Chicago Cubs: Taking the rivalry across the Atlantic

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

The Chicago Cubs take on their longtime rival the St. Louis Cardinals in this year’s version of the London Series

On June 13-14, the London Stadium will transfer into the biggest ballpark in England once again.  Last year as we saw the great rivalry of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, play a series in London. Now we see our Chicago Cubs play their arch-rivals the St. Louis Cardinals play in a regular-season series in what is considered one of the most bitter rivalries in the MLB.

The rivalry dates back to April 12, 1892, when the two teams meet at Sportsman Park in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cubs lead the competition with a record of 1,237–1,180–19. Although the two teams met only once in the playoffs and that was during the 2015 National League Divisional Series, the Cubs won the series 3-1.

Although the Cardinals have eight more World Series than the Cubs, the rivalry has a different aspect of a baseball game as you don’t know what could happen in each game played. We could see a blowout to a walk-off home run; we just don’t know what can happen in the nine innings of play.

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We have seen many events that helped develop this rivalry to what it has become today. One of those events was the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa homerun chase back in 1998. The great home run chase of ’98 was the story of two powerful hitters for two separate teams.

Mark McGwire was a longtime Cardinal, and in the 1998 season, he broke the record for most home runs in a season against the Cubs. But during the season, he was in a tight race with the powerful hitter of Cubs’ Sammy Sosa. At the end of the season, McGwire finished with 70, while Sosa was a close second as he finished with 66.

Also, during this rivalry, we have seen some players jump sides and join either the Cubs or the Cardinals. Back in 2010, the former Cubs’ shortstop Ryan Theriot joined the redbirds in St.Louis.

Most recently, we have seen the rivalry heat up as the Cubs picked up John Lackey and Jason Heyward in 2015. The Cardinals did get a fan favorite Dexter Fowler following the Cubs’ World Series win in 2016. Seeing Fowler go to the dark side was heartbreaking for Cubs fans all around the world.

Here is a breakdown of the previous 2,443 meetings between the Cubs and Cardinals. Like mentioned up above, the Cubs lead the Cardinals with a record of 1,237–1,180–19. The Cardinals demolish the Cubs when it comes to the playoffs as they have won 11 World Series titles, 23 league pennants, 13 divisional championships. The Cubs don’t have a lot of Championships, but probably the most famous one was back in their 2016 season as they ended the long-waited 108-year drought.

Throughout the years, we have seen 12 members of both the Cubs and Cardinals become Hall of Famers. Like those players from both past and present teams of the Cubs and Cardinals, they all had an impact on the great rivalry we see today.

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I can’t wait to see what happens next in the historic rivalry when the Cubs and Cards meet for the first time in 2020 on April 10 when the Cardinals travel to Chicago to take on the Cubs at Wrigley Field.