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This Cardinals Post Will Self-Destruct In 30 Seconds. Good Luck, Jim

larussacards.jpgOK, let's just keep this little post between you and I, OK? I purposely waited until now to put it up, knowing that Will would be scuba diving. Shhh. First, old business (two days old, but whatever, it needs to be addressed). It seems that Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa still does not believe that Mark McGwire took steroids. Oy vey.

Here's a portion of LaRussa's conversation with Brian Burwell of the St. Louis Post Dispatch on Monday. Question: Did McGwire take steroids?

"Well, that's what you believe and you're probably right according to testimony, but that's not what I believe," La Russa said. "I watched Mark McGwire work."

I interrupted him.

"Wait a minute, Tony. You still don't believe McGwire used performance-enhancing drugs?"

"Absolutely not."

"Come on."

"Absolutely not," he said. "If you see Mark today, he still looks like he did then."

"No, he doesn't," I said.

"Yes, he does," La Russa said.

"No, he doesn't," I repeated.

La Russa tossed his hands in the air and looked at me in frustration. "Are you asking for my opinion or yours?" he said.

"I'm asking your opinion," I said. "But we're having a conversation, and I'm disagreeing with you."

And now here's LaRussa, on his reputation of harboring steroid users:

One way I was taught to survive is my No. 1 accountability factor is myself. This is my 30th year doing this at the major league level. There isn't anybody — the commissioner, our owner, the fans, you — there isn't any person, man or woman, who can make me any more accountable than I am now right now because of myself. And I know there isn't anything we've done in all those years that was — with one small exception where we stole signs, a little hiccup — there isn't anything else that has happened on our ballclubs in Oakland or St. Louis that there's a hint of illegality. There isn't anything that we didn't actively and proactively attempt to do it right."

Now to new business: The Great Scott Spiezio Experiment is over. The Cardinals on Wednesday released the infielder after learning that and arrest warrant had been issued on him by the Irvine Police Department on six charges stemming from a crash in late December.

The warrant alleges driving under the influence, driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or more, hit and run, aggravated assault, assault and battery.

Yikes. However, Paul S. Meyer, Spiezio's lawyer in Irvine, released a brief statement saying, "We anticipate a successful resolution to this misdemeanor matter." OK, then.

This has been your St. Louis Cardinals roundup for today. By tomorrow I expect to be fired, or possibly bludgeoned with a circus mallet. Goodbye.

LaRussa On McGwire, Others In The Mitchell Report [St. Louis Post Dispatch]
Cards Relesae Spiezio After Arrest Warrant Issued [St. Louis Post Dispatch[

4:30 PM on Thu Feb 28 2008
By Rick
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