How 100 years ago this week Babe Ruth helped launch Cardinals' brand in 1926 World Series

After a lengthy delay, the Best Podcast in Baseball is back and making up for lost time. 

Or, well, going back in time.

On the 100th anniversary -- to the date -- of the 1926 World Series and the Cardinals' first world championship, author Terry Lemons joins BPIB host and Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold to discuss the significance of that title and its role in creating St. Louis as the baseball city we know so well. Lemons' book, "The Year St. Louis Became a Baseball Town: The Cardinals, Babe Ruth, and the 1926 World Series" explores how that series was much more than a best-of-seven showdown. It pitted Ruth and the mighty Yankees against the furthest team west and furthest team south in the majors, and a Cardinals club that wasn't even in the most popular major-league team in its city.

Lemons presents the idea that the series and the Cardinals' victory was the "lightning strike" that made baseball, already popular in St. Louis, part of the city's identity. And that goes right down to the practice of cheering for the opponent.

And at the center of it was the Great Bambino and what Lemons called the "Ruthian" mistake that ended the series.

Signed copies of his book is available at his website, 1926Baseball.com.

Thank you listeners for the patience as BPIB took an unplanned break for a few months and will now resume a more regular and recurring schedule as it reinvents itself a bit. We appreciate the support. This podcast only exists (persists?) because of the listeners like you.

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In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.