St. Louis ? If the 2005 Cardinals match the 2004 Cardinals by winning 100 or more games, it will mark only the second time in Cardinals history that there have been back-to-back 100-game-winning teams. The 1942-44 Cardinals won 106, 105 and 105 games to win consecutive National League pennants.

You then could make a case that the 2004-05 Cardinals rank with the most dominant teams of all time. But before you summon medical assistance for the columnist, there is one statistical endorsement for this notion.

If the Cardinals can win their division by at least 13 games, matching their final margin of last year, they will become just the third National League team and fourth team in baseball history to win back-to-back divisional or league championships by that many or more games and win 100 or more games.

The 1943-44 Cardinals won by 18 games over Cincinnati in 1943 and 141â2 over Pittsburgh in 1944 after a race to the finish in 1942, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers, who won 104, by two games. That feat was topped only by the 1906-07 Chicago Cubs, who won 116 and 107 games under first-baseman manager Frank “Peerless Leader” Chance. The Cubs routed the second-place New York Giants by 20 games in 1906 and 16 games in 1907.

The American League has only one similar entry – the Yankees. But the most dominant back-to-back era of the Yankees might not be the years you would guess.

The 1936 Yankees and 1937 Yankees both won 102 games. The 1936 club, which featured Lou Gehrig, outdistanced the Detroit Tigers by 19 1â2 games. The 1937 club, which featured Gehrig and 22-year-old rookie Joe DiMaggio, beat Detroit by 13 games.

In recent years, the only entry comparable to the Cardinals is the Atlanta Braves team of 2002-03, which had 101 victories each year and won the Eastern Division by 19 games and 10 games, respectively.

The last two years’ Cardinals clubs rank among the top three back-to-back outfits in the club’s history. Joining the 1942-44 Cardinals and the 2004-05 version should be the 1967-68 Cardinals, who won 101 and 97 games and beat the second-place San Francisco Giants by 10 1â2 and nine games, respectively.

Hall of Famer Stan Musial played for the first group, was general manager in 1967 and watches this team. While praiseworthy of all three, he gives the edge to the 1942-44 version, with special emphasis on the 1942 team when most teams had all their players before many went off to war.

“The 1942 club had great speed, pitching and defense,” Musial said. “That was the best Cardinal team. We went from first to third and second to home all the time. Now, we didn’t have the relief pitching that this club has nowadays. But we only lost seven games out of our last 48. Isn’t that something?”

Musial said the bullpens for the 1967-68 teams also didn’t compare to the deep one the Cardinals have now. But then those teams had Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton and an emerging Nelson Briles.

Pertaining to the current club, Musial said if it had injured third baseman Scott Rolen, he said, “Offensively, it’s better than any of the other clubs.”