The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs are ensnared in a rivalry that is notably long and occasionally bitter.
That’s what happens when two teams have played in the same league since 1892 and are located in the same part of the country (just 300 miles apart).
But the indisputable logic of alphabetical order is forcing these fierce competitors to share the spotlight today.
I’m devoting each Friday to an examination of the extreme seasons for a pair of franchises, their best and worst years during the Modern Era (1961 through 2022). The Braves and Brewers were last week’s duo, which brings us to the next two nicknames on the list. Yes, the Cardinals and the Cubs.
I calculated the team scores for every St. Louis and Chicago club in the 62-year period, and then I ranked them from best to worst. The formula for TS generates an equalized score on a 100-point scale, allowing direct comparisons of teams from different years. (Click here to learn more about the calculations.)
The following were the extreme seasons for each club.
Best year for the Cardinals: St. Louis has won five world championships in the Modern Era. The strongest of those titlists was the 1967 Cards, winners of the National League by 10.5 games over runner-up San Francisco. The World Series was tougher, with St. Louis needing seven games to subdue the Boston Red Sox. First baseman Orlando Cepeda drove in 111 runs and won the NL’s Most Valuable Player Award. Center fielder Curt Flood hit for a .335 average. Pitcher Bob Gibson won 13 games in the regular season and three more in the World Series.
Worst year for the Cardinals: The 1990s were a miserable decade for the Cards, who suffered five sub-.500 seasons and made the playoffs only once. They touched bottom in 1995, finishing 22.5 games behind first-place Cincinnati in the NL Central. Right fielder Brian Jordan batted a solid .296 and stole 24 bases. Closer Tom Henke somehow accumulated 36 saves for a team that won only 62 games.
Best year for the Cubs: Any baseball fan knows the answer in this category. The Cubs enjoyed their greatest season in 2016, when they won their first world title in 108 years. It was a close call, of course. Victory didn’t come until the 10th inning of Game Seven of the World Series against the Cleveland Indians. Third baseman Kris Bryant was named the NL’s MVP after hitting 39 homers and driving home 102 runs. First baseman Anthony Rizzo added 109 RBIs. Pitchers Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta respectively went 19-5 and 18-8.
Worst year for the Cubs: The 1981 season was miserable for everybody, thanks to the midyear lull of two months because of a labor dispute. But it was an especially bad year for the Cubs, who finished with the worst record in the National League, 27 games below .500. Mike Krukow was the only pitcher in the rotation to break even, running up a record of 9-9. First baseman Bill Buckner batted .311.
If you scroll down, you’ll see the top and bottom 10 lists for both teams between 1961 and 2022. Similar rankings for all 30 big-league clubs can be found in the print edition of Baseball’s Best (and Worst) 2023 Yearbook.
Each team is listed below with the year in brackets, followed by its regular-season win-loss record, postseason results (if any) in parentheses, margin between runs scored and allowed per game, and Modern Era percentile.
Postseason outcomes are abbreviated this way: P for an appearance in the playoffs, L for a league championship, and W for a World Series title.
The Modern Era percentile is the share of all 1,656 clubs in the 1961-2022 period that the given team outperformed, based on relative TS results.
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Top 10 for Cardinals (1961-2022)
1. Cardinals [1967], 101-60 (WLP), plus-0.86 margin, 98.6% in era
2. Cardinals [1968], 97-65 (LP), plus-0.69 margin, 98.2% in era
3. Cardinals [2004], 105-57 (LP), plus-1.21 margin, 97.5% in era
4. Cardinals [1985], 101-61 (LP), plus-1.08 margin, 97.3% in era
5. Cardinals [2013], 97-65 (LP), plus-1.15 margin, 96.8% in era
6. Cardinals [2005], 100-62 (P), plus-1.06 margin, 95.6% in era
7. Cardinals [2011], 90-72 (WLP), plus-0.43 margin, 95.0% in era
8. Cardinals [1982], 92-70 (WLP), plus-0.47 margin, 94.7% in era
9. Cardinals [1987], 95-67 (LP), plus-0.65 margin, 93.7% in era
10. Cardinals [1964], 93-69 (WLP), plus-0.39 margin, 92.9% in era
Bottom 10 for Cardinals (1961-2022)
1. Cardinals [1995], 62-81, minus-0.66 margin, 10.3% in era
2. Cardinals [1978], 69-93, minus-0.35 margin, 18.1% in era
3. Cardinals [1990], 70-92, minus-0.61 margin, 21.5% in era
4. Cardinals [1994], 53-61, minus-0.75 margin, 25.1% in era
5. Cardinals [2007], 78-84, minus-0.64 margin, 26.9% in era
6. Cardinals [1988], 76-86, minus-0.34 margin, 34.7% in era
7. Cardinals [1976], 72-90, minus-0.26 margin, 35.2% in era
8. Cardinals [1997], 73-89, minus-0.12 margin, 36.8% in era
9. Cardinals [1999], 75-86, minus-0.18 margin, 37.5% in era
10. Cardinals [1970], 76-86, minus-0.02 margin, 41.0% in era
Top 10 for Cubs (1961-2022)
1. Cubs [2016], 103-58 (WLP), plus-1.56 margin, 99.8% in era
2. Cubs [2008], 97-64 (P), plus-1.14 margin, 93.2% in era
3. Cubs [1984], 96-65 (P), plus-0.65 margin, 90.8% in era
4. Cubs [2015], 97-65 (P), plus-0.50 margin, 86.0% in era
5. Cubs [1989], 93-69 (P), plus-0.49 margin, 84.7% in era
6. Cubs [2018], 95-68 (P), plus-0.71 margin, 81.3% in era
7. Cubs [2017], 92-70 (P), plus-0.78 margin, 81.0% in era
8. Cubs [1970], 84-78, plus-0.78 margin, 76.9% in era
9. Cubs [2004], 89-73, plus-0.77 margin, 76.6% in era
10. Cubs [1972], 85-70, plus-0.76 margin, 76.6% in era
Bottom 10 for Cubs (1961-2022)
1. Cubs [1981], 38-65, minus-1.07 margin, 3.8% in era
2. Cubs [1980], 64-98, minus-0.70 margin, 4.0% in era
3. Cubs [2012], 61-101, minus-0.90 margin, 4.8% in era
4. Cubs [1966], 59-103, minus-1.02 margin, 5.3% in era
5. Cubs [2006], 66-96, minus-0.73 margin, 5.6% in era
6. Cubs [2000], 65-97, minus-0.86 margin, 9.5% in era
7. Cubs [1962], 59-103, minus-1.20 margin, 10.0% in era
8. Cubs [1999], 67-95, minus-1.07 margin, 11.3% in era
9. Cubs [1997], 68-94, minus-0.44 margin, 11.7% in era
10. Cubs [1974], 66-96, minus-0.97 margin, 14.7% in era