But 60 years later, the misguided tradition of forcing our “picks” on the reading public lives on.

The Post-Dispatch Sports Department is no exception. A special section in Saturday’s dead-tree edition will include staff guesses for the outcome of the Arch Rivalry game between No. 6 Mizzou and No. 20 Illinois at the Dome.

Here’s a sneak peak at a few of them:

Columnist Bernie Miklasz: Missouri 34, Illinois 26

Columnist Bryan Burwell: Missouri 41, Illinois 21

Assistant sports editor Cameron Hollway: Illinois 23, Missouri 20

Perhaps owing to our prediction of a 2-14 season for the Rams in 1999, your STL Sports Nation correspondent was not invited to participate. But they can’t shut us out on STLtoday.com, so we’re here to tell you that Burwell knows what he’s talking about. “A bully for Ol’ Mizzou,” which will win 48-27.

What about you? Post your game predictions and a one-sentence comment below. Do the right thing: keep it clean, and show us that your command of the English language exceeds that of the typical Kansas or Iowa graduate.

Sure, it’s preseason. Nope, you won’t be buying those jerseys off stlouisrams.com. Yeah, it’ll be tough to watch.

BUT IT’S FOOTBALL! Think of it like a minor league game with an All-Star (or old timers, if it suits your style) exhibition before it. It’s still football!

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on KTVI-Ch. 2. Pregame starts one half-hour earlier. As for the best of the rest:

CARDINALS get three with the used-to-be-mighty Atlanta Braves at Busch. Friday (7:15 p.m.) and Sunday (1:15 p.m.) games are on FSN Midwest and sandwiched around a FOX (Ch. 2) Saturday broadcast at 2:55 p.m.

CLOSING ceremonies for the XXIX Olympiad are set for Sunday night at 6 p.m. on NBC. No word yet on whether the end will feature more fireworks digital stunt doubles.

THREE more preseason games hit the TV airwaves this weekend: CBS (KMOV-Ch. 4) carries Houston at Dallas at 7 p.m. on Friday and Steelers-Vikings at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday rounds out with an Buffalo vs. Indianapolis game on the NFL Network.

As always, check out the Post-Dispatch Weekend Sports On The Air listings for the rest of the TV coverage.

Until next week. . .

Edwards was the fastest race-car driver at the Pennsyvania 500 at Pocono. Sunday’s Sprint Cup win vaulted him two places in the Chase for the Cup, although a move from fifth to third may just be academic, presuming he’s a postseason lock for the Sprint Cup championship. There are five races left and the last one at Richmond International Raceway on Sept. 6 may just sort out the Top 12.

Here’s coverage from Sunday’s event.

The Reading Eagle at readingeagle.com: “Edwards rewarded after rolling the dice during the rain” by staff writer Evan Jones. He also had a notebook, leading wtih Tony Stewart, but also including an Edwards item.

The (Allentown, Penn.) Morning Call at mcall.com: “Edwards gambles, wins” by staff writer Keith Groller. He also has leftover notes in his Groller’s Corner blog, if only to check out the photo of him with an STL Sports Nation legend. Go crazy folks!

The Scranton (Penn.) Times Tribune at scrantontimes.com: “Gamble pays off for Edwards at Pocono” by staff writer Scott Walsh. Check out more race coverage from Walsh’s Goin’ Green blog.

This story sounds like the sequel to the highly successful Rick Ankiel pitching retirement with one major omission. Loewen’s struggles have solely been physical, apparently without the control issues, in deciding to leave the pitching mound for the outfield grass.

Loewen’s star, or at least his potential, fell much farther. He was the O’s top draft pick in 2002 (No. 4 overall) compared to Ankiel who was a second-round selection for the Cards in 1997.

The story on the BaltimoreOrioles.com site cites Ankiel’s example. “Both Loewen and (Orioles president Andy) MacPhail repeatedly referenced Rick Ankiel, who endured a similar odyssey before finding success as an outfielder with the Cardinals,” writer MLB.com reporter Spencer Fordin. He also fielded a Loewen/Ankiel question in his Mailbag report from Monday.

Also check out Monday’s Ask BA on BaseballAmerica.com with Jim Callis, who takes a look back at scouting information on Loewen in ‘02. Finally, look at “O’s Loewen finished as a pitcher” by Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun on baltimoresun.com.

DOOLING MOVES UP THE ATLANTIC

Former Mizzou player Keyon Dooling will suit up with the New Jersey Nets next season after a contentious couple weeks over his contract status with the Orlando Magic. Read “N.J. Nets’ sign-and-trade deal for Dooling is official” by the Associated Press on nj.com and also “Magic trade Dooling to New Jersey“ by Kyle Hightower of the Orlando Sentinel on OrlandoSentinel.com.

FARMHAND TUESDAY

Hopefully as the rehabilitation assignments keep coming, Farmhand Tuesday will be positive status reports for returning Cardinals. Let’s start that tradition out right and check out the Cardinals Corner blog reports from Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader Cardinals reporter Kary Booher. Read also his “Carpenter delivers four innings in rehab start” and “All eyes on Carpenter here at Hammons” entries and post your comments.

Bright and early at 6 a.m. will be live third-round action from The Open Championship across the pond at Royal Birkdale. TNT carries the first two hours of coverage, when ABC (KDNL-Ch. 30) picks it up from there. Sunday’s final round has the same networks covering, but start times are an hour earlier (5 a.m.-TNT; 7 a.m.-ABC).

Ending the night will be live coverage of the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Nationwide Series race, live and under the (moon)lights of Gateway International Raceway in Madison. Green flag drops at 8:30 p.m. on The Deuce (ESPN2).

Sprinkled in between are the three other games of the Cards-Padres four-game series. FSN Midwest carries Friday’s 7:15 p.m. game, followed by Saturday’s 2:55 p.m. start on FOX (KTVI-Ch. 2) and concluding with a 1:15 p.m. game Sunday on KDSK-Ch. 5.

Check out the rest of the weekend’s local sports programming on the More Sports page of STLtoday.com where the Post-Dispatch Weekend Sports On The Air listings can be found. Until next week…

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like ties either, but if you’re not going to have neutral-site championships, a la the Super Bowl, at least come up with regular-season solution, like head-to-head (put the interleague schedule to use beyond TV ratings and imposed rivalries), best overall record or records vs. common opponents — again like the NFL.

Baseball could take a cue or two from football. They’ve got a pretty good following for their sport. At least the All-Star MVP vote is another opportunity for the fans to help choose the game’s best player.

Anyway, here’s a couple of items of note from the citizenry. I’m still looking for more coverage of St. Louis indoor soccer goalie Slobo Ilijevski from other sites, but the Post-Dispatch’s very own Denice M. Santangelo has a terrific story on his life right here on STLtoday.com.

JL III has handed out his baseball mid-season awards in a blog post on FoxSports.com MLB page. Don’t know exactly who JL III is, but the writer — ID’d as “John” in a bio — has enough knowledge to name Albert Pujols his NL MVP of the first half. A slightly more recognizable name — ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark — also has Pujols and Cards manager Tony La Russa honored, as well as P Mark Mulder for a not-so-good citation, in his first-half best/worst roundup.

Also, check out this quick shot on former Mizzou basketball Tiger Keyon Dooling and his contract status with the NBA’s Orlando Magic. The item, from CNNSI.com’s FanNation Truth&Rumors site, was generated by a Florida Today story from Tuesday.

We also checked out the MLB rumblings sites for SI.com, SportingNews.com, FoxSports.com and ESPN.com (Insider registration required) and found little to nothing on the home team. Serves us right: Cardinal Nation rumor central — Cards Talk — keeps the best and timely tabs on trade talk leading up to every July 31.

Finally, former Blue Dallas Drake announced his retirement from the NHL on Tuesday. Here’s hoping he’s not taking post-professional sports career advice from Packers QB (for now?) Brett Favre. Here’s the coverage from the Detroit News at detnews.com and the Detroit Free Press at freep.com.

It’s enough to make a Cardinals fan gag, despite the obvious superiority of the STL franchise. Hey, the Cardinals can figure out how to win a World Series even when they have no business being in the postseason (2006).

So, here at STL Sports Nation, we’ve got two words for the Cubs:

“Who cares?”

Even in the unlikely event that the Cubs overcome the Billy Goat Curse and purge the haunting memories of Leon Durham, Shea’s black cat, Steve Bartman and June swoons, what will your team have proved by winning once in 100 seasons?

So, we’ve got two more words for the Cubs:

“Ten rings.”

Call us when you’ve reached double digits in World Series championships, like the Cardinals. Should happen by 2908 at this pace.

What about you, Birds-On-The-Bat fans? How do you complete this sentence?

“I’ve got two words for the Cubs: ___ ___ ”

Post your “I’ve got two words for the Cubs” response below. (And if you’re a Cubs fan who just can’t resist, we’re also accepting “I’ve got two words for the Cardinals” responses.)

Please do the right thing: show us that your command of the language exceeds that of the typical Wrigley Bleacher Bum. Resist the urge to use the F-bomb-and-pronoun combo, as well as the middle-school-ish “Cubs (stink).”

On Tuesday, I caught the McGwire/USA Today article thread started by Jwither in Cards Talk and could hardly refuse the chance to comment. Monday’s USA Today story, “McGwire maintains silent presence, quietly helps hitters”, by Bob Nightengale was solid reporting and a good read. Don’t know if it was to recall, rehash or celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Home Run Chase (where’s the Sammy Sosa piece?), but it still shows that reporters and fans still have a Big Mac interest, as demonstrated by the nearly 200 comments on the story, with many STILL coming down on him for alleged steroids use. That gets to me, and I’ve never made it a secret that it does.

Again, I’m an innocent-until-proven-guilty guy. The key being “proven” in what some may call tired, old rhetoric. Naysayers ALWAYS point to Andro. Hindsight, after-the-fact guilt isn’t justice. If it was important for baseball to ban it, they should have done so before, not after they let players take it without recourse. His 2005 St. Patrick’s Day testimony before Congress? Regrettable, but NOT proof!

Find me proof — REAL proof — then I’ll change my tune. Until then, remember the season, remember the career and remember the impact Mark David McGwire had on baseball in St. Louis and the game’s best fans.

* * * * * *

When June 2008 ended Monday, it signaled the Rams Training Camp countdown from months and weeks to weeks and days. Not lost on the fact was a pair of postings from chaos3430 on the home team with SportingNews.com articles to share with the Rams Talk fans. One post submitted a Vinnie Iyer blog article, “Rams’ burning question: A much better show on turf?”, reviewing and previewing the 2007 and 2008 seasons. The other post highlighting, “Camp Countdown ‘08: St. Louis Rams”, by Post-Dispatch Rams beat writer Jim Thomas, for the Sporting News Rams coverage.

Mr. Spock-type thinking leads to this logic: the Rams have nowhere to go but up. But in reality, there’s always the 2007 Miami Dolphins, they of the 0-13 start and 1-15 season. I think the ‘08 Rams have to be a playoff team, or a fan revolt will be in order.

Maybe after today’s New York Times article by reporter Ben Shpigel, he won’t be so overlooked as the Cards’ power bat not named Albert Pujols. Hopefully it won’t take an against-the-odds invite to the 2008 All-Star game in the Bronx for more fans to get to know him. A thank-you to Post-Dispatch copy editor Alan Fredman for leading us to the story.

“Ludwick, a righthanded hitter, has already established career highs in home runs (16) and runs batted in (56), and despite a 5-for-37 slide, he remains among the league’s more productive hitters,” Shpigel writes.

FARMHAND TUESDAYS

“Parisi makes pitch to go back to St. Louis” by Brian Brasher of the Memphis Commercial Appeal on commercialappeal.com.

“Slugger’s bat returns to life” on Springfield Cardinals’ third baseman Allen Craig by Kary Booher of the Springfield News-Leader on the Cardinals Corner blog  at news-leader.com.

“Cardinals farm director likes system’s progress” by Steve Batterson of the Quad-City Times at qctimes.com.

“Royals hope worst is behind them as they gear up for I-70 Series against Cardinals” by Bob Dutton on kansascity.com.

“Cardinals’ Duncan among the best at helping pitchers” by Bradford Doolittle on kansascity.com. Check out his DoolittleBrothers.com blog too.

FARMHAND TUESDAYS

“Cardinals quietly celebrate their first-half Florida State League title” By Chuck King, special to the Palm Beach Post on palmbeachpost.com.

“River Bandits ready to show skills at all-star game” by Steve Batterson of the Quad-City Times on qctimes.com.

“Halfway there — Cards beat Travs, stave off eliminaton” by Springfield News-Leader writer Kary Booher on his Cardinals Corner blog at news-leader.com. Also check out “Cards force first-half title game”, previewing tonight’s game.

“Reyes feels left out of Cards’ plans” by Marlon W. Morgan of the Memphis Commercial Appeal on commercialappeal.com.

Finally, the minor league All-Star games are gearing up. The Florida State League (Palm Beach Cardinals) played theirs Saturday night and the Midwest League (Quad Cities River Bandits) takes the field tonight. Here’s the full schedule of the rest of the games for the various league. Also here’s an MiLB.com preview page for four short-season leagues. Of note to the citizenry is the New York-Penn (Batavia Muckdogs) and Appalachian (Johnson City Cardinals) Leagues.