Manager Tony La Russa was spending time with some of his best and furriest friends Thursday morning when his phone twittered. There are few calls that take him away from a tour of an animal rescue shelter or a conversation about the need to have and hold and save pets.

This was one.

“That was the White House,” the manager explained. “The President wants me to greet him at the airport.”

Post-Dispatch staff writer par excellence Elizabethe…

DOWNTOWN – Not too often the Cardinals wake up on the last day of April with a chance to make a little franchise history. But that’s the case today.

The Cardinals won their 17th game of April last night against the Reds. It came in a 7-2 victory that saw manager Tony La Russa tinker just enough with his lineup to add depth of power and watch it work. That win tied a franchise record for…

TOWER GROVE — What with two dugout-clearing donnybrooks this weekend and the ever-agitating Chicago Cubs coming to town this weekend with first place possibly up for grabs, this little island of three games against Cincinnati seemed so quaint, so tranquil.

Then Walt Jocketty used a most curious word.

Vendetta.

“Trust me,” he said at the press conference announcing his hiring as general manager of the Reds. “Me and (manager Dusty Baker) are very motivated. We’re…

JUPITER, Fla. — The location was an actual stadium, the hitters weren’t swinging aluminum bats this time, and the competition was a little more intense than, say, facing the Anteaters again, but Kyle Lohse still showed he’s been doing enough on his own that he’s game ready.

The Cardinals put their newest acquisition on the main field and against Class A hitters to see how far along he is and if they can accelerate him through two spring starts…

JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals healing ace Chris Carpenter threw a light bullpen off the mound Monday, his first trip up the hill since his failed attempt to pitch through bone spurs last season.

Carpenter threw 20 pitches to a squatting catcher, and did so at slightly more than halfspeed. He joked this morning that he wasn’t lobbing the ball, but wasn’t really “firing it” either. Just as importantly, he came to the clubhouse Tuesday with no…

JUPITER, Fla. — On the 17th pitch Anthony Reyes threw, a hitter finally got the ball out of the batting cage. And that was lofted foul.

In a 40-pitch session, three balls were put in fair territory.

Two fly balls. Both outs. One grounder up the middle. Probably a single.

Reyes’ second throw to hitters of spring was more eye-catching. It was, in the word of one Cardinals’ official onlooker, “very encouraging”. It was also…

DOWNTOWN — To hear Cardinals president Mark Lamping describe it, John Mozeliak stepped out of Walt Jocketty’s shadow the day after Jocketty was fired. That was in action. In word, Mozeliak spread his wings Tuesday during a staff meeting at Busch Stadium.

It was there that, according to Lamping, Mozeliak told staff members that any of the barriers, any of the burned bridges or hurt feelings or bruised relationships that had developed during the previous…

DOWNTOWN — When Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was asked about the qualities he saw in John Mozeliak that made him a good general manager candidate, La Russa looked over at the nattily dressed exec, smirked and said:

“Wears nice ties.”

That may be the case — and, with Mozeliak, the man most of us know as “Mo”, haberdashery is a calling card — but the Cardinals new general manager is far more than a…

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…

DOWNTOWN — The press conference held earlier this week at Busch Stadium answered one of the biggest question looming over the Cardinals and their 2008 season — Tony La Russa will return as manager. But that’s far from the last question facing the Cardinals.

Nor was it the only question answered Monday.

John Mozeliak, the interim general manager who is a candidate to be the club’s general manager, has been guaranteed a position in the…