2) Astros -- For a while it was either the Astros or the Cardinals who won the Central. I love the way their park looks...bu I hate the intricacies of it. That stupid hill in CF, and the stupid Crawford boxes that a tee ball team could reach. Dumb...that ruins the park.
And this has always pissed me off... When the Cards and Astros tied for first in 2001, officially it was a tie and went down in the record book as a shared division championship (the first one in MLB history). The Cardinals got the wild card for playoff seedings because of the head to head record. The Cardinals didn't hang banners claiming the Central Division Championship due to the tie...but the Astros hung banners claiming "Central Division Champions", when technically that wasn't true, it was a shared title. I know the Cardinals didn't like that too much. That has always annoyed me.
There was no "one game playoff" to determine the winner because both teams were in the playoffs...so it was a tie...technically.
Here is what the Cardinals official site says:
Here is what the Astros official site says:The Cardinals finished 93-69 and co-owners of the first shared championship in major-league history
They STILL make no mention of a shared division title. Idiots.The 2001 season went right down to the wire as the Astros clinched their fourth division title in five years with a 9-2 win over the Cardinals on October 7 in St. Louis...after toiling around the .500 mark with a 33-33 record on June 17, went on to finish the year at a 59-36 (.621) clip to edge the Cardinals for the division title
3) Mets -- Ugh. They're still pond scum. That rivalry back in the 80's between the Mets and Cards was awesome. And it was SWEEEET to beat them the way we did in 2006 to go the World Series.
4) Braves -- I still hate them from the days of Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, etc...and how they constantly got strikes called that were off the plate just because of who they were. They'd bitch and moan if a ball wasn't called a strike, and eventually they were called strikes.
5) Red Sox -- I really didn't have a good #5. I just tossed them in the #5 slot because we lost the WS to them in 2004, and also because their fans would claim the Yankees are the "evil empire" and are "buying championships"...when the Red Sox do the EXACT same thing.