• 2007 Mets Fantasy Camp Update Session 2
• Fontain Hills #2
• Fountain Hills 07
• 2007 Cubs Convention
• Rangers Graveyard
• 2007 Fantasy Camp Update Session 1
• Baseball People I have met
• Rick’s Pix
• Busch Stadium 2006
• MASCOT MANIA

  Pretty cool that the New York Mets just launched a Fantasy Camp MLBlog last week, so that they can share the stories and images of what’s happening with those people living out their dreams in Mets uniforms. Feel free to comment here with any pics you have uploaded during this offseason that you want people to see. Remember that when you create a Photo Album, you then need to go to Weblogs–>Edit Design–>Content and select the box next to "Photo Album" so it will appear in your side panel. Just click the red Photo Album tab in your software to create/manage this, and give it a nice-looking landing page so it dresses up your gallery of images.

Now is a good time to give a shout-out to the person who is the longest-tenured of all active MLBloggers here in The Show. That would be Diane Firstman of Diamonds are for Humor. We were just reminded of that while reading Diane’s comments all over the MLBlogosphere about viewing prospects for the 2007 season (no comment here), and also because Diane asked such a good question on my previous post (my first Half-Marathon yesterday was 2:30.03, 13.1 miles in 14-degree wind chill at Central Park and thank you for asking!). Here is a quick look at the history of MLBlogs, worth noting since this is such a fluid business in the Web 2.0 world of consumer control:

4/08/2005: First MLBlog created, test blog by the founder of Six Apart, Ben Trott.
4/18/2005: First public MLBlog by Tommy Lasorda, about pal Jackie Robinson.
4/18/2005: First MLB.com staffer’s MLBlog by Jonathan Mayo, 3:34 later.
4/20/2005: First MLB broadcaster’s MLBlog by Daron Sutton, then with Brewers.
4/20/2005: The Baseball Collector pre-cult status, but officially then as an MLBAM employee.
4/21/2005: This MLBlog is created.
4/25/2005: First road trip MLBlog, Ballpark Tour of Duty, created for two Iraq veterans.
4/28/2005: First Hall of Fame player launches MLBlog, Brooks Robinson.
4/29/2005: First MLBlogs "cup of coffee", Go Yanks Go 2005, 8:46 a.m.
4/29/2005: Debut of Ashlee’s now-dormant "and this one belongs to the Reds!", 10:31 a.m.
4/29/2005: Diamonds are for Humor created, 12:42 p.m., now longest-active fan blog.
6/03/2005: Brian Anderson, then with KC, becomes first active player with MLBlog.
6/06/2005: Scott Reifert’s revolutionary Inside the White Sox MLBlog launched, club-to-fan.
6/30/2005: First rock star MLBlog, former Creed guitarist/Damon neighbor Mark Tremonti.
7/30/2005: All-time MLBlogs fan-blog traffic leader Cyn launches Red Sox Chick.
8/05/2005: First MLBlog dedicated to one Major Leaguer is created by Kellia.
8/11/2005: First known baseball blog by NYC taxi driver — Carl’s Inside Pitch.
10/10/2005: Shaun Dean catches Berkman/Burke HR balls, creates MLBlog to tell about it.
10/29/2005: First known use of Google ads on MLBlog, White Sox Fan Message Board.
11/03/2005: Once Oscar Madison, Jack Klugman becomes MLBlogger.
1/10/2006: First mascot MLBlog, by Raymond.
1/30/2006: First MLBlog dedicated to companion animals, Tony La Russa’s ARF blog.
3/01/2006: MLB Prez Bob DuPuy saves first post to Bob’s Classic Chronicles in San Juan.
3/30/2006, 4/12/2006: First Spanish/English MLBlogs created by same person, Rafael.
4/18/2006: Hammer Time.
4/26/2006: The King’s Game is first to post book on MLBlog.
4/30/2006: First father-son MLBlog team: Some Ballyard/Metsville.
5/24/2006: David Wright chooses name for his MLBlog from comments posted on his blog.
6/09/2006: Hall of Fame Prez Dale Petroskey debuts MLBlog.
10/03/2006: Barry Zito outduels Johan Santana and instantly blogs about it in clubhouse.
October 2006: Nate Roberton‘s GuestMap push-pinned all over world.
10/29/2006: Chris Young starts blogging from Japan.
1/22/2007: First club Fantasy Camp MLBlog, from the Mets.
Still awaiting: First real Mariners bog. Hello, Seattle!

UPDATED 8:10 PM TUESDAY: We mentioned Michael Norton of Some Ballyard in that list, and we at MLBlogs send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to our friend there after heart surgery. MLBloggers have benefitted from his tech tips, not to mention his mere presence here in the ‘Sphere. Thanks to our friend Matt at Diamondhacks for alerting us to this via email as well…good thing you all aren’t relying on me for news. Let’s get Michael better and blogging again.

There have been many other milestones such as our first blogging groundskeeper on the same day Tommy launched, and obviously everyone who has ever signed up for an MLBlog has a space here that is as important as anyone else’s. That’s what has made MLBlogs so fun to be around for nearly two years now. Let me know if one definitely needs to be included on this list. So, what will this place look like on Opening Day? That is impossible to say right now. But all posted text will be preservable/exportable no matter what. I just thought it was worth giving a shout-out to people like Diane for being part of growing this area, and recapturing a bit of our story. Because so many people are coming and going from blog to blog like gusts of wind, from social network to social network, as this still-nascent world slowly matures. A new profile here, a new password there. Some have stuck with it a long time here, people like Jake at Bucco Blog who give tips to other MLBloggers and reflect the spirit of the community. Thanks to everyone. At least you know MLB itself is there for sure, century in and century out. And it will be back before you know it.

By the way, I just noticed that the very first MLBlog post ever saved, that one by Six Apart on April 8, 2005, was with a CUBS template. The Red Sox had just done the impossible and won a world championship. Would the Cubs be next? Maybe that was the thinking. Perhaps this will be their year instead. Next year is almost here again.

Mark/MLB.com

I could not disagree more with Anna Quindlen in this Newsweek article I just read on msnbc.com. Hey, Anna. Let me introduce you to myspace. And facebook. And bebo. And MLBlogs! And everywhere else that young people today are "writing for their lives" — recording their daily thoughts on their own blogs, just the way Anne Frank recorded her thoughts on a paper diary. There are more young people than in any generation in the history of humankind journaling their thoughts regularly. That is a healthy thing. Only I’m not sure why Ms. Quindlen somehow failed to mention it.  She acknowledged that young people today use email. Hello. Subscribe to a tech newsletter, join a social net, observe. Black, white, Asian, Hispanic, female, male, young, mature, whatever…people are writing and have been for a while now. Just not with ink pens. What lost art? It’s a golden era!

We don’t know whether the Kansas City Royals will be this year’s
darlings. But we do know that the Royals are out front in Major League
Baseball by maintaining a daily Royals Caravan blog as part of Around the Horn in KC. Hopefully other clubs will follow their lead. Meanwhile, a new Indians MLBlogger doesn’t see the Royals winning the AL Central.

The MLBlogs Active Roster on the MLB.com browse-by-team page has been updated as best I can determine. Please just let me know if I’ve missed anyone. There are a lot of old MLBlogs in there and for the most part I have left those in, because we’ve seen a lot of bloggers take long breaks and come back like a Jeff Weaver in Game 5. Speaking of Weaver, he was not around but just about everyone else from Cardinal Nation seemed to be there for the Winter Warmup last weekend and I want to thank everyone who contributed and followed along on my event blog.

It’s impossible to adequately explain just how popular David Eckstein is in St. Louis right now. I was sitting near him when a Fox Theatre crowd gave him a thunderous standing O during Tony La Russa’s "Stars to the Rescue" celebrity concert event last Saturday night, and saw how he captivated everyone throughout the Winter Warmup. I think some people want to see a contract extension soon, just guessing. I am still blown away by how he stayed signing autographs from 1 p.m. until the event ended at 5 p.m. that first day…until the last person was in line.

For those who have asked or WILL ask: There is not going to be an auto-renewal for MLBlogs. If you have an annual subscription and it’s coming up, then you would have to renew manually, so keep track of when you started. And for others who are asking, there is no word at this point on what our consumer content presence will be at Major League Baseball Advanced Media on Opening Day. There is a strong likelihood that it will be different. Whether that means a completely different environment with new signups and exporting any existing text, or something different within this current Six Apart-hosted environment, that is unknown. You will be given as much advanced notice as I can possibly muster whenever the time comes. Again, the world has changed tremendously in the nearly two years since we launched MLBlogs (see: myspace, gootube, etc.).

Say hi to San Diego Padres Mom. Padres bloggers have been the most scarce in our nearly two years of MLBlogs (with the exception of Mariners for some really weird reason). And this is a good one.

Welcome to the author of stuff about the reds. That shot of old Riverfront Stadium and the green, green artificial turf brings back memories of the first time I ever saw a Major League game in person. It was in the 1970s, as the Big Red Machine was on the cusp of a mini-dynasty.

On a personal note, my first Half Marathon is Sunday morning at Central Park. Can your friendly neighborhood blog-watcher make it 13.1 miles, or 2-plus full loops around the big backyard? I will report back Monday. Gunning for NYC Marathon in November. I have to rely on the application lottery process like many others for this year’s, because I just joined NY Road Runners in December and could not enter enough qualifiers by Jan. 1. So I’ll be guaranteed entry to the 2008 event, but to get into this one I’ll be one of at least 90,000 applicants for a field that numbered 37,000 this past November. Either way, just trying to ramp up my base and will run my first marathon somewhere the second half of this year. It just can’t be October, when I’ll be at points unknown. Anyone else run?

Since we asked: Marco Polo gives you his top active MLB double-play combos right here.

Less than one month till pitchers and catchers report…can you feel it?!

ST. LOUIS — Pausing here to maintain Cardinals Winter Warmup blog. Feel free to join there, especially if you have any allegiance to the world champs.

The Hall of Fame really feels mighty when you just look today at the only two names that were announced: Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn. As I blogged before, I drove up to Cooperstown just before New Year’s and spent the afternoon in the Gallery room of plaques, and there is plenty of blank wall space just waiting for two former players who fit so beautifully. Ripken and Gwynn. That’s really how this is supposed to work. It’s supposed to sound like that — not a bunch of maybe/"I’d like you to please consider" candidates.

My ballot, revealed by my trusty MLB.com colleagues the past 48 hours, included those two as well as Mark McGwire and Goose Gossage. I was actually very surprised earlier today to find out that Gossage was not going to be among the names Dale Petroskey would announce. He made every MLB.com voter’s ballot. Barry Bloom and T.R. Sullivan were the only other two MLB.com voters who went with McGwire. Now it will be interesting to see whether Big Mac has to wait over a decade like a Bruce Sutter until the landscape and tectonic plates move, or whether a first-year’s punishment sufficed for many, or indeed whether McGwire himself will come forward. Either way I feel good about my vote and always have utmost respect for my BBWAA colleagues.

Someone asked how I became a Hall of Fame voter. I’m one of 500-something, and cherish the moment when the ballot arrives in my mail each December. I covered the Giants for the San Jose Mercury News in the 1990-91 seasons, spent virtually all of the remaining 1990s as a writer/managing editor/VP at The Sporting News, and after the required 10 years received my Lifetime Honorary membership as a BBWAA voter. I take it seriously and respect all of the voices that spoke loudly during the the most remarkable "voting season" that I can recall. I also don’t hold any negative thoughts toward the two voters who mailed in blank ballots so that they could ensure neither Ripken nor Gwynn would be the first unanimous inductee. To each his/her own. I think the "unanimous" issue is silly, anyway. Who cares??? This whole voting process has spawned so many silly news stories (such as the AP survey story a while back) that I have to laugh. Babe Ruth was just another inductee in the first class, when you look closely at Cooperstown. Ty Cobb led the way.

The voters have spoken, and that’s a beautiful announcement: Ripken and Gwynn. The system worked again.

Mark

Happy New Year to everyone in the MLBlogosphere! I am just happy to have survived the ball drop in Times Square after being crushed against a barricade by a European-soccer-like crowd…we got to see Christina Aguilera, Rascal Flatts and others go through rehearsals during the seven-hour wait on the street and it was in the 40s so it was all good. It also has been good to see the new MLBlogs created over the holidays, and a very special welcome to San Diego Padres Mom simply because Padre blogs have been scarce since our launch.

Yes, I had MLBloggers in mind when I wrote our MLB.com Year in Preview global story for New Year’s Day. The annually amazing thing about writing stories like these and the 15 Questions sidebar or the Last Word story from 11:59 pm ET on Dec. 31 is that if you don’t mention all 30 clubs, you will be emailed by fans of those not included. That’s a good thing. It means everyone has hope. It would be awful if no one emailed simply because they knew one or two teams was likely to win it all.

The holiday week was spent in NY with my three dudes and one of the highlights was driving them (and my oldest son’s girlfriend) up from NYC through the Catskills to Albany and then 70 miles west to Cooperstown, and being reminded how beautifully it is tucked into the foothill andscape along the gorgeous lake. I wound up discussing my Hall ballot with a Red Sox fan who told me, "I want you to think hard about Jim Edward Rice from now on." As a voter, it means a lot to actually be there in the Gallery room of plaques, to always remember how hallowed it is.

One not-so-good moment while at the Hall of Fame. I was in the Records room. Two boys probably 10 or 11 years old were standing in front of a display (pictured here). "These are the all-time home run leaders," one says. The other boy replies, "Yeah, but some of these guys used steroids." Exact words. There was no one around but these two boys who I overheard. That is just what they know as children in this era. They were in their own world and it now includes the word "steroids" in their lexicon. I didn’t know that word when I was that age and worshipping Carew and Killebrew. In another time, these kids would have been those same ones in the movie "Sandlot" — more worried about the monster dog eating the precious baseball. I can think of some other people I wanted to overhear them in the Records room instead of me. It made me furious inside. In that instance, did it really matter if the one boy was right or wrong? Definitely not.

Just wrote this story for MLB.com and I hope you will be on the site starting at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday as our fellow MLBlogger Dale Petroskey gives The Word on Cooperstown 2007. I voted for four people and we’ll see how many of them make it to the podium next summer. I have one special request, too. I’d like to see someone’s plaque be a succinct as The Bambino’s. It’s amazing and telling how few words were used to describe his greatness. Man, I just love standing next to his plaque. It’s shiny, like brand new. It makes you feel good being next to it. It’s my favorite part of the Cooperstown experience and probably always will be.