The on-the-field evidence is clear and substantial: Jim Edmonds is the best Cardinal center fielder since...Curt Flood?

And the off-the-field facts and figures keep trickling in...

In addition to signing a lucrative long-term deal that makes his future as a Cardinal secure for the next several years...Edmonds speaks positively about the St. Louis area, and has backed up his words by laying down some St. Louis roots in the form of mortgage payments on a home in west St. Louis county.

In these transient times, that's not a big deal. But it's a deal nonetheless...and it's a deal that hasn't gone unnoticed by St. Louis' sports fans.

Of course, Edmonds still has family in his native southern California...and plans to return there in the off-season.

Which, in the year 2000, is likely to be sometime in late, late October...