So, I'm taking a look ahead at the rest of the schedule for the 2nd half of the season. Before I looked, I though to myself, "alright, we've been in St. Louis twice already this year and they haven't come to Chicago yet... perfect."

Then, I take a look at the schedule, and although we've played our first 6 games vs the Cards in St. Louis, we have 9 more to go... 6 at home (evening things out), but then the Cards get an advantageous 3 game set at home. Who the hell came up with that?

They couldn't at least make one of our home series a 4 game set, and reduce one in St Louis to a two game set... evening it out somewhat 8 games to 7? An extra 3 games is a big deal. What a bunch of BS.

Whatever happened to the days of the balanced schedule? For the last 5 years, our schedule vs the Cards has been uneven every year but one (2005).

2007, we went 11-5 vs the Cards, 7 at home and 9 in St. Louis
2006, we went 11-8 vs the Cards, 10 at home and 9 in St. Louis
2005, we went 10-6 vs the Cards, 8 at home and 8 in St. Louis
2004, we went 8-11 vs the Cards, 9 at home and 10 in St. Louis
2003, we went 8-9 vs the Cards, 10 at home and 7 in St. Louis

In 1996, the first full season after the strike, and the first full season after the re-alignment, we played 13 games a piece vs everyone in our division. At least we played the same number of games vs each division opponent, even though it was an odd number of games.

It used to be, in the days of the old NL East, that we would play 18 games a piece vs each of our division opponents. A perfectly even number, with no advantage.

The one to blame for this mess: Bud Selig. The man (who once tried to purchase the White Sox and move them to Milwaukee) becomes the commish... adds teams... re-aligns baseball... causes a strike... introduces interleague play and the unbalanced schedule... ignores steroids, and decides the all-star game should dictate home field advantage in the world series. Yeah... that's a great list you're building there.