London calling: Cubs and Cardinals rivalry heads overseas in 2023

After being postponed in 2020 because of COVID-19, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will have the chance to finally showcase their rivalry in London in 2023.

MLB fans in the United Kingdom will get to see the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals in person in June of 2023.

Originally scheduled for June of 2020, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will now face off in a two-game series at London Stadium on June 24 and 25, 2023. The stadium is the home of West Ham United, but the Cardinals will serve as the home team in the next chapter of one of MLB’s best rivalries.

This is a plan that has been in the works for some time now. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox met at London Stadium in 2019 in the first-ever “London Series” set of games, but plans for future games were put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, announced last season that MLB games would be scheduled in the United Kingdom in 2023, 2024, and 2026.

The Yankees took both games of that inaugural London matchup, winning the first 17-13 and the second 12-8. Field dimensions for that game were 330 feet down the lines and 385 feet to dead center, helping add to the scoring.

According to Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals have been planning internally for a trip to London since last season, and that planning will now pay off with a trip overseas.

How this will impact the schedules for both the Cubs and Cardinals remains to be seen, but the 2023 MLB schedule is expected to be released sometime this month.