The city of Chicago and the city of St. Louis are separated by just 300 miles or 5 hours of driving on I-55.  That’s about 85 miles more than the distance between New York and Boston but for the Midwest 300 miles is practically next store.

With the exception of the Kansas City Royals and the Brewers (two teams no one roots for unless they absolutely have too), and if we can forget about the Chicago White Sox for a moment (sorry South Siders), the Cubs and the Cards are the only two Major League teams located in that neck of the Midwest woods.  

For decades baseball fans residing between the cities of Chicago and St. Louis have been forced to choose one team or other.  Not only that, but since the cities are so close to one another, regardless of where the Cubs and Cardinals meet there’s usually a lot of opposing fans in the stands. 

Of course the Cubs and Cards aren’t the only rivalry in the National League.  The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies are bitter foes.  

Historically one team is usually winning while the other is losing, but in each of the last two years the Mets’ late season swoons have allowed the Phillies to capture the division crown.    

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants are the Major League’s oldest rivalry.  These two clubs, while both still in New York, started playing one another in 1883.  

The Cubs and the Cardinals are the league’s second oldest rivalry.  The teams’ first meeting was all the way back in 1885.  Between the two clubs they have been playing baseball for nearly 250 years,

Through the years fans have seen a lot of great players participate in Cubs-Cards rivalry.

For the Cardinals there’s been Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, Joe Medwick and Albert Pujols.  

For the Cubs there’s been Ernie Banks, Hack Wilson, Ryne Sandberg, Ferguson Jenkins, Frank Chance and Alfonso Soriano.

This series has been punctuated by several historic events including the infamous trade of pitcher Ernie Broglio.  In the middle of the 1964 season, Broglio was traded to the Cubs.  In return, the Cardinals received a rather obscure outfielder, maybe you’ve heard of him, Lou Brock.  It’s widely regarded as the most lopsided traded in MLB history.

Most people don’t know this, but legendary Cubs announcer Harry Caray, whose voice is still synonymous with the city of Chicago, started his career as a broadcaster in St. Louis. 

In 2002, Lee and Pujols battled for the NL MVP.  Both first basemen were worthy of the award but with the Cubs finishing 21 games out of first place and the Cards winning 100, Pujols was named most valuable player.

Also in 2002, the teams showed that the heated rivalry does not extend beyond the diamond.  Cubs catcher Joe Giradri, with his voice cracking, addressed Wrigley Field and asked fans to pray for the family of Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile who died of coronary disease before a scheduled game.

Perhaps the greatest event to ever grace the Cubs-Cardinals series occurred in 1998.  In that year the rivalry saw Cardinals first basemen Mark McGwire and Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa revitalize baseball as they chased Roger Maris’ single season record of 61 home runs.  

McGwire reached the historic milestone first.  He tied and broke the record against Cubs pitching.

No hallowed records will be set this year when the Cubs and Cardinals battle but their highly emotional series may decide who reaches the post season and who doesn’t.