Yes, this news is over a week old. And yes, we're just now getting to it. 

The Cardinals have signed veteran IF Ronny Cedeno to a 1 year deal for 1.15M (plus another 850K in performance bonus incentives) as an insurance policy against the arm of Rafael Furcal. 

Kozmania iced for another year, right?

At first blush, looks like a pretty solid signing. Sure, .247 BA, .290 OBP and .647 OPS aren't going to drop the panties.

But we didn't sign Mr. Cedeno to hit the ball. No sir, we signed him because if pressed into action, he's totally awesome as a leatherman and the dropoff between Furcal and Cedeno will barely be noticeable.

Way better option than Kozma, right? No more infield fly controversy here.

Wait, what? 

Ok, I will go over to Baseball-Reference and look it up. 

UH OH.

Time to get baseball nerd. That -2 number above? Well those represent the number of runs number of runs above or below average the player was worth based on the number of plays made. Not good. 

-10? The number of runs above or below average the player was worth based on the number of plays made.

Furcal is at 33/51 for comparison.

So historically Cedeno isn't a good hitter. He's a pretty average fielder. And he's a former Cub. And Met.

The big takeaway from this signing is two-fold:

1) If Furcal goes down, this insurance plan is probably not State Farm or Allstate. It's more Safe Auto. 

2) If Furcal goes down and you're a huge Pete Kozma fan, your boy might just make this a complete flush of 1.15M dollars by the Cardinals.

Now, the Friday Links...

Do you need motivation? LINK HERE

Why, why Manti? LINK HERE

Square Root. LINK HERE

Bachflip. LINK HERE

Ostrcich in a elephant headlock. LINK HERE

Sunbathing robots. LINK HERE

That's it. That's the week. Enjoy your first FEB weekend people. 

4 years after the project as supposed to be over, it's finally getting started. 

Ballpark Village is finally going to happen. For real. No, seriously. Not a joke.

The Cardinals announced on Wednesday that financing for the downtown development has closed and that preliminarily site prep had begun. A formal groundbreaking will be held February 8th with a target completion date of Phase 1 by Opening Day 2014.

Full Story: LINK HERE

St. Louis has deserved this for a long, long time. While Shannon's and Paddy O's are fun, the Cardinals have long been the underachieving financial driver of downtown. Untold millions of people have walked past that empty field since the new Busch Stadium opened in 2006 and left the city without spending a dime. 

Further, a half-hearted attempt at a softball field (has it ever been used?) was more proof that the Cardinals weren't serious about doing anything but making money without spending money to give back to St. Louis.

Well, here's to bygones being bygones. 

It looks like this time Ballpark Village is actually going to be something that's more than a civic joke. We'll be sure to cover its progress as it comes along.

Last week, the world record for vertical kissing was set. Kacie B gave Jean Luc-Picard faceplam burn. And beach volleyball was stripped of it's Olympic Sport status.

But tonight? 

                                 

The 2013 United Cardinal Bloggers Annual is now available for purchase @ Amazon: LINK HERE 

One of these years, we're going to get something published, but alas, the last thing that got cut before it went to (e) print was Bachlorette posts. Fingers crossed for 2014.

The foreward by Will Leitch (who happens to have an oral history in AdWeek today LINK HERE)

The 2012 St. Louis Cardinals was a team that was hard to figure. Playing without their Hall-of-Fame manager and longtime first baseman, expectations for the squad were mixed. However, Mike Matheny led his charges into October and then, via a playoff road never before traveled, within one game of repeating as National League Champions.

Throughout the year, the team was covered by the intrepid band of Internet writers known as the United Cardinal Bloggers and, with that season in the books and a new one about to begin, the UCB has put together a look at what happened during the season from their unique points of view.

With a foreword by Will Leitch, founder of Deadspin and now a columnist at Sports On Earth and New York Magazine, the 2013 United Cardinal Blogger Annual recaps not only the regular season but every round of the playoffs as well as providing features on such players such as Chris Carpenter, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.

Along with the player profiles, there are other examinations of the season including the work of the bullpen and Matheny’s bunting habits as well as a summary of the minor league season for each level of the Cardinals’ farm system. The annual also includes a tribute to St. Louis icon Stan Musial.

Contributors include Drew Silva, known for his work at NBC Sports’ Hardball Talk blog; Matt Philip from Fungoes, a part of ESPN’s Sweetspot blog network; Bill Ivie from I70 Baseball, which covers both of Missouri’s professional baseball teams; and a host of other Redbird writers.

So go out and get your copy. Now. 

If you want to read all about Mike Matheny's financial issues, Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch has all the details: LINK HERE

What would have been a bigger story, (see the above screen grab of Yahoo's homepage) was pushed to the back burner from the passing of Stan Musial a few hours after this went up.

Let's hope that this whole real estate speculation era for Matheny is now coming to a close. It seems like he wants to put it behind him and the sooner that happens, the better. Becuase let's be honest... seeing headlines like that are good for zero Cardinal fans. 

Friend of the program and 101 ESPN producer Chris Files made this yesterday from the memorial service of Stan Musial. 

I though it was good, so I'm posting it here. 

It's been a few days, but the stories of Stan Musial are still coming in. 

One of the gems unearthed this week was included in the story below from NPR, in which Harray Caray calls Musial's last hit. 

The whole piece is worth a listen, but the money clip starts @ 1:53 in. 

Last week, we were promised a TORNADO OF NEGATIVITY, only to be caught up some some gusty curtness and breezes of boorishness. 

                             
 

As promised, a list of articles that have been written about Stan Musial since his passing on Saturday night. 

Some you might have read already, some you might have missed. Either way, there is no lack of great words penned for a great man. 

Enjoy...

NY Times: LINK HERE

Sports On Earth: LINK HERE

Riverfront Times: LINK HERE

Viva El Birdos: LINK HERE

Inside STL: LINK HERE

STL Today: LINK HERE

ESPN: LINK HERE

C70 At The Bat: LINK HERE

Pitchers Hit Eighth: LINK HERE

Redbird Rants: LINK HERE

Sports Illustrated: LINK HERE

Retro Simba: LINK HERE

Yahoo! Sports: LINK HERE

USA Today: LINK HERE

NY Daily News: LINK HERE

Boston.com: LINK HERE

Sporting News: LINK HERE

Aerys Sports: LINK HERE

Cardinals.com: LINK HERE

Time: LINK HERE

Birds On The Bat 82: LINK HERE

That's what we could find on the internets. But if you come across a great article that you think people should read, please feel free to leave it in the comment section below.

1. Stan Musial passed away Saturday January 19th 2013 at the age of 92. I never saw a game that Stan Musial played in. Chances are if you're reading this article, you haven't either. Didn't stop him from being part of one of the most ridiculous lies I got away with in high school.

The Spice Girls were popular. And the hit single "Say You'll Be There" was climbing the charts.

One of Stan Musial's passions in life was the harmonica. Somehow this book should have been lampooned, but since it was Stan, we all contemplated starting harmonica playing... at least for a few seconds.

I convinced a few people that the harmonica solo (2:26 of this clip) was actually Mr. Musial. Told people to check out the liner notes in the CD if they didn't believe me. Eventually, I copped to the truth, but there is the distinct possibility that someone, somewhere still thinks that the Spice Girls had the want or need to feature Stan Musial in a pop song.

2. The reason anyone would believe something so asinine?

Because when it came to greatness, Musial didn't have limits to what was possible. 80 year old man teaming up with 5 British sex symbols for Billboard Hot 100 domination through a harmonica?

Hmmmm... WHY NOT?

Guy was the most under appreciated baseball player ever. Finally someone is trying to get him the recognition he deserved. Sporty Spice for mayor of St. Louis!

Eventually, Mr. Musial's greatness to St. Louis and the country was recognized by President Obama when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in early 2011.

3. St. Louis was happy for Musial. The Cardinal backed 'Stand for Stan' was a success and we basked in the glow of our guy getting the love he deserved from places other than the Midwest.

But the honor was fait accompli for Cardinal Nation. Musial had been, is and will be the greatest of them all. The standard on and off the field that we judge all Cardinals by.