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The Gathering: United Cardinal Bloggers Converge On St. Louis

Posted on April 7, 2011 at 10:01 PM
Filed Under: St. Louis Cardinals | United Cardinal Bloggers
You've heard about it on the UCB Radio Hour and you've probably read about it on some of the great blogs around the Cardinal blogosphere.  Yet, as the informal head of the United Cardinal Bloggers, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about the weekend from my point of view.  Most of this you may have read better in other places, though I doubt that anyone will ramble on as much as I will.

Going into this weekend, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Not that it mattered--I was going to be able to meet some of the wonderful people that make up the UCB and see a ballgame for free.  Pretty tough to ruin that at all.  That said, it turned out even better than I expected.

I left here at roughly noon on Saturday, heading through the Ozarks and across Missouri to the promised land.  On the docket for Saturday evening was dinner with bloggers, friends, and Twitter followers at Pujols5.  When we were planning this, I expected that I was going to run late, but it actually took me much less time than I thought, so 6:15 that evening found me sitting next to an empty fountain in front of our dinner locale, waiting on people to show.

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I had expected Bill, accompanied by Angela and Bob, to be there before me, so I realized that without them, I could see bloggers pass before me and not have the slightest clue who they were.  That almost happened, in fact, as the first blogger to get there was Robert.  Robert wasn't a member of the UCB, writing a blog called MLB Live Wire, but was a part of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and had recently moved to St. Louis.  After we confirmed who we were, we chatted until Bill and Angela arrived.  After going in and finding out our room wasn't quite ready, we wandered back outside, enjoying the lovely evening air and listening to Bill tell some stories.

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As it got closer to 7, the time for the dinner, more and more bloggers and other members of our party began to join us, so we went back inside to claim our spot.  We still had to wait a while before it was ready, but they finally got us back into the room.

Turned out, this wasn't the end of our adventure.  Bill had originally booked a room for 20, but then as the confirmations continued to pile up, we realized we'd need more room and he called back to change our reservation.  Apparently, that never got up the chain of command, because we were in a room for 20 and it was quickly obvious that wasn't going to do it.  

The wait staff and management were completely helpful and sympathetic, but this was a Saturday night after a home Cardinal game and on the night of the Final Four.  There simply wasn't anywhere else to put us, especially after the party in the large room we thought was going to come open decided they were going to stay for the second basketball game.  So we moved tables around, brought in another one, and got to know each other pretty well.

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Get to know one another we did.  While the configuration didn't allow for much mingling, it was pretty easy to have conversations with your table and perhaps the table next to you.  Dennis and Nick from Pitchers Hit Eighth were sitting at the table next to me, while Bill and Angela and Twitterer Mary were seated with me.  Dennis spent much of the time busting on Nick for not writing as often as he should and Bill kept talking to me about making a speech, which didn't happen.

Dennis also suggested that he thought Albert Pujols was back in the kitchen after a long day at the ballpark, which led to some hilarious commentary.  We also tried to figure out some baseball dishes for the place, such as the Jose Oquendo burger, which we thought would go right through you.  (Like Pujols goes through the signs at third....keep up.  If I have to explain the jokes, we're going to be here a while.)

We talked some baseball, as well.  Of course the Cardinals had just lost a very ugly game and the prognosis of Jake Westbrook's season was discussed, as well as the Pujols contract situation, what to expect out of Jaime Garcia, and pretty much anything else that came to mind.  It was wonderful just kicking back and talking with guys that I love to read on a daily basis.  (Well, not daily in Nick's case......)

Really was a great evening.  Geoff Goldman of Fox Sports Midwest, the man in charge of last year's behind the scenes tour, came with his family and got to meet a lot of the different bloggers.  He and I talked some about the criticism leveled at FSMW about the Opening Day Ceremonies and he admitted that it wasn't perfect, so I expect that next year's broadcast will be certain to go off without a hitch.  Geoff also passed around very nice FSMW hats, which I made sure to snag for me (and, truth wins out, for each of the kids as well when there were extras).

Between the wait on seeing where we were going to eat and the large crowd, the gathering didn't break up until close to 11:00.  There wasn't a lot of lingering, because we'd be seeing each other again in about twelve hours as the UCB went big time.  Since there's plenty to talk about from the actual day (and a whole lot more pictures from that portion of the weekend), we'll break here and I'll put the rest in another post.


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Heroes

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2011)
    Adam Wainwright 94.7% (down 0.9%)
    Matt Holliday 91.1% (up 6.6%)
    Albert Pujols 90.4% (down 8.3%)
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Derrick Goold 87.8%
    Chris Carpenter 86.9% (down 6.7%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Mike Shannon 84.9% (down 4.6%)
    John Rooney 84.3% (up 8.1%)
    Yadier Molina 83.7% (down 8.3%)
    Colby Rasmus 81.8% (up 5.0%)
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Jim Hayes 76.1%
    John Mozeliak 74.1% (down 12.0%)
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    Bill Dewitt 71.0% (down 12.0%)
    Tony La Russa 70.8% (down 10.2%)
    BJ Rains 70.4%
    Ricky Horton 69.1%
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Skip Schumaker 64.1% (down 17.0%)
    Al Hrabosky 63.2% (up 19.0%)
    Mark McGwire 62.5% (down 10.7%)
    Dan Lozano 58.7%
    Joe Strauss 57.5%
    Kyle Lohse 55.1% (down 11.7%)

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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