Opinion

When Ken Griffey, Jr. retired earlier this week I realized I was officially old. 

I remember a night in 1988 when we took my niece up to Everett, WA to see the then Everett Giants play the Bellingham Mariners featuring an 18-year-old phenom by the name of Ken Griffey, Jr. From that point on I referred to my niece as a Griffey baby. 

She turned 24 earlier this year and works as manager of a sports club. So yeah, I'm getting old.

It is a process, isn't it?

This whole "spend your money in the draft in order to rebuild" theory would be a lot easier to stomach with a major league team already in place.

That said, we are beginning to see the fruit of our labors.

One year ago, the Kansas City Royals had zero options for an ailing bullpen. They had to ride the same beat up horses day in and day out. The only direction for the team to turn was toward retreads like Bruce Chen and Lenny DiNardo.

The Chinese Zodiac is a 12-year cycle conceived as the Chinese version of Western astrology. Personally I was born in the Year of the Rooster, so I suppose in 2017 I will have a lucky and/or prosperous year.

That's not to suggest that Major League Baseball operates on any consistent annual calendar in which to predict which players will have good years and good singular performances.

The St. Louis Cardinals are the most successful baseball franchise in National League history. Second only to the New York Yankees, the Cardinals have won 10 World Series titles.

The consistent presence of great athletes and coaches is hugely responsible for the club's success. Each great Red Birds team has seen one or more Hall of Fame caliber players.

Breaking down the greats and creating a top 10 was no easy feat. With so many great players, the list is open for debate.

Let's take a look at the 10 best players to ever wear a Cardinal uniform.

According to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated , the Yankees are not confident that 1B/DH Nick Johnson will return at all this season and that they may look to trade for a replacement.

Johnson went on the DL almost a month ago with an inflamed wrist. The initial diagnosis was that Johnson would miss at least a month and then possibly need surgery to remove inflammation that would be another four to six weeks out. That would put him at an August return if surgery was necessary. It sounds like it may be necessary.

When the Baltimore Orioles fired beleaguered manager Dave Trembley on Friday they hoped to have Juan Samuel turn this underachieving team around.

Simple, isn't it?

Hardly. Firing a manager in the middle of the season isn't necessarily the answer to the team's problems.

In fact, since 2001, only two teams made the postseason after changing skippers during the season.

Coming into 2010, the Nationals were the worst team in the league for two seasons running, and it was hard to expect much more this year. They are in last place, once again, sitting 6.5 games out in the tightly competitive NL East.

But the standings don't show the progress. Inept GM Jim Bowden was replaced by the more-ept Mike Rizzo, and the team has started to take shape.

This Year Gives Hope

The Arizona Diamondbacks are bad.

I mean really bad. 

They are 22nd in team batting average, and dead last in team ERA (thanks in large part to the 7.51 ERA of their less-than-outstanding bullpen).

Recently, even Diamondbacks Managing Partner Ken Kendrick apologized for the squad's lack of productivity. 

To most people's surprise, Kevin Gregg opened 2010 with quite possibly his best month of work in his career.