Walt Jocketty, GM of the Cardinals for twelve years, was fired due to "tension mounting" that had "grown counterproductive ... with respect to some baseball issues.

[3] John Abbamondi, former senior director of labor economics working for Major League Baseball in New York, joined the Cardinals as assistant GM.

On March 13, it was announced that Mark Lamping, president of the Cardinals for 13 years, resigned to become the CEO of the New Meadowlands Stadium Company.

[4] A major offseason story for the Cardinals was the hostile relationship between manager Tony La Russa and third baseman Scott Rolen.

[9][10] Center fielder Jim Edmonds, the most senior member of the Cardinals' roster, having been with the team since the 2000 season, was traded to the San Diego Padres for single-A third baseman David Freese and cash considerations on December 14, 2007.

[11] So Taguchi, backup outfielder and the only Japanese player in franchise history, was released by the Cardinals in December after six seasons with the organization.

[16] Utility player Scott Spiezio was released by the Cardinals on February 27 after California authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on charges that included hit-and-run, drunk driving and assault.

[17] In spring training, LaRussa confirmed that he would continue to bat the pitcher eighth after the Cardinals adopted the unconventional lineup for the last two months of the 2007 season.

Starting pitcher Joel Piñeiro, effective for the Cardinals in 2007 after a late-season trade from Boston, signed a two-year deal to remain with the team.

[20] On January 3, St. Louis signed starting pitcher Matt Clement, a former All-Star who missed the entire 2007 season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Concerned over health issues in the rotation, with Clement not ready and Piñeiro suffering from shoulder pain, St. Louis signed another free agent, starting pitcher Kyle Lohse, to a one-year contract on March 14.

[24] St. Louis started the season with three players--Brian Barton, Kyle McClellan, and Rico Washington – who were making their big-league debuts.

With a pitching rotation in flux and many long-time Cardinals off to other teams, and coming off a losing season, most experts picked St. Louis to play poorly again in 2008.

[25][26][27] Opening Day, scheduled for March 31, was postponed to April 1 due to rain after the Cards and Rockies had played 2½ innings.

[36] Albert Pujols' on-base streak was snapped at 42 games when he failed to reach safely in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on May 16.

[40] Parisi and Mather were the fifth and sixth players to make their big-league debut with the 2008 Cardinals, following Brian Barton, Kyle McClellan, Rico Washington and Chris Perez.

[45] The injury situation became even worse on June 10, when Albert Pujols strained his left calf muscle running from home on a ground ball, sending him to the disabled list for only the second time in his eight-year career.

[48] On June 20 the Cardinals traveled to Boston for a three-game set with the Red Sox; it was St. Louis' first trip to Fenway since the 2004 World Series.

Nick Stavinoha, called up on June 22 after Izturis went on the DL, became the ninth player to make his big-league debut with the 2008 Cardinals.

On July 4, Albert Pujols (aged 28 years, 170 days), became the fifth-youngest player to hit his 300th home run, but the Cardinals lost 2-1.

[53] On July 5, a crowd of 46,865, the biggest ever in the short history of the new Busch Stadium, saw St. Louis score three in the bottom of the 9th against ace closer Kerry Wood to beat Chicago 5-4.

Mark Mulder's comeback ended when, in his first start since September 2007, he suffered pain in his throwing shoulder on July 9 and had to leave the game after only 16 pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies.

This was the second-best record in the National League, but it was also the product of St. Louis playing .500 baseball after reaching ten games over .500 in early May, at 22-12.

On August 2, Matt Clement, signed in the offseason to fill out the rotation but unable to complete a comeback from injury, was released by the Cardinals without ever pitching for them.

On August 5, Brendan Ryan was optioned to (AAA) Memphis and the Cardinals signed free agent infielder Felipe López, who was released by the Washington Nationals on July 31.

On August 5, the Cardinals took a 4-0 lead into the top of ninth inning, only to have Villone, Isringhausen and Franklin combine to give up four runs to the Dodgers.

August ended with the Astros sweeping the Cardinals in three at Houston, dropping them to 13-13 for the month and 74-63 for the season and leaving St. Louis a full six games behind Milwaukee in the loss column.

Jason Isringhausen's frustrating season came to a disappointing finish when he was diagnosed on August 19 with elbow tendinitis and a partially torn tendon.

A crucial two-game series with Milwaukee August 26–27 ended in a split and with the Cardinals still four losses behind the Brewers in the race for the NL Wild Card.

That loss was the start of a season-high seven-game losing streak that saw the Cardinals officially eliminated in the NL Central race and fall out of wild-card contention.