Joe Garagiola, being treated for a spike wound, kept his sense of humor through the Pirates' dismal 1952 season.(Pirates Reader (Pete Peterson))

So far in this young Major League Baseball season, the St. Louis Cardinals are performing much better than the prognosticators envisioned.

Many, predicted St. Louis to finish in last place in the National League Central, but through the first six weeks of the season, the Cardinals are above .500 in a tightly packed division.

In his latest edition of Reading Baseball, Pete Peterson isn’t quite sure what to do with the Cardinals being picked to finish in the basement, lower than his Pittsburgh Pirates.

Reading Baseball is a series of essays and commentaries by Richard “Pete” Peterson, co-author with his son Stephen, of The Slide: Leyland, Bonds and the Star-Crossed Pittsburgh Pirates and the editor of The St. Louis Baseball Reader.