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….

TOWER GROVE — The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s ballot for its Veterans Committee was announced this afternoon, and the names on the ballot are only slightly more notable than the names of the voters who receive the ballot.

Cardinal managers Whitey Herzog and Billy Southworth are on the ballot.

Bob Gibson, for example, is on a select committee that gets to vote on that ballot.

The ballot hints at how the Hall is trying…

TOWER GROVE — Something tells me the questions are just beginning for the Cardinals this offseason. There’s one big question looming — Where for art thou, Tony? — and many more to follow once we have that answer.

These are capital-Q questions, too.

But in the PostCards mailbag, all the questions are your questions. The first mailbag of the offseason hits on all the big issues. There’s a question about the rotation. There’s a couple…

TOWER GROVE — We temporarily interrupt the natural course of this mailbag to represent the many and different sides of the All-Star Game’s Pujols’ Pickle. After yesterday’s blog and yesterday’s coverage, the inbox at postcards@post-dispatch.com was loaded with questions and comments.

Today, comments. Back to questions tomorrow.

The fanbase is not as one-sided as so many of the chat rooms and message boards implied. Some side with La Russa, though all would have liked to see their mighty…

TOWER GROVE - The offseason starts with a question that may have been the theme of October and an answer that I wish I had handy during the postseason.At one point in time everyone covering the Cardinals mentioned that Game 1 of the NL Division Series was the first time the club had its lineup together. David Eckstein leading off. Albert Pujols batting third. Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds starting - at that same time! While…