Liam beat me to the punch on this one, but here's a nice article by Bernie Miklasz from the St. Louis Post Dispatch comparing the clubhouse attitudes of arch rival Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals. In it, Bernie highlights the veteran team leadership and self sacrifice of the Cardinals top players. For example how Scott Rolen approached Tony LaRussa and told him he'd be willing to move anywhere in the lineup to make room for newly acquired Larry Walker even though Scott is having a career year batting cleanup right now. Contrast that with the fact that Sammy "watch my muscles melt away cause I'm off the juice" Sosa told Manager Dusty Baker that he would "absolutely not" bat 5th in the lineup to make room for Nomar Garciappara (even though Sosa is having his worst season in 7 years), and you see the difference between the two teams. Oh yeah, and as an added bonus you get to see some quotes from Mark Prior shooting his mouth off about kicking the Cardinals ass in the NLCS. Mark, you'd better worry about getting there first bud!

Also check out this article by Bernie which is all about how according to statistics, the Cards have one of the best lineups ever assembled.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 2:25 PM