So, as I'm walking into our office today, I notice that there's a freshly dead bird sitting right in the walkway leading up to the entrance to F15teen.

I just maneuvered around it, and rolled my bag into the doorway.

Producer Joe comes in moments later and says, "Did you see that out there? It scared the hell out of me."

I said, "It's a dead bird. Big deal."

He said, "It's a dead Cardinal sitting right out for everyone to see."

My dad said, "Yeah, it's a dead Cardinal. Isn't that amazing that someone would do that?"

Still not convinced, I walked out to take a close look, and sure enough, the dead bird that was sitting outside of F15teen had red feathers...albeit clearly already in decaying mode.

This isn't CSI: St. Louis, so there's no proof of any malicious wrongdoing whatsoever, but it would be one hell of a coincidence if a dead Cardinal bird just happened to fall out of a tree or off the building.

Has it really gotten to this point for some people?

The Edmonds' Quote

I'm in a no-win situation.

I know that going in.

Many people have made up their minds on this story, and therefore, no matter what I write, I will receive hate mail and attacks.

Furthermore, when I write or talk about Jim Edmonds, who owns part of insideSTL.com, naturally, many readers or listeners assume bias.

I understand all of this...and hence, I know the risks I run in addressing this whole thing. But, few things get me worked up more than when I feel like someone---anyone---is convicted in the court of public opinion without all the details being out on the table.

And, I can assure you that there's a lot more to the now infamous quote from Friday's post-game snub of FSN's Brent Stover and KTRS' Mike Claiborne in which, as written by Bernie Miklasz in the Post-Dispatch Saturday in quoting Claiborne, Edmonds said, "I'm done with St. Louis TV and radio, and I'm done with the Cardinals."

What other details could there be?

This one: Edmonds says he didn't say it.

And, this one: Claiborne says he did say it.

And, finally this one: I know for a fact...beyond a shadow of a doubt...that even if Edmonds did say it, he didn't mean it.

Here's some background on the whole thing:

Friday night, I had just gotten to my Chicago hotel when I wandered over to Bernie's Pressbox on stltoday.com to see the quote for the first time. Edmonds and I had been exchanging text messages earlier about random non-baseball stuff, and when I saw the quote, I wrote to him:

"I just read what you said to Brent Stover and Mike Claiborne. This is gonna get ugly. I see the storm on the horizon, and I hate what I know is coming. You don't say that to those guys if La Russa doesn't say what he said in July. But, now  that quote is going to be your Garry Templeton moment with Cardinal fans. The booing is going to be merciless when you come to Busch Stadium again, despite what you and I know you really feel about St. Louis."

(Yeah...I know that seems like an incredibly long text message...but I sometimes go batshit with my texts).

Edmonds response: "What did I say?"

Moments later, before I had had a chance to respond to Edmonds' text, while I was on my other phone talking to Brent Stover to get his take on what happened at Wrigley Field following the game, I got another text from Edmonds saying, "I didn't say anything today!"

Stover acknowledged he wasn't happy that Edmonds snubbed him, however he said he didn't hear Edmonds say what he was being reported to have said. He made it clear that that didn't mean he didn't say it, it's just that he didn't hear anything like that.

After getting off the phone with Stover, I called Edmonds, and he was all fired up. He told me his side of the whole thing. Edmonds said he was asked by a Chicago Comcast reporter to do an interview, and he was waiting on the field to do the interview as the reporter interviewed the game's 11th inning hero Henry Blanco. A bunch of reporters started asking him to do interviews while he was waiting to do the Comcast interview, and he was getting swarmed. He said he didn't know if now that Comcast had gotten Blanco, who had just won the game with a base hit, if they were still going to need him for an interview. And, so, after waiting for awhile, he just began to go down the steps of the Cubs' dugout.

That's when he said "a guy with a red shirt" (Stover) said, "Jim, can we get you for a minute? I'm with Cardinals' TV."

Edmonds said he responded, "I don't play for the Cardinals anymore. Talk to somebody on their team."

He said the quote attributed to him of being done with St. Louis TV and radio and being done with the Cardinals was completely untrue. And, he was pretty upset about it being reported.

So, putting my reporter cap on for the first time in a few years, I called Mike Claiborne to get his side of the story. Claiborne made it clear that he likes Edmonds, has no reason to make anything up about Edmonds, and that he heard Edmonds say what he was being reported to have said.

Claiborne said he's been blown off by ballplayers...as just about everybody in the sports media has...plenty of times. He cited Albert Pujols' recent dismissal of an on-field interview after his 4-for-4 game vs. the Dodgers earlier this week. But, the manner in which Edmonds said it was so "poignant" to him that he recalled seeing a member of the Cubs' staff look over at him surprised when he heard Edmonds say what he says Edmonds said.

Now about an hour into this back and forth discussion as I bounced from Edmonds to Stover to Claiborne and a number of phone calls, I was regretting ever even getting involved in the whole damn thing. However, as I wrote above, if in fact Edmonds *didn't* say what Cardinal fans believed he had said, it was important to set the record straight, and as I told Edmonds and Claiborne, it would be a lot better if Edmonds set the record straight either on TV or radio...as opposed to me writing about it, because of a perceived conflict of interest.

But, after talking to both of them, it finally got to a point where I gave Edmonds Claiborne's phone number, and the two of them talked. And, after the two of them talked, in what both said was a non-hostile conversation, they each still stood by their stories.

Knowing Jim and knowing Mike, I am torn on the whole thing. I sincerely like and respect both guys. It's a classic "he said-he said."

So, I don't know what the hell really happened, but I thought that it was important for St. Louisans to know that Edmonds denies saying it...because I know that quote rocked some Cardinal fans to the core when they read it. And, as you can see in my text message to Edmonds after reading it, I was quite surprised to see it...and knew right when I read it that it was going to impact his legacy in St. Louis.

Here's what I do know...beyond a shadow of a doubt: Edmonds loves St. Louis...like he seriously is infatuated with our city. Anytime me, The Cat, Doug, Martin, or whomever on the radio show would bring up St. Louis and kind of joke around about something about the city, he'd immediately go out of his way to praise not just the city---which is saying something when all he really knew up until March of 2000 was Southern California---but also the fans. He absolutely loved playing here and plans on helping in the rejuvenation of the city long after he's done playing.

That is rare when it comes to former Cardinals. But, that's something I know to be true.

I also know it to be true that he was shocked and legitimately hurt by Tony La Russa's comments when he made his return to St. Louis. The afternoon of that 4th of July night game in which Edmonds played against the Cardinals for the first time since joining the Cubs, he was nervous. He had texted me to congratulate me on making it through Day 1 of the World Series of Poker. He was worried that fans would boo him because he was now a Cub, but he didn't expect La Russa to add some fuel to that potential fire with his comments, and by the end of the weekend in St. Louis, he was pretty damn pissed off about what had taken place.

But, it had nothing to do with his feelings toward the Cardinals, the fans, or the city.

It was directed toward La Russa.

And, similarly, if in fact he did say what he is reported to have said following Friday's game, I believe the comments were not directed toward employees of St. Louis TV stations, St.  Louis radio stations, or the St. Louis Cardinals.

I actually know that he holds no ill will toward the above three parties. It's just that simple. However, I can't blame Cardinal fans for reading that quote...hours after he played a role in pushing the Cardinals 7 games back of the hated Cubs...for thinking otherwise.

His statements to me Friday night and this column may not convince you of that right now. I would respect that.

However, I'm confident that his actions in St. Louis and with the Cardinals when he's done playing will.

What do you think? Log-in and post your comments below, or you can email me at tmckernan@insidestl.com.