The waters rise in Des Moines, but the Cubs roll on in Chicago

Well, the flood waters are getting closer and closer to Urbandale, where I work. But my heart remains cheerful.

My Cubs have gotten off to their best start since 1907. They won the World Series that year- and the year after that, too. The previous year, they set the all-time record that still stands- tied only by the Lou Pinella Seattle Mariners a few years ago, playing a significantly longer schedule- for the most victories in a regular season by a major league baseball team, at 116.

The good guys are now 27-8 at home, and 42-24- the best record in the major leagues- overall.

Sadly, Alfonso Soriano is out for six weeks with a broken hand. Now, we have the bench to weather that particular storm. But there's another shadow on the horizon that makes me much more uneasy.

During Walt Jocketty's tenure as GM of the St. Louis Cardinals, I was sometimes tempted to suspect that he was in league with diabolical powers. After all, no matter what players the Cardinals lost, and what mediocrities he replaced them with, the replacements always seemed to go on to career seasons- and the Cardinals had success on the field that just didn't seem to add up on paper. I forget how many years in a row he replaced part or all of the Cards' second base combination that way, without missing a beat.

But now it seems clear that whatever aroma of brimstone eminates from Busch Stadium, Jocketty has nothing to do with it. He's the GM of the Reds now- and they're in last place. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have not only continued the inexplicable pattern mentioned in the paragraph above, but are now succeeding with a chewing-gum-and-bailing-wire starting rotation consisting of converted relief pitchers and cast-offs from other teams (Todd Wellemeyer being a prime example)that is somehow pitching lights-out most nights.

To be sure, the Cards are still two and a half games behind the Cubs. But by rights, they shouldn't even be in contention. A team having the kind of season the Cubs are having should have left a team with the Cardinals' pitching staff in the dust long since. But whatever kind of bar-b-que sauce they put on the pork steaks of career bench-warmers down in Saint Lou that turns them into instant stars, they seem to be using in large quantities to augment the diet of their starting rotation.

Now with Albert Pujols and Alfonso Soriono both on the DL, I guess we'll see.... what? The Cubs' depth- and it is imposing- allowing them to pull away? Hard to do much better than they're already doing. And besides, there's that curious pattern of career utility players turning into superstars the instant they don a shirt with two birds and a bat on it. And then, there's another concern: wherever they may be in the standings, in recent seasons the Cubs have pretty much owned the Cardinals in head-to-head meetings. This year, the Cards seem to be doing better against us- and some pretty consequential series between the two clubs loom in the second half of the season.

Ah, well. We shall see. Only last week I was thinking that the only thing sweeter than the Cubs winning the World Series on the centennial of their last world championship would be beating the White Sox- who defeated them in the 1907 Series, the year the Cubs set the record for the most wins ever in a single season. But maybe beating the Cardinals in a divisional race, and then sometime during the playoffs, would be even sweeter.

I shall not dwell upon the past, however. The present, for a Cub fan, is far too sweet. And so is the prospect of a victorious October.