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New York Mets Top Five Rivalries Of All-Time

4. St. Louis Cardinals 1985-87

The younger generation of Met fans thinks about the St. Louis Cardinals as rivals because of their playoff matchups in 2000 and 2006. However, the real Mets-Cardinals rivalry existed in the latter half of the 1980s.

The 1985 New York Mets won 98 games, but finished three games back of the Cards, who played in the same Eastern Division at the time. The ’86 team, of course, exacted revenged winning 12 of 18 from the red birds en route a world championship. Then came 1987, when the Cardinals again edged the Mets by three games for the division title.

The competition between the two was enough for several epic pennant races; sharing the same spring training facility could have only increased the dislike for each other. In the mid to late 80s, the Mets and Cardinals knew each other well, trading blow for blow almost every year.

It wasn’t just that the Cardinals could beat the Mets–it was how they did it. The speed demons consisting of Willie McGee, Vince Coleman, Ozzie Smith and company were a nightmare for the Mets to keep off the bases.

The NLCS encounters in 2000 and again in ’06 resurrected a once great rivalry, but only for the few weeks in which they went to battle. Meeting eighteen times per season in the 80s made it much easier to loathe the opposition.