A question for you about today’s front page:

Did it make any difference whether the top-of-page display on Chris Carpenter appeared over or under the St. Louis Post-Dispatch flag?

We considered the event newsworthy. Carpenter, the Cardinals’ star pitcher, returned to the mound for the first time in over a year after failed rehab attempts and elbow surgery. His performance yesterday was significant to Cardinals fans (and by extension Cubs and Brewers fans.) A successful outing — and most people were pleased by his four-inning performance — would make the Cardinals’ prospects for post-season play much brighter. A flop or reinjury would have left Cardinal Nation — a good chunk of the community — in a funk today.

So we thought prominent Page One notice was in order.

We decided to use a device we call a “container” — a photo with enough big and little words to convey the news and send readers to another section for more complete coverage. Containers most frequently appear on Sunday’s front page to signal strong content inside other sections. Containers often appear below the flag, in what we call the “page field,” where four news stories appear on a typical day.

Here’s what’s behind my question about its placement on today’s front page:

We decided that today’s container belonged above the Post-Dispatch flag because it dealt with a Sports story. Initially, the page designer had the item under the flag, above the highway inspections story that led the paper. We thought that position signaled too much significance for a Sports story. (”You think a Sports story is the most important thing in the world….” is a familiar refrain whenever a Sports story or container appears on Page One.)

Usually, we use the space above the flag for what we call a “skyteaser” — a promotional tool intended to get people to buy the paper at the store or from newsstands. Skyteasers tell would-be readers about  feature stories they wouldn’t expect to find in the paper. Readers expect us to cover the local sports teams. They wouldn’t necessarily know that today’s paper had a feature story on the Wiggles, so that was a candidate for the skyteaser. While the Millionaire Money promotion is taking place, we use the skyteaser space to remind readers that bills are inside.

So today we downsized the Millionaire Money skyteaser and used the space for a news container to Carpenter’s return.

As a reader, did it really matter whether it was over or under the St. Louis Post-Dispatch flag?