TOWER GROVE — The latest of the managers to experiment with the Tony La Russa-advocated lineup that has the pitcher batting eighth is none other than Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Joe Torre. During his visit to Busch Stadium in the past home stand, Torre even chided La Russa, saying that just as other managers are seeing the light of the Crazy 8 lineup, La Russa has abandoned it.

“Now that you’ve finally convinced me to hit…

DOWNTOWN — There was the play made up the middle in the ninth inning Tuesday that sent second baseman Skip Schumaker far to his right to glove the grounder and fire rapidly for the out. There was any of the three hits that Chris Duncan had, including his home run in the sixth inning. There was the single by Rick Ankiel, the save over the weekend by Ryan Franklin, the standout job at shortstop by…

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The New York Yankees second-biggest signing in a blockbuster offseason has corner real estate in the spacious clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field — perfect locale for CC Sabathia to survey all the drama that comes with wearing pinstripes.

The hulking lefty who powered Milwaukee to the postseason last year signed a seven-year, $161-million deal with the Yankees and is the face of a renovated pitching staff for baseball’s largest payroll. After talking a…

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…

JUPITER, Fla. — In the fallout of baseball’s nuclear winter of steroid revelations, apologies and denials, spring training has added a new tradition.

It’s the Mitchell moment.

During the first weeks of spring training, a handful of teams have had a player mentioned in the Mitchell Report arrive and answer a salvo of questions about being cited in the record of baseball’s Steroid Era. If it appears like more of those stories are coming out of Cardinals camp than others,…

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…

TOWER GROVE - Dr. Gary Wadler, a go-to expert on performance-enhancing drugs, could see the stampede of coverage coming. He knew the signs: Mitchell Report begets allegations, allegations beget denials, denials beget headlines, headlines beget Congressional attention …

And on.

And on.

A runaway blitz of attention  on steroids.

And that worried Wadler.

“I have this overriding concern that people will be tired of it,” the WADA chairman and NYU professor told me on the eve of the Mitchell Report’s…

NEAR BOULDER — There is a gentle blizzard outside, and that means fresh powder up in them there mountains. Not to be confused, of course, with the “dry powder” the Cardinals still have for this here roster.

By now the Colby Rasmus story from Wednesday’s paper has made the rounds.

It’s clear the Cardinals expect him to make a push for the major-league roster at some point in time this coming season. Could be spring. Could be…

TOWER GROVE — When baseball anthropologists exhume this point in history, carbon dating will show the steroid era transitioning into the straw-poll era.

It’s already started.

Before anyone could finish the second 100 pages of former Senator George Mitchell’s massive volume, reporters were cold-calling their peers for thoughts on the Hall of Fame voting. ESPN.com had a rundown on thoughts from voters, and its poll concluded that Roger Clemens – whose Cooperstown-bound career takes the Mitchell report…

TOWER GROVE — On Wednesday, some agents gathered in Manhattan, according to reports,  for what amounted to a weather report on the storm ahead for Major League Baseball and, excuse the pun, its juiciest time of year.

Turns out Alex Rodriguez isn’t the biggest name in baseball this winter.  

George Mitchell is.

Sometime before the end of the year, former Senator Mitchell is expected to release his report, 18 months in the making, on the past and…

TOWER GROVE — The line was long and the supply of shirts short, but my mother and I were undaunted in our pursuit.

The Colorado Rockies had revealed their logo the day before and we were out to get a T-shirt, one of the first ever made with our very own major-league baseball team’s logo. We hit a few Gart Bros., made our a trip all the way out to Cinderella City and then, back into…

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — He insisted that Rick Hummel ride next to him on the bus from hotel to induction. He called repeatedly over the past several weeks offering the scribe help on his speech. His fellow players saw the joy on the face, the pep in his step and the ease of his bearing.

He is Bruce Sutter and boy was he glad to be a year removed from his induction.

“I’ll tell you who the happiest…

DENVER — Oh for the blogs not written. Back when the Cardinals acquired Todd Wellemeyer from the waivers, a quick scan of his numbers over at the indispensible Baseball Cube revealed a bloggable kernel of information.

Hidden in the stats of a bona fide wild flamethrower, the clue was there for all to see:

12 G — 12 GS

Much more recently than Braden Looper and far more than Brad Thompson, Wellemeyer had 12 starts in Triple-A as recently…

TOWER GROVE — It began as an assignment and a curiousity and eventually inspired a walkabout into what-if history that would make Harry Turtledove proud.

My task was to write a story about the 500 home run club and if 500 still carried the sock, the wow that it has had since Babe Ruth became its first member on Aug. 29, 1929. My question was whether Jose Canseco should get more chatter for his Hall of…