Friday Link Dump

It's Friday, the last Friday before pitchers and catchers report.  As such, there's not just a ton to write about, so we'll clean out the inbox and give you the information and links that get sent to me on occasion.

--You may have read about this elsewhere, but Ernie Harwell is receiving the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award.  As someone (I believe it was Matthew Leach) noted on Twitter, it's rare you receive an award named for someone still alive and actually a decade younger than you are.  Harwell obviously is a deserving recipient, having been the voice of the Tigers for so many years.  It's great to see how involved with baseball he still is, even though he's gotten away from the microphone on a regular basis.

--The Society of American Baseball Research giving away a book.  Do I really need to say more?  Check out their website for a free download of The Emerald Guide to Baseball 2010.   Put it this way: if you wanted the print version, it'd run you about $25, so it's a heck of a bargain.  I downloaded it last night and gave it a quick look through, but there's a ton of stuff there.  It runs over 500 pages, so if you want to get prepared for the coming season, I'd suggest downloading it sometime this weekend.

--If you haven't, you should check out Fanbase.  Fanbase is like an encyclopedia of sports knowledge put together by fans.  If you check out the Cardinal page, you'll see a lot of the posts from this blog, but there's other information there as well.  It's a great way to have a real-time look at players, something that could be really valuable in the years to come, to look back and see what they were saying about Player X in his prime.  Plus there are discussions, pictures, the whole gambit.

--Not to be confused with Fanbase, there is a FanPulse application now available for the iPhone.  I personally don't have an iPhone, though often wish I did.  This is one of those times.  You have your scores plus you have blog commentary available right there at the touch of your fingertips.  The first 2000 who download are eligible for a drawing for $50 iTunes gift cards, so if you haven't, check that out and see if you like it.

--The Baseball Bloggers Alliance is branching out into podcasting!  The first episode of BBA Baseball Talk will be Tuesday night at 10 PM Central over at Blog Talk Radio.  Yours truly, as founder of the BBA, will be hosting the first edition along with Ron from Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf.  We'll have a look at baseball in general, how the divisions shape up, and hopefully have some callers to talk ball with us.

--Speaking of podcasting, the United Cardinal Bloggers are going to be interviewing Cardinals minor league director John Vuch next Saturday.  More details to come.


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