I guess everybody's heard the news about La Russa.  Sounds like the guy wants to stay, but is leaving himself a clean slate unless management wants to start with a clean slate next year.  Maybe he's waiting to see if the new GM is going to try and construct a winning ballclub, and he's trying to go over the top with the guys on the roster that he obviously has a connexion with.  Barring the extremely unlikely prospect of adding Santana or A-Rod to the roster, I don't see how it's possible, but I'm not one of the guys on the field trying to slog through a hundred and sixty-two games, either.  

In other news, yesterday was a very good day for cardinals prospects playing down in the Arizona Fall League: Jarrett Hoffpauir went two for two with a run and two RBI, Jason Motte threw an inning and a third scoreless and picked up the win, and Joe Mather went three for five with a stolen base.  Considering the rebuilding that the team is going through, it's good to hear that the prospects are at least making some noise in a competitive league.

I'm looking forward to tonight's pitching matchup in the former BOB.  I'll have a game thread up later tonight.  It's a beautiful day here in Texas for the first time in ages (though I'm sure that it'll get stupidly hot soon enough this afternoon), and I need to go bike in to work.  Maybe an actual playoff game going on today will get the sports media to stop talking about the Yankees.