Of the major leagues’ six divisions the American League East is playing with the greatest payroll disparity among its teams. Two of its teams have two of the majors’ three biggest payrolls while the other three teams have payrolls that fall into the dirty dozen of payrolls, that is, they rank among the bottom 12.

Yet if you took a snapshot of the division standings entering Saturday’s games, you would find the A.L. East’s two biggest spenders, New York and Boston, occupying the bottom two spots and the three smallest spenders, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Baltimore, holding the top three spots.

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He was the first and remains one of only two managers to lead teams in both leagues to World Series championships, has had his uniform numbers retired by two teams and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2000.

Yet a new book about Sparky Anderson, written by his best friend, Dan Ewald, tells some stories that I find more interesting than anything Sparky did in 26 years of managing.

“Sparky and Me,” published by Thomas Dunne Books of St. Martin’s Press and available in book stores May 8, is a terrific tale of the long-time relationship between Anderson and Ewald, former public relations director of the Detroit Tigers, one of the teams Anderson managed.

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Albert Pujols, their best hitter and maybe the best hitter in baseball, took the money and ran. Tony La Russa, their manager for 16 years and two World Series championships, retired. Even Jeff Luhnow, their No. 2 baseball executive, left to become general manager of the Houston Astros.

But the St. Louis Cardinals haven’t missed a beat. They won 11 of their last 18 games last year, and they won 11 of their first 18 games this year. Their year-ending 11-7 record last season took them to their second World Series triumph in six years. Their season-starting 11-7 record this year served notice that the losses they suffered during the winter weren’t going to undermine their plans for this season.

“A lot of people thought the sky might fall but we had a lot of talent here,” said John Mozeliak, the Cardinals’ fifth-year general manager. “I think people saw that last October. Expectations were high even with the people we lost.”

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