This is the kind of thing I hope to get around to more often. One thing that should help is the new site design. If it ever goes live, it will have space for posting links and comments outside of the normal posting structure. That way I — and hopefully community members as well — will be able to mention things that don’t merit an entire main page post.

In the meantime, here are some news items/thoughts to mull over and, if you so desire, comment on.

– MASN has announced that Jim Hunter, Roch Kubatko, and Phil Wood will be anchoring a Hot Stove show starting on December 12th. It’ll run on the network every Friday until the start of spring training. It should be a good show, but if MASN had their wits they would simply pay all of the charter members of the Loss Column Community (LCC) to sit around and talk baseball once a week. That would be a show.

– I meant to announce this a few weeks ago: I’m one of ninety-or-so voters in the weekly DC Sports Bog Atlantic 11 Basketball Poll. For those of you who don’t know it, that’s a poll Dan Steinberg set up to rank all of the mid-Atlantic area men’s basketball programs. Check out the latest installment here.

If, in any given week, you want to help me vote, just fire off an email with your thoughts.

– I may have traded in my sports hat over at the Examiner, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still sneak it in. Like, for example, today’s post about NFL cheerleader calendars. Fun stuff.

– Speaking of college basketball, I’m impressed with the Terps so far. The struggles against Georgetown and Gonzaga were to be expected, and those wins against Michigan and Michigan State could serve them very well in March if they can manage eight or nine ACC wins.

They figure to be a deeply frustrating team again this year, and they will struggle mightily down low. But, I never count a Gary Williams team out.

– Speaking more of college basketball, what has happened to Loyola? Anyone out there following them closely who can tell me why they’re struggling so badly?

– Wizards bad, Capitals good.

I know I’m forgetting something, but this seems like a sufficient brain dump for now.

It came down to the fact that I couldn’t find enough quality, sports-related content to write here (my first priority) and there at the same time. Especially considering that they already have an Orioles Examiner and a Ravens Examiner, both of whom do fine jobs.

But I’m not done at the Examiner. I’ve stepped up a bit and am now the Design Trends Examiner for the national edition of Examiner.com. Meaning I’ll be writing about design, advertising, creativity, and the like for the whole country, instead of writing about sports for Baltimore. If you’ve ever read kottke.org, I’ll be doing similar work only with a broader focus (less New York-centric).

Of course, I still love writing about Baltimore sports. Now I’m just going to be doing it here and here alone.

Cuz I love you guys that much, you know.

No word on who, if anyone, will take my place.

And as I said in my last comment: the site redesign is coming as soon as the theme author releases his update. Unfortunately I have no real idea when that will be. Consider it an “as soon as possible” situation, and I won’t bug you with updates anymore until it’s ready to test.

Onward and upward as always.

Before that, though, many thanks to T.J. for leaving his recent comment. If you all haven’t read it yet, please do. It’s interesting stuff for sure.

Moving on…

My latest piece for the Examiner is up, and you can read it here.

And speaking of published pieces, Marc Unger got in touch with his latest piece of work, and it’s good. Funny stuff and pretty much dead-on.

Regarding A.J. Burnett, I found this article very interesting. Money won’t be the main consideration, eh? Perhaps geography will hold some sway?

The Loss Column 2.0 is coming along nicely and should be ready maybe next week or the week after. I think you will love it, and I think it will help push us to the next level. Good times ahead.

As part of that, by the way, I’m going to be writing out an official comments policy. Basically nothing will change, I just want to put down in writing some of the things that most of us already understand. If anyone has any suggestions as far as that goes, let me know.

Finally, I’m very interested in tonight’s Rays-Pink Hats matchup. The 2-1 game is always my favorite in a seven-game series, and it’s actually the most important game besides the rare and mighty Game Seven itself. Consider this on open thread for that and fire away with whatever ‘ya got.

Not to derail the Orioles conversation too much, but: for those of you who are saddened, as I am, by the death of Paul Newman, I’ve written up a remembrance over at the Examiner. Give it a look here.

It’s partially a recap of what I already said below, but it’s also a link to what Paul Lukas at Uni Watch had to say.