I have a niece who from a very young age would stay up at night tucked in bed with a transistor radio under her pillow. She listened to Cardinal baseball and the post game show where for hours, callers would break down the game, the team and baseball in general. Here was a family-friendly, kid-safe place for a young girl to spend time; a rarity in a time where irreverance and vulgarity are worshipped and pushed by peddlers of smut eager to make a buck off of the lowest variable.

It's been this St. Louis treasure that has bonded young, old, rural, city, black, white for decades. In an evening of listening to the post-game call in show, you would hear 12 year olds as well as 80 year olds...all passionate about Cardinal baseball and all eager for intelligent talk about their team.

Usher in the boneheads at KTRS. The team of Bobby Lawrence, Al Brady Law and Craig Unger have managed to alienate the most firecely loyal, passionate and tight-knit group in sports. On Friday, nearly the entire group of on air personalities were fired in favor of out of town big mouths. "Lively," said station manager Craig Unger. "Condescending," I thought. If I could pick one personality that I most dislike in sports commentary, it's Jim Rome. His entire slant is to be an ass. This preconceived, contrived m.o. is what makes him so obnoxious. His commentary isn't interesting because he's simply looking for an effect.

The management at KTRS clearly doesn't understand their market. They want to turn St. Louis into L.A. or New York where mostly young men spend hours listening to smarmy, wise cracking Jim Rome-ites, except that this market is made up of a tremendous cross section of people who all have a common trait: they want intelligent, knowlegable commentary about their team and they want to hear it from familiar voices.

The market isn't going to change. The only issue is: will they cater to it? Their defiant answer today is no, but having already failed, it's just a matter of time before they admit their mistake. Add to this the fact that Cardinal ownership is behind these changes as well as what is shaping up to be a disasterous off season and you have to wonder how they could be so completely inept on purpose.