One of baseball's oldest rivalries finds itself elevated to a new level as the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals square off for the first time in the playoffs.
It seems unfathomable for that to be the case, seeing as how the two teams have faced each other more than 2,300 times during the regular season (the Cubs lead the all-time series by 50 games, 1,197-1,147, including four wins in their last six meetings this season). But facts are facts, and the fact is that nobody has any clue how this one is going to turn out.
On one hand you have the veteran-led, playoff-savvy Cardinals making their fifth-consecutive postseason appearance; on the other a young hand, an up-and-coming Cubs squad is playing meaningful October baseball for the first time since 2008—when a chunk of the roster was still in diapers high school.