That's how Cardinals manager Tony La Russa described it when his club won the National League pennant last year. Well, each Cardinal received "a ring" on Sunday afternoon before St. Louis' game against the Phillies. Players, coaches and clubhouse staff were honored in a ceremony approximately half an hour before first pitch at Busch Stadium.

Broadcaster Joe Buck served as master of ceremonies for the event, while general manager Walt Jocketty and principal owner Bill DeWitt presented the rings to the team. In addition to uniformed personnel, the Cards' five living Hall of Famers -- Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst and Ozzie Smith -- all received rings.

"It has great meaning," La Russa said. "We've only got 16 of them [league championships] in this franchise over the years. It's something we'll all always remember."

La Russa said he will continue to wear his World Series championship ring from Oakland, and he will wear his first NL pennant ring -- but not his two AL championship rings from 1988 and 1990 with the A's. Starter Chris Carpenter was one of the first players to be honored, allowing him to head out to the bullpen and begin his warmups on schedule.

Pulsipher hurt again: Left-handed reliever Bill Pulsipher aggravated his sore right hamstring in Sunday afternoon's game. He was removed from the contest after facing two batters and throwing 13 pitches.

"I felt it a little bit the pitch before," Pulsipher said. "I was gonna do what I could to keep going, pick us up and pitch. That's what I want to do, obviously, is pitch. I don't want to be hurt. But it's probably better that I didn't. We'll come in tomorrow and get some treatment and hopefully feel better over the next 24 to 48 hours."

Pulsipher first felt pain in his leg when the Cardinals were playing exhibition games in Oklahoma City, and the injury threatened to derail his attempt to make the team out of Spring Training. La Russa took a pessimistic tone in discussing the relapse.

"That's twice now," said the manager. "Prospects are not good."

Book signing: La Russa and H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger met a slew of Cardinals fans at the St. Louis Public Library on Saturday night. The two collaborators on the book "Three Nights in August" spoke about the recently released book for about 40 minutes, took a few questions from the crowd and signed books for the approximately 500 people in attendance.

New faces: La Russa's lineup had a different look on Sunday compared to the first four games of the season. Yadier Molina was back behind the plate after a day off Saturday, but for the first time this season, Reggie Sanders and Mark Grudzielanek each received a rest. Roger Cedeno started in left field, and Abraham Nunez got the call at second base.

That was partly just to get the two veterans a maintenance day and get the reserves a shot at some playing time, but it was also connected to some matchup numbers. Cedeno came into the game with a lifetime mark of 10-for-22 (.455) with a double and a triple against Phillies starter Jon Lieber. Nunez was 9-for-20 (.450) against Lieber before Sunday.

Countdown: The Busch Stadium countdown clock was changed from 79 games left to 78 when Sunday's game became official in the fifth inning. Turning over the number was the team's mascot, Fredbird, who was "born" in 1979.

Today in Busch history: On April 10, 1968, Bob Gibson kicked off one of the greatest pitching seasons in history when he started Opening Day against the Braves. Ray Washburn was the winning pitcher in a 2-1 Cards victory. Thanks to Project Retrosheet for the information.

Baby 'Birds: Kevin Jarvis pitched four innings before handing it over to a slew of relievers as Triple-A Memphis beat Oklahoma, 3-0. ... Double-A Springfield was held to four singles as it fell to 0-3 on the season with a 2-0 loss to Arkansas. ... Class A Palm Beach got six superb innings from Chris Lambert in a 5-0 win over Jupiter. ... Mike Ferris went 2-for-3 with two walks and a home run as Class A Quad Cities throttled Beloit, 9-0.

The player of the day was Lambert, who was simply dominating in his debut at high Class A. The Cards' first-round draft pick from last year, Lambert struck out six and didn't walk a batter. The only blemish on an otherwise perfect outing was a hit batter.

Coming up: After a day off on Monday, Jason Marquis will take the mound against the Reds on Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. CT. Aaron Harang will get the starting nod for Cincinnati.