Notes From The Nat

Hey folks, my apologies to those who were left momentarily unentertained as I took a little post-season breather, but with spring training on the (distant) horizon, things will begin heating up on the blog over the coming months.

The Wordpress software has kept comment spam to a minimum (no thanks to the Bulgarian douchebags who insist upon sharing their ‘Xanax for sale’ links with us 800 times per post), and there’s a new version of the software out now which I’ll be bringing aboard once I’ve confirmed it’s bug-free.

In the background, we’ve brought across a good chunk of posts from the ‘old’ NFTN site, but there’s still a big slice of the early 2006 season that has to be handled by hand - which means it’ll continue to happen slowly. My apologies to those people who love a good archive stroll, but rest assured, every word from the old blog will get here eventually. In the meantime, if you add an ‘index2.php’ to the end of our URL, you can still see the old site, and with a bit of effort you can go back through the old stuff if you must… you know, to sate your Larry Cobb crush or something.

As the 2007 season gets closer, I’ll be putting out the annual call for anyone who wants to join the blog as a correspondent to put their monicker where their mouth is - just register an account, drop me a note, and I’ll be happy for you to send in a game report or interview whenever you have the time and/or inclination. I’m also hoping that HawkerRob will stick around for another season of color commentary (both in the booth and on the blog), as nobody gets more inside info than the dude with the Mariners helmet and 24 cups of Pale Ale.

Several people have emailed asking whether I meant it when I said I’d ditch all mention of Oakland should the big team have signed the big roider, and the answer is yes. Sure, I know a lot of players roided, but nobody did to the extent of that chump, and nobody shattered as many records with the assistance of chemistry either. Added to which, he doesn’t run. Not that he can’t, he just doesn’t, and if Oakland had so little respect for the game that they’d employ him, then that would be me done.

Thankfully, they did no such thing. So I can keep on hating the Giants with a passion unmatched.

Oh, and just lastly, a note to a certain 2005 C’s pitcher who sent me a great update - I got your info, man, but my email screwed up just after it got to me a month back, so I haven’t had a chance to dig it out and use it. But rest assured, I will.

Oh, and one more note to a player - Jimmy Shull, if you’re still out there, let us know how that arm of yours is. A lot of people REALLY want to know whether the Shullshocker will be back in top form in 2007.