Arch-Rivals! The Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals

The rivalry goes way back to the earliest days of baseball. The teams first played each other in 1885 when the St. Louis Brown Stockings, the champions of the American Association, played the Chicago White Stockings, the champions of the National League. That post-season game between the two league champions was only an exhibition game. It didn't become the World Series until after the turn of the twentieth century. The outcome of that 1885 game is now dubious. Some sources say it ended in a tie and some say it was not recorded. We do know, however, that when the same teams met again in the 1886 post-season exhibition game, St. Louis won.

That long ago, both teams found it hard to get a handle on their names. The White Stockings were variously known as the Orphans and the Colts until in 1902, when a newspaperman noted that the team seemed youthful and exuberant. They played like little bear cubs. So the paper dubbed the team the "Cubs." The team officially adopted the nickname in 1907.

The Brown Stockings' name was often abbreviated to the "Browns." The team stayed with the American Association until its dissolution in 1892, then they joined the National League. With that move, the Cubs and Cardinals began to meet each other for regularly scheduled season play. In the National League, the Browns changed their name to the Perfectos for a season (1900) then settled on the name "Cardinals." Unofficially, the team nickname is shortened to the "Cards" or deconstructed to the "Redbirds."

For both teams, the fan base is long-term, loyal and geographically widespread.
Part of the rivalry was geographic. For a long time, Chicago and St. Louis were the western-most cities with National League teams. So both teams garnered fans that lived far away from their own hometowns. Upper Midwesterners, not just Chicagoans, loved the Chicago Cubs. And baseball fans in the South and Southwest loved the St. Louis Cardinals.

Part of the rivalry was instigated by the competitiveness of two radio stations. Chicago-based WGN broadcast Chicago Cubs games while St. Louis-based KMOX broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games. Both were big, high-powered clear channel stations in the early days of AM radio. Under FCC rules, no other stations could broadcast on their frequency, at least for parts of the day. Consequently, both stations ended up being essentially regional, not local, in reach. When they carried their ball games to big portions of the country, the teams developed fans there. And in fact, their reach overlapped in much of Middle America, causing a Cubs-Cardinals rivalry far outside of Chicago or St. Louis.

The teams were rivals and the fans were rivals. But team owners were businessmen. And a rivalry with one team or another rarely meant that a ball club would refuse a trade with them. In fact, a number of big name ball players have played both for the St. Louis Cardinals and for the Chicago Cubs over the course of their careers.

One of the earliest and most renowned of these players was Rogers Hornsby. A stern and uncompromising individual, Hornsby was one of the best hitters ever to play baseball. He spent the early and most noteworthy years of his career, 1915-1926, with the St. Louis Cardinals. During the 1925 and 1926 seasons, he was both player and manager. He won the National League batting title in the six consecutive years from 1920 through 1925. (He also won the title again in 1928 with the Boston Braves.) On top of that, he won the National League Triple Crown - best in the League in batting average, home runs and runs batted in - in 1922 and 1925. In 1922, he hit over 40 home runs and batted over .400 in the same season, the only player in history to do so. Also in 1922, he hit for 450 total bases, the highest for any National League player in the twentieth century. Hornsby is the only right handed hitter in the twentieth century to hit .400 in three regular seasons, which he did in 1922, 1924 and 1925. (He also hit .400 in 1936 but had only five at-bats that year.) When he hit .424 in 1924, he posted the highest batting average in the twentieth century. In fact, during the five-year period from 1921 through 1925, he batted .402, an extraordinary and unequalled mark. He won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1925, the second year in history that the award was presented. His career batting average of .358 is the highest ever among right-handed hitters, second in history only to the left-handed Ty Cobb.

In 1926, his last year with the Cardinals, he led the team, as manager and player, to the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals beat Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and the rest of the New York Yankees in seven games. When he couldn't come to an agreement with Sam Breadon, the Cardinals' owner, over contract terms, Breadon traded him to the New York Giants. The deal shocked Cardinals fans.

After stints with the Giants and the Boston Braves, Hornsby landed with the Chicago Cubs in 1929. He had an excellent first year with the Cubs. He won his second Most Valuable Player Award. He scored 156 runs, the highest number scored by a right-handed batter in the National League in the twentieth century. He played in his second World Series, which the guys in the Chicago jerseys lost to the Philadelphia Athletics in five games. Well, of course the Cubs lost the 1929 World Series. The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908.

Hornsby sat out most of 1930 with a broken ankle, managing more than playing. Then, in 1931, he had a year which for him was moderate but for most Major League players would have been outstanding. He hit .331, with 90 runs batted in. His on-base percentage that year, .421, was the highest in the National League for the ninth time in his career.

Starting in 1932, Hornsby's career stumbled along until it finally ended. He played infrequently, mostly as a pinch hitter until the Chicago Cubs released him in mid-season. He returned to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1933, who also released him in mid-season, and ended his playing career with the St. Louis Browns.

Hornsby holds team records for both the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals in both hits and runs. His 1922 record of 250 hits is the team record for the Cards; his 1929 record of 229 hits is the team record for the Cubs. The same two years produced a record in runs, too. In 1922, he scored 141 runs for the Cardinals, still a team record. And in 1929, he scored his 156 runs for the Cubs.

Hornsby was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1942.

Over the course of Hornsby's exemplary career, his better years were with the St. Louis Cardinals. He had one great year with the Chicago Cubs, but his best work was with the Redbirds. That kind of represents the performance of the two teams, as well. At least on paper, the Cardinals have the better record. The Cardinals have won ten World Series to the Cubs' two. The most recent St. Louis World Series win was two years ago, in 2006. The most recent Chicago World Series win was . . . well, it was a little longer ago than that. The Cubs last won the World Series a full century ago in 1908. They last played in a World Series in 1945. They hold records for being the team with the longest draught in both cases.

The Cardinals have won more National League pennants and Division Championships, too. They have more Gold Glove winners and more Silver Sluggers.

Even when a Chicago Cubs slugger was pitted directly against a St. Louis Cardinals slugger, the Redbirds won. Mark McGwire finished 1998 with 70 home runs while Sammy Sosa finished the season with 66.

But that doesn't matter. You don't love a man because of his resume. And you don't love a team because it wins. You love a team because it's yours. In the history of the Chicago Cubs, no one has ever needed the Cubs to win in order to love them. Even while they set records for losing, the Cubs have commanded the loyalty of fans in large parts of the country. And in the stats for fan loyalty, they are just like the Cardinals.

Right now, in late July, 2008, the Chicago Cubs are in first place in the National League Central Division. They have held that spot since sometime in May. The St. Louis Cardinals are still in contention, a few games behind the Cubs. The Cubs and the Cardinals are still arch-rivals. When they play this year, the air is still electric. And Cubs fans and Cardinals fans still think that this is their year.