I was enjoying a beer at our favorite local pub when ESPN let me in on Tony LaRussa’s latest crazy-go-nuts idea: if the Cards are in the playoff hunt in 2010, they’ll add their new hitting coach, Mark McGwire, to the roster so that he’ll be available to pinch hit.

And presumably backup first. Boy, I’d love to see the look on Pujols’ face.

He went on to say that Big Mac will not be the leaning-on-the-fence-chatting kind of hitting coach, but will be “working his butt off” in the cages along with the guys half his age.

And…

wait for it…

he’ll be at spring training.

It’s the most I’ve ever wanted to see the Cardinals in the post-season hunt. What a friggin’ spectacle that would be. But they could still do one better: they know that Barry Bonds never retired, right?