I’m way behind in linking to the various podcasts and shows that have so graciously had me on to discuss Cardinals baseball (was that a humblebrag?), so I thought I’d provide you with a rare audio insight into the mindset of one Cardinal blogger over the course of three weeks:

September 15

I did a guest spot on The Phil Naessens Show, discussing (at the time) the Cardinals’ improbable surge in September, and could they possibly pull off such a historical comeback to earn a postseason berth?

(Hint: Phil was a lot more confident in the Cards at that time than I was.)

September 18

I was ecstatic to be a guest on Daniel’s new (-ish, since he’s quickly caught up to us in episodes) podcast over at C70 at the Bat – Conversations with C70.

Daniel and I discussed a really wide-ranging number of topics, including the history of this blog, the opportunities afforded to us over the last few seasons as bloggers, and the developing use of social media in baseball and the blogosphere.  Oh yeah, we talked about the Cards a bit too.  Find a cozy chair before listening to this one.

October 3

HOLY CRAP THEY MADE THE PLAYOFFS!  What do you mean now they have to beat the Phillies again?!?!

I was back for a repeat appearance (love talking with these guys whenever they ask me to come on) on Sports Buzz on The Pulse Network.  Today I was talking with host Tyler Pyburn about the first couple of games of the NLDS with Philadelphia and what can be expected of the Cardinals going forward.

Check out the video from that show below:

Thanks to all for having me on, I truly enjoy getting to talk about the Cardinals – hope you all enjoy listening.

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve got an ever-growing number of items floating around the ole desk here that I need to get resolved, so as such, here’s one big catch-all post to take care of them…

Trade Deadline

1. Not ecstatic to see Colby Rasmus leave, but I think it was another situation where the relationship (however you want to interpret the usage of that word) had deteriorated beyond repair.  Someone had to go, and one wasn’t a likely candidate to be shipped out.
2. I do think the 2011 Cardinals improved themselves with their deadline activity.
3. Love the Rafael Furcal deal as a low risk, high potential reward swap.  There wasn’t much available on the market, but it’s certainly reasonable to believe Furcal will be an upgrade for the Cards’ middle infield.
4. Glad Heath Bell didn’t come to St. Louis.  Too expensive, don’t need him.

All-Star Giveaway Winners

You may remember we had a contest of sorts around the All-Star Game (hey, I said this stuff has been on my desk too long) asking folks to tell us their favorite Cardinal All-Star moments.  Without further ado, the winners:

GRAND PRIZE (MLB.com gift card): Jason – “Mine would have to be the 2002 All Star game. It was a few weeks after Darryl Kile passed away. Matt Morris was the only Cardinals representative that year, but he didn’t play. During the player introductions Matt flashed the camera his palms which read “DK 57″ in honor of his fallen friend and teammate. I was still having trouble dealing with DK’s death at the time and it made me feel a little better to see Morris remember his buddy on a stage that is usually reserved for individual accomplishments. It is unfortunate that to most people the 2002 game is known more for the infamous All Star game that ended in a tie. The reason I love this moment is because it isn’t about an amazing catch or no-doubt home run. It was one friend honoring the memory of another and something anyone could relate to, baseball fan or not.”

RUNNER UP (Assorted All-Star Game swag): Alan - “I would say my favorite Cardinal All-star moment would have to be when Mark McGwire absolutely went off in the 1999 Home Run Derby. Seeing him launch ball after ball over the Monster and hearing Chris Berman rattle off every Boston suburb as each homer landed was one of the most awesome feelings I have ever gotten to experience in my life.”

I will be contacting the two winners to get them their prizes.  Congrats guys and thanks again to Holiday Inn for providing the prizes.

Want to know what watching a Batavia Muckdogs game is like?

The folks over at Stadium Journey recently visited Dwyer Stadium to take in a Muckdogs game – check out their review here.

Scott Engel talks to Cardinal players

Over at thexlog.com Scott Engel had a chance to speak with some of the Cardinals players and coaches while they were recently in New York.  Some of the responses and comments were entertaining…

My favorites?

Albert Pujols constantly referring to the media somewhat dismissively as “you guys”, Mark McGwire says “Freese has ice in his veins” (oh hilarious, Mark) and refers to Jon Jay as a “role player” when discussing his “low maintenance swing” (in other words, Big Mac doesn’t want anything to do with that hitch).  And does David Freese sound like Spicoli to anyone else?

The Lost WARGraphs

So before Colby Rasmus was traded last Wednesday, I was all fired up about making a WARGraphs Wednesday post comparing Rasmus and Andy Van Slyke – he of the B.O.B. Syndrome (Bitter Old Ballplayer).  Van Slyke was continuing to run his mouth about Rasmus, and the graphs show it might just be jealousy.

Then Colby was traded, so I quick and switched gears toward a Rasmus versus Corey Patterson post, since some folks were deluding themselves into believing Patterson was a lynch pin in the deal (to be clear, he’s not).

Anyway, I figure by now it would just seem like sour grapes to post either of them as their own full-fledged WARGraphs Wednesday post, but I wanted to share the links.  So there.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Finally, I was a guest on The Pulse Network’s Sports Buzz show a couple weeks ago talking about the Cardinals and the trade deadline.  I probably sound foolish in hindsight, knowing what the team actually DID do at the deadline, but nonetheless, if you can still stand the sound of my voice after listening to Podcast Ep. 6.0, you can go watch the clip from Sports Buzz.

As always, thanks for reading, listening and watching.  Now I can clear off my desk.

I’m not announcing anything you don’t already know, but I can certainly provide you an easy way to see the entire ceremony.

Below is the White House feed of the entire ceremony.  Stan Musial wasn’t the only one receiving the honor today from President Barack Obama, there were a lot of big names on the stage with ‘The Man’.  Bill Russell, Maya Angelou, Warren Buffett, George H.W. Bush, and many others worthy of such an honor joined Musial.

The video is forty minutes long, only parts of which address Musial – but it’s worth watching every bit.  Goosebumps.  I’ll give you about two seconds to pick Stan out on stage…

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Before the ceremony, I was able to take part in a blogger roundtable for KMOV.com – you can read mine and the others’ responses to a great question about Musial.

Congratulations Mr. Musial, you have made and continue to make Cardinal Nation proud.

I dug back into my podcast-rambling bag of tricks tonight and joined Daniel from C70 at the Bat and Mike from Stan Musial’s Stance on the United Cardinal Bloggers’ Radio Hour tonight.

I managed to hop on the line just in time to ask a few questions of the night’s special guest, Matt Sebek from Joe Sports Fan, who joined us to talk about the Cardinals’ Social Media Night and his column about said evening.

We also talk Tony La Russa and possible managerial replacements as well as the Cards moving broadcasts back to KMOX for the 2011 season.

All this was just in the last half-hour!  Daniel and Mike were talking for 30 minutes before I even joined!

Give a listen, won’t you?

Join us tomorrow, along with Daniel from C70 at the Bat, as we talk ball (among other things) with Kyle McClellan on the UCB Radio Hour podcast.

The Cardinal pitcher will be joining us from Jupiter, FL where he is already gearing up for Spring Training.

We’ll be sticking to a finite set of questions with Kyle and not taking callers until he hangs up with us, so if you’ve got something you’d like us to ask, post it below!

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From the UCB release:

United Cardinal Bloggers To Interview Kyle McClellan

The United Cardinal Bloggers will be interviewing St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle McClellan on Saturday, February 6, at 4:30 pm Central for a special edition of the UCB Radio Hour.

McClellan, a Missouri native who has spent two years with the Cardinals, was 4-4 with a 3.38 ERA coming out of the pen last year.  He has been a solid part of the bullpen since his debut in 2008 and has been conditioning himself to challenge for the fifth spot in the St. Louis rotation this spring.

The United Cardinal Bloggers were formed in 2007 to foster communication and collaboration between those that blog about St. Louis.  The UCB Radio Hour began late in 2008 and now is a weekly staple, airing Wednesdays at 9:30 pm Central at Blog Talk Radio and available for download as a podcast from that site and from iTunes.

No callers will be taken for the McClellan interview, though callers are encouraged on the regular Wednesday show.

The McClellan interview can be heard here, and the show page at Blog Talk Radio can be found here.

St. Louis Cardinals team president Bill DeWitt III will be the special guest on a Monday evening edition of the UCB Radio Hour podcast tonight.

Join us, along with Dan of C70 at the Bat and Mike of Stan Musial’s Stance as we get the opportunity to talk Cardinals baseball and all things surrounding it with DeWitt.

Not entirely sure how much time we’ll have with Mr. DeWitt, but we’ve got plenty of topics to discuss, so join in live via Blog Talk Radio, or download the podcast from iTunes tomorrow morning!

As the last few moments of the All-Star Wednesday black hole tick away, I wanted to throw some odds and ends at you.

• Josh from Redbirds Row did an interview with Memphis farmhand Pete Parise on Monday.  Check it out at Blog Talk Radio, or by using the handy new iTunes link image at the top right there.
• Josh and I hosted the regular Wednesday UCB Radio Hour show tonight.
• We made our semi-regular appearance on the Fantasy Baseball Hot Stove this past weekend.
• Finally, Bernie Miklasz and Joe Posnanski (twice, kind of – seems Joe has his stories conflicting a little between blog and print) summed up all the things I admire about Stan Musial and some of the disappointment I felt in his seemingly limited role Tuesday night.  All in all, a great night to be a Cardinal fan.

Friday we’re back to business – Chris Carpenter versus Arizona’s Jon Garland.  I know who I’ll be rooting for…

UPDATE: Heh.  Apparently either Joe reads this blog and/or others sniffed out his double-dip on the 2008 blog post and his article in the KC Star.  Blog post appears to have been deleted, so I changed the link above to go to Google’s cached page of it.  Thanks Google!  Also, here’s a new one from Poz at his blog.

Who were those masked men last night?

What got into the Cardinal bats?

More importantly, will Tony actually stick with the lineup for a second day to try and keep the spark going?  [Ed. note - A: No.  Rasmus will sit today versus a left-handed starter, Andrew Miller.  Lots of right-handed hitters in there today.]

The Cards put up lucky number 13 against the Florida Marlins last night at Land Shark Stadium, winning the game 13-4.  Their exceptional record continues when scoring 5 or more and holding the opposition to 4 or less.

Star of the Game would have to be Rick Ankiel (I know right, I can’t believe it either!).  Ank was three-for-five with a double, triple, and home run.  Hopefully this can help break him out of his funk along with the rest of the offense.

Ankiel was closely followed by Brendan Ryan, who was four-for-five, and Colby Rasmus, who continued his hot hitting in June with a three-for-five effort including a three-run home run in the first inning to get the Cards off on the right foot.

Lost in the offensive outburst was another workman-like outing from Adam Wainwright.  Waino struggled a bit allowing eleven hits and three walks for four runs worth across seven innings, but he also displayed the “bulldog”-like effort getting out of jams that he also showed early in the season when he was struggling with his arm slot.  Striking out Hanley Ramirez with the bases loaded for the third out in the bottom of the sixth inning seemed like a big door slammed shut on the Marlins, as they never threatened again.

Today is the rubber-match of the series, morning baseball for those of us in the Midwest!

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Today is also the conclusion of the MLB Draft, rounds 31-50 are completed today.

To get your draft fix, I highly recommend going over to Future Redbirds.  Erik has been live-blogging and posting away over there as the draft progresses, dropping all the knowledge about the youngsters.

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Speaking of Erik and the MLB Draft, if you didn’t listen to UCB Radio Hour (and a Half!) last night, you missed out on some great chatter about the Cards’ draft class through yesterday and specifically about first-round selection Shelby Miller.

Between the draft and last night’s offensive explosion, we ran over our typical allotted time and used up every bit of 90 minutes.  About an hour on the draft and the last half-hour for the big league discussions.

Listen via the Blog Talk Radio player at the link above or by clicking on the huge United Cardinal Bloggers logo above right in the sidebar to listen and subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

Be sure to tune in at 1:30pm on Sundays for the weekend show hosted by Josh from Redbirds Row.

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Albert Pujols broke his 0-for-16 slump last night with a single, then proceeded to make outs in the remainder of his at-bats.  He’s 1-19 during this downswing.

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Khalil Greene is 4-8 in a rehab assignment with the Memphis Redbirds.  He’s also committed two errors.  Where does Khalil fit into the big league club when/if he returns, based upon the emergence of Brendan Ryan’s bat lately?

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Buried in an “Et Cetera” blurb at the bottom of an article from Joe Strauss at STLToday.com, Strauss indicates that the Cards’ search for a trade partner to improve the offense has expanded to include the Astros’ Miguel Tejada.  Tejada would represent a significant upgrade in the Cardinal lineup and perhaps improve the defense as well.  He plays multiple positions adequately, something that Tony LaRussa would no doubt appreciate.

Is it possible for the ‘Stros and Cards to overcome in-division trading “embargoes” and make something happen?

Yeah, I know…it’s not really reveille when it goes off at 4pm.  Consider this the “sleeping in” version of the Reveille…

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Ryan Ludwick hits the shelf.  Todd Wellemeyer gets creamed.  Lineup still not hitting.  Cards and Pirates are on the verge of combustion during this series via the beanball.

Am I missing something, or did nothing good come from last night’s game?

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Ludwick to the disabled list has made room for the callup of Nick Stavinoha.  Consider me unimpressed, but unsurprised.  After all, who else did they have available down there?  (And don’t give me the Brian Barton sob story…)

From our point of view, the Stavi callup pretty much punched Tyler Greene’s ticket back to Memphis this weekend when Brendan Ryan is activated.

Here’s hoping Luddy or Rick Ankiel (or both) can make it back soon to bolster the outfield soon.  Good thing we have that organizational depth there, right?

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So who gets more at-bats in Ludwick and Ankiel’s absences?  Shane Robinson or Stavinoha?  Our money is on Sugar Shane.

And it’s not just because Tony saw fit to hit him in the ninth spot in the lineup last night…

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On to brighter subjects, tonight marks PH8′s triumphant return to the airwaves on UCB Radio Hour.  Join us, Tom from Cardinals GM, Josh from Redbirds Row, and hopefully some other stragglers – live tonight at 9:30pm CT.

Join the show yourself by calling in with a question or comment at 646.929.1758.

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For all you Twits out there (sorry, Tweeple, right?) who can’t get enough of the Twitter service and all it stands for, now you can put your most witty 140 characters on a t-shirt.

We hereby begin the official pool to see who is featured on more t-shirts, @dgoold – @MatthewHLeach – @miklasz.  Early line favors Goold, based on sheer volume.

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Memphis played a morning game today (11:05a Memphis time) against the Las Vegas 51s.  Jess Todd got roughed up a bit in the top of the tenth, Memphis scored three of their own in the bottom of ten, then the Redbird pen blew it again in the top of eleven.

Sound familiar?

Jon Jay had three hits in five at-bats to raise his slumping batting average above .220.  Think he’s upset about getting passed over for callups after the spring he had?  Hopefully this can spur him on to improve the rest of the season.

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Since our first birthday was last week, we thought it appropriate to throw this out there…

If anyone feels the need to get PH8 a birthday gift, these would be more than appropriate.

Go Cards!

With this unexpected two-day break in action for the Cardinals, how better to spend your time than catching up on odds and ends around the web – and then top it off with some minor league baseball?

1.  A Cubs-based cemetery?

Won’t it be filled up with all of the hopes of Cub fans and seasons lost before the first person can buy a plot?

(Hat tip to @Since1908 – check out their new blog at http://since1908twitter.blogspot.com/ )

2.  Good reading from Rich Lederer

A story of caution regarding player autographs.  Anyone else not feel sorry for the guy too much, having met the folks who scribbled on his baseball?  I kid…

3.  Listen to the Sunday UCB Radio Hour

Josh from Redbirds Row and I yapped a bit about the Cubs series and the difficulties experienced by the Cards so far already in this young season.  Give a listen by clicking the link above or via iTunes by clicking the UCB logo in the sidebar, above right.

4.  Listen to the Memphis Redbirds play today at 4:05pm CT

Thankfully, gameday audio for MiLB games has not yet been monetized by MLB.  You can listen to the Redbirds play at Oklahoma City via the link above late this afternoon for free.  If you can’t catch that game, listen to another Cards affliate play via the links on this page.  Minor league baseball is wonderful, and even better, you get to listen to some guys whose names may well be coming out of Mike Shannon’s mouth within a couple seasons.

There will be a Pond Scum sighting tomorrow.  Root hard for the home team.

We had a lot of fun on last night’s UCB Radio Hour.

We were joined by Daniel from C70 at the Bat, Ryan from Prose and Ivy (a Cubs blog, but we don’t hold it against him), and Kathy from our featured blog of the week Redbird Chatter.

As always, you can listen through iTunes by clicking on the big UCB logo above right, or you can go to United Cardinal Bloggers homebase, and listen to the show using the Blog Talk Radio player in the upper left.

Join us again on Sunday at 3:30p for more Cards rambling!

RIP Nick Adenhart.  The 22-year-old Angels pitcher passed away early this morning in a tragic hit-and-run accident in Fullerton, CA.

The many news bureaus reporting on the accident this morning [LA Times] [ESPN] [NBC LA] [NBC Williamsburg] [More links at Baseball Musings] indicate that it was a three-car incident, caused by a minivan that ran a red light and then fled the scene.

The story is even sadder when you consider that Adenhart was on his way home from making his Major League debut, in which he threw six scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

Early reports indicate that one of the other passengers in Adenhart’s vehicle was also a member of the Angels organization.

Sad sad story, and we Cardinal fans can relate.  It is always terrible to hear these stories.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to Adenhart’s family, friends, and the Angels organization.  Godspeed.

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This morning’s sad news kind of puts last night’s Cardinal loss into perspective.  The Cardinals seemingly put in a lackluster effort and were rewarded as such.  Everyone looked lethargic and just not that into the game.

Todd Wellemeyer looked awful, getting knocked around for twelve hits in his five innings of work.  Wellemeyer appeared to be trying to fool the Pirate hitters a bit too much and found himself behind in many counts.

Now, I understand that the Pittsburgh lineup is chock full of left-handed hitters, many good ones at that.  Sure, they are good fastball hitters, but aren’t most big leaguers?  Welley was trying to get way too cute with the breaking balls early in the count instead of just getting ahead of hitters.  Arguably, the defense didn’t help him much either.

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Congrats to David Freese on his first big league hit.  I didn’t see any shenanigans going on with the ball like in Tuesday night’s game on Colby Rasmus’ hit.

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Here’s hoping Chris Carpenter’s start today against the Bucs goes much better.  I still knock on wood anytime something good happens to Carp, and today will be the same from his first pitch to the last.  The Cards must have this guy healthy to do anything of note in the division, in our humble opinion.

12:40pm Central Time start today for the Redbirds – let’s bring one home.

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Last night we hosted another edition of United Cardinal Bloggers Radio Hour.  You can listen to the show by using the player at the UCB site linked here, or by clicking on the UCB Logo in the upper right there and get it via iTunes.  We were joined by James from Astros County who gave us some great insight into the ‘Stros organization and what to expect from this weekend’s series.  We also had a short series follow-up with Jim from North Side Notch, a Pirates blog.  He got to gloat a bit about the direction this series has gone to date.  Many thanks to Tom from Cardinals GM for helping me steer the ship.

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Got plans to be at the Saturday April 11 game against the Astros?  PH8 will be there for the 3:10pm start, taking in our first live Cardinal action of the young 2009 season.  Hit me up on Twitter @PitchersHit8th, in the comments section below, or via the contact form linked above and let me know if you’ll be there too.  I’ll buy you a cold A-B beer for saying hello!

Join us for our weekly podcastat Blog Talk Radio on this Wednesday, March 25th, at 9:30pm CT.  (Note the new time!)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/UCB-Host/2009/03/26/United-Cardinal-Bloggers-Radio-Hour

As always, we’d love to have you call in with any questions or comments you have about Cardinals baseball.

This week PH8 will be hosting, and we will be joined by St Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Derrick Goold, who also burns the midnight oil on his Bird Land blog at STLToday.com and on his Twitter page @dgoold.

Call in to chat with Derrick at (646) 929-1758 or leave questions in the comments below and we will try to get them on the air.

Thanks for listening!

Last night marked another edition of UCB Radio Hour.  We hosted, Daniel from C70 joined us, and we had several solid questions from callers and chat members alike.

As always, you can listen via the iTunes podcast link (click on the UCB logo at right) or you can use this here fancy player from BlogTalkRadio:

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The UCB Roundtable continues, with many great questions this past week:

March 6: Fungoes (main scoreboard at Busch)
March 9: Whiteyball (Colby Rasmus)
March 10: The Cardinal Virtue (Cardinal Mt. Rushmore)
March 11: Cardinal Diaspora (scrappiness)
March 12: 4thebirds…. (Mozeliak’s offseason)

Check them out – we’re doing our best here to participate in as many of these as possible, but they are definitely hard to keep track of!

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Just for reference sake, below are some links to a few more reactions to Joe Posnanski’s Albert Pujols article in Sports Illustrated:

C70 at the Bat

Fungoes

la Beisbolista

They’re not all positive – but all represent their point well – great reads.

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Finally, I leave you with another cool little thing found randomly through the magic of Google and the weaved links of the interwebs.

Salary vs Performance is a cool little interactive grid of sorts that shows what MLB teams got for their spending.  The graph linked above shows the end of the 2008 season, hopefully they continue for 2009.

The UCB Preseason Roundtable discussions continue, with Deaner over at Cardinal Nation Globe posting today about choices for a franchise building block – Albert Pujols exempted.

Tomorrow features a great question from Josh at That’s A Winner – I won’t spoil it, but it’s very pertinent to the Cardinal outlook for coming years.

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Tomorrow night, I get to play host again for UCB Radio Hour.  We will once again be chatting about Spring Training and the return of live baseball.  The Cardinals open up the spring season tomorrow, with a lineup that could be very telling for the 2009 season.  Please join us for Radio Hour – the more callers we get, the better the show is – call in for 5 minutes [ (646) 929-1758 ] and ask some questions of our brilliant bloggers.

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If you’re not checking them out already, Derrick Goold and Matthew Leach are down at Spring Training and twittering to the rest of us poor saps what they’re seeing in Jupiter.  Today featured a wild ‘coach-pitch’ game fostered by manager Tony LaRussa.

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Finally, some of you have probably noticed a few more design changes taking place here over the last week or two.  I’ve taken the opportunity of the off-season to perform some upgrades on the site.  Notably (with links to the code suppliers, as a manner of thanks) – we now have links to Related Posts at the bottom of each post page, we have inserted an Add This button at the bottom of every post so you loyal readers (all three of you) can share PH8 posts with your favorite news sites or friends, the Greet Box has been added for those folks arriving via search engines or otherwise to help them navigate around, and finally we’ve switched to WP to Twitter plugin for firing off our links into the Twitterverse.  Some of these things you will notice, some you won’t.  Hopefully they are not too intrusive, and if you see something you don’t like – please let me know!