Tomorrow, Thursday January 24^th, is the free public visitation for Stan Musial at Cathedral Basilica from 2pm until 8. Todd and I were talking about the ‘who’s gonna fill those shoes’ factor and of course Albert’s name came up. While the local newspaper talked with Red, Mike and other current Cardinals after the passing of Number 6, the USAToday sought out Albert, interviewed him about Stan and gave him a front page picture and a featured article. Not to belabor the discussion, which also came up during the Albert/Cards negotiations, but we wonder if he’s kicking himself.  We don’t know what went down (really), but in the heat of those talks, perhaps neither side saw the forest for the trees. Sure maybe the Cards brass were hardliners, maybe Albert’s agent was too, but it eventually comes down to “The Man” and that reference is meant for Albert, ‘the man’ who perhaps could have been a hardliner himself.  If he truly saw the big picture of how significant it would be to emulate Musial by agreeing to be a Cardinal for life, could he not have fired his agent? Again I don’t know how this stuff works, but if Albert indeed hired the agent, then presumably he would have the power to fire that agent, right? Certainly the Cards offered him MORE than a livable salary even though it was not a precedent setting amount. Also, maybe there was some truth to the stories that Albert was being disrespected by Cards brass. That gets back to the ‘forest for the trees’ reference that I think both parties may have been guilty of.  We know now that there will be no Albert statue to ‘meet me by’ at Busch Stadium and that’s just a small example of what Cardinals Nation fans, present and future, have been denied.