Due to the deaths this past week of both Cardinals starting pitcher Darryl Kile and longtime Cardinals announcer Jack Buck there will be no full length News & Notes column this week. In the beginning of the week I was struggling with what to write about Jack Buck and how to fit his passing into the forum of this column, and then on Saturday the tragic news about Darryl Kile came across the wire and that basically sealed the deal for me. I feel it's inappropriate to write silly songs and poke fun at our national pasttime this week. Of course we could always poke fun at our fellow league owners or talk about Trader Neil's latest blockbuster 14 player deal with Kevin Shanley & Matt but there's plenty of other columns in the weeks to come, I promise we'll get to all that eventually.

By the way, does anyone else find it ironic that in Darryl Kile's final start he pitched the Cardinals into first place on the very same night that Jack Buck passed away? Some things I guess are just better left unexplained. Looks like whoever's running the varsity team up in Heaven needed a new announcer and another pitcher to take the ball every five days? Or do they use the four man rotation in Heaven? Ah, but that would be another topic for another column...

We'll call this week's News & Notes a tribute to the memories of these two fallen Cardinals now linked together forever in the annals of baseball history and St. Louis Cardinals lore. So please join me in observing a "column of silence" for the recently departed...