TOWER GROVE — As one of a sweeping series of moves the Chicago Cubs made this morning as possible prelude to reviving a Jake Peavy deal, the Cubs’ signing of infielder Aaron Miles dredged up a familiar refrain, heard before from former Cardinals like him.

“I’m excited to be a Cubbie,” Miles told Chicago Cub beat writers on a conference call this afternoon. “Being a Cardinal was great and that part is over now. Now I’m ready…

TOWER GROVE — Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who guided the denizens of Wrigley Field to a league-best 97-64 record and their first back-to-back playoff appearances since 1908, won the National League Manager of the Year award in a vote of baseball writers announced this afternoon. The award is Piniella’s third Manager of the Year award, putting him one behind the record — jointly held by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Atlanta…

TOWER GROVE — Since his star turn in Colorado’s 2007 run to the National League pennant, outfielder Matt Holliday has been billed, quickly, as a slugger. That’s not an entirely accurate scouting report.

Holliday, whom the St. Louis Cardinals have eagerly pursued acquiring this past week, is first and foremost a pure hitter. He’s more likely to hit better than .320 than he is to hit 35 homers. In talking with baseball people the past couple…

SOUTH GRAND — The only thing worse than Major League Baseball moving toward the World Series becoming some sort of neutral-site circus would be to dismiss the idea entirely and ignore all of the suggestion its inspired.

Coming out of the rain-delayed 2008 World Series and staring at a 2009 postseason that likely won’t end until the first week of November, the drumbeat for change echoed around baseball coverage. “Neutral Site” was the new black. ESPN’s…

TOWER GROVE - The bountiful stats Ryan Ludwick put up this season, the career-high wins for pitchers like Kyle Lohse and even the radar readouts from rookie Jason Motte – as big as those numbers were, the digits that continue to define the Cardinals 2008 season are these: 31.

Everyone knows what that number is.

The first question of the Return of PostCards forces us to discuss what that number means. The Cardinals blew 31 saves this…

TOWER GROVE — Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones doesn’t have to take a swing this week with his balky right shoulder and he’ll likely edge Albert Pujols for his first career batting title. The numbers are too loaded in Jones’ favor for Pujols to catch up on his own.

He needs Jones to play.

Pujols has slipped well behind Jones after a 6-for-32 (.188) road trip that brings him home today to face Arizona. Pujols has also…

CHICAGO — The National League Central woke up this morning with four teams that had winning records and one club, the Chicago Cubs, poised to runaway with the division title, possibly winning it by at least 10 games. It is, arguably, the toughest division in baseball (the AL East objects!), and inarguably the toughest neighborhood in the National League.

“I said at the beginning of the year, we were going to get everybody’s attention,” manager Tony…

CHICAGO — Not to be lost in how the recent losing streak slowed — complicated? — the Cardinals push for a winning record this season, it may also have a damaged Albert Pujols’ MVP candidacy. Ryan Howard, he of 138 RBIs and a .248 batting average, seems to be gaining momentum in the minds of voters, and part of the reason is the triple-crown titles he’s likely to win.

He has 24 more RBIs than anyone…

CHICAGO — For years it’s loomed beyond left field, right there across Waveland and in perfect line of sight from the visitor’s dugout — a little slice of home for the visiting baseball team from St. Louis, as red as the Cardinal on their jerseys.

The “Budweiser Building,” or “Bud Roof,” has become part of the Wrigleyville skyline, an intruder in someways because of its intertwined roots with the Chicago Cubs’ rival, but also a celebrated…

PITTSBURGH — The Cardinals made a late-night switcheroo and reversed course on their pitching plans for this weekend series against the Pirates at PNC Park. Joel Pineiro is back as tonight’s starter — if there is need for a starter tonight, that is — and Brad Thompson has been shifted to Sunday.

The Cardinals had announced yesterday that the two would swap starts, thus setting up Pineiro to pitch Sunday here and then next weekend against…

MIAMI — Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter will return to St. Louis on Tuesday morning to meet with team doctors about the pain in his right arm that forced him out of Sunday night’s game after 66 pitches, a team official confirmed Monday.

Carpenter came to Dolphin Stadium this afternoon, met with the team’s trainers and had a closed-door meeting with manager Tony La Russa. Afterward, Carpenter said the right arm — specifically in the triceps area — was “still…

TOWER GROVE — Later this afternoon a Cubs booster club, the Westside Rooters, will gather for a parade to Wrigley Field and today’s game against the Cardinals — just as the same social club did 100 years ago, on the same date, 08-08-08.

It’s a number, rather a series of numbers, that has gained some significance for the North Siders and their rooters on all sides.

Hall of Famer Ernie Banks will be a part of the Westside…

TOWER GROVE — Sure Jim Edmonds was taken aback by Tony La Russa’s refusal to acknowledge his presence — or some sort of gamesmanship like that — this past week, but the former Cardinal quickly came up with a favorite response for fans.

During the Cubs’ batting practice on Saturday, a fan called out to Edmonds: “You used to be my favorite Cardinal.” Edmonds turned and said something to like he still could be, that becoming…

DOWNTOWN — The arrival of signature Cardinal and St. Louis restaurateur Jim Edmonds at Wrigley Field as the new Cub has overheated many a message board and blog. The standards in Chicagoland have all weighed in:

• Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan recalls a memorable trip around the bases with Edmonds.
• Chris De Luca calls it “a no-brainer” in the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Mizzou man Sullivan, again, with how Edmonds isn’t the only Cardinals import coming to Chicago — he’s going…

GRAND CENTER — Both Chicago papers are reporting that Jim Edmonds could be a Cub shortly after he flies off waivers this week, having been released over the weekend by San Diego. A signature Cardinal — one of several members of the 2004 pennant-winning team to have a tough weekend (Julian Tavarez, for example) — is said to be attractive to the Cubs as an option other than youngster Felix Pie in Wrigley Field’s center…