A record which (hopefully) will never be broken

[KamaAina]

The Cardinals finished the postseason 11-5. Six games above .500.

They finished the regular season 83-78 -- only five games above .500, in a division where they got lots of free shots at the likes of Pittsburgh and the Cubbies.

Six games above .500 in a 16-game postseason, for a percentage of .688. Five measly games above .500 for the entire regular season, more than ten times as long, for a '73 Mets-like percentage of .516. Ye gods.

This isn't an anti-Cards rant per se; they're one of the real old-line franchises, the fans are great, and it may be, pound for pound, the best pure baseball town on the map. But this year's team? Eurghh. The one that got swept by the Red Sox a couple of years ago was better.

Note: And who's been complaining about the extended playoff format rewarding mediocrity? Most prominently, Bob Costas.

St. Louisan Bob Costas.

Something tells me we won't be hearing much of that for a while...


edit: Twelve teams had better records, 8 (!) in the AL and 4 in the NL, five of which failed even to make the postseason. "We're No. 13! We're No. 13!" :shrug:

[Auggie]

1. Bob Costas AGAIN! Someone shove one cork in his mouth and one up his ass

and maybe he'll explode!

[Counciltucky]

2. They got hot at the right time.

I'm not a Cardinal fan -- I like them enough, but I go for the Yankees -- but they clearly underachieved in the regular season. Such is life. Such is the way the format was designed that they got in. Everyone knows the Cardinals were a better team than their record showed. Just look at their roster. And once it was healthy, we see what happened.

Complain all you want, but such is the system. And the Cardinals were able to take advantage. And good for them for doing it.