The Cardinals are the most hateable playoff team

The St. Louis Cardinals are the most loathsome team in the 2014 MLB playoffs. Please, root against the Cardinals.

As I wrote last year, the Cardinals are the new New York Yankees. The evidence: Since 2000, the Cardinals have missed the playoffs just four times. They've won two titles, appeared in two more, and reached the NLCS another time in that span. In contrast, until this year their fellow Missouri-based team, the Royals, hadn't played any postseason ball in three decades.

The Cardinals' consistency is a testament to the organization's ability to identify and develop wave after wave of talent. But it's also maddening for fans of other teams who are sick of seeing the Cardinals every dang October.

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But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal rank the Cardinals as the least-deserving and most hateable team, respectively, in the playoffs.