The retirement on Saturday night of Whitey Herzog's 24, the number he wore as Cardinals manager for all but his first season with them, when he wore No. 3, marked the 11th number retired by Cardinals management. That includes the No. 85 for former club president Gussie Busch when, in fact, he turned 85 in 1984.

Of the Cardinals numbers we see today, enjoy seeing No. 5 and No. 10 because those numbers probably won't be worn by anybody else but Albert Pujols and manager Tony La Russa, both of whom someday also may be headed for the Hall of Fame.

But there is one other former Cardinals star whose number older fans would like to see retired. Hall of Famer Joe Medwick wore three numbers for the Cardinals - 28, 7 and 21 - in two tours here. But he wore No. 7 for eight seasons, from 1933-40, the first seven of which were the best seasons of his career.

From 1933-39, Medwick hit .306, .319, .353, .351, .374, .322 and .332. In 1937, he had 31 homers among his 237 hits and drove in 154 runs while hitting .374. That was the last time a hitter won the Triple Crown in the National League.

Besides satisfying a small but vocal group, the Triple Crown might be enough to merit retiring No. 7. Of course, they might have to tear it off the back of current star Matt Holliday, who plans to be here seven years.

NEWS ITEM: The Philadelphia Phillies, two-time defending National League champions, were in the midst of an eight-game winning streak when they pulled the trigger Thursday on the Roy Oswalt trade, which might give them their third consecutive National League title.

HUMMEL'S TAKE: A third consecutive NL crown would be the first since the 1942-43-44 Cardinals. The Phils' decision to pursue Oswalt all-out might go back to one game in St. Louis last Thursday.

The Phillies, on an eight-game swing to Chicago and St. Louis, were 1-6 with one game left, and if they lost the Thursday game on July 22, they might well have been sellers instead of buyers as they fell farther out of contention in the National League East. But Philadelphia defeated the Cardinals 2-0 with two runs in the 11th inning to salvage one game of the four-game series. They then reeled off seven more wins.

A source close to the Phillies' situation said, "Last week, they didn't know which way the barometer was going. I honestly don't know if they made a move which way they would have gone.

"They were playing poorly at that point, and if you had to look at one game, possibly the last game with the Cardinals was the measuring stick.

"It obviously started with the Cardinals and then they swept a Colorado team which usually gives the Phillies trouble, but I didn't realize they had gone backwards that much. Then they got a break playing Arizona (a three-game sweep)."

And the Phillies didn't have to give up outfield prospect Dominic Brown to get Oswalt, just as they didn't part with Brown last July when Toronto wanted him for righthander Roy Halladay, whom the Phillies acquired for a different package in the offseason.

With the Los Angeles Angels acquiring Dan Haren and the Phillies Oswalt, one National League scout sees the New York Yankees going to any extreme to sign Cliff Lee, recently traded from Seattle to Texas, when Lee heads up a weak free-agent pitching class next offseason.

"The free-agent (pitching) pool is very, very thin for next year," said the scout. "With the Yankees missing out on the other pitchers this year, it's going to make it very tough for people to compete with them for Lee."

NEWS ITEM: As the weekend began, only one of last year's six division winners was in first place, including the Cardinals, who trailed NL Central leader Cincinnati by a half-game. And the Yankees led charging Tampa Bay by just a couple of games in the American League East.

HUMMEL'S TAKE: If this trend continues, baseball will have its ultimate year of parity. The Yankees would be the only one of eight 2009 playoff teams to make the playoffs again this year.

Since 1995, when the first playoffs were conducted under the three-division format, at least three of the previous year's playoff teams have made repeat appearances. And last year, five teams from the 2008 postseason - Philadelphia, Los Angeles Dodgers, Yankees, Boston and Los Angeles Angels - made the playoffs again.

Only in 2007 and 2000 have there been only three repeat performers.

Of this year's six division leaders before the weekend, only Atlanta, Texas and the Yankees were even above .500 last year. The NL West-leading San Diego Padres had the worst record of this year's leaders at 75-87. But, counting how they finished last season (37-25), the Padres were 97-65 in their last 162 games, which would constitute a full season.

The wild cards this year would be San Francisco and Tampa Bay, both of whom also missed the playoffs last year.

NEWS ITEM: Florida outfielder Chris Coghlan became the second player to potentially put himself out for the season by engaging in a post-game celebration. Coghlan suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee while administering a post-game shaving cream pie to the face of teammate Wes Helms after Sunday's walk-off win by the Marlins.

HUMMEL'S TAKE: If Coghlan needs surgery, which seems to be the case, he will have a recovery of six to eight weeks, thus putting him out for the season. Angels first baseman Kendry Morales was the first to fall victim to the walkoff victory celebration virus, suffering a fractured left ankle when he fell off-balance as he jumped into a pile of happy Angels at home plate after he had hit a game-ending home run May 29.

"It's a little embarrassing," Coghlan said after his pratfall. "It's not like we're going to hit a walk-off and everybody is just going to say ‘good job' and high five and walk away. This game has emotion."

Why can't players just high-five and leave the field? Or at least do something spontaneous, instead of planning post-game celebrations? The game always has had emotion. And players rarely got hurt slapping somebody on the back.

Yet, Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez, echoing Coghlan's sentiments, said, "If we have a walk-off, I don't want them to shake hands and go take a shower. That's part of getting the momentum going ... don't want to take that away from them."