St. Louis Cardinals: Are They the Forgotten Story in the Wild Card Race?

The Wild Card race in both leagues has been historic and involves four stories. There's Tampa Bay's great play to take advantage of the fact that Boston was collapsing. Then there was St. Louis's great play to take advantage of Atlanta's collapsing.

To watch the national media though, you'd be hard pressed to know the Cardinals were in the race until two days ago. 

ESPN has been covering the Boston story almost exclusively, opening every show, be it "SportsCenter," "Around the Horn," "First and 10" or "Pardon the Interruption" talking about the AL story.

The National League story is virtually ignored. It's been discussed three times in two weeks on "Around the Horn," twice on "Pardon the Interruption" and has not once been the lead story on "SportsCenter."

Every day on "SportsCenter" three times as much time has been spent on the AL wild card  in just the opening segment as is given to the NL story in the entire show. The AL story is usually revisited again at some point in the show as well. 

On "First Take" this morning they literally talked about Tom Brady's haircut, the Ray's and Red Sox' story twice, and failed to even mention the National League at all. On that show it's been almost as though they are contractually obligated to ignore the National League wild card race. It has not been referenced one time in the last two weeks.

Meanwhile they spend about half of each show talking about Boston. Seriously, in a two hour show, don't you think they could find time to mention the National League at all?

Yahoo Sports has the Boston story as the first stories featured on their main page. The next two are the Tampa story and the Atlanta story.Finally, the fifth story out of the four teams, they have an article on the Cardinals. 

It's not just my imagination that the national media has been ignoring the NL. It's a fact I've been observing and monitoring. I could go on but I don't want to bore people. 

Lately they've been talking about the Cardinal story "sneaking up" on us. Really? They've been sneaking up? It's not that that you've been ignoring the other half of the baseball world?

These are just a few articles, but probably the most telling response was when Jackie McMullen said on "Around the Horn" a week ago, after the Cardinals had pulled within a game and a half of Atlanta, that she hadn't even been aware that St. Louis was closing. 

Are the Cardinals really the fourth best story though, or are they the best?

Consider the following facts. While the Rays comeback was the largest September comeback, the Cardinals actually had the largest comeback overall. On Sept. 24 the Cardinals were 10.5 games back compared to the Rays, who were only 7.5 games out of the wild card. 

On top of that while the Rays only had one team in front of them for the wild card, the Cardinals were also two games behind the San Francisco Giants. So the Cardinals actually had to overcome two teams, not just one. 

Second, Tampa's comeback was more Boston collapse and less Tampa's great play. Boston was 11-22 for the rest of the season. Atlanta was 11-20. Therefore, while both teams benefited from a historic collapse, St. Louis had more to overcome. Not only did they have a bigger deficit to get past, they had a smaller margin of error. 

Third, Tampa's record for the duration of the season was 21-13. That's a good record but it's not as good as St. Louis who were 23-9 for the rest of the season, tied for the best in the National League. The Cardinals story should be a bigger story if for no other reason, than they just played better baseball. 

Fourth, there's the teams that they had to beat to get there. First, the Cardinals had two series against the Milwaukee Brewers and one four game series against the Phillies. In those 10 games, the Cardinals were a combined 8-2. The Rays actually had to play more playoff teams to get their wild card spot, but only eked out an 8-7 record against Detroit, New York and Texas over that span.

Fifth, there's the incredible story behind St. Louis's season. There, the stories started before the season did, with the Cardinals ace pitcher Adam Wainwright being lost for the year before the season even started.

Then there was the  Albert Pujols story, with it being possibly his final year in St. Louis and the constant distraction that brings. Then he broke his arm and came back historically after just two weeks. There was the constant in and out of Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday. 

On top of all of that though there was the way the Cardinals were constantly looking like they couldn't come back again, only to come back again. They scored the go-ahead run in the final three innings in eight of their last 12 wins, and in four of them they won in their final at bat. 

Now granted, Tampa's final game and Evan Longoria's home run were a bigger story, but the Cardinals story was buried beneath everything else long before that. Does that mean that we have to close our eyes and pretend that Chris Carpenter didn't just pitch one of the best games of his career though?

In a game the Cardinals had to win, he went out and through a complete game, two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts. If Josh Beckett had pitched that game, it would be the lead story. 

Let's keep in mind we aren't talking about some team that has no fanbase either. The Cardinals are the second most storied franchise in baseball. They've been one of the most successful teams over the last decade. They have the best layer in the world on the team. It's not like no one cares about the Cardinals. It's just that no one in the national media cares about the Cardinals. 

Is it any wonder that the 80 plus percent of baseball fans that aren't Boston or New York fans get sick of hearing about Boston and New York? Here's this great story that has been virtually ignored. If history repeats itself, the world might have to wake up though.

The Cardinals have overcome deficits of at least 7.5 games in September twice before. First in 1934 when they won the World Series. The second time was in 1964 when they won the World Series. If they win the World Series again, ESPN will be forced to cover it, but that's probably what is going to need to happen.