Like most OK ideas we have at Cards Diaspora, they generally happen after the fact. Is that going to stop us from having the Top 5 2012 Song Dedications to the Cardinals 3 days into 2013?

No.

No it isn't. Bonus music insight on each song too!

DEDICATION 1 - To Albert Pujols: "Brand New Me" by Alicia Keys

It took a long summer and another playoff run, but Cardinal fans, for the most part, are over El Hombre. Mostly. There are still those times when you see the #3 spot roll around in the Cardinals order and kind of wish AP was coming up... but, no, really... it's all good now.

Bonus Music Commentary: From the 5:06 point of this song, it's hard to not say that Alicia is the most talented woman on Earth. Very, very few people can command an entire arena with a piano and a voice. This song never hit as a single, but still one of the best songs of 2012.

DEDICATION 2 - To NLCS Game 7: "I Cry" by Flo Rida

Damn this game. I guess we could also dedicate this to games 6 or 5 too, but game 7 meant it really, honestly was over in 2012. The run of improbable comebacks had drawn to a close and the Cardinals were going to be sent home with the possibility of back-to-back World Series in their back pocket.

Ugh.

Bonus Music Commentary: This song doesn't get old. It's great at the gym. It's great at parties. I think when we look back at 2012 it was the year that EDM went pop. No rapper has made that transition better than Flo Rida. He might lack street cred, but the dude is cranking out Top 40 hits when stalwarts like Lil' Wayne are getting dusted.

DEDICATION 3 - To Kyle Lohse: "Money Trees" by Kendrick Lamar

An argument could be made that Lohse is one of the best walk-year pitchers of all time. 3 times now he's parlayed big contract seasons into monster contracts. (Yes, he'll get paid this off-season). The rest of the time he's bad to OK, but when the $$$ is in sight, Lohse delivers.

Bonus Music Commentary: Raise your hand if you're excited for the Kendrick Lamar era. (Bonus fact: his last name is Duckworth). His latest album 'Good Kid. m.A.A.d. City' flashes massive potential. A rapper, yes. But also an artist that's going to challenge the definition of that word. His next album could be transcendent.

DEDICATION 4 - To Mike Matheney: "Heavy Cross" by Gossip

There were some bumps and bruises in 2012. But replacing the greatest modern day manager in the history of a sport without coaching anything above little league is pretty much an impossible task. Hell, sports is the only place where something like this can happen. You don't go from running your student council to Senator or President, right? Mike did an outstanding job of keeping himself out of the way and letting a team get after it.

Bonus Music Commentary: Technically this song is from 2009. But most of you were exposed to it this winter during the holiday advertising season when Dior featured it in a commercial along with Charlize Theron. Hard to imagine this band isn't much, much bigger than it is. 

DEDICATION 5 - To Oscar Tavares: "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen

It's time for the best prospect in baseball not named Bryce Harper or Mike Trout to get to the bigs. It's time for the Cardinals to make the call and get Oscar in the show ASAP.

Bonus Music Commentary: Yes, this was the single greatest YouTube lipdub in the history of the genre. There is no second place. Or any other place.

Not sure how we whiffed on this one, but buried deep on the YouTubes was the following video featuring Jon Jay and David Freese on College Humor. 

Looks like this was uploaded way before the Cardinals ended up winning the 2011 World Series and David Freese became DAVID FREESE, so really, this is the last vestige of non-famous Freese and Jay... at least in St. Louis.

Although, both would still go on an internet show today. Probably. 

So, how about this.

A friend of the site (@AbSim86) got a book as a holiday gift called "The Ultimate Baseball Roadtrip". The reviews on Amazon seem to be pretty positive, but the section on the Cardinals is highly suspect.

Why?

That's why.

Poor people coming to Baseball Heaven only to be directed to this site for Cardinal information. Oh my... the things they've seen these good-hearted sports fans.

It's a nice gesture, so Mom, if you're out there, you can buy a bunch of these and send them out to friends and family to make sure everyone knows your son was published! LINK HERE

The end of 2012 is almost here, so what better time to pull out the ace in the hole every lazy columnist has... a year end review! 

It took all of three clicks to sort the articles on our site by page views and these are the top 5 that you guys read in last year. I've added in some color below each link to make this all seem 'fresh', so at least there's that. 

+ "Pujols Was Almost A  Red" LINK HERE

This little nugget was buried inside an ESPN Podcast. And while ESPN is the 'World Wide Leader' in sports media, they also have a TON of content. So when I ran out of things to listen to at the gym, I tried a pod with Jonah Keri & Steve Berthiaume. 

The page views were helped quite a bit by a column referencing the article on Cincinatti.com and a some love from Berthiaume himself. But I have to say, this was the only pod I listened to in 2012 to make certain I heard what I thought I heard was right. 

+ "A David Freese Game 6 Story..." LINK HERE

A slice of life. I'm happy to know that this story was relayed to Mr. Freese at some point and I hope that his sister tells the story from her angle when re-living the best baseball game ever played.

I have one picture in my office. And it's me with 2 friends 3 minutes after this game officially ended. All three of us have a look on our faces that would be impossible to reproduce. 

+ "Bachelorette Live Blog: Episode 8" LINK HERE

You guys don't know this... but I actually did have some serious conversations about stopping this site as a baseball-ish place and making it 100% Bachelor/Bachelorette related content.

In fact more posts than this one rank in the top 5 of hits, but for some reason Episode 8 was the most popular. I just pulled one for this list.

It helps that contestants on the show seem to like these re-caps and Tweet them out for sure. But the fact that this is also a 9 month TV show that doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon made for a tantalizing business option. Then we remembered we don't make any money now... so why screw up a good thing?

+ "Pujols Left The Best Fans In Baseball For This?" LINK HERE

We've covered Pujols in-depth on this site. A fascinating man/story from so many angles. And his start in LA was epic. 

Epically awful.

I don't know if the city ever really responded to Pujols. And if the Angels don't deliver big results in '13 with the addition of Josh Hamilton... what happens then? I don't know if we'll ever get tired of seeing what Pujols is up to.

+ "The Ozzie Smith We Weren't Supposed To See" LINK HERE

My favorite piece of 2012 was also one of the most personal to me. In short, it's pretty disturbing to me that the awards and accolades I was so passionate about Ozzie getting while I was growing up were all sold.

Worse, Ozzie basically said he didn't care about them because it wasn't about the money, it was just stuff to sell.

Obviously, he's a prideful man trying to save a bit of face, but it was still hard to swallow that something I took such a rooting interest in could be discarded so easily.

So that's 2012.

We'll be posting through the end of the year, since some unused vacation time is in full use. 

Techincally, it's the St. Louis 'Wolves'... but stiil, St. Louis right? 

I guess if you ever wanted a screen cap of Jerry, Jimmy or Billy as your avatar for Twitter or something, this is your big chance. Or maybe, you can take a picture of the other guy. He must have felt like a million bucks when he came out and got zero applause...

Then Jerry comes out. 

Ouch. Hopefully that dude makes it big one day and can laugh this off. 

h/t: Clip Nation

Listen, it happens. 

After the past few days of holiday gluttony, it might be happening to you. 

Farting. Passing gas. Tooting. Whatever. And whilst trolling around YouTube to find something to write about, the video below appeared. 

It'll probably going to be taken down by MLB Advanced Media since we're commenting on it now, so I'll summarize: Al Hrabosky may have paused, farted and then continued his commentary on a Cardinals broadcast. 

On the other hand, did Al's pause afford the uploader time to rip one off into his couch? I'll let you decide for yourself. 

It's almost here

Christmas. 

Where you'll be, no doubt, unwrapping new Cardinal Saturday Jersey's and Opening Day tickets, looking forward to the start of Spring Training. Did you know that today marks the day where we're closer to the opening of the schedule in Jupiter than to game 7 of the 2012 NLCS? 

And depending on what kind of a mood you're in today, we've got two links to share...

Are you running around, crazy, trying to get everything ready for tomorrow and pissed off at the world? Then you might enjoy this machine that destroys everything: LINK HERE

Are you looking to get into your happy place before seeing the whole family: LINK HERE

Either way, we don't have a gift for you. Maybe you think it's because we're cheap. And you're correct.

We are. And you didn't make the cut. 

But still, tidings of comfort and joy to you and yours.

A funny thing happened on the way to 2013... 

A couple of years ago, this site, amongst others, were debating if Kyle Lohse was locked in to the worst contract in St. Louis Cardinals history. 

Yes, there had be previously bad players on the Cardinals, but we weren't sure if one had been so bad for so MUCH.

Money, that is. Because Mr. Lohse was getting roughly 11 million dollars per year to phumpher around every fifth day on the mound and get shelled. His (few) supporters pointed out that this forearm injury he had suffered was the root of the decline. We weren't so sure.

2011 happened. 14/8 188+ IP & 3.39 ERA. Nothing to write Cy Young about, but a very solid year for what turned out to be a championship season. 

I think we all kind of knew where 2012 was headed. Big year. Big free agent. Big BU-BYE.

Lohse delivered. 16/3 211 IP & 2.86 ERA. That freaking guy had an NBA-ish walk year. Couple it with the fact that he's represented by Scott Boras and Kyle's fate was sealed. 

Adios. 

Now, heading into the last week of the year and Lohse still remains un-signed. Ryan Dempster, Zack Greinke, Anibal Sanchez and Dan Haren have all been signed. It looks as if Edwin Jackson is close with the Cubs. And the Angels have just traded for Jason Vargas. 

The Cardinals Winter Warm-Up is fast approaching and today, the Cardinals unveiled their annual “price list” for player/manager autographs.

Yes. All the money collected goes to Charity… so HUZZAH for the Cardinals for being charitable.

Now that’s out of the way, It’s time to take a look at the list and see just how valuable each member is to the Cardinals. It’s the one time of year where the Cards can lay the wood to a player or coach and let them know just how much they care.

TLR? Seems like you haven’t been able to leave the spotlight. 40 DOLLARS.

Red? You don’t really have to come to these things anymore, but you’re still here! 75 DOLLARS!

Let’s take a look at the unofficial Cardinals popularity contest and see if there are any surprises. We graphed the list with comments from the CD on the right.

Hopefully Ozzie isn’t there panhandling…