Rob Rains of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reports that within a couple days of Jim Edmonds‘ desire to play baseball again, three or four other clubs, including the New York Yankees contacted Edmonds’ agent.

“I want to play but obviously I love it here (St. Louis) and want to play here,” Edmonds said. “I didn’t think I would generate this much action just saying I wanted to play. We’ll see who is really serious in the next couple of days and see if the Cardinals get back to me.”

On Sunday night, former Cardinals outfielder Edmonds said he wanted to come and play for the team in 2010. At Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation event Edmonds went on stage and said , “I’m challenging him (La Russa) to let me come back and play for the Cardinals again for free.”

In response, La Russsa said, “Out of respect, we’ll have a serious discussion about it. But he hasn’t played in a year. There’s a lot of obstacles there. But we’ll talk about it.”

Edmonds has not played since September 2008 for the Chicago Cubs. However, according to Matthew Leach of MLB.com, the Cardinals are in need of a backup center fielder and a left-handed bat off the bench.

Edmunds, 39, has a .284 career batting average with 382 home runs in 16 Major League seasons. You can see Edmund’s contract history and statistics here.

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