The St. Louis Cardinals won the Central Division title last week -- good news for Cape Girardeau clothing merchants. When the Cardinals do well, they do well.

That's why Cardinals caps, T-shirts and sweatshirts are selling like hotcakes in most stores that carry them. And since it was the team's first playoff berth since 1987, people are spending even more money to identify with the local baseball team.

Target latched onto the trend early, erecting a display of Cardinals merchandise right in front of the entrance the day after the championship game.

It caught shopper Margie Tracy's eye as she walked through the door Sunday.

"I know nothing about the Cardinals, but we have all kinds of Cardinals stuff at our house," she said. "My husband and his friend collect it. If they see it, they buy it; if I see it, I buy it."

Tracy, a Cape Girardeau resident, walked out with a cap and at least two shirts. She initially came in for laundry detergent.

Leslie Buck, a team leader at Target, said that kind of impulse purchase hasn't been rare. Shoppers avoided Cardinals merchandise at the beginning of the season. When shortstop Ozzie Smith announced in June that this would be his last year with the team, sales picked up.

Today, Cardinals merchandise sales far surpass those of any other St. Louis professional sports team, including the recently disappointing Rams. Blues hockey merchandise is doing better than the Rams, Buck said.

The story was much the same at JCPenney, merchandising manager Renea Borum said. There, Ozzie Smith sweatshirts were most popular, but embroidered sweatshirts declaring the Cardinals' title win sold well too.

Borum said it was a rush to get T-shirts in the day after the team won its championship. Now she is gearing up for the next step.

"We've got merchandise ready to come as soon as they get into the World Series," she said.

JCPenney customer Tina Dudley of Jackson had no doubt that her beloved Cardinals would not only be in the World Series, but win it. She was looking at team sweatshirts with a friend.

"I just love the Cardinals," she said. "My son has a couple of Cardinals hats and outfits and some toys with the emblem on it, and I have a jacket."

Cardinals sales are going well in downtown Cape Girardeau, too. Howard's Sporting Goods owner Terry Slattery said sales have been steady all season, but he expects an explosion if the team makes the World Series.

Personally, he thinks they will.

"I always have been a big Cardinals fan," Slattery said. "I think they have a chance to make it to the World Series. If they make it, they have a decent chance at winning."

Scott Wilson, assistant manager of The Finish Line in West Park Mall, said Cardinals merchandise is outselling that of any other local team. He said sales have been steady all season, with no big increase after the championship win.