The 300 or so St. Louis Cardinals fans who attended the annual Cardinals Caravan at the Osage Community Centre on Monday were not there to talk about the past.
Or Mark McGwire.
McGwire, the new Cardinals hitting coach, has been all over national headlines of late thanks to his years-in-the-making admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs. He was never mentioned as fans questioned St. Louis players from the "past, present and future," as moderator Al Hrabosky put it.
Pitcher Blake Hawksworth and outfielder Nick Stavinoha represented the present, having both spent time on the big league roster a year ago. Minor leaguers Daryl Jones and Pete Kozma represented the future, while Cal Eldred, John Mabry and Alan Benes represented the Cardinals alumni along with Hrabosky.
The conversation also stayed away from an anti-climatic end to the Cardinals' 2009 season, a first-round sweep by the Los Angeles Dodgers after St. Louis had won its division.
Instead, with less than a month until the official start of spring training, the fans who stepped up to the microphone asked questions that were focused on the 2010 season. The first request was for Hawksworth to talk about his future.
Hawksworth, a right-hander, made 30 appearances last season out of the bullpen. He was 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in his first stint with the Cardinals.
"It happened so quick," Hawksworth said before the start of Monday's event. "That's usually how the first month went for me. I was just like, 'Holy cow.' You're in the big leagues, and before you know it you're in the playoffs, and you just don't even have time to breathe."
With the Cardinals still in need of a fifth starter, Hawksworth knows last season's performance could go a long way toward showing manager Tony La Russa that he is ready for a spot in the rotation.
"It'd be nice," said Hawksworth, who spent part of eight seasons in the minor leagues before his success in the majors. "I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be, but obviously if I can have any role on this team, that's great for me. I just want to be a part of it. I've been in the minor leagues for a long time, so I feel like any way I can help the club -- I'll give you that cliche answer I guess -- is what I want to do."
While he said he expected to be "less on edge" entering spring training this year, he also knows that no roster spot is guaranteed.
"It's just one of those things -- you put in your work, you try to prepare yourself and expect to come to spring training and have to compete for some sort of spot," Hawksworth said. "That's the way Tony usually runs it. He likes guys to compete and to see how they react to that environment, especially us young guys, so I expect that going in."
Nick Stavinoha acknowledged that his best chance to compete for a spot on the roster will be as a bench player, saying the signing of outfielder Matt Holliday had little effect on his goals.
"I don't think it means a whole lot for me as far as this year goes," Stavinoha said. "My role for the Cardinals would be more a bat off the bench, pinch-hitter type."
Stavinoha said he sought the advice of another member of the caravan when it came to adjusting to life as a pinch hitter.
"I think just about anybody you talk to will tell you that pinch-hitting is probably the hardest thing to do in baseball," he said. "You know, you sit on the bench the whole day, you try to get loose, you try to do some things to get ready for it, but it's tough to go up and get ready for a pitch that is 95, 96 mph when you haven't seen one yet that day."
Stavinoha spent time with the Cardinals in 2008 and 2009, but has hit just .215 in 68 games. Last season, during a trip to the West Coast, Stavinoha asked Mabry, who spent several seasons as a pinch hitter in the majors, for some tips.
"The biggest part of that is no one in the minor leagues practices pinch-hitting," Stavinoha said. "When I got called up I think I had maybe four pinch hits over the last eight or 10 years of my life."
Mabry offered some simple advice.
"He said, 'If you can get the barrel on it, you did a great job. If it goes up, it goes up. If it goes down, it goes down. If you can get the barrel on it, you did a great job,'" Stavinoha said.
"I took that approach and it actually helped me out tremendously throughout the rest of the year because it's really easy to come off the bench with a lot of energy. You get up there and you over-swing -- you try to do too much because that's your one chance for the day and you know you're not guaranteed four at-bats."
Stavinoha may find unexpected competition for a spot of the roster. One fan in attendance asked Hrabosky if rumors and reports were true that former All-Star and Gold-Glove winning outfielder Jim Edmonds wanted to return to the Cardinals for one more season.
Hrabosky confirmed that Edmonds attended a charity event benefiting La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation on Sunday night in St. Louis. At the event, Edmonds said he heard that Holliday was giving up the No. 15, the number Edmonds wore during his time with the Cardinals and that Holliday wore after being traded to St. Louis last season, in favor of No. 7. Then Edmonds offered to come back and play for the Cardinals for the MLB's minimum salary.
The announcement drew applause from fans at the Osage Centre.
"We'll hear more about that," Hrabosky said. "There is a need for left-handed hitters coming off the bench. We're a little shallow in that area, and what better of a teacher for Colby Rasmus and some of these other guys just thinking about having Jim Edmonds and some of the great catches and some of the clutch hitting he's had over the years being a part of that bench."
Benes, a former Cardinals pitcher who now works for the organization as a scout, told the crowd it was unlikely that St. Louis would re-sign outfielder Rick Ankiel. Benes said it was possible the Cardinals still could sign free-agent infielder Miguel Tejada, but that Tejada likely would demand too much money. He also pointed out that such a move would add another right-hander to a lineup that already is heavy on right-handed batters.
The Cardinals contingent was making the last stop on a two-day, four-city tour that included visits to St. Genevieve, Mo., Memphis, Tenn., and Dyersburg, Tenn.
Hawksworth joked that the time the players spent together on the bus had been "straight-laced, very formal" and said he and Benes had been "studying film."
That was at least part true.
"We've been watching movies," Mabry said. "The older guys talk more about baseball than the younger guys, who are still living it because their talk is more geared toward gearing up to play the game. Our talk is more -- because a lot of them are in broadcasting or the organization -- the development of players and how you evolve as a player."
Stavinoha said that his name had caused problems for at least one fan.
"Somebody dropped a 'Stavinowski' on me the last place we were at," he said. "Somehow he went from Stavinoha to Stavinowski, and he was pretty sure about it being Stavinowski.
"We all got a kick out of that. John Mabry has been John Mayberry for about 10 or 20 years I think now."
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