It's October, and here they are again.

It's October, and here are the St. Louis Cardinals, doing what they do.

They're back in another World Series, for the second time in three years, the third time in eight years, the fourth time in 10 years.

David Freese is one of only six players who played for the Cardinals during the first two rounds of this postseason who was also with the team when they won the World Series in 2011. Elsa/Getty Images

It's their ninth trip to the postseason since the year 2000. They just made their sixth trip to an National League Championship Series in the past decade, their seventh in the past 12 Octobers.

It's October, and this has become a way of life. It's amazing, really.

They play in a smaller TV market than Tampa-St. Petersburg, Minneapolis-St. Paul or (we kid you not) Cleveland.

They've spent 429 million fewer payroll dollars over the past seven seasons than the Yankees, $154 million fewer than the Tigers, $72 million fewer than the White Sox and -- here it comes -- $114 million fewer than (gulp) the Cubs.

And here's the most astonishing part of all:

This trip to the World Series will be as notable for who isn't part of it as who is.

• Two years ago, the four pitchers who started games for the Cardinals in the World Series against Texas were Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Kyle Lohse and Edwin Jackson. Not one of them will throw a pitch in this World Series.

• Two years ago, Jason Motte, Mitchell Boggs, Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes, Marc Rzepczynski, Jake Westbrook and Fernando Salas kept marching out of the Cardinals' bullpen, over and over and over again. Not one of them will throw a pitch in this World Series, either.

• Four of the eight position players who started Game 1 of that World Series won't be anywhere to be found on the Cardinals' lineup card for this World Series. Those four would be Rafael Furcal, Nick Punto, Lance Berkman and some dude named Albert Pujols.

• And whatever happened to Tony La Russa, the guy who used to manage, micromanage, mega-manage and stage-manage the heck out of this team, anyway?

That is a monstrous amount of change in just two years, especially for a win-the-World-Series kind of team. Think about this long and hard. No Tony. No Albert. No Dave Duncan, the pitching coach/guru who changed so many careers. No Chris Carpenter. A completely overhauled pitching staff. A lineup with a 50 percent turnover rate. …

And somehow, it feels as if nothing about the Cardinals has changed. How is that possible, anyway?

"It's the St. Louis Cardinals," said third baseman David Freese, the St. Louis native who grew up to play third base for a team he loves. "I think it's that simple. From the DeWitts [in the owners box] all the way down, they just know how to win."

He thinks it's that simple. It can't possibly be that simple. The universe doesn't work that way. Baseball doesn't work that way. No one ever has it all figured out. We know that intuitively.

But what sets the Cardinals apart is that, no matter how they go about trying to win, it always feels the same. Always.