It's Monday and we've got much to cover... 

Yes. The Bachelor Live Blog will be back. We've made no secret that the most read articles on this site are Bachelor and Bachelorette related and we'll be forgoing 2 hours of the national championship college football game to make sure that we're scientifically breaking down the best show on TV. We encourage you to share the news...

Speaking of the national championship: Notre Dame is going to get worked. You know how I know? Because Las Vegas doesn't give a single shit about the hype and they keep pushing the line higher and higher. You might not know much about gambling, but when a team like Notre Dame plays, the spreads are usually beat down because so much action comes in from people just betting Notre Dame because they know the brand. To see a line rise (could be double digits by kickoff) so much since the match-up was set tells me the sharps are on AL...

Speaking of sharp, Joe Webb was not. Nor was the dog track they play on in Washington DC. Nor was Indy's red zone offense. The Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs were about as 'wild' as a prostate exam. Let's hope this weekend means the next one will be twice as good and not a harbinger of terrible games to come...

Speaking of the NFL, I saw Silver Linings Playbook this weekend. That Jennifer Lawrence is going to be a star. I mean, a big star. Only 22 and owning a performance with a better than usual Bobby D. and Bradley Cooper in probably his best role ever. Movie could have been about 15 minutes shorter in the beginning to middle, but by the end you totally forgive what is actually going on here as the climatic ending. Solid B...

Speaking of solid B's. Looks like Bieber is smoking his fair share...

We'll be back later tonight with the Live Blog. See you then.

Remember that kid that aimed the laser pointer at the Giants and Mike Matheny busted him? 

He's been sentenced. To a $500 fine and probation. BND.com has the whole story. (Which they seemed to have boosted from the Post-Dispatch?) And it looks like the whole matter is being put to bed. 

Remember when laser pointers were the cool thing? Those were the days. Because you know what's cool now with kids? 

Braces.

I'm not jerking your chain here. This is catching on. So much so that reputable news outlets are running stories about the "dangers of fake braces". In fact... they could KILL YOU!

A big part of me wonders just why the hell this wasn't a fad when I was in jr. high. Would have made things a whole lot easier, right? Next thing you know debate team and band are going to get you tons of slow dances at the mixer. 

I was born into the wrong era!

Now, the Friday Links...

Dave's Killer Bread. LINK HERE

Sometimes when you're in the mood. LINK HERE 

This is how you scare somebody. LINK HERE

Women love bad boys. LINK HERE

Happy 2013 everyone. LINK HERE

Burn. LINK HERE

That's it. That's the week. Maybe we can finally get a good bowl game at some point? Perhaps the hockey lockout can end? We've been sober for a couple of days now. Let's go have a drink. 

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.