“I always figured if you put Colby in the right environment, with the right manager and the right teammates, that he would flourish,” Luhnow said. “He’s a colorful character, from the South, who dresses a unique way. I think Colby wants to feel able to express himself and be accepted for who he is.”

Rasmus speaks in a syrupy slow drawl and is more selective with his words than he is at the plate. His hairstyles have carried a broader range, beginning with his first star turn, as a bleach-blond pitcher who helped Phenix City, Ala., to the championship game of the 1999 Little League World Series. He arrived in St. Louis 10 years later with a buzz cut. He experimented briefly with cornrows in Toronto. Now he wears his brown curly hair down to his shoulders.

He is most expressive with his wardrobe, which when he left the clubhouse after Monday’s crushing Game 4 loss included a black circular-brimmed hat, like one worn by the musician Stevie Ray Vaughan. When he wears a long-sleeve shirt, it is invariably buttoned all the way to the neck. Barely a day goes by in the off-season when Ramus, an avid hunter and fisherman, is not dressed in camouflage.

“Whatever I see that I like, I wear,” Rasmus said after removing white-framed sunglasses that he wore during the workout. “I’ve always kind of been that way. As people, we should be able to have our own tics and rhythms. If you want to wear that funky-looking hat, then you wear that funky-looking hat. I guess you could say I’m somewhat of a free spirit. I am who I am.”

Clubhouses can be a difficult place to maintain that distinctiveness, especially the one that Rasmus walked into in 2009 as a ballyhooed 22-year-old rookie on a team chock-full of veterans, who, like La Russa, had strong ideas about how the game should be played.

Rasmus, who now is married and has two young daughters, shared an apartment across the street from Busch Stadium with another free-spirited player, Brendan Ryan. The refrigerator was stocked with boxes of Uncrustables, the packaged crustless sandwiches, and sport drinks. The freezer was full of ice cream bars. The rest of the place was a mess.