Official Ultimate Cardinals Record Book FAQ and Plug

Friends and readers: As you might have noticed on the sidebar, a book I wrote is coming out on March 1. Today: I plug it. (Note: A non-plug post is scheduled to pop up in this space around one.) What follows is some questions I have arbitrarily decided you've frequently asked about The Ultimate Cardinals Record Book, which sits at this writing as among the most 125,000 talked-about books in the entire world.

1. Where can I buy The Ultimate Cardinals Record Book?

You could click on this Amazon link, if you're especially eager. After it comes out you could look in a bookstore, if you're in range of a bookstore with a local sports section. Triumph, the publisher, is also responsible for Derrick Goold's 100 Things Cardinal Fans Should Know and Do before They Die, so if you've seen that somewhere, look to its right or left.

2. Is it really the ultimate record book about the Cardinals?

It's actually the Cardinals volume of the Ultimate Record Book series. It's kind of a Nippon Ham-Fighters/Nippon-Ham Fighters situation—though if, after reading it, you find it the best record book you've ever read about the Cardinals you're welcome to consider the possibility.

3. What's inside?

Chapters about big names in Cardinals history—Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Bob Gibson, Bob Caruthers (shut up) and the like—a ton of shorter sidebars and boxes about not-quite-as-big-names, events, and happenings in Cardinals history, and lots of all-time team leaderboards. It's the kind of book designed to be read at random intervals, in random order; more specifically, it's set up a lot like the Yankees version, only I do not once say "Joe DiMaggio."

4. Are there any one-act plays?

Unfortunately this is not Viva El Birdos: The Book, which I'd love to someday write but will probably not be paid to do. It's written for a more general audience than VEB, so I apologize if I use wins and RBI too much and repeat a bunch of things you know already. I sneaked OPS in, is what I'm saying, but not wOBA.

(But if you know a publisher who'd like to take a huge loss on a book themed after an insidery blog with stagnant traffic numbers, put them in touch with my people. [Warning: I'll feel way more comfortable relentlessly plugging that book on this website.])

5. How would you rank all the Wings albums, from best to worst?

1. Band on the Run
2. Back to the Egg
3. Red Rose Speedway
4. Venus and Mars
5. At The Speed of Sound
6. London Town
7. Wild Life