By Alex Trickett BBC Sport Online

The teams:

Baseball: Cardinals
American Football: Rams
Basketball: None
Ice Hockey: Blues

Known as the gateway to America's west, St Louis is no longer a frontier town but has one sporting franchise full of old-world tradition.

Ozzie Smith: The best shortstop fielder

Baseball's Cardinals won the first of their nine World Series back in 1926 and could assemble an all-time team to rival that of the New York Yankees.

From pre-war pitcher Dizzy Dean to modern slugger Mark McGwire, they have produced a steady stream of Hall of Fame players.

The Rams boast less St Louis history but have been very successful since becoming the first NFL team to move from west (Los Angeles) to east in 1996, winning the Super Bowl in 1999.

Ice hockey's Blues have never quite stepped out of the shadows of their illustrious sporting neighbours, but they showed plenty of promise in 2000, winning their division in style.

Big Mac salutes the St Louis fans in 1998

After the Cardinals had superstitiously airlifted home plate from their old ground to their new 50,000-seater home in 1966, it took only a year for them to host a World Series.

St Louis won the Fall Classic of 1967 and have staged baseball's seminal showdown on four other occasions since - most recently in 1982.

Success has been harder to come by of late, but fans have rarely been short of local entertainment.

In the famous summer of 1998, McGwire hit homers 62 and 70 at Busch Stadium as he broke Roger Maris' home run record.

"The Man": Musial still guards Busch stadium

Rogers Hornsby won six batting titles in a row and was player-manager of the Cards' first World Series winners in 1926.

His career average of .358 set a National League record that may never be eclipsed, but "The Rajah" had no need for statistics to reassure himself of his quality.

"Every time I stepped up to the plate with a bat in my hands, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the pitcher," Hornsby once said.

Famed for his unorthodox 'corkscrew' stance Stan "The Man" Musial was no less accomplished.

Ranked near the top of most MLB batting lists, Musial earned three MVP awards and 24 All-Star appearances and averaged over .300 an incredible 17 times.

Warner: His sudden rise inspired many Americans

In modern sport, an athlete's chance to succeed as a pro generally comes or goes immediately after college - either he is snapped up or he slips through the net.

Warner was different. No NFL team drafted him from Northern Iowa in 1993, but he kept plugging away, earning his living stacking shelves at a local supermarket.

The aspiring quarterback finally got his chance in 1998, when the Rams signed him and he broke into the starting team the following year.

Incredibly, Warner marshalled his troops to Super Bowl success that very season and, despite the Rams loss to the New England Patriots in the 2002 title game, he remains St Louis' top man.