If the Cardinals haven’t gotten around to having a TLR sunglasses giveaway yet, now they’ve got two more years to work on it.

ST. LOUIS — Tony La Russa, the winningest manager in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history, today agreed to a new two-year (2008-09) contract with the ballclub. The announcement was made by Cardinals’ Chairman William O. DeWitt at a press conference this afternoon.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with Tony’s decision to remain a Cardinal,” stated DeWitt. “During his 12 seasons as our manager, he has been a terrific leader; one who is skilled at keeping the team’s performance and focus aimed at being a consistent playoff contender.”

La Russa, 63, has guided the Cardinals to a franchise record 1,055 wins since joining the team as its manager in 1996. He has led the Cardinals to seven division titles (1996, 2000-02 & 2004-06), two National League pennants (2004 & 2006) and a 10th World Championship title in 2006.

“At the end of the season, after we had worked so hard, I needed some time to get away and refresh,” said La Russa. “I had time to think about the many relationships with the Cardinals that have been built over the past 12 seasons.

Then you see how our division keeps improving, and it became clear to me that all of these things were what I wanted to remain a part of.”

La Russa ranks third on Major League Baseball’s all-time managerial wins list with 2,375, trailing only Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763). He’s 2nd on the Cardinals all-time games managed list with 1,942, trailing only Red Schoendienst (1,996) and his 12 continuous years as Cardinals manager matches Schoendienst’s club mark (1965-76). La Russa is 3rd all-time in games managed with 4,449, including stints with the Chicago White Sox (1979-86) and Oakland A’s (1986-95).

La Russa’s Cardinals teams have finished above .500 in nine of his 12 seasons. They recorded 105 wins in 2004 and 100 wins in 2005, making La Russa just the second Cardinals manager to oversee two 100-win seasons. Billy Southworth guided the Cardinals to three consecutive 100-win seasons from 1942-44. La Russa and Sparky Anderson are the only managers to have led both a National and American League team to World Series titles.

During La Russa’s 12 years at the Cardinals helm, the team has surpassed 3 million in attendance nine times, including a franchise record 3, 552,180 fans this past season. His Cardinals teams have finished no lower then 3rd place in all but two seasons and they have held 1st place or been within a game of 1st place during the month of September in each of the past eight seasons.

Prior to this season’s 78-84 finish, the Cardinals were the lone National League team to have posted a winning record in every season since 2000.

John Fay hits you with this one:

There’s been a lot of speculation nationally about the possibility of former St. Louis GM Walt Jocketty ending up with the Reds, given the that Reds CEO Bob Castellini was once a limited partner in St. Louis and he’s known to admire the work Jocketty did with the Cardinals.But it’s not going to happen.

“Wayne Krivsky is our GM. Period,” Castellini said Monday through a spokesman.

Krivsky has one year remaining on his contract. The Reds are 152-172 in his two years as GM.

Jocketty was dismissed after the season by the Cardinals.

I read the quote to my Crack Technical Staff, who responded:

Do you love me? Question mark. Please, please. Exclamation point. I want to hold you in parentheses.

When you look at the sentence, it’s just a statement of fact followed by a statement of punctuation. It doesn’t say anything about what the fact will be tomorrow.

Hope never dies.

Press release out of Cardinal country:

ST. LOUIS — Bill DeWitt Jr., chairman of the board and general partner of the St. Louis Cardinals, today announced that the team is parting ways with senior vice president and general manager Walt Jocketty.”Walt will be remembered as the Cardinals’ GM during one of the most successful and memorable periods in team history, and we will always be extremely grateful for his contributions to our many triumphs over the past 13 seasons,” DeWitt said. “It is now time to move forward with an undivided vision and purpose that is consistent with the St. Louis Cardinals philosophy of building and operating the best top-to-bottom organization in baseball.”

DeWitt today named John Mozeliak as interim general manager. Mozeliak recently completed his fifth season as the Cardinals assistant general manager.

The Cardinals will immediately conduct a search for the club’s new general manager and honor the remaining terms of their contract with Jocketty, who was hired by the Cardinals in October 1994. Jocketty helped build Cardinals teams that won seven division titles, two National League crowns and the 2006 World Series championship.

“The Cardinals and Walt Jocketty are turning the page today with mutual admiration and appreciation for each other,” DeWitt said. “Today’s news does not come without disappointment and regret. But it also comes with great opportunity, and with that we will immediately begin our search for the new general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.”

Tough crowd: did they expect him to win the World Series every year? I wonder how this will affect Tony LaRussa’s decision to stay with the team. I wonder how it will affect Bob Castellini’s criteria on what makes a good GM.

September is flying by faster than it has since my senior year of high school, and the Reds having two off days per week isn’t helping it feel any less like the season is already over. This week on the podcast the Crack Technical Staff and I try to stir up some flames in the dying embers of the Reds:

• How could the Reds finish so poorly when things seemed so promising in April? Was the loss of Eric Milton really so devastating?
• Ryan Jorgensen actual banned substance offense and Rick Ankiel’s alleged one
• Could some lightly toasted bread topped with honey and cinnamon give the Reds’ management the boost they need to turn the team around?

The Reds host the Cardinals starting tomorrow, and while I don’t actually have any hope for them winning, I do sort of hope that Brandon Phillips gets the chance to throw through Albert Pujols’ head.

Episode 75: It’s All Over but for Punching Pujols (21.4MB, 31:01)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It’s only been two days since our last podcast: how will we ever find things to talk about tonight??

We haven’t been able to read and post as much about the team as we’d like today thanks to a day-long trip to the ER with our Crack Technical Son, who was giving us the appendix scare, but we’re trying to make up for it tonight with a podcast. Before we even get into the juicy story, we chat about:

• The aforementioned trip to the hospital
• The highlights of the Cincinnati trip with The Scratchers
• The pros and cons of developing a taste for beer
• Ken Griffey, Jr. being the Reds’ only representative to the All-Star game
• The continuing development of Homer Bailey

Under the subhead of Jerry Narron: Once and Future Manager are several more topics for our chattering:

• The value of firing him now, even though it’s clearly too late for 2007
• Differences between Narron and Dave Miley
• Brandon Phillip’s quote and reaction
• Hoping the Reds will perform a proper manager search in the off-season
• Going 50-30 the rest of the way to make .500

Plus, you won’t want to miss the anecdote about a math teacher from our high school dying when the school’s basketball team won state. You’ll just have to listen to hear how I tie that in to baseball.

Episode 65: The End of the Narron Era (23.3MB, 33:57)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download