I just have a quick question Larry, so it can be deleted once it's answered. Does anybody know where I can find an all-time list of the Cardinals schedule and results? I want to find out the Redbirds' record Friday the 13ths throughout history, to see if there is a correlation, because it seems to me as that the last few Friday the 13ths, the birds have done poorly, so I just want some clarification. Thanks!

[UPDATE: there are conflicting rumors making the rounds. i hope they do call up perez, and there's a credible report out there ---- but it's not gospel truth yet. ----l.b.]

Ladies, gentlemen, Anti-Isringhausen faithful, I present to you, your new closer . According to a well-trusted source at Future Redbirds, the Cardinals have called up the fireballing righty Chris Perez from Memphis. It looks like after 5 blown saves and an ERA in the 7's, the big birds have finally found a temporary stopgap.

Through 17 games, his line looks like so: 1-1 record, 16.2 innings, 8 saves, 2 WP, 2.16 ERA, 12 hits, WHIP of 1.20, and a whopping 21 K's!

Chris, after going to the U of Miami, was drafted in the supplemental round (42 overall) of the 2006 draft. For those of you who remember way back in ST, he was one of the last players to be sent down to the MiLB camp. It seems to me that it was him, K-Mac, Jimenez, and a few darkhorse candidates.

So he is not on the 40-man roster, so it looks as if they will have to make some moves to get him on. Is it possible they put Clement on the 60 day DL? Did Mo find a trade partner dumb enough to give up a stud-of-a-prospect for Reyes (cough cough Brian Sabean cough cough)? Who knows, maybe Izzy will spend some time on the DL.

This has not been confirmed by a legit source yet , but for all of your avid FR readers, you know just how amazing cardsfan1's track record is. This has also been talked about on Cards Talk.

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

Per MLBTR & Peter Gammons, the Florida Marlins have traded Miguel Cabrera to the Detroit Tigers for Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller, catcher Mike Rabelo and three minor league prospects. Wow. It seems like the Fish could have gotten a lot more if they had tried to trade the 2 separately.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/12/tigers-acquire.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3140986&name=winter_meetings