The NL Central has officially become baseball's most exhausting division. All five teams are at or above .500. Nobody can pull away. Nobody can collapse. And somehow every fanbase is simultaneously convinced their team is both a contender and deeply flawed.

This week on the Team of Rivals Podcast: • The Cubs stumble through a miserable road trip • PCA has words with Sox fans, and Pete is having none of it • The Cardinals continue hanging around the race • The Brewers refuse to go away • Pirates and Reds fans remain uncomfortably nearby • And "tarps off" has apparently become a thing at Busch Stadium

Meanwhile, Ron was emotionally unavailable for long portions of the show because St. Louis CITY was still playing as we went live.

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Author Will Saulsbery joins Ron and Pete to discuss his new book, 50 Forgotten Cardinals.

After Will signs off, Elliott shows up — late — to speculate on which direction each of our clubs will take in the weeks ahead.

Buy Will's book!

Follow Will! • X: @WillSaulsbery • Insta: @wsaulsbery

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Ron, Elliott, and Pete are back to discuss the deeply upsetting reality that both the Cubs and Cardinals are actually… good?

The Cubs keep winning despite a pitching staff held together with duct tape and Craig Counsell wizardry, while the Cardinals continue shambling forward like the baseball equivalent of a zombie apocalypse.

The guys break down:

• The suddenly dangerous NL Central
• Whether the Cubs are legitimate contenders
• Ron cautiously buying stock in the Cardinals rebuild
• The official postmortem for Dylan Carlson
• Carson Kelly's surprise emergence
• Why teams desperately need a "Vice President of Common Sense"
• Ron's son Sam becoming the Ben Zobrist of his high school team
• Terrible soccer kits, Newcastle, St. Louis CITY, and another cursed Ron's Soccer Minute

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The OG Team of Rivals duo is back this week as Pete and Ron go old school for a Throwback edition of the podcast.

This week: ⚾ The Cubs stayed hot… until they arrived on the West Coast ⚾ The Cardinals continue their baffling cycle of good baseball immediately followed by questionable baseball 🐻 Our Bears Draft reactions and the annual springtime declaration that this changes everything ⚽ Ron's Soccer Minute expands accordingly now that Ted Lasso is back and Newcastle optimism is once again medically unsafe.

No Elliott. No balance. No guarantees this stays on schedule.

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This week, Pete accepts the challenge Ron threw down weeks ago, referring to himself exclusively in the third person.

Can the Team stay on track while tackling ABS and umpires, early NL Central excellence, and the Shohei Roster Rule? Will there be any joy in Ron's Soccer Minute? And perhaps most importantly, can Ron keep it together while Pete fully commits to the bit?

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Just Ron and Elliott tonight; no Petey! That means we can openly talk Star Wars. We'll skip baseball tonight and focus on the thing Pete walked away from in disgust.

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It's April Fools' Eve, and we're one week into the season, which means it's the perfect time for wildly confident, probably incorrect baseball takes.

Ian Happ is on fire, Jordan Walker might be fixed, and ABS is here and it's a revelation.

Some of this is real. Some of this is nonsense.

Believe nothing. Enjoy everything.

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Ron is out of town, so naturally the Team of Rivals Podcast goes completely off the rails.

In this bonus episode, Elliott and Pete ditch baseball entirely for a full, spoiler-heavy breakdown of Project Hail Mary. From Rocky's instant GOAT status to that ending — nothing is off-limits.

⚠️ WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ⚠️ If you haven't seen the movie yet… go watch it first. Seriously.

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It's a short show.

(It is not a short show.)

With the World Baseball Classic Final happening during the episode, the Team of Rivals crew tries to stay on track while inevitably getting distracted.

This week:

⚾ WBC talk and live reactions 🎬 Elliott takes over the pop culture segment with a SPOILER-FREE review of Project Hail Mary ⚽ Ron delivers his Soccer Minute (duration may vary)

Follow @TeamOfRivalsPod and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

And yes… we'll see you next Tuesday.

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We promised no NFL free agency coverage. So naturally we opened the show trying to figure out what exactly happened with Maxx Crosby.

But that was only the beginning of the chaos.

This week, we also covered:

⚾ A quick detour into USA's impending loss in the World Baseball Classic 🏀 The ridiculous 83-point performance by Bam Adebayo ⚽ Why Brazilian soccer might be the most dangerous sporting environment in the world ⚽ Ron's deeply disappointing week of soccer fandom 🎬 A completely unexpected pop culture rabbit hole

In other words… the usual Team of Rivals nonsense.

📺 Watch the Livestream: YouTube | Rumble | Facebook | X 📌 Follow: @TeamOfRivalsPod | Elliott @ToR_Elliott | Ron @ToR_Ron75 | @TheParkSTL 📧 Email: [email protected]