I'm a life long Cardinal fan. I started watching baseball when I was in 4th grade, I'd ride my bike to Chris McCloud's house and we'd often watch Ozzie, Terry Pendelton, Joe magrain, Todd Worell and the rest of the Cardinals. But they haven't been to the World Series since 87 and I barely remember any of that.

The single greatest trade in the history of my Cardinal fandom was the acquisition of Mark McGwire. He's still my favorite baseball player of all time. His run to 70 was one of the greatest season of all time! His rival Corky Sosa is a cheater. I don't like him and probably never will. Which brings me to my point.

There are 2 teams that I hate in baseball. They are really polar opposites of each other. One known for it's winning and the other for it's endless ability to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. Corky's team the Cubbies for whatever reason just irritate me. Call it the biterness, but if there is one team I want to finish ahead of every year it's the Cubs. The other team I hate is the Yankees. I think it's a law that if you care at all about baseball then you either love or hate the Yankees. There is no in-between.

Last summer I got to go to Yankee stadium to see my beloved Cards play the hated Yankees. And as much as I hate them I found myself cheering with them. In a wired way I loved what they had, the fans were so knowledgeable, they were so into the game it was awesome! Now, granted I will claim special circumstances, because I just happened to have tickets the night Clemens won #300 and K'd #4000. I came away respecting the Yankees and their fans, but still hating them just not as much.

All that was before this weekend. The signing of A-rod infuriates me. Because as I watch my team struggle to keep their emerging Babe Ruth (and Pujols is in that company by the way), while passing on a needed quality 3rd starter (Maddox). The Yankees add a guy they didn't even need! The Yankees payroll is more then double 4/5 of the league. It's just not fair! To add to the misery Arod is one of the "Good Guys", how can he play for the evil empire?? It's like your best friend just eloped with your ex-girlfriend. I mean I can't root for the Yankees!

So here's to hoping the Red Sox win the division and the Wild Card comes from the AL west!

Of course we always root for the Cardinals to win it all.

I'll post more thoughts on their division later, as this is way longer then intended.