After breathing a sigh of relief on Sunday after the Pirates lost to the Reds (and ignoring just how it happened) and then watching the Cardinals celebrate their second-straight NL Central championship, we fans can now just relax and enjoy and wait for the National League Division Series to begin on Friday. Right?

Sure … as long as we ignore what’s now become an annual ritual: Cardinals bashing.

Ah, yes, tomorrow is October. Time to mock the Cards, and Cards fans!

And it begins with no less an astute publication than the Wall Street Journal, which published “The 2014 Baseball Playoff Hateability Index” yesterday. Although I’m not exactly sure we can call this quite the astute publication it used to be. Right now, on the WSJ.com website, the second-most popular video — right after “Aerial Drone Captures Scale of Hong Kong Protests” — is “George Clooney, Amal Alamuddin Wed in Venice” (which you can find here, if you’re so inclined).

Hmmmm.

Anyway, back to the Journal’s so-called hateability “index.” The words are in quotes because, really, how fair can it be when one of the criteria applies specifically and only to Cardinals fans? Not that we necessarily always call ourselves the (now trite) best fans in baseball, but of course the Cardinals are who most people will think when seeing a questions that reads “Are fans routinely labeled ‘best in baseball’?”

Shockingly (ha ha ha), the Cardinals are the only one of the 10 teams listed to earn a point in that category — and the more points, the more hateable the team. You really can’t do better than that, Wall Street Journal? Continue reading →