NLCS Game 1: Cardinals vs. Dodgers

This is pretty cool, regardless of whether or not you hate the St. Louis Cardinals or not.

The last four teams standing in the baseball postseason are decidedly old-school franchises. While we don’t have an “Original Six” moniker like hockey does for its founding fathers, the NLCS will consist of the Cardinals (formed in 1882 as the Brown Stockings) and the Dodgers (formed in Brooklyn in 1883, using names like Superbras, Bridgegrooms and Robins before settling on Dodgers in 1932). Over in the ALCS we get the youngest remaining franchise, the Red Sox — founded in 1901 as the Boston Americans — pitted against the Tigers, formed in the late 19th century although they’ve pretty much always been the Tigers.

It’s four storied franchises and four big markets. It’s classic logos and classy uniforms.

Tonight (8:37, TBS) in St. Louis we get Game 1 of the NLCS, which will be the the fourth postseason meeting between the longtime National League clubs.

Figure on (narrative alert) an interesting contrast of styles, the flashy, superstar-laden Dodgers roster matched up with the relatively unknown, mostly home-grown Cardinals’ core. For any talk of the postseason lacking “star power” a series featuring: Clayton Kershaw, Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez, Matt Holiday, Adam Wainwright, Carlos Beltran and Matt Carpenter isn’t too shabby. Plus we get the best current nickname in sports Matt “Big Mayo” Adams. (And if it was three years ago people might be fired up Brian Wilson and his dopey beard are involved.)

Tonight the Dodgers hand the ball to Zack Greinke, one half of their fearsome starting one-two punch with Kershaw. The Cardinals counter with Joe Kelly, who had an ERA under 2.00 after June 1.

Let’s get fired up with two of the participating cities’ rallying cries: