PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – With a crucial Pirates vs. Cardinals four-game series set to begin in a matter of hours, The Fan Morning Show set out on a mission to compile a list of reasons to hate the Cardinals, who have become the Pirates’ arch nemesis.

It started out Thursday morning with a #HateTheCards hashtag, and listeners took it from there.

Suddenly, Pirates fans were swarming Twitter with a bevy of reasons to dislike the Redbirds- and within a couple hours, #HateTheCards was trending nationally.

Courtesy of The Fan Morning Show’s fantastic listeners- far too many tweeters and callers to list here- here are 50 great reasons to #HateTheCards:

• Yadier Molina’s neck tattoo (which isn’t nearly as good as Jose Tabata’s)

• Tony La Russa

• Tony La Russa’s mullet

• Holier-than-thou, self-righteous fans

• The “Cardinal Way”

• They supposedly have a squeaky-clean image yet they signed Jhonny Peralta fresh off a PED suspension

• The “h” in Jhonny Peralta’s name

• Jim Edmonds dodged balls so he could make a diving catch and show off his “athleticism”

• They hacked the Astros

• That silly jig that Jason Motte did after every pitch

• The fact that almost everyone they add becomes good

• Willie McGee’s ugly nostrils and hair

• They’re red just like the communists were

• Chris Carpenter’s attitude

• Matt Carpenter’s eyebrows

• Randy Choate’s goatee

• Jack Buck and Joe Buck

• Jon Jay and his two first names

• Kolten Wong’s multiple walk-offs against the Pirates and his over-the-top bat flip

• Pittsburgh gave America Jonas Salk; St. Louis gave America Nelly

• The stupid little bird on their uniforms

• David Eckstein and his hair

• Scott Spezio and his red-dyed soul patch

• Mark McGwire and his tainted home runs

• St. Louis style ribs are awful

• They’re treated like the ultimate winners when they haven’t won a World Series since 2011

• St. Louis is nowhere close to as nice as Pittsburgh

• Their sense of entitlement

• If the Pirates were in any other division in baseball they’d be a division leader

• Gary Gaetti didn’t have ear flaps on his helmet

• “Wacha” sounds like the annoying sound that Pac-Man makes

• Wacha is spoiling Fozzie Bear for all of us

• The Tony La Russa and Lloyd McLendon confrontation in 2004

• Clark Griswold had his hubcaps stolen when he asked for directions in St. Louis

• St. Louis stole Pittsburgh’s title as “The Gateway to the West”

• Paula Deen is a Cardinals fan

• Parrots are cooler birds than Cardinals

• The 2006 Cardinals won the World Series despite only winning 83 games

• They stole Jenifer Langosch

• They will probably pick up the players that the Pirates need at the trade deadline

• If they fall out of the playoff race, that will probably get more attention than the Pirates surging ahead of them

• Tom Sawyer was a criminal

• They used to be called the “St. Louis Perfectos” (of course)

• They always seem to take a two-outs-with-nobody-on-situation into a two-run inning using four bloop singles

• Ozzie Smith’s backflips

• They’re like the rich kid down the street that gets everything handed to them for no reason

• No matter where a pitch is, Yadier Molina thinks it’s a strike and can’t let it go, to the point where he argued a call in the middle of a play on Wednesday night

• They’re so boring to watch

• They just won’t go away, like the 90’s Braves or “Uptown Funk”

• We’re sick of hearing that Matt Adams is from Slippery Rock

Listen to the #HateTheCards from the show.

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