FLOTSAM & JETSAM

This will be a long, cold winter without the commentary of Cardinal broadcaster Mike Shannon. Although in the season's last game Sunday, Shannon did not utter a cryptic koan, he was in hyperbolic warp speed. When Mark McGwire hit his 65th home run to dead center, Shannon began to wax, or foam, about the difference between Babe Ruth and McGwire. Since the Cardinals first baseman has been captured on videotape, people "will be watching him 100, 200 years from now." McGwire will "grow and grow." Yeah, in the year 2199, folks will be cranking up the antique VCR to see what the citizenry was doing when the life expectancy was a mere 72 years.... That sure was something about the Post-Dispatch firing that employee who messed up by boarding a school bus and yelling at kids. Imagine if Cole Campbell did something tacky, he'd get canned, too. Imagine.