Classic rivals reprise last year's classic series By Bernie Miklasz ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 10/09/2005 Sports Columnist Bernie Miklasz [More columns] Let's do it again. It'll be the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Championship Series, just like last year, when the teams stretched the drama and thumping heartbeats of their fans through seven long, compelling games of stress-test baseball. The Cardinals won in 7 for the right to be World Series patsies for the inevitable exorcism of "The Curse of the Bambino" in Boston. Last fall the Cardinals and Astros played their special hardball in relative obscurity, as a baseball nation understandably fixated on the Yankees vs. Red Sox psychodrama.Advertisement The Cardinals and Astros should have a better, more illuminated position on the stage this time, because there will be no repeat of Red Sox-Yankees on the AL side of the bracket. The Cardinals and Astros are the best rivalry that no one talks about, or really knows about. That applies to St. Louis, where fans obsess over the Cubs. The Cardinals and the Cubs have a fun, fantastic rivalry. But it's become more of a social event, a baseball party, a civic-pride contest. The Cubs and Cardinals are mostly about bragging rights and beer. The purists know that from a competitive-baseball standpoint, the Astros are the Cardinals' true rival. Since Tony La Russa became Cardinals manager in 1996, either the Cardinals or the Astros have won the NL Central in nine of the 10 seasons. The Cardinals have captured five division titles outright; the Astros have won three. The teams tied for first place in 2001. And the Cubs lucked out once, in 2003. When the Astros and Cardinals hook up, it's baseball without the posturing. It's baseball without the tabloid-driven rancor. It's just baseball without the forced theatrics that are typical of the Boston vs. New York productions. "As plain and simple as it can be, it's fun," Cardinals pitcher Cal Eldred once said of St. Louis vs. Houston. "It's mentally tough, but it's fun. With these two teams, I really think if you took all the fans away and put us in a back yard, like my kids play - like we used to play - I think you'd have baseball like this." The 2004 NLCS was a classic. Jimmy Edmonds' three-run double in the Cardinals' six-run sixth inning busted up a 4-4 tie and sent the home team onward for a 10-7 victory in Game 1. In Game 2, Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen opened the eighth with consecutive homers to break a 4-4 tie and the Cardinals claimed a 2-0 series lead with a 6-4 win. The series moved to Houston for the next three games. In Game 3, the Cardinals were stopped by Roger Clemens in a 5-2 loss. In Game 4, the Cardinals couldn't make leads of 3-0, 4-1 and 5-3 stand up, and the Astros fought back for a 6-5 win. Cardinals reliever Julian Tavarez broke his left hand in an angry punch to a wall after giving up the winning homer to Carlos Beltran. In Game 5, Woody Williams pitched seven innings of 1-hit, shutout ball, but Jeff Kent won it for the Astros in the ninth by popping Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen for a three-run homer. The 3-0 win gave the Astros a 3-2 lead as the series shifted back to St. Louis for a last stand by the Cardinals. In Game 6, the Astros tied it in the ninth on a two-out RBI single by Jeff Bagwell, but the Cardinals prevailed 6-4 in 12 innings on Edmonds' dramatic two-run jack. With the Cardinals trailing 2-0 in the second inning of Game 7, Edmonds saved two runs with a spectacular catch on a potential gap double hit by Brad Ausmus. With St. Louis down 2-1 in the sixth Roger Cedeno - of all people -got things started with a leadoff single. Pujols doubled in Cedeno, and Rolen followed with a two-run bomb off Clemens. The Cardinals and the town celebrated wildly after their 5-2 win. How competitive was the 2004 NLCS? After six games, each team had scored 29 runs. Each team had an ERA of 4.80. And each team was batting .246. The Cardinals and Astros have changed some since the last NLCS. Andy Pettitte has returned to join Clemens and Roy Oswalt to give the Astros a formidable rotation. But the Cardinals didn't have Chris Carpenter or Mark Mulder in last year's rotation, and so the arms race has intensified. For Houston, Beltran and Kent are gone and Bagwell is in a limited role as he rehabs from shoulder surgery. For St. Louis, Edgar Renteria, Tony Womack, Mike Matheny and Woody Williams have moved on, and Rolen is out after undergoing shoulder surgery. Each team has potential problems. The Astros have struggled to score runs, and the St. Louis bullpen was leaky in the first-round win over San Diego. The Cardinals have baseball's best record. The Astros may have karma working for them after outlasting Atlanta in 18 innings Sunday in an epic game to clinch their first-round series. The Astros advanced to another showdown with the Cardinals. They'll do it again, and hopefully more people will be charmed by baseball's most overlooked rivalry.
I couldn't agree more. I'ts always us or them. Whenever we play the Cards it's not made into a big deal because both teams have so much respect for the other, as they should so there's no trash talking. But when the Cards play the Cubs, you're almost bound to see batters getting plunked and benches clearing. That's what the media wants to see. Those stupid Cubs fans have no respect for anyone. It's time they admit that Prior and Wood will never be healthy together so their best chance at a division title is to move to the NL West. Plus, what's up with all the day games in Chicago? Don't they have jobs?
now that's amazing. this has been a great rivalry for years now.... unfortunately no one knows about. i just thank God i dont have to endure anymore yankees-red sox bullsh!t. GO STROS.
I think that was the main reason this rivalry is overlooked. Last year we had to compete with the yankees and red sox. The national media just assumes that we're all supposed to care about both of those teams. Astros/Cards is a great rivalry. Two great teams with classy players and classy fans. Anyone outside of Houston and St Louis who neglects this series is really losing out. Did everyone see when the Card fans gave Bagwell a standing O in St Louis a few weeks ago when he came to bat for the first time after his surgery? That's class. It makes it hard for me to disrespect Cardinal fans.
The rivalry doesn't even approach NY-Boston in terms of its history---and that is what rivalry is all about. Boston and NYY have the two most storied histories in the game. The White Sox, Giants, Braves, Reds, Cardinals, Cubs, Athletics, and a couple of others have been around as long and have some great stories, but not like these franchises--and has anyone hated one another since 192-whenever-it-was? What have here might be the beginning of a rivalry, but really it's just a great matchup. So, as much as I get tired of seeing so much Yankee/Red Sox coverage, historically speaking it was simply HUGE. The Cardinals have a great history, but not like the Yankees. The Astros have some great moments but aren't yet in their league historically speaking. Give us another 40-50 years, mmmkay? And the next great cog in building the storied history of this franchise should be defeating the Angels in 6!!
I can't believe they still think it was a tie. There was a tie breaker, and we won! Get over it! (Still, they do have some classy fans down there.)
True dat! Just look at the Cardinals 2001 banner, it says co-champs on it. Ours says champs! They had to get permission to put that by Selig, which is horsesh!t because they could have just put wild card champs on it like we did for last years. If I was a Cardinal fan I would be ashamed to have co-champs on my banner while the supposed "co" team doesn't. Just put wild card champs, its not like its shameful or anything.
Oddly, they technically were co-champs. If a team in another division was better than us, there would have been a playoff game to decide the division - MLB doesn't use head-to-head for that normally. Because both teams were in the playoffs, they make one the wildcard team instead simply to save their pitching staff the extra game. So to argue that they were not co-champions, you'd have to say the division is decided by how unrelated teams outside of the division perform. I guarantee you if the situation were reversed, the Astros would put a co-champs banner up too. What is a "wild-card champion" anyway? The best of the 2nd best? I don't get that banner. The Rockets don't have a "5th Seed" banner or "wildcard runner-up" banner. Personally, I think you have to win 1st place for a banner - division, pennant, WS. Or you could have a "2005 Playoffs" banner. But wildcard champions just seems bizarre.
actually our banner from last year says Division Series Champions. it has a little "sub-banner" that says Wild Card Champs. i hear ya, major. but i thought the co-champ thing was pretty weak, too.
