CAIRO — During the tour-bus caravan to Giza and the Pyramids, two British friends of mine sat near an American who recited that widespread legend of how the Sphinx lost its nose and  tsk-tsk’d the members of British military for daring to use the Sphinx for target practice.  Thanks to me, my friends were armed with a response.

That may be so, they said, but it was Americans who pelted it with baseballs.

Timed my reading of…

TOWER GROVE — By definition, any list of the top 10 or top 30 prospects within the St. Louis Cardinals system is flawed. The concept itself has one glaring weakness: Cardinals prospects are compared only against Cardinals prospects, leaving the reader to wonder if a top-10 talent here is a top-five talent in Cleveland? Maybe a top 20 talent in Boston … and so on.

Rankings prospects within an organization has value. It just doesn’t have…

TOWER GROVE — Before we get to the final spot in the Bird Land Community Top 30, we should first discuss the top spots in another ranking of the St. Louis Cardinals’ system. Kevin Goldstein, the accomplished minor-league expert and pundit over at Baseball Prospectus, released his Cardinals Top 11 on Wednesday and said what we’ve been saying all along: “Spots one through four are almost too easy, but it’s a bit messy from there…

LAS VEGAS — In their past 420 games, a stretch that reaches all the way back deep into that golden season of 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals have had a grand total of ZERO games started and won by a lefthanded pitcher.

Since Mark Mulder won his start on June 15, 2006, the Cardinals have trotted out Mike Maroth, Randy Keisler, Jaime Garcia and Mulder (a few times) to make starts. That group has made 15 starts total…

TOWER GROVE — In this crowded field of mailbags and Q&As and message boards and chats and blogs there are only so many questions about Skip Schumaker playing second base to fuel so many different give-and-take platforms. Good thing PostCards has Frank Fuhrig.

The mailbag was loaded with questions answered better elsewhere or answered often before, but on election day into the hopper Fuhrig fired this gem: Who manages the St. Louis Cardinals in 2010?

The poll…

TOWER GROVE — Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who guided the denizens of Wrigley Field to a league-best 97-64 record and their first back-to-back playoff appearances since 1908, won the National League Manager of the Year award in a vote of baseball writers announced this afternoon. The award is Piniella’s third Manager of the Year award, putting him one behind the record — jointly held by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Atlanta…

TOWER GROVE — Tonight baseball returns you to your regularly scheduled programming live from Philadelphia with a 2-2 tie, 3 1/2 innings to play, a Phillies pinch hitter coming to the plate and beer sales about to close.

It will be the first abbreviated World Series game, a vacuum-packed sprint of late-game strategy with a championship on the line. Perfect for sitcom-sized snacking.

It’s already been good for a few laughs.

But as the World Series sputters and…

SOUTH GRAND — Would have had the weekly PostCards posted much earlier this morning if the first question — from the sharp, witty and ever-adept keyboard of regular Frank Fuhrig, of course — had not been as much a homework assignment as a question.

It’s written less for a mailbag and more for a syllabus.

One element of the St. Louis Cardinals’ interest/chances in landing San Diego ace Jake Peavy is the amount of money the Cardinals…

SOUTH GRAND — While first baseman Albert Pujols continues his postseason looting of baseball’s various trophies, outfielder Ryan Ludwick scored a nod for his breakout — perchance, breakthrough — season with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ludwick, a National League All-Star this past summer, was selected to Sporting News’ National League All-Star team, the magazine’s editor announced this afternoon. The Sporting News, which used to be based in St. Louis, selected Pujols as the All-NL first baseman…

TOWER GROVE — On Friday night in Miami, New York Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran creamed a pitch from Marlins closer Kevin Gregg for a two-out, last-strike, game-winning grand slam. Then in the afterglow of his big hit in a big moment for the October-chasing Mets, Beltran marked his celebration with an admission.

He said he still thinks about Adam Wainwright’s curveball.

“As a player, you always dream to be in a situation like that,” Beltran reportedly…

TOWER GROVE — During their four-game sweep of the Cardinals back in July, the Milwaukee Brewers’ brand of celebration caught eyes on the other side of the field and in the stands. After the final out of the game, the Brewers would whip out the tails of their jerseys emphatically and then go about the customary glove slaps, hand shakes, hugs and fist pounds.

The untucking of the jerseys has become a bit of a Brewer…

TOWER GROVE — Started watching the documentary on Ireland’s National Baseball Team late the other night, and from the opening frame there’s a St. Louis connection.

Mike Kindle, the President of Baseball Ireland and the first person you see in “The Emerald Diamond”, is a St. Louis native, a Cardinals’ fan dipped in red and devoted, and it was his interest in a car sticker about a national softball association that the movie identifies as the…

TOWER GROVE — A chorus of sources in the past couple weeks have all belted the same tune when it comes to the Cardinals: Any discussion with the local club about possible trades starts with the understanding Colby Rasmus ain’t going anywhere.

Scouts have said it. Other beat writers have heard it. We’ve reported it.

When reports in Pittsburgh — including this one from the Post-Gazette’s beat writer Dejan Kovacevic – surfaced yesterday that Jason Bay “could be…

DOWNTOWN — Coming down off his mini-rant Tuesday about the bullpen taking the hit for an offense not supplying them, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa softened his tone for a little gallows humor.

Referencing the final two games of the series and the troubles his offense has had scoring, La Russa said it shouldn’t be a problem generating more runs against “a couple Triple-A pitchers they have coming up.” He was, of course, kidding. The starters…

TOWER GROVE — Manager Tony La Russa met with reliever Jason Isringhausen before Monday’s game to talk about more than just Sunday’s ninth-inning mess. La Russa expressed an opinion that he said the night before and was about to offer publicly: Isringhausen is scuffling because he’s “distracted.”

He’s thinking about the role he wants, not the role he has, La Russa suggested.

He’s thinking about getting eight more saves, not the one at hand.

“My two cents is, No….