Hey Gerry, What Say You?

"Well...our long national nightmare is over."

I agree, Mr. President.

Here's what I mean- the St. Louis Cardinals' 2007 season.

A brief rundown:

1- Manager LaRussa is arrested for DUI in March.

2- Chris Carpenter pitches 6 innings opening night, looking surprisingly hittable. He goes on the DL before he can make another pitch. He never pitched again the entire year after he had surgery. He probably won't pitch again until the middle of next year.

3- Josh Hancock kills himself in his automobile. His father loses his mind and tries to sue the restaurant that served him drinks and the poor driver of the car he hit for having mechanical problems.

Sheesh.

4- Due to injuries to Juan Encarnacion, Jim Edmonds, Chris Duncan and Preston Wilson, the outfield was often a combination of Ryan Ludwick, Skip Schumaker and So Taguchi. Servicable for short stretches, but not for considerable chunks of the season.

5- C Yadier Molina couldn't stay healthy enough to play more than 111 games or get more than 353 at bats.

6- 3B Scott Rolen couldn't stay healthy enough to play more than 112 games or get more than 392 at bats.

7- SS David Eckstein couldn't stay healthy enough to play more than 117 games.

8- 2B Adam Kennedy, the big free agent signing this past off-season, managed to play 87 games and hit .219.

9- Rick Ankiel gets called up, and, true to his life's history, shows tremendous promise before letting accusations of HGH get inside his head and throw him off.

10- After climbing back in a race they had no business being in, they then 1983ed the season down the toilet bowl.

As you can tell, we have a heck of a medical staff on this club.

Now comes the firing of GM Walt Jocketty. Many are shocked that a man who was the "architect" of seven division winners, two pennants and a World Series title would get canned.

I am not and I am kind of glad.

I have very little problem with this. His last big move was in 2004, to trade Danny Harren, Kiko Calero and Daric Barton for Mark Mulder. Which has worked out terribly. He didn't produce at all the last 3 years, and that is a fact.

Despite all the problems and injuries as noted above, he did nothing this year to improve the team this season outside of adding Mike Maroth, Joel Pineiro and Miguel Cairo.

Yeah, that's right. Like they'll be confused with the US Cavalry.

We fans all felt like King Edward I Longshanks speaking to his useless son in the movie Braveheart, as William Wallace invaded northern England and sacked York:

"The word, my son, is that our entire Northern Army has been annihilated. And you have done nothing."

My words, exactly, your highness.

The fact that his name kept coming up in other teams' rumors for a GM position, while still under contract with St. Louis, makes me even more convinced this was the right move. There is one thing that must be demanded of any employee and that is loyalty. Anyone that has ever worked for me has been told I expect two things- I don't like surprises and I hate dishonesty. Add to that disloyalty. Any question of loyalty, to me, is grounds for dismissal. Period.

This promises to be a great off season. Lots of drama to come. Next up will be the departure of LaRussa and Duncan. Good but over-rated baseball people. I will say this- they have provided stability.

The only thing that is lacking in yesterday's firing of Jocketty is that they didn't fire the entire medical staff of the club with them. What a bunch of hacks.

It's all going to be exciting enough to keep me from Baseball Mogul for at least a few more days.