Levine: Cubs-Cardinals Matchup Still Simmering From Last Fall
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Cubs and Cardinals haven't played each other since last October's NLDS, which Chicago won in four games, forever increasing the hostile feeling between the two competitive franchises and their fan bases. Then in the offseason, former Cardinals Jason Heyward and John Lackey left to sign with the hated Cubs, which proved to be tough on some of the St. Louis diehards.
Part of the ugliness of spurned Cardinal supporters included burning a Heyward jersey in effigy.
"I was just getting a taste for the passion of both sides of it," Cub manager Joe Maddon said about his first experience in the trenches of the rivalry in 2015. "Not having been in the National League, not having been part of that, I was more aware of the Yankee-Red Sox thing coming through the whole American League vibe. Beyond all of that, I got to appreciate not only Cubs-Cards but the division, the traditional component of that division. The whole thing is really pretty spectacular."
The first meeting of the season between the teams comes Monday, and making it more special is that Lackey will be on the mound to face his old teammates in St. Louis. Starting for the Cardinals will be Mike Leake, who basically replaced Lackey in the rotation. Lackey is 2-0 early in this season but hasn't been sharp. He's been helped by getting 23 runs of offense in his two starts.
In 2015 Maddon got tough with the Cardinals in late August, basically saying no team that he manages will ever be intimidated with the "Cardinal way" of baseball. The Cardinal way, in part, tries to dictate how people should act or react when pitchers are throwing inside and trying to intimidate the opponent.
"That's it," Maddon said about the way he responded to the Cardinals' strong-arm approach last summer. "I went through the same thing in Tampa Bay with the Red Sox and Yankees. Nobody is going to give you anything, man. I don't expect anything to be given to us. If you want (the power), you have to take it. Nothing will be given to you. What I felt last year is that we (as a team) did not really understand that. I wanted our guys to understand that nobody was going to give us anything. I have all the respect in the world for (the Cardinals) and you all know I grew up a Cardinal fan. So I know Cardinal history as good as anybody.
"They're good and have been good a long time. They are not going to relinquish anything easily. That was my point. I was not going to denigrate anybody. It was about us and our ascension. This is how you do it."
When Heyward said he wanted to be a part of a winning culture last winter after signing with the Cubs, the bad blood became even more toxic between the two clubs. Maddon wasn't happy about of the burning of the Heyward jerseys in St. Louis.
"It is not good for your children to see stuff like that," Maddon said. "Why would you do something like that? I am sure the real Cardinal fans were not proud of that moment either. They have one of the best fan bases in all of professional sports, as we do."
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.