DOWNTOWN — One of the elements of his decision that preoccupied Tony La Russa as he considered whether to return as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals was message vs. messenger. He mentioned that this afternoon as he explained how he came to weigh whether his message had grown tired or if the players had grown tired of the messenger, no what he had to say.

In his press conference, the video of which is below,…

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…

TOWER GROVE — Out in San Francisco tonight, Giants ace and reigning Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum pitches against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers with a chance to assert his bid for the pitching Triple Crown. Lincecum takes the league’s best ERA into the game at 2.20, has a chance to tie for the league lead in wins (he has 12 now), and only add to his league lead in strikeouts (his 198 are 27…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols has batted nine times this season with the bases loaded. By definition, that means there have been 18 runners in scoring position for Pujols to drive in. Eighteen.

In those nine at-bats, Pujols has 24 RBIs.

The max he could drive in from those at-bats is 36.

After his record-tying grand slam last night at Citi Field, Pujols improved this season to 7-for-9 with the bases loaded. He…

CREVE COEUR — San Francisco Giants lefthander, future Hall of Famer and 303-game winner Randy Johnson left a 0-2 pitch over the plate and Albert Pujols pounced. He launched the ball some 445 feet — more on that shortly — on a trajectory that, to the first-glance eye, appeared to go where no ball had gone before.

At first, it looked bound for the undiscovered country of Clark Street.

“I think the ball will probably be landing…

MANHATTAN — With the ninth grand slam of his career and the third of this season, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols did more than send manager Tony La Russa to his 2,500th career win, did more than give the Cardinals a series sweep in Kansas City, and did more than assert his place atop the league leaders in home runs and RBIs.

He tied Stan Musial.

According to the stats kept at Baseball Almanac by home…

SOUTH GRAND — The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen inherited four innings of work and a one-run lead Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs and turned it into a victory. It was a large-scale example of what the bullpen has been doing remarkably well within individual innings all season.

Say this about the Cardinals’ relievers: They are stingy with their inheritance.

When the Cardinals and general manager John Mozeliak set out to rebuild the bullpen, one of the…

TOWER GROVE — This past spring training, Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon leaned against the railing atop the visitors’ dugout at Roger Dean Stadium and explained the challenge he presented his entire team. He wanted a Gold Glove winner at every position.

He told the media — and likely his team — that the area of the game you can control the best is defense. And, with the speed and athleticism the Rays had scattered around…

TOWER GROVE — Veteran reliever Russ Springer had to be on his toes when warming up with teammate Ryan Franklin because he didn’t know what pitch Franklin would fire next. Could be the splitter. Could be the knuckler. Could just be that everyday forkball that Franklin would uncork every so often.

By his count, Franklin had as many of eight pitches (maybe nine) he could throw, and several of them he threw well enough and were…

JUPITER, Fla. — Before approaching St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Skip Schumaker with the first question usually asked on the P-DQ, I knew the answer.

It’s written on Schumaker’s shoulder, tattoed as if to frame his deltoid.

While most of the players have recited some quick phrase of wisdom or some encouraged virtue when it comes to answering what parental advice stays with them, Schumaker quoted a family motto. It’s something the Schumakers have said since Skip was…

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,…

JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, in the wake of another steroid-revelation quake to disrupt spring training, said that baseball must act immediately to save the game’s integrity with its fan base that only a “zero tolerance” policy will be good enough.

“I would have to agree with those who said no ifs, ands or buts — zero tolerance,” La Russa said on the first day of Cardinals’ spring training. “It should be zero…

DOWNTOWN — The first wave of St. Louis Cardinals players have had their moments behind the media room podium here Sunday in Day 2 of the Winter Warm-up, and the Twitter feed (dgoold) has been the quickest way to get out the comments and the news (such as it is). But many are worth repeating here, like a shotgun look at what’s been said and who’s saying it here:

Snippets from the feed — the Warm-up in…

DOWNTOWN — Former Cardinals first baseman and slugger Mark McGwire wakes up this morning not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as expected, but still clinging to a primo spot in career home run list, firmly in the top 10. That too could be fleeting.

McGwire’s 583 home runs rank eighth all-time, nestled between Hall of Famer Frank Robinson (586) and Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew (573). When next the tenured members of the Baseball Writers Association…

LAS VEGAS — Given the chance to celebrate and comment on Rickey Henderson’s appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa also seized the opportunity to stump for another dynamo member of his Oakland Athletics teams who will be on the ballot.

On his third try, Mark McGwire belongs in the Hall of Fame, La Russa believes.

It’s a matter a of “integrity.”

“This steroid issue, that’s a matter of integrity,…