Magdal

I agree that he would be a natural in that role, certainly better than the other 2 even if all he threw were curves and change-ups. What was most awful for LaRussa was his burning out the pen for his endless switch's, while Manual had 3 good arms left when the Cards hit the wall. And to lift Holliday and put the pitcher in the 4 hole effectively shut down Pujols. He was happily walked to get to the pitcher twice to load the bases. What a luxury for Charlie! AP and MH BOTH taken out of the equasion. Good grief!

I don't know how his communication skills are, but hiring the best hitter the game has ever seen is probably a good idea. Sorry, but you are WAY off base. What's his career BA? Did he pass Cobb, Speaker, Hornsby, Babe, Gherig Musial or DiMag? Did he even come close? Anyone that supports that turd must have NO respect for the game. Let me make it a little plainer: Bonds is a lying, cheating bloated fraud, and if you can't see that then you must be CRAZY.

Bonds should just shut and get a coaching job in SF like a decent steroid cheater!

Well, he was not boo'd today by the Card fans....that's a plus. And I think it's all gonna blow over after all. I suppose when he goes to the Maris kids town they will be sitting right over the dugout waving signs saying "We love you Mark"! I know it's just a game, but some of us take it more seriously than others.

In all fairness, Stavinoa (sp?) is a good bench man, subject to hit one at any given moment, as he is AN OX! Last year he hit a big one and LaRussa sent him down the next day. Look for him to be gone by Sunday. :-))

It's NOT over...Cincy plates 2 and bases loaded in the 9th.

This guy is an amazing story. Period.

I don't mind being made a fool of, really....but when everyone gangs up on me I begin to doubt myself. Maybe I am stupid, with no real slant on the game. At least you're coming around. You thought I was serious? :-))

I don't mind being made a fool of, really....but when everyone gangs up on me I begin to doubt myself. Maybe I am stupid, with no real slant on the game.

There is a reason that the stats for his August posted here did NOT include HRs, RBI and RISP. Go look that up! The man had 40 HRs in July and ended with 49. You like 9 HRs in 2 and a 1/2 months from your franchise multi gazillion $ slugger? He hit worse after he got his "protection" from Holiday. If you could have watched him on FSMW every day like I could, you would have seen him diving at balls in the dirt a foot outside and uncharacteristicly looking at strikes down the middle. I don't pretend to know what the problem was but Cardinal fans everywhere were scratching their heads. I think that the light was somewhat diverted away from him as the WHOLE TEAM stopped hitting with RISP....I believe the Cards were the worst in the league in that regard. Many blamed McCrea as the culprit and that a whole new hitting approach was needed. I don't know if that was true or not, but I would think that the subtraction of Duncan, Thurston and the hapless Ankiel from the roster would help enough! (Ankiel acually set a new mark for futility as he was 1 for 15 with the bases loaded) I guess the team BA will go up, minus them and plus Lopez, and McGwire will be hailed as the hero througout the land. Who knows? The Mo.Highway Dept. may reenstate his name to the stretch of Highway 70 called Mark McGuire HW that they are voting to remove right now.

Those things I'm harping on were taught from LITTLE league on! Frankly besides possibly spotting a hitch in a swing or something like that, that any other observant player on the team could also spot, the hitting coach is a waste of salary. In this case a high profile, distracting waste of salary.

I'm not saying a man had to be a great hitter to instruct it. But I DO question the choice of such a one demensional type hitter to be chosen over all others, especially concidering the obvious controversy. If you could just take a second to explain to me how a "one dimensional hitter" racks up a career OBP of almost .400 that'd be spectacular. Pretty easy...being pitched around and intentional walks...is he gonna teach 'em how to get intentional walks? He DAM sure can't teach them how to shorten up to push runners over, or how to drag bunt for a hit. Tell me again why he will be a better hitting coach than say, Sandberg or Hernandez.

One thing is for sure: If Albert drops off this season like he did in the last 6 or 7 weeks last year he won't be able to demand that monster contract. He had elbow surgery and is now having back trouble. He is 1 year older and who knows? He may bat .305 this year with only 25 HRs and become tradable. It's not as absurd as it sounds. After all, they traded Hornsby and Medwick in their PRIME (both after winning triple crowns) and tried to ship Musial to the Pirates in HIS prime....stay tuned.

I'm not saying a man had to be a great hitter to instruct it. But I DO question the choice of such a one demensional type hitter to be chosen over all others, especially concidering the obvious controversy.

I think you misunderstood me. I was saying I came from the same situation as you but I only like one of the teams... because that's how it works. Oh really? Maybe you can understand this: I was mainly a Card fan in the '60s...drifted away from the game duo to Disco and changing diapers in the 70's...got re-interested in the '80s living in a small northern town where the only regular games were WGNs, and there was my man Harry Carey! The voice from my childhood. I watched every game I could every summer for 5 years. But, of course the Cards were on Nat. TV in the post season so then I would be rooting for them. I honestly don't remember the Cubs and Cards EVER fighting for the pennant in late September. Maybe they have, but the season I most remember in that regard was '69 when coming off a pennant the Cards were out of it by Sept. and it looked good for Leo's Cubs. Tuff year for me all around. When they play each other I'm torn....like parents of kids that play on different teams. Who did Dom and Joe's folks root for? Clete and Ken? The Mannings??? It's a win/win, lose/lose thing.

It was funny...'specially the 2nd baseman getting the hell outa dodge!

That may be the dumbest thing I ever read....My Mom from Wheaton and a stone Cub fan, Dad from St' Louis and an insane Card fan. They split when I was 11.....Mom had me exept for the summer and Christmas. Put your self in my place.....and it's not like the Cubs and Cards have ever been in the hunt in late Sept together anyway! One or the other. I really don't understand the hatred Cub fans have for the Cards. Ditto the reverse ....I look at the history and I don't see it. Exault in your pure whacked out hatred, and I will root for whomever I want.....is that OK??? Ok I'm putting myself in your place, which is basically my place since my mom is a diehard Cubs fan and my dad is a Cards fan who was going to World Series games at Busch I. I turned out ok as far as my baseball fandom. Maybe you can explain to these angst ridden Cubbie fans that there is more to life than baseball...I have been pissed off since 1969! But I try to keep things in perspective...the Bartman playoff fiasco just about ripped my guts out (losing the biggest bet I ever made on sports did not help) But there is life after a Cub meltdown if you have the Cards too. However, I'm getting pretty dam mad with them hiring that bloated red bastage, and I am also having a problem with them not having at least ONE Black American on the team in any capacity. I hope the Cubbies get it together and kick the shyt out of Mil....AND the Cards. 102 years is just rediculas. Oh, BTW, get some fire back in your old ass, Lou!

Yeah, I guess so....they are prolly real proud of those boys. After all, one is a roid guzzling book writer that wants to make $ exposing his brother,and the other one is a roid guzzler proud of breaking Maris' record while hugging the Maris kids. Their parents did one helluva good job raising them. What about the other, other one? I don't know about the other other one.

Yeah, I guess so....they are prolly real proud of those boys. After all, one is a roid guzzling book writer that wants to make $ exposing his brother,and the other one is a roid guzzler proud of breaking Maris' record while hugging the Maris kids. Their parents did one helluva good job raising them.

That may be the dumbest thing I ever read....My Mom from Wheaton and a stone Cub fan, Dad from St' Louis and an insane Card fan. They split when I was 11.....Mom had me exept for the summer and Christmas. Put your self in my place.....and it's not like the Cubs and Cards have ever been in the hunt in late Sept together anyway! One or the other. I really don't understand the hatred Cub fans have for the Cards. Ditto the reverse ....I look at the history and I don't see it. Exault in your pure whacked out hatred, and I will root for whomever I want.....is that OK???

I don't think that means anything. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you a Cubs fan? Don't you want this whole thing to be a joke? If McGwire is as lousy as you say he is, then that would mean the Cardinals are going to get worse. I'm not sure you know what you're complaining about. I'm a fan of BOTH and if Sammy is hired by the Cubs as the hitting coach I will sound off on that!....Mac being qualified or not for the job isn't the issue. It's being the PROVEN highest profile cheater coming back to the game that's wrong.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. I think it's some sort of Norse pesto. I think he's trying feebly to call Mac a Svengali, which is funny on many levels. Sad that I have to explain this simple joke...LaRussa is the Svengali...a literary and movie hypnotist from the '30s who controls his victom....replacing "garlic" for "gali" is a 3 Stooges malaprope for laughs, impuning the great mans breath. Can you put it all together now? Given the usual eloquence of your posts, I thought it more likely you didn't know what a Svengali was, or that you may have been one of the three stooges. If you want people to buy that you actually intended that obscure and dated humor, you might want to work on not expressing yourself with such mangled diction. And the Svengali character dates to the late nineteenth, and the use of Svengali as a term pre-dates the 30's, but I'm sure that's what you meant, and were just flustered at having to disseminate to the simple folk. But please, continue to enlighten and entertain us with your delicious brand of humor. If you say he goes back that far, then fine.....all I know is that Barrymore played him in the early '30s. And what difference does it make when nobody even knew what I was talking about? You certainly didn't chime in until I explained it. You had plenty of time to Google it....funny how the topic was twisted, Huh? And it's also funny that the Cards hitting is the worst this Spring so far for 30 years back. I'm STILL waiting for somebody to explain to me how he can teach hitting...so one demensional....can't bunt, can't go to right, cant shorten up to just make contact to move the runners.....It's just a freaking joke...the whole thing! But Svengarlic don't get all the blame. DeWhit and the owner allowed it to happen. It's just a big black eye on the Club!

That's YOUR opinion, and it's fulla BULL! For duty and humanity! Nyuk, yuk yuk!

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. I think it's some sort of Norse pesto. I think he's trying feebly to call Mac a Svengali, which is funny on many levels. Sad that I have to explain this simple joke...LaRussa is the Svengali...a literary and movie hypnotist from the '30s who controls his victom....replacing "garlic" for "gali" is a 3 Stooges malaprope for laughs, impuning the great mans breath. Can you put it all together now?

You can't be a real person. It would blow up my world. I'm not sure how to answer this as I surely don't want your world to blow up! I am very real and very full of disgust..sorry if it rubs wrong.