TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan believe not all pitches are created equal. That is why La Russa often bats away questions about a pitcher being on a short-leash with a pitch count or a pitcher being allowed to blow by the mythical (and misleading) labrum-barrier of 100 pitches.

There are high-stress pitches. There are breezy innings. They do count the same.

Both are part of the internal…

TAMPA, Fla. — In the days that followed the release of the Mitchell Report in December 2007, I spoke with a player mentioned in the report and asked about how he was going to explain it to his kids before they heard about it at school. He said when the time was right he would tell them the whole truth. It was only fair to give them the facts.

What works at home, works at large,…

TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals sudden and curious move to release Adam Kennedy on the eve of spring training leaves them with a hole at second base and an open casting call for the job.

So, it’s business at usual down in Jupiter.

With all due respect to the St. Louis Blues, whose revolving door in goal was chronicled and counted in this morning’s paper by Dan O’Neill (ah, where have you gone Tom Barrasso?), the real…

TOWER GROVE — Newest first-ballot Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson will speed into Cooperstown as the all-time man of steal (no one is close), the all-time leader in runs scored (the chief goal of the game) and arguably the finest leadoff hitter in history. He will not however reach the Hall as the best single-season power hitter of the rarest breed of ballplayer — the bats-right, throws-left big leaguer.

Ryan Ludwick saw to that.

This afternoon’s announcement that Henderson…

SOUTH GRAND — So much of what the Cardinals consider doing and end up doing this offseason to improve their roster will be watched and judged through the Chris Carpenter prism.

When Carpenter is healthy, so are the Cardinals’ chances.

When he is not … Well, that is the question presented to the Cardinals this season as they choose whether they will build a team on the hope that Carpenter won’t be limited by the nettlesome nerves…

TOWER GROVE — What he’s already earned for his arm, former Cardinal Dizzy Dean may now get for his voice. The Gas House Gang’s ace and Hall of Famer is one of 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick Award, given annually by Cooperstown for excellence in baseball broadcasting.

The finalists for the award were announced Monday afternoon by the National Baseball Hall of Fame after tabulating the results of a fan vote used to round…

TOWER  GROVE — By now you’re probably weary of odes to Yankee Stadium — the long rhapsodies of writers saying farewell to our coliseum, the soft-focus interviews and wall-to-wall coverage of dirt-scooping and hand-print making, the video montages of cathedral memories from Spike Owen, Roberto Kelly, and Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens and other Yankee greats.

But there is one angle not yet covered about the condemned ballpark in the Bronx.

The Cardinals owned that place.

It was the launchpad…

TOWER GROVE — Former Cardinal Joe Torre, a Hall of Fame manager by any stretch of the definition, is one of 10 former players announced this afternoon as finalists for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame through the new veterans’ selection process.

Cooperstown announced the list Tuesday, and the 10 finalists will be considered by the Veterans Committee for induction in July 2009. They will need to get 75 percent of the vote from…

TOWER GROVE — Ten former major-league players, all of whom began their careers before 1942 and (excuse the editorial comment) none more deserving than Joe Gordon, are finalists for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the list includes former St. Louis Browns shortstop and All-Star Vern Stephens.

On Monday, Cooperstown announced the list, which was compiled by a select committee of baseball writers that includes the Post-Dispatch’s own Hall of Famer Rick Hummel. According to…

TOWER GROVE — Back before he was an All-Star and well before he began slugging his way into the records (yes, that’s right, do read on), Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick once found his name inked into the leadoff spot. Manager Tony La Russa gave a simple reason for putting Ludwick’s punch in the No. 1 slot.

“I thought about Rickey Henderson,” he said, “to be honest with you.”

As Ludwick will tell you, it ain’t his speed…

PITTSBURGH — For all of the undrafted, unclaimed and unwanted players who float through independent baseball looking for a break, meet Justin Christian. You’ll find him sitting there, pulling on his road grays, four lockers down from Derek Jeter.

Four years ago he was playing ball in O’Fallon, Mo. Now he calls the Bronx home.

“It’s definitely been an arduous road for me,” Christian said Thursday afternoon while getting ready for the New York Yankees one-night stand at PNC Park….

DOWNTOWN — For parts of four decades Cardinals’ pitching coach Dave Duncan has been a coach at the big-league and this season is his 29th a pitching coach, the most by any person every to hold the position. Manager Tony La Russa is fond of saying that most of the game is pitching and that Duncan handles all of the pitching decisions.

So when La Russa goes into Cooperstown, Duncan will surely go …

Fishing.

Many of the…

TOWER GROVE — Manager Tony La Russa did not bemoan his team’s lost five runs or even the possibility that rain washed away a potential victory for the Cardinals on Monday night. Nor did Albert Pujols seem particularly miffed that weather stole a solo home run from him. It happens, both said. Rules of the game, they said.

Mother Nature is an unforgiving official scorer.

Ask The Man.

In 1948, Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial had what ranks…

DODGERTOWN, Fla. — On the first pitch he saw in his first game back since leaving his first game as a Marlin with a hamstring injury, Cameron Maybin roped a single.

And so continues a minor subplot around baseball this spring.

The arrival of the Center Fielders, Class of ‘05.

Maybin, taken 10th overall in 2005 draft, was the first of six center fielders taken in that first round, several of whom could be the opening day starters…

TOWER GROVE — Finally, a baseball player is pointing his finger with a purpose.

In a refreshing take on the news bombarding baseball this winter, Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell – who has a World Series MVP to stand on when he makes comments – told The Associated Press he knows what it’s like to play under suspicion of use. He also wondered, directly, why baseball players are subjected to different standards:

“I’m not sensitive to it, because I’m…