The beauty of the internet is that every move, every click, every action – they're all trackable.
So when you're looking to mail in a year review column, you can just sort by hits, pick out the top posts and then re-post them to get even more hits.
Everyone wins!
It's time for the Cards Diaspora year in review, a look back on the posts that you made popular throughout the year.
6 seems like the best number to pick to look back on. After all we did lose baseball's perfect knight in 2013, so we'll go with 6.
As always, thanks for spending any of the free time you have with us at Cards Diaspora.
We honestly appreciate you choosing to do so when there are millions (billions?) of other sites you could go to.
Here we go…
6. The Best Profile I've Ever Read
When I saw this made the year end list, i was pretty excited to click on the link, because I honestly had no idea – zero – what this post was about.
Turns out it was a profile of Ted Williams. And almost 12 months later, I still haven't found a better longform piece that's baseball related.
I wish I would have credited the person that Tweeted out the link to these 'best of' Esquire pieces, because they are awesome.
Well worth the read if you missed it earlier this year.
5. Stoney's Denver: An Official Cardinals Bar
A girl I know, but hadn't talked to me prior to her trip, spent some time in Denver this summer. I got on Facebook one day and saw her and her boyfriend taking selfies at… where else… Stoney's.
They had asked around and people told them that Stoney's was the place that Cardinals fans went to in Denver. So if the flag isn't official enough for you, then having it be the default 'Cardinals' bar that local reference should do the trick.
We packed the place for the World Series in 2011.
Two years later and The Nation has a stronghold in another major American city.(If you're in NYC, go to Foley's Pub.)
4. Aaron Miles Robbery Story Comes To TV!
Aaron Miles will ALWAYS be a legend with this site for his manliness. So when friend of the site John Bucher sent in this h/t about his real life story getting the TV treatment?
I. Was. Stoked.
Turns out from the hits, that you were too. Anyone actually see this on TV? It simply can't be as awesome as how I picture everything played out in our heads.
3. Ozzie Smith Gold Glove Bobblehead Night?
One of the most popular posts of 2012 was 'The Ozzie Smith We Weren't Supposed To See'. If you didn't read it, well, you're not alone. But in a sentence or two, it's just a vent piece about a kid that grew up with some pretty crappy Cardinals teams in the 90's and didn't have much to root for.
So Ozzie's Gold Glove streak was more important to me than it should be. When he put them up for sale, it was kind of a referendum on how much energy I put into talking/thinking about those awards. At least IMO.
When the Cardinals announced that they were doing a special give-a-way night… with an Ozzie Smith Gold Glove bobble head… we had to drudge all this back up again.
2. Saying Goodbye To David Freese
I much preferred this piece after everything was official.
But I also knew that heading into the playoffs, this was probably going to be it for David Freese as a Cardinal unless he had such a killer post-season that letting him go would lead to a revolt a la 2011.
Even then, I'm not sure it would have been enough to keep him in St. Louis. We'd seen him struggle for long stretches in 2013. We knew that Matt Carpenter would need to be find AB's after an MVP caliber season in 2013. We knew that Kolten Wong would be the second baseman. It all added up to Freese leaving.
Nobody was writing about it, though.
So we put this out there. And most of it held form. It's pretty sad that the World Series run kind of negated a big emotional sendoff for Freese. But he'll be back with the Cardinals when he retires. And we'll always have 2011.
1. Jon Jay, David Freese & College Humor
It produced the biggest number of hits on CardsDiaspora.com in 2013.
Partly because it was posted on January 1st and had the most days to accumulate that traffic. Partly because this had kind of sat under the radar around Cardinal nation.
It's a good way to end 2013, though. David Freese reminding us that we're going to miss him on and off the field in 2014.
Many good things are coming for you in 2014. We hope that you make The CD a part of your new year.
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