The Cubs-Cardinals rivalry won't hit the diamond for keeps until April 18.
Until that night at Busch Stadium, three months from Monday, the teams appear content merely to chat about their NL Central rivalry — especially in recent days at their respective offseason fan fests.
"You're seeing guys take less money to come here and you're seeing guys who want to be a part of something special," pitcher John Lackey told the Chicago Tribune during the Cubs Convention. "It has become that."
MORE: High school MLB draftees permitted to have agent, will not affect NCAA eligibility
Lackey, of course, pitched for the Cardinals in 2015 (and part of 2014); he joined outfielder Jason Heyward this offseason in leaving the Cardinals for the Cubs, who finished third behind St. Louis and Pittburgh in the NL Central but bounced the Pirates in the wild-card game and then the Cardinals in their 2015 Division Series.
That, at least in part, led a Cardinals fan to use part of Saturday's Q&A with GM John Mozeliak to ask that his team do its part in extending the Cubs' World Series drought.
MORE: The 10 best baseball movies of the 1990s, ranked
"Look, I'm not naive," Mozeliak later told reporters (via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). "I've been in St. Louis now, starting my 21st season, that I get the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry is real. Now that they're playing at a very high level, it's going to be that much more competitive. Would it have been nice to see Lackey end up in Australia? Sure. But that didn't happen."
So circle that date again, Cubs and Cardinals fans: 7:15 p.m. CT April 18 at Busch, the first of 19 regular-season meetings in 2016.
