JUPITER, Fla. — He had barely gotten through the injury update on Nomar Garciaparra with the assembled pen-and-paper crew when LA Dodgers manager Joe Torre lurched from his seat to greet the old friend leaning into the dugout.

It’s been a couple years since Torre got to see Red Schoendienst in uniform.

“This,” he said to anyone listening, “is the manager who taught me just about everything I know about this game.”

Torre arrived a few minutes later than planned for this afternoon’s game against the Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium. He and general manager Ned Colletti met this morning to discuss how they will address a sudden lack of depth at third base, a situation brought on by injuries to Garciaparra and Andy LaRoche within a few innings of Friday’s game. Those talks were all about the future. A lot of Torre’s talk with the media became about the past.

Blame those folks asking St. Louis questions.

“The interesting part about the Cardinals, is that I had been away from the game for six years,” Torre said when asked what the learning curve of his time as the Cardinals’ manager was. “I’m not too sure that if Dal Maxville wasn’t there that I would have gotten opportunity. We were teammates together (in St. Louis). He coached for me. Early on he had offered me the Triple-A job there, but I couldn’t afford to take that. Going back to St. Louis was where most of my success as a player was.”

Torre, an MVP for the Cardinals in 1971, returned to manage the Cardinals in 1990 and steered the Redbirds through some feather-plucked years. Three times he had a winning record but never were the Cardinals in the postseason under his watch. Most blame the roster and the situation, not the manager.

At first Torre said St. Louis wasn’t that long ago.

Then he recalled it was two stops ago. And, it should be said, four World Series titles.

“As a manager, you get an opportunity to manage another proud organization,” Torre said Saturday. ”Because of my success as a player it made a little more comfortable to go in there. We had certain limited limitations because the brewery, at that time, there was a certain budget that we had to live within. Sometimes it became a little tougher to compete because you really weren’t on a level playing field with everyone else when it came to the depth of what you did.

“You’d like to think you learn something about your trade every day,” Torre continues. ”I still look at St. Louis as a major part of my career.”

He left the Cardinals as a manager much as he left as a player.

Without fulfilling the reason he came.

When he was traded to the New York Mets after the 1974 season, Torre wrote a letter to Gussie Busch thanking him for having him as a player and “feeling bad we didn’t accomplish while I was there.” Well, he may not have accomplished a title while he was there, but he accomplished what put catapulted him to titles as a manager. Torre got a warm reception when he went out to exchange the lineup card before Saturday’s game, swapping paper with his good friend Bob Gibson – who visited Vero Beach, Fla., for several days with his son, Cardinals minor-leaguer Chris Gibson, on their way to Jupiter.

And then there was time chatting with Schoendienst on Saturday, introducing the Hall of Famer to players, like Russell Martin.

When he returned to the media to finish up on Garciaparra’s health, he apologized.

“Got to take care of your former manager,” he said.

***

And then Torre’s team trounced the Cardinals. It would be easy for the Cardinals to curse the wind, which had the flags stiff and pointed out to the building beyond the right field fence. The wind was fierce, turning fly balls into adventures and Brendan Ryan’s contacts inside out. It would be easy to blame the wind.

Except the pitching and defense was so bad.

The Cardinals committed three errors on the scoreboard and several more that won’t show up anywhere but the workout sheets in days to come, and they lost 20-6. Cesar Izturis had two errors in the field, Ryan Ludwick had one. Troy Glaus didn’t get near a grounder over his base and there were a handful of other foibles. Braden Looper allowed eight runs (seven earned) on five hits in 2 1/3 innings.

“That kind of game,” manager Tony La Russa said. “Mostly, just a tough day.”

***

Speaking of defense: In third inning, Yadier Molina scalded a grounder right back at Dodgers’ pitcher Greg Miller. The lefty flicked his foot at the ball and stopped it, soccer-style, as if he stabbed his cleats into the ball. … Former Cardinals Brian Falkenborg is scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers on Sunday.

***

So La Russa offers up that Dave Veres called to see if there was a chance he might pitch for a spot in the Cardinals’ bullpen. Looks like the former Cards reliever has called at least a couple teams, the Cardinals and the York (Pa.) Revolution. (”Dave really sought us out,” an exec there said.) Veres is part of what has to be a disconcerting trend for the Cardinals, no matter how you read it.

What’s it say about the public perception of their depth or their talent that David Wells thought the Cardinals was a good place to start his campaign for a job? Or, that Sidney Ponson tried out here (geography had a role, sure) and there was some discussion of keeping him around? And then Veres.

Internally, the Cardinals are not actively looking.

Externally, apparently some folks think they should be.

***

While describing how Gibson created and employed his aura of intimidation, Torre told a great story about how Pete Rose operated. Torre said Rose would chat up opposing pitchers during batting practice. “I understood what he was doing,” he said. Rose was making himself comfortable with the pitcher, so he was comfortable against the pitcher. He humanized the pitcher. Gibson, by contrast, would not allow for that to happen.

***

His overall line may not glisten in the box score, but Blake Hawksworth struck out five of the final six batters he faced Saturday.

***

Brian Barton continues to climb out of a pre-March funk. Maybe it was an indication of the knee surgery, more than anything. Since returning from the doctor and getting clearance to increase his work instead of hearing the swelling and soreness were red flares, Barton has thrived. He ripped a double and a triple Saturday, and his 14 total bases are second in the non-Pujols division. He raised his average to .381 after entering Saturday’s game as a pinch hitter for Colby Rasmus.

***

Last year the wind tamped down much of the offense on this side of Florida, artificially supressing the Cardinals’ offensive numbers while inflating those pitching hopes. The past couple days the wind had been blowing stiffly in the direction of offense. That is partially what Joel Pineiro’s performance Friday in Dodgertown so impressive and certainly made Braden Looper’s start Saturday at home so combustible.

The wind gusted so much Friday, even in Jupiter, that Brad Thompson launched a home run in pitchers BP.

“Oh, I watched it,” he said.

He then claimed that he never hit one in high school. He does not have one in his pro career either. But, listen to the wind blow.

-30-