Under the bright lights of Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night, two teams stood at very different points in their decorated histories. The Dodgers are the presumptive World Series favorite, looking to capture the first World Series three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000. The Cardinals, meanwhile, are trending toward missing the playoffs for their fourth straight season, their longest stretch of missing the postseason since a drought that ran from 1988-95.
And yet, even with the Dodgers capturing three of the past six World Series championships, the Cardinals still sit atop the National League with 11 total World Series championships, two more than LA.
That begs the question: How much longer can the Cardinals hold onto their National League royalty?
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Dodgers experienced their own drought when it came to World Series titles, as their championship in 2020 was their first in 32 years. The Cardinals, assuming they do not shock the baseball world this year, will have gone 15 years without a title. Since 2000, the Dodgers have only one more World Series title than the Cardinals, and baseball history tells us that dynasties can only last for so long.
If any organization is set up for long-term dominance, it’s the Dodgers. They are a well-run organization that plays in one of the most desirable markets in all of sports. If they continue to build upon the foundation they’ve set in the past two decades, they should be contending for World Series championships year in and year out.
But history also suggests that the Cardinals don’t stay down for long. There’s a reason they’ve been able to capture 11 World Series titles, second only to the New York Yankees and their 27 World Series championships. Since the 1920s, the Cardinals have always found a way to develop strong farm systems, pioneered by Branch Rickey, who would go on to bring that same innovative mindset to the Dodgers’ organization in Brooklyn years later. Every time the Cardinals have fallen down, they’ve managed to get back to prominence through the same core principles that have always driven the organization.
Under the new leadership of Chaim Bloom, the Cardinals have spent the past few seasons revamping their player development and performance departments, now sporting one of the best farm systems in baseball and a promising young core at the Major League level. It sure looks like the beginning of another great era of Cardinals baseball, but will they be able to outpace the juggernaut that the Dodgers have created?
Many wondered the same thing regarding the Yankees back in the early 2000s. After capturing four World Series titles from 1996-2000 and making six World Series appearances in an eight-year period, it felt like the Yankees would always be on top. They spent the most money, collected all of the stars, and did all of that while drafting and developing All-Stars and future Hall of Famers as well. Sound familiar?
After completing their three-peat in 2000, the Yankees have only won one World Series since (2009). It’s hard to stay on top of the baseball world, even for organizations like the Yankees and the Dodgers.
The Cardinals have experienced that the hard way in recent years. After winning two World Series and four National League pennants and making 10 trips to the NLCS from 2000-2019, their success stalled. The result was significant changes within the organization and turning the keys over to a young roster.
The Cardinals can’t control how long the Dodgers run a successful operation, but they can dictate how quickly they rise up as a team that can stop them. The players taking the field in the team’s series finale at Dodger Stadium on Thursday will largely dictate that timeline.