Randomizing

--I'm looking forward to the Al MacInnis number retirement ceremony on Sunday before the Blues-Edmonton game. I've been given twenty seconds to make a remark or two about Al. I didn't expect that, but I am pleased to play a part.

--I haven't been there yet, but the people I've talked to who have, say the new Busch Stadium is spectacular. There are a few issues to be de-bugged, like the enormous foul poles that some patrons have to try to see around, but most say the experience will be much better compared to the old place. By the way, I'm told that in the old stadium the foul poles weren't as big because they were supported by guy wires. In the new place, they are free-standing, so they have to have a bigger circumference. So it's like trying to look around a Sequoia tree instead of a flagpole.

--By the way, the Grizzlies have new foul poles at their stadium too. In the past, there were a number of long fly balls that produced guess work by the umpires as to whether they were fair...and a homer...or foul and a strike. Apparently the problem has been adequately addressed by Rich Sauget and the Grizzlies ownership group. The recent storms did no significant additional damage to the stadium. You'll remember a couple of storms tore up the right field scoreboard wall and other parts of the stadium last year.

--Is it just me, or does the Post-Dispatch seem to have an agenda to discredit everything about the KTRS/Cardinals relationship. They seem to not know what to write if they can't re-hash the old "KTRS has signal problems" story. It was a story for two months after the move from KMOX to KTRS. And, now that the season is underway, it looks like every reporter on the staff will take a turn at blasting the Cardinals, KTRS, and anything that's different than what we've had for the last 50 years. Maybe it wasn't the best move in radio or sports history, but it's done, it's over with, let it go. Find something else to whine about. Does the Post make any money off the Cardinals? If I'm Bill DeWitt or Mark Lamping, I start finding a way that they make less.

--Katie Couric on the CBS evening news? I wish her well, but I'm having a hard time seeing that working. Good move by NBC to fill her chair with Meredith Vieira.

--Sad to see the Missouri Black Legislative Caucus coming out against the leaders of the St. Louis NAACP for reversing their position on Dave Lenihan and his racially insensitive slip-of-the-tongue on KTRS. I thought the press conference held by the NAACP in support of Lenihan might signal a breakthrough in race relations in the area. I guess not. It seems to have given the various factions in the minority community a platform from which to bash one another in an effort to continue a tradition of hostility. You might think that forgiveness would creep into the minds of some of these individuals from time to time....like it did that of Harold Crumpton of the NAACP. But, I guess forgiveness and understanding doesn't fit the agenda of most civil rights groups...or white supremacist groups for that matter. If it did, they might finally recognize that one option they have is that of going out of business.

--Kudos to family friend Dr. David Wild. He happened to be shopping in Fairview Heights Sunday when the tornado came through. He was temporarily trapped by the downed power lines. And, when law enforcement found out he was a doctor, they asked him to help out with the injuries...which he did. To what extent he may have prevented death, or further injury, to any of those affected I haven't learned as yet. More to come on that.