With two full weeks of baseball to play before Labor Day, the Cards have already sewn up the NL Central. The birds hold an eight game lead with a mere 36 games remaining. Yeah, the Cubs could catch St. Louis if they played nearly perfect down the stretch, I guess. In fact, if the Cards keep up the pace they’ve set the past four weeks (in going 19-6), the Cubs would have to play around .888 ball. Not happening.
This division is over.
While many of us love the idea of a thrilling final month of the season, a memorable series with the Cubs at Busch in September and a nail biting conclusion to the season, I’ll 
gladly take a drama-less clinching that occurs, oh I don’t know…13 days before the season ends.
So, with the delirium of a would-be pennant race all but removed as this team starts to coast in the season’s final stanza, I thought today would be an appropriate time to reflect on the entire decade of Cardinals baseball. After all, the Cards are only one deep run into October away from being mentioned as the team of the ‘aughts’…or whatever the hell it is we decided to call this ten year era.
I know what you’re saying, there’s no way the Cardinals, winners of (as it stands today) just one World Series can be mentioned as the Team of The Decade.
If not the Cards, then who? Obviously Boston deserves mention. Two World Series championships, three appearances in the LCS, and one completely overexposed and consumed fan base who has slowly become less popular than New York.
Speaking of New York, they probably deserve mention too. Three World Series appearances at the front stretch of the decade, one title and a handful of playoff disappointments since the signing A Rod.
How about the NL? There’s Atlanta whose string of 14 consecutive division titles extended into the middle part of the decade, but the Braves have neither a World Series Championship nor appearance since 1999. The Giants, Padres, Diamondbacks, Cubs Dodgers and Astros all saw a moderate level of success with multiple playoff appearances during this period, but are by no means worthy of this title.
The Phillies are vying for their third straight postseason appearance but have only yet to win a post season series with the exception of last season’s title run.
That brings us to the Cards. Winners of (as of today) six NL Central Championships (I’m counting the ‘tie’ of 2001), two NL pennants, one World Series title and eight post season series’ since the start of the 2000 season.
It’s been an amazing decade of consistently sound baseball in St. Louis. Only one team in this era has finished with a losing record (2007), only one team has made it to the playoffs and lost in the first round (2001) and the biggest draught in playoff despair (currently two) will be undoubtedly erase by season’s end.
For the naysayers, the LaRussa haters and conspires of our misguided ownership group, let this season serve as a coronation of what was a full decade-long run of prosperity.
For those happy to reflect on some of the decade’s finer moments whenever given the chance, this bud’s for you.
Here are my top five favorite moments from the decade…
5. Pujols vs Lidge. Remember being thankful that there wasn’t anyway that park in Houston, despite a six hundred foot fence in center field, was going to hold that ball. If we had done 
anything remotely clutch against Oswalt in that series this would obviously rank higher.
4. Rick Ankiel homers in first game as Cardinal outfielder. Clearly the only thing worth remembering about 2007 was Rick’s return to the team after practically being left for dead as a major league pitcher. I still contend that the ’07 team wins the Wild Card had Rick not tested positive for HGH.
3. First pennant in 17 years. The Cards game seven win against Houston in the 2004 LCS is, in my opinion, the greatest game ever played at the old Busch in terms of watchability. Suppan vs. Clemens, Edmonds’ full-extension catch, a late inning rally and an absolute euphoric night that I’ll never grow tired of reliving.
2. Wainwright K’s Inge. It all seemed so inevitable as it happened. The Tigers were helpless, the Cards were getting unbelievable performances out of arguably their worst playoff team ever. It seemed fitting that our makeshift closer sealed the deal with a strikeout.
1. Wainwright gets Beltran Looking. The image is stained in my memory. Beltran’s bat is stuck on his shoulder, Yadi is leaping like a child and Wainwright is screaming at the heavens with his arms extended. The greatest NLCS ever, the greatest finish ever and probably the gutsiest curve ball ever thrown in Shea Stadium’s history.
…thus far.