Spring training '99 is here.

A time for all hands to be hopeful.

Need an example? You know it's spring training when the headline on page F3 of the 2.21.98 Post-Dispatch is "Cards Osborne vows to be a team leader this season." Alert St. Louis Sports Online readers recall that the unpredictable Donovan Osborne, at the close of the '98 season (5-4; 4.09 ERA; 83.2 innings pitched), when asked to evaluate his own performance in '98, stated that "[I] think it was a pretty good year."

There's a joke in there somewhere...