La Russa may be leaving St. Louis
Nobody will know how the St. Louis Cardinals' season might have ended if the third out hadn't escaped them in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 2, if that little looping line drive had hit Matt Holliday in the pocket of his mitt instead of in the midsection. Maybe the St. Louis hitters would have emerged from the slump that enveloped Albert Pujols and others in the last days of the regular season. Maybe the Cardinals would have come home riding a different wave, and taken out Joe Torre's team. Or maybe the Los Angeles Dodgers would've beaten them anyway.
In any event, the St. Louis season is over abruptly, and now the Cardinals face an offseason that could be filled with enormous change. Khalil Greene will be gone, for sure, and Rick Ankiel probably will move on. The Cardinals likely will try to re-sign Joel Pineiro and Mark DeRosa -- but at what cost? -- and Bill DeWitt said in a phone interview recently that the team will attempt to negotiate a deal with Holliday immediately after the conclusion of the team's season, although Holliday's agent, Scott Boras, always takes his clients into the open air of free agency rather than negotiating a discounted deal with one team.
But the greatest change of all for the Cardinals might come in their on-field staff. Tony La Russa's contract is set to expire, and historically, La Russa has always worked something out with the club ownership. The situation now might be a little different, though. Pitching coach Dave Duncan, La Russa's longtime friend, simmered this season about the way he perceived the organization treated his son, Chris.
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Buster Olney
