Cardinals reach out to Ryne Sandberg

While the Chicago Cubs have fired manager Mike Quade, they have have made it very clear that they are not interested in hiring Ryne Sandberg. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have expressed an interest in bringing in Sandberg for an interview. Sandberg is one of the few Cubs players that I respected while growing up. You know a Hall of Famer when you see one. When the Cubs originally hired Ryne to manage in the minor leagues, I thought that they would be grooming him for the big league. I guess that was not the case.

Joe Strauss reports that Dave McKay saw Tony's retirement coming.

Rick Hummel reports that Tony La Russa could still manage in the All Star Game next year. Outside of winning the World Series, you could not send him off in a better way. This way, the fans would be able to say goodbye. Bobby Cox had his farewell tour so fans could say goodbye to him. With La Russa, we assumed he would come back.

Albert Pujols issued a statement on Tony's retirement.

"I'd like to congratulate Tony on his amazing Hall of Fame career. He's been like a father to me and in my opinion, is one of the greatest managers in the history of the game. I've been blessed to be able to learn from Tony for the past 11 years and I wish him well on his retirement."

I haven't really had a chance to write about what Tony thought about Moneyball but Mike Bauman wrote an article over at MLB.com.

"I think Brad Pitt is a great actor," La Russa said of the actor who played Oakland general manager Billy Beane in the movie. But the thrust of his remarks was not in the direction of praise.

"Good acting," La Russa said in his evaluation of the movie. "I'm serious. Good acting. I mean, I was offended because of what the book represented, and I know a lot of those guys [who] were portrayed. I knew a few of those guys as scouts. It strains the credibility a little bit.

"[The A's] won 20 in a row, [in 2002], qualify for the playoffs, go two [games] up on the Yankees [in the AL Division Series], and there wasn't anything in the movie except a brief about Miguel [Tejada] and Eric [Chavez], the three starters [Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson] and [closer] Billy Koch.

"It was about a couple of trades and turning Scott [Hatteberg] into a first baseman. That club was carried by those guys that were signed [and] developed the old-fashioned way. That part wasn't enjoyable, because it's a nice story, but it is not accurate enough."