TOWER GROVE — As I waded through various research projects this offseason, a fluke of clutter provided a jolt of inspiration. There, nosed up against one another in the flotsam of loose and scattered legal pads and books, was my scorecard from Opening Day 2001 at Coors Field and a Cardinals encyclopedia-of-sorts opened to Rogers Hornsby’s page.

As a sidebar jockey for The Rocky Mountain News in 2001, I was at Coors Field to cover Mike Hampton’s brilliant debut…

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…

TOWER GROVE — When I found myself trying to decide between Miguel Batista and Aaron Cook as my No. 5 starter while others were wondering if Cy Young or Steve Carlton would fill out their rotation or whether Randy Johnson has a place in their bullpen, I knew I was out of my league.

In the coming weeks, we’ll have Opening Day of the Seamheads.com Historical Baseball League. Bill James’ all-time Boston Red Sox roster will face Curt…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick, fresh from the official announcement that he had won a Silver Slugger to punctuate his breakout season, was headed to the gym. The spoils of this season are swell, but he has no interest in being a one-hit wonder.

He even used this past week of rumors, reports and headlines to explain why.

“I think it’s an honor just to be named in the same place as Matt…

TOWER GROVE — For the St. Louis Cardinals, there is a bemusing whiff of irony to the Oakland Athletics deal for Colorado outfielder Matt Holliday that goes beyond the Cardinals’ interest in landing the All-Star outfielder from the Rockies.

Get this: The Cardinals helped provide the A’s with players used to complete the deal.

No joke. It all started way back in the winter before 2005 …

Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty wanted to hoist his pennant-winning team to…

TOWER GROVE — While reading the coverage of the deal sending Colorado Rockies outfielder and recent Cardinals-target Matt Holliday to Oakland — from the news of the trade, to the players headed to Denver, to Drew Litton’s cartoon — one thing stands out.

There isn’t a Ryan Ludwick in the bunch.

Any time there is a deal of this nature, especially one that we know the St. Louis Cardinals were interested/involved in, it offers up an opportunity to truly…

CREVE COEUR — When officials decided on the setting for the climate-controlled humidor at Coors Field — the machine geared to take the “mile high” out of mile-high offensive numbers — they decided to dial up Missouri. The humidor is set to 70 degrees and 50-percent humidity, the exact same specs Rawlings uses at its plant where official baseballs are stored here, in Missouri.

Maybe that explains how Matt Holliday has hit so well at Busch…

TOWER GROVE — Gentlemen, start your transactions.

General managers from around baseball are converging at AIG’s favorite hangout in Dana Point, Calif., today and all week for the first round of window-shopping and swap-talking. Unlike last year when the pitching market was headlined by Carlos Silva and trades were the currency of winter, this offseason has the high-watt free agents (CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez) and the superstar trade chips (Jake Peavy and Matt Holliday). There…

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 — As if the first major-league team ever to call the Mountain Time Zone home wasn’t enough in April 1993, the Colorado Rockies decided to pick up a gift for the baseball-starved region on their way back from spring training: Dale Murphy.

For those of us who grew up opening wax packs — when some still had bubble gum, buddy — or thumbing the red off the controller while playing RBI Baseball, Murphy was…

TOWER GROVE — I watched Bob Costas’ interview with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron the other day, and while the whole of the interview is brilliant there was a line from it I couldn’t shake. Costas said if there were a Mt. Rushmore for baseball — and why isn’t there, already? — Mays and Aaron would both be on it. Presumably Babe Ruth would be riding shotgun.

That leaves a fourth, the Teddy Roosevelt spot.

Does Teddy…

TOWER GROVE – By not playing at all or only seeing limited duty as a pinch hitter this weekend, Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones will almost certainly avoid what happened to him a year ago.

Barring one memorable weekend by Albert Pujols, that is.

Last season, Colorado’s Matt Holliday edged Jones on the final weekend for the National League batting title. The chase technically went down to game No. 163, in which the Rockies defeated San Diego for the wild-card tiebreaker….

TOWER GROVE — True to the scouting report that had him hitting well at home this season (.400), hitting well against Colorado in his career (.313) and pounding the opposing pitchers (.358), Atlanta’s Chipper Jones raked his way back into the batting title lead with a 6-for-12 series against the Rockies. That thrust him a few points ahead of Albert Pujols, .362 to .360.

This weekend, it’s Pujols’ turn to play the splits.

As mentioned earlier this week,…

GRAND CENTER — There were only eight games scheduled Monday around the majors, and not one had the look of must-see TV.

Once San Diego Padres righthander Jake Peavy was scratched from his start against the Cardinals, the day lacked a bona fide ace — though Tampa Bay’s James Shields would qualify if he had the Q-rating to match his ERA. Only two of the eight games featured two teams with winnings records pitted against each…