More Sports Schadenfreude

On August 11, in this very blog, I stated flat out that I'd be rooting for the Reds - or more accurately, rooting against the Cardinals - to win the NL Central this year. Also on August 11, the Cardinals finished a three-game sweep of the Reds in Cincinnati and moved into first place by one full game (two games in the loss column). It looked like I had planted the kiss of death on Cincinnati by throwing my support behind their team.

However, in the last three weeks since that "telling sweep", an amazing turnaround has happened - the Reds have won 14 of their last 18 games, and the Cardinals have lost 13 of their last 18 games, so that the Reds have gone from a one-game deficit to a commanding eight-game lead in the division race. Oh - and the Cardinals' poor stretch started with losing 2 of 3 in St. Louis to the Cubs. Yay, Cubs!

Even better - the Cardinals now find themselves five games behind the wild-card leading Phillies. And enjoyable as it was to see Matt Holliday play a fly ball off his nuts last October, it's obviously much better if the Cardinals miss the postseason, which is looking more likely every day.