With a couple of long weeks until spring training begins, you’re no doubt looking for a way to get a little St. Louis Cardinals baseball in your life — right?

We have the perfect solution: the just-released 2013 United Cardinal Bloggers Annual: An Unexpected Journey, available now from Amazon.

Because what better way to pass these next hours, days and weeks than reading and reliving the mostly highs and those occasional lows of the 2012 season?

Both Tara and I contributed articles to the UCB Annual — Tara on Allen Craig and me on Chris Carpenter — and, as editor, I had the opportunity to read everything that’s in it, more than once. Trust me, you’ll enjoy it. (Look at that cover — you do already!)

Here’s the UCB’s official news release about the project to give you a better idea of what’s included.

The 2012 St. Louis Cardinals was a team that was hard to figure. Playing without their Hall-of-Fame manager and longtime first baseman, expectations for the squad were mixed. However, Mike Matheny led his charges into October and then, via a playoff road never before traveled, within one game of repeating as National League Champions.

Throughout the year, the team was covered by the intrepid band of Internet writers known as the United Cardinal Bloggers and, with that season in the books and a new one about to begin, the UCB has put together a look at what happened during the season from their unique points of view.

With a foreword by Will Leitch, founder of Deadspin and now a columnist at Sports On Earth and New York Magazine, The 2013 United Cardinal Bloggers Annual recaps not only the regular season but every round of the playoffs as well as providing features on such players such as Chris Carpenter, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.

Along with the player profiles, there are other examinations of the season including the work of the bullpen and Matheny’s bunting habits as well as a summary of the minor league season for each level of the Cardinals’ farm system. The annual also includes a tribute to St. Louis icon Stan Musial.

Contributors include Drew Silva, known for his work at NBC Sports’ Hardball Talk blog; Matt Philip from Fungoes, a part of ESPN’s Sweetspot blog network; Bill Ivie from I70 Baseball, which covers both of Missouri’s professional baseball teams; and a host of other Redbird writers.

The 2013 United Cardinal Bloggers Annual brings you work from 18 Cardinal bloggers and also includes a capsule for every player who wore the Birds on the Bat in 2012 with their projected role for the next season, as well as an overall look ahead at the 2013 season. No stone is left unturned by this group of writers!

The 2013 United Cardinal Bloggers Annual is available as an e-book at the Amazon Kindle store for $4.99. The book can be read on any of the devices in the Kindle family as well as by downloading Amazon’s free reading apps for your computer, tablet or smartphone.

About the Authors

The United Cardinal Bloggers was founded in 2007 as a way to foster communication and collaboration among the many Cardinal blogs. Members participate in various blogging projects throughout the year as well as interact via Twitter and email. The UCB also produces UCB Radio Hour, a one-hour weekly look at the Cardinals on Blog Talk Radio, maintains a website at www.unitedcardinalbloggers.com and can be found on Twitter at @utdcardbloggers.

Christine Coleman is the senior writer at Aaron Miles’ Fastball, part of the Aerys Sports blog network. While Christine started life as a Cub fan, she eventually saw the light and now is fully immersed in Cardinal Nation. She can be found on Twitter at @ccoleman802.

Daniel Shoptaw is the author of C70 At The Bat, part of the Blogs By Fans blog network. Daniel is also the founder and leader of the United Cardinal Bloggers as well as the founder and past president of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He can be found on Twitter at @C70.