SOUTH GRAND — The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen inherited four innings of work and a one-run lead Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs and turned it into a victory. It was a large-scale example of what the bullpen has been doing remarkably well within individual innings all season.

Say this about the Cardinals’ relievers: They are stingy with their inheritance.

When the Cardinals and general manager John Mozeliak set out to rebuild the bullpen, one of the…

TOWER GROVE — This past spring training, Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon leaned against the railing atop the visitors’ dugout at Roger Dean Stadium and explained the challenge he presented his entire team. He wanted a Gold Glove winner at every position.

He told the media — and likely his team — that the area of the game you can control the best is defense. And, with the speed and athleticism the Rays had scattered around…

TOWER GROVE — Veteran reliever Russ Springer had to be on his toes when warming up with teammate Ryan Franklin because he didn’t know what pitch Franklin would fire next. Could be the splitter. Could be the knuckler. Could just be that everyday forkball that Franklin would uncork every so often.

By his count, Franklin had as many of eight pitches (maybe nine) he could throw, and several of them he threw well enough and were…

JUPITER, Fla. — Before approaching St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Skip Schumaker with the first question usually asked on the P-DQ, I knew the answer.

It’s written on Schumaker’s shoulder, tattoed as if to frame his deltoid.

While most of the players have recited some quick phrase of wisdom or some encouraged virtue when it comes to answering what parental advice stays with them, Schumaker quoted a family motto. It’s something the Schumakers have said since Skip was…

TAMPA, Fla. — In the days that followed the release of the Mitchell Report in December 2007, I spoke with a player mentioned in the report and asked about how he was going to explain it to his kids before they heard about it at school. He said when the time was right he would tell them the whole truth. It was only fair to give them the facts.

What works at home, works at large,…

JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, in the wake of another steroid-revelation quake to disrupt spring training, said that baseball must act immediately to save the game’s integrity with its fan base that only a “zero tolerance” policy will be good enough.

“I would have to agree with those who said no ifs, ands or buts — zero tolerance,” La Russa said on the first day of Cardinals’ spring training. “It should be zero…

DOWNTOWN — The first wave of St. Louis Cardinals players have had their moments behind the media room podium here Sunday in Day 2 of the Winter Warm-up, and the Twitter feed (dgoold) has been the quickest way to get out the comments and the news (such as it is). But many are worth repeating here, like a shotgun look at what’s been said and who’s saying it here:

Snippets from the feed — the Warm-up in…

DOWNTOWN — Former Cardinals first baseman and slugger Mark McGwire wakes up this morning not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as expected, but still clinging to a primo spot in career home run list, firmly in the top 10. That too could be fleeting.

McGwire’s 583 home runs rank eighth all-time, nestled between Hall of Famer Frank Robinson (586) and Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew (573). When next the tenured members of the Baseball Writers Association…

LAS VEGAS — Given the chance to celebrate and comment on Rickey Henderson’s appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa also seized the opportunity to stump for another dynamo member of his Oakland Athletics teams who will be on the ballot.

On his third try, Mark McGwire belongs in the Hall of Fame, La Russa believes.

It’s a matter a of “integrity.”

“This steroid issue, that’s a matter of integrity,…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick, fresh from the official announcement that he had won a Silver Slugger to punctuate his breakout season, was headed to the gym. The spoils of this season are swell, but he has no interest in being a one-hit wonder.

He even used this past week of rumors, reports and headlines to explain why.

“I think it’s an honor just to be named in the same place as Matt…

TOWER GROVE — I watched Bob Costas’ interview with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron the other day, and while the whole of the interview is brilliant there was a line from it I couldn’t shake. Costas said if there were a Mt. Rushmore for baseball — and why isn’t there, already? — Mays and Aaron would both be on it. Presumably Babe Ruth would be riding shotgun.

That leaves a fourth, the Teddy Roosevelt spot.

Does Teddy…

JUPITER, Fla. — Each day at spring training, manager Tony La Russa writes and posts a schedule of that morning’s workout. It can be as much a riddle as a schedule for those new to speaking La Russa. But one area of the sheet handed the media Friday was clear — and shocking.

It listed the coaches who would be working with players.

There, listed last after the Dave Duncan, Jose Oquendo, Derek Lilliquist, Dennis Martinez and Mike…