Recently, I posted a diary about how much it was going to suck having DWIII as the new team president. After rereading it, I realized how much of an ass I must have sounded, by judging DWIII and hypothesizing that he must be cheap just because his old man isn't so loose with money and that it had to be deleted. I'm sorry for these comments if they offended anyone. So I decided, why not try to be, what's that word....opti-something or other and list the positives of having DWIII in office. First, let me just clarify one thing after a little bit of confusion/uproar. Some of the things on this list (fan first, BPV is a priority, wants to usher in new era) are just speculative observations of mine. I am not saying that they are going to happen. In fact, I would be surprised if more than one of these was directly influenced by DWIII. I am just merely observing some things that he has said in an effort to look on the positive side and hope for the best. In fact, most fans probably just shrug this off with a simple "meh". So here it goes:

1. In a recent press conference, Bill DeWitt III stated how he is a fan first. This, if true, could be a great improvement. Who knows, maybe he will be able to convince “daddy” next off-season to spend a little bit more money if they are, in fact, god willing, "just one player away". A list of a few players who could be said person: Grudz, Hudson, Furcal, O-Cab, Burnett, Garland, Lackey, Lowe, Penny, Sabathia, and Sheets to name a few. He also may be able to use his status as son of the owner to get the team to make a big trade, one that would involve the team taking on a large amount of money for a studly, worthwhile player. Maybe he actually does know how it feels when the team doesn’t go out and spend some moolah.

2. Also in the press conference, Li'l DeWitt mentioned how enthused he was to usher in a new Era of Cardinal Baseball. By this, of course, he meant the oh-so-enticing youth movement. This may be just another sign that the team is moving forward with the youth movement. Not only the players are getting younger, but hell, even the front office is (Jocketty, 58, to Mo's 39. Lamping's 41 to DWIII's 40. Abbamondi's 37ish replaced Mo, who replaced Jocketty). Granted, the team didn't choose to replace the president, rather, the job was thrust on them. But nonetheless, let's hope that a move to someone younger who has been working for the organization for years with a fresh mind is better than someone who went to work with the Jets (come on, the Patriots didn't offer him enough to spy on other teams for them?!)

3. Again, this is tied in with the youth movement factor. Unbeknownst to many, he helped redesign the newish cardinal’s logo. Yeah, this is kind of a reach, being that it happened in 1998, but it still doesn't hurt that he tried to reshape and rejuvenate the BOB logo.

4. In college, Yale I might add, he studied architectural history, and went on to Harvard to get his business degree. So yes, it may be true that he most definitely got the job because he's the owner's son, but hey, he is no schlub. I mean, Harvard AND Yale! That's impressive.

5. Pop quiz! The two word combination that pisses off Cardinal fans as of late than any other combination of words in the English language:

A. Cubs fan

B. No postseason (who would have thought that "Cardinals" and "no postseason" over the last decade could even be used in the same sentence?)

C. Ballpark Village

D. minor injury (let's start a list of the players whose injuries have just started out as minor as of late, shall we?: Rolen, Jed, Carp, Mulder, Piniero, Clement, etc. etc.)

As persuading as just about all of the phrases listed above can be, I'm going to have to go with BPV. After months of us Redbird fans having to stare out at that ugly, vacant hole/parking lot/abyss outside of Busch, someone is trying to take an initiative. DWIII has mentioned how important it is that they get BPV up and running as soon as possible. Let's hope that DeWitt III truly thinks that this beast can turn into a beauty as soon as stated.

Well there you have it Cardinal fans. It looks like with the inauguration of Bill DeWitt III as the new team president, we all have hope that he will stay true to his word and usher in a new era; I was thinking along the lines of “Colb-ERAsmus” as the name of the next era.

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080314&content_id=2426718&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl

On a semi-unrelated note, Bernie hat-tipped Larry in his weekly tidbits column. Kudos!

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/berniemiklasz/story/B5B6C399D6006B928625740D000FF759?OpenDocument