Juan Encarnacion, displaced for the moment by Rob Hobbs Rick Ankiel, has accused Cards skipper Tony La Russa (above, right) of being “unprofessional”. And while St. Louis has closed to within a very reachable 5 1/2 games of NL Central leaders Milwaukee (when, oh when is Ned Yost going to stop giving Carlos Villaneuva the ball?), at least one observer has taken note of the Rasberry Scroatee’s personal problems, and raises the question of La Russa’s accountability. From the Starting Five’s dwil :

I™m happy for Scott Spiezio and it really shouldn™t be news beyond that mention. It happens in all walks of life and Spiezio has apparently taken the initiative to embark down this road on his own accord. That should warrant positive mentions, not rip jobs.However, in the light that his manager is baseball™s resident rocket scientist with a crocodile™s heart, that he presided over Team Steroid in Oakland, that he was found drunk and asleep in his car at a stop light with his foot on the brake and the car in drive and isn™t getting ripped for that daily and that he presided over a clubhouse with hardcore drinker and partier Josh Hancock, who, thanks in large part to that enabling environment, is dead, this story is more like a continuation of La Russa™s incompetence rather than about possible redemption for a person and a professional athlete.

A Yo Scott, hope you get your head right – and afterward get as far away from La Russa as possible.