Continuing Reaction

The ripples from Monday's press conference are still rolling around Cardinal Nation.  Without Mark McGwire there to answer questions, the reverberations may continue for quite some time.

The latest two questions in the UCB Roundtable dealt with McGwire.  Bernie Mikalsz and Brian Burwell both write about the subject, with similar viewpoints.  Everywhere you look, people are weighing in on the McGwire story.

I've made my position pretty clear on this, I think.  I know there are people that are up in arms about it, that are cancelling season tickets and venting their outrage.  I just can't be one of those people, partly because it's not my nature, but partly because I'm still waiting to see what McGwire has to say.

I seriously can't believe the Cardinals would bring him on or that he'd come out of seclusion only to repeat the "talk about the past" line.  They have to know that isn't going to fly, I would think, and it's going to cause more trouble than it's worth.

Honestly, I'd put odds around 50/50 that McGwire doesn't actually make it to spring training as the hitting coach.  I could see where he would find out he'd misread the scrutiny, bitten off more than he wanted to chew, and bow out.  Until we hear from him, there's really no way of telling what is going to happen.

I will say that Hal McRae was very graceful about losing his job.  Not that you expect anything less, of course, but there was no reason that he had to speak about being let go.  I did think it was time for him to move on, but hopefully he catches on somewhere else.

The players apparently are very fond of Cardinal pitchers.  Chris Carpenter was named the Players' Choice Comeback Player of the Year and, I heard this morning driving into work, Adam Wainwright was named their Outstanding Pitcher in the NL.  (Not to be confused with the Cy Young.  I found that out with the BBA!)  Carpenter was a no brainer, of course, but I was glad to see Wainwright got the nod over Carp and Tim Lincecum.  I don't think that's how the actual Cy Young voting will go (and it wasn't how the Baseball Bloggers Alliance voted either), but it's nice to see him get some recognition.

Wednesday night means UCB Radio Hour.  Tonight, it's just scheduled for a half hour and will start later, at 10:00 CST.  We'll probably talk McGwire and maybe some from our interview with Bill DeWitt III.  (If you've not heard that interview, you can find it here.)  Hope you can join us!




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