Cardinal Blogger Appreciation Month: Cardinal70.com

For week two of BAM!, we are talking to Daniel from C70 At the Bat. According to his bio, here is a little info:

I'm a long-time Cardinal fan who spends most of my Internet time at CardsClubhouse.com, where I'm the co-administrator and YNOT guru. I'm married with two kids and work as a CPA here in Arkansas. Grew up loving Ozzie, rooted for McGwire and now awed by Pujols.

It's just a regular joe blog. I root for the Cardinals and typically give them and management the benefit of the doubt. I'll criticize when necessary, but I'm not big on general bashing. So let's give it a shot, see what happens.

Once again, we dished out a gauntlet of hard-hitting questions about the Cardinals, the 80's, Nintendo, and other Cardinal blogs. Check out his site; lots of good thoughts and info on the Redbirds.

1) Why did you start blogging about the Cardinals? What are your other favorite sites or blogs?

I started a personal blog back in 2005. While it mainly dealt with pictures of the kids and my biweekly poker game, I'd sometimes talk Cardinals in it as well. Last year at the All-Star Break, I decided that the people checking that to see how big my son was getting and first pictures of my daughter really didn't care if I ranted about Kip Wells blowing another game. So I started a separate Cardinal blog and off we went.

Other favorite sites? Well, I have to mention CardsClubhouse, where I'm co-admin and YNOT gamemaster. Good forum for discussion with a decent mix of posters. Of course, I'm reading the big Cardinal blogs--Viva El Birdos, Future Redbirds, Bird Land--and like to check in on Deadspin and Fire Joe Morgan as well.

2) It says in your bio that you grew up watching Ozzie. What is your favorite team of the 80's?

I didn't actually get focused on following baseball until about 1987. I went to my first baseball game in 1984, but that was in old Tiger Stadium on vacation. I remember caring somewhat about the '85 Series, but it really wasn't until '87 that I really got into it. So, being that team was a World Series team, I'd go with that one.

3) Because of that, it's safe to assume you grew up on Nintendo. What's your favorite Nintendo baseball game?

Actually, I didn't. We had an old Atari console at the house and then moved to the Sega Genesis, but we never had a Nintendo. I never was a typical youth. :)

4) I read one of your articles from May about Cardinal t-shirt jerseys. What's the most random jersey (real or t-shirt) that you own?

I own one replica jersey (Pujols) and all the rest are basically T-shirts. The one that doesn't get a lot of wear nowadays is an old JD Drew one. I never really got on the "bash Drew" bandwagon, though I will say that the deal shipping him off was one of the best in Jocketty's tenure.

5) What is your favorite and least favorite thing about Cardinal fans?

The favorite thing has to be the passion and knowledge of the fans. Like Friday, when Edmonds came up for the first time and got a standing ovation, even in a Cubs jersey. Things like knowing that a ground ball advancing the runner can be just as valuable as an extra base hit and realizing great plays can happen to both teams.

The least favorite thing has to be the factions or negativity that can seep into the fanbase. There always seems to be a whipping boy, whether it is legitimate or not. Drew was that way, LaRussa had a lot of that before 2006, Duncan is now. The fanbase doesn't turn on people as quickly or as harshly as some do, but things tend to get exaggerated to the point that the player can hardly do anything right.

6) Put your GM hat on. It's early July and you're within shouting distance of the Cubs, and first in the Wild Card race. Are you making trades to go all-in to win in '08? Or sticking to the youth movement no matter what? What's your strategy for the rest of the season?

There's no way that you can go all-in on this season, I don't believe. By all-in, I'm talking moving top prospects like Rasmus, Garcia, Todd. These are players that St. Louis has to have in the next few years, to allow for greater payroll flexibility in the free agent market. That said, if a deal can be made using lower-tier prospects to shore up a spot like the left side of the bullpen, I think you have to make that kind of deal. If you can get a Bedard at some sort of discount price, obviously you go there. But on the whole, I wouldn't think we'll see much out of Mo at his first trading deadline.

7) We noticed the UCB box at the top of your site. What is the United Cardinal Bloggers, and would we have a shot to join if a) we still continue to post about our love for bacon and fried foods and b) we cut the one contributor who is a Cubs fan?

The United Cardinal Bloggers was something I came up last offseason. I thought it'd be great to have a running theme throughout blogs on the same day. We've done various things like filling out a Blogger Award ballot, selecting our choices for the top 5 stories in 2007, predicting 2008. The biggest project that we did, one that I'm extremely proud of, was a progressive game blog. For the Cards/Cubs game of May 3, each participating blog took an inning, described the action, and used that as a jumping off point for general discussion. It was like seeing the same game through many different viewpoints.

There's no membership test for the UCB--if you want to participate in one of our projects (we're starting to gear up for another one now)--you are more than welcome to. We'll even let you keep your Cub contributor.

Thanks again to Daniel for helping us out!