St. Louis Cardinals weekend update: Hall of Fame talk and Lance Berkman leaving

The weekend hangover and the holiday hangover combined to hold us under 100 comments on Saturday, but I'm not going to hold actually having a life against You, the Viewers—instead, I'm going to do you (and my poor, poor Lee Smith feature) a favor, by reinstituting the weekend update after its own holiday absence. In case you missed it, here's the St. Louis Cardinals sort-of-news we talked about here at Viva El Birdos while you weren't trying to find a new angle on the Ty Wigginton signing.

VEB Features

The St. Louis Cardinals' background part in the 2013 Hall of Fame ballot
On Friday, part one of 2000-or-so words about the Cardinals' members of the Hall of Fame ballot focused on the way Hall voters manage to do a disservice to both Mark McGwire and Larry Walker by treating them like the same kind of player. Also, Royce Clayton.

How Lee Smith saved the save (and the Hall of Fame) from itself
On Saturday I tried to make the case for Lee Smith as inadvertent savior of the save rule and protector of the Hall of Fame from the likes of Jose Mesa. Also I had to use a picture of him with the Cubs, because there are not a lot of public domain photos of Lee Smith floating around. For whatever reason.

Do We Have a Derisive Name for Hockey Yet?
On Sunday, azruavatar stepped in to tell us what's going on with all the hockey lockout news. As someone who knows nothing about hockey, I feel satisfied knowing no more or less about the situation than the information in this post.

Bonus Link!

Pete LaCock, Bob Gibson, And Reality - Bleed Cubbie Blue
From our Hated Rivals at Bleed Cubbie Blue, an interesting piece about the perils of telling stories after Retrosheet.

Site News

Lots of meta news this week! In case you missed it, on Thursday we had a design revamp, one that makes it easier to navigate the site and read and write fanposts, among other things. Then on Monday I announced that Mad Em-Dashes, the news-and-odds-and-ends column I maintained at SB Nation St. Louis, would be moving here. (In fact, you're in it. And it might still be Monday.)

Keep in mind that everything else that happens on VEB will go on unchanged—we'll continue to write and publish one big story a day, which will sit on top of the front page (and in VEB Daily) and serve as a hub for all the day's on-and-off-topic discussion, and Future Redbirds will continue covering all the, uh, future Redbirds. Consider the new stuff a supplement—a place for things we haven't had time to fully consider yet, or that aren't worth fully considering. For a reverse-chronological Mad Em-Dashes feed, click back that way a few words.