TOWER GROVE — The Cardinals’ newest rookie reliever and planned closer of the future, righthander Chris Perez, was getting a lesson in the now of Triple-A baseball during his early throws at the level last season. He had walked himself into trouble or given up a laced hit to some lefty and was facing a dicey situation at the plate.

Dyar Miller, then Memphis’ pitching coach, walked out to the mound to give his reliever a…

DOWNTOWN — The last time the Pittsburgh Pirates faced Joel Pineiro they had a hard enough time getting past his inner hockey goalie, let alone another in the righthander’s run of undefeated starts against the Bucs.

Pineiro, who freely admits he’s prone to soccer-kicking at a grounders coming back to the mound, made what was, at that time, the defensive play of the season with a kick save that rainbowed right back to him and became…

DOWNTOWN — The arrival of signature Cardinal and St. Louis restaurateur Jim Edmonds at Wrigley Field as the new Cub has overheated many a message board and blog. The standards in Chicagoland have all weighed in:

• Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan recalls a memorable trip around the bases with Edmonds.
• Chris De Luca calls it “a no-brainer” in the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Mizzou man Sullivan, again, with how Edmonds isn’t the only Cardinals import coming to Chicago — he’s…

DOWNTOWN — Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will be fined an undisclosed amount but will not be suspended for his ejection Monday at Milwaukee, the club learned from Major League Baseball on Wednesday.

After arguing a couple calls with home plate umpire Paul Schrieber, the official ejected Molina from the game. Before leaving the field, Molina shed his equipment, deliberately, and then left it in a trail leading from home plate.

“I think it was fair,” Cardinals…

TOWER GROVE — One thing about a player being on base all the time: he gets loads of practice running them and has plenty of opportunity to excel — and fail. Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols showed this past week that he can pound out the headlines with more than just his bat; carrying a big stick does not require always walking softly.

In the span of a few games, Pujols showed the plus and minus of…

GRAND CENTER — Both Chicago papers are reporting that Jim Edmonds could be a Cub shortly after he flies off waivers this week, having been released over the weekend by San Diego. A signature Cardinal — one of several members of the 2004 pennant-winning team to have a tough weekend (Julian Tavarez, for example) — is said to be attractive to the Cubs as an option other than youngster Felix Pie in Wrigley Field’s center…

GRAND CENTER — It was about 300 at-bats ago center fielder Rick Ankiel made his debut as a major-league outfielder, and tonight’s home run was his 18th since he made his return on August 9, 2007.  Track that statistics from that day forward and Ankiel ranks with baseball’s best sluggers — and one sudden star coming to town this week — in such numbers as homers, RBIs and slugging.

From August 9 until the start of…

GRAND CENTER — Bunkered in here at Channel 9’s studios, just a Jim Hayes’ Frisbee throw from the grand Fox Theater, and ready to see No. 2 hitter Yadier Molina step in against his favorite pitcher to see at his favorite away ballpark to hit.

And already Max Leinwand has brought up a question to wonder:

Who is the emergency catcher on this year’s team?

Molina grounds out while Max is asking. So, As Rick…

DOWNTOWN — A new spin on a couple old attempts here at the blog: We’re going to splice the pseudo-chat from the old days (before the advent of the new-fangled chats) with the live blogging from a couple weeks ago.

Voila! PostCards Live!

Will be joining the gang at FSN Midwest for tonight’s pre-game show. Then at first pitch, 7:05 p.m. St. Louis time, I will return here to ask questions and fire off thoughts…

TOWER GROVE — A day after watching on television as Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen riddled the Houston Astros with sinister curveballs for his fourth save of the season — another in a line of what were no-sweat saves — I was in Houston and asked Isringhausen why so many curves?

“I think it was only five,” Isringhausen said. “Not that many. But now if it jinxes me, I know who to blame. If it’s going…