It’s Winter Warm-Up time! You obviously have no clue what this is unless you are at least a more than casual St. Louis Cardinals fan. This year Cardinals Care, (1) the charitable foundation of the St. Louis Cardinals, is putting on the 18th annual event to benefit kids in the community. Kind of fitting that the Cardinals big news right before the warm-up is to extend old number 18, Mike Shannon for three more years in the Cardinals radio broadcast booth. The event takes place January 18-20 at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch.

I am proud to be a volunteer with Cardinals Care. I have been helping them and the Redbird Rookies for about 10 years now. I have worked many Warm-Ups in the past but this will be my first year working all three days. I enjoyed it so much over the years and got a good feeling helping people that I decided to go for all three days. In theory next year since you have to be 16 to volunteer, I may be able to get the whole family to help at least a day.

Fans are excited this offseason. This Cardinals team made it to the World Series last year. With the smaller additions and changes that were made by the club and the lack of additions by the rest of the National League Central, this could be a fun year to be a Cardinals fan.

I am excited for the next three days. I will try to write something up after the event to give you my perspective. I know some other members of the United Cardinal Bloggers (2) will be reporting throughout the days. The Cardinals are also doing a new Bonfyre (3) ongoing chat. My views are always a bit different than most others and especially this year when I will be dead on my feet on Monday afternoon. The hat in the picture is what I will be wearing all weekend. If you see a guy that looks like me in a volunteer’s shirt, stop me and say hello. I’d love to chat with my fellow Cardinals fans.