There's no better baseball town than St. Louis. Hard core, savvy patrons come en masse from both sides of the Mississippi and deep in the proud Midwestern flatlands to assess, admire and motivate their Cardinals.
New England and its capital, Boston, are zany for the Red Sox. There's no major-league power, from New York to New Guinea, to compare to the Yankees. Passions for the game are ancient and gargantuan in Chicago, Philly, Detroit, Cincinnati and Baltimore.
None surpasses St. Louis love.
With unique perspectives, Cardinal congregations have roared for Frisch, Medwick, Martin and the Deans with the Gas House Gang of the '30s. They adored Musial- Gibson- Slaughter- Schoendienst championship stretches a generation or so later and, in 1998, felt taller than the Gateway Arch upon seeing Mark McGwire hit 70 homers.
Six weeks to go in the season of '04, hope for the Redbirds is as blistering as the August weather, but with historic caution. "I'm loving what's happening but I worry we're peaking too soon," said Billy Combs, a lifetime Gainesville hardware executive who has forever rooted for the Cards. "I think we could match up okay with the Yankees, but there's a lot to accomplish before that is a factor."
Hunger among Cards disciples for a World Series winner can't compare with Cubs and Red Sox famines, but St. Louis, despite nine championships, has not ruled since 1982.
At the heart of today's Busch Stadium hopes is one of history's best slugging/defending triumvirates. Seldom has one team had three to compare to the combined wallop and gifted gloves of Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds.
It's been a Cardinal runaway, with the majors' best record (81-42, with 41-23 at home and 40-19 on the road), 141/2 games superior to the NL Central runnerup Cubs. With a quarter of the season to go, the Albert-Scott-Jim figures are stunning:
Pujols is 24, a Dominican less than four seasons into a career aimed for the Hall of Fame. A hulking first baseman, he hit .329 as a rookie, followed with .314 and vaulted to .359 last season.
Rolen is a 6-foot-4 stud who both hits and plays third with the verve of old Gas Housers. In seven seasons at Philadelphia, he never batted higher than .298, hit more than 31 homers or knocked in more than 110. Rolen, 29, is having a career year.
Edmonds is a bit of a showoff who plays centerfield like a butterfly chaser with a magic net. At 34, his seven Anaheim seasons and five in St. Louis have produced highs of 42 homers, 110 RBIs and a .311 average.
Through the sport's century and a half, many teams have been blessed with imposing 1-2 punches, but seldom do such wall-to-wall dynamics go three deep. Comparing statistics through the ages is somewhat nonsensical, but it is interesting to match the Cardinal troika to the most famous team ever, the 1927 Yankees.
As good as these Cards are, there is no Lou Gehrig or Babe Ruth at work in St. Louis. The Iron Horse batted .373 that season with 47 homers, 175 RBIs and a massive .765 slugging percentage. The Bambino hit .356, wailed 60 homers, batted in 164 and his slugging was even more colossal at .772.
Oh, I did say three.
New York could also offer Tony Lazzeri with a .309 average, 18 homers and 102 RBIs, plus Bob Meusel with .337, 103 RBI, but only eight home runs.
Judge for yourself. What I know for sure is that the Cardinals are having a blast of a summer ... determined that September and October will not become a memorable St. Louis swoon.
SLAMMIN' SAMMY?: Letter from Mike Bruno of Tampa decries, "There would appear to be a small conspiracy against Sammy Sosa at the Times ... At least four days this season, Section C has printed all-time single-season homer leaders, each time excluding Sosa's 63 in 2001 ... Perpetrators must be McGwire, Ruth and Maris fans."
PROBING MY OWN: If there are exclusions, I feel secure in saying none is due to copy editor biases ... chances of such a conspiracy are minuscule ... Times editors know their big boss, the one in the power office down the hall, is an unabashed Cubs fan who has used every summer of his life pulling for the first World Series win on the Northside since 1908 ... who would dare diss Sosa?
