Junior Hockey Blog

While the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry seems to get more attention, The Cubs/Cardinals rivalry has a great deal of history and geography behind it. Since the late 1800's these two teams were as far west as National league baseball went. Starting in the 1930's games were broadcast on radio. St. Louis fans could get the games on radio as far away as Arkansas, Tennessee,Mississippi, Texas,Kansas, and Oklahoma. While Chicago Cub fans were listening in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, North Dakota,Minnesota, and South Dakota. The state of Illinois was split in two,with northern Illinois primarily Cub fans and southern Illinois primarily Cards fans. Yes I'm sure there were exceptions to the rule, but for the most part the above rang true. It was like this for over 50 years, until the Dodgers moved to L.A. in the late fifties, and the American league's Braves moved to Wisconsin in 1953 thus forming a natural rivalry with the Chicago White Sox. Now two generations later allegences are still strong as ever in the mid-west having been passed down the family tree. I still believe the Red Sox/Yankees is the best rivalry in baseball, but the Cubs/Cards is not only a close second but definitely has a very interesting history to it.