Every now and then, certain events come up in folks’ lives that come in the way of a good thing (in our case, it’s blogging and informing our six readers — readership has grown! — what’s going on in sports).

Rarely, if ever, is the good thing interrupted by something that’s good.  This just so happens to be one of those times.

By the time this is read by all six of you, we’ll be enjoying a bit of R&R in other city and we’ll mostly be away from a computer during the daylight and nighttime hours.  If we happen to get away for a few minutes each night, we’ll try our best to keep posting our popular morning update post, Hitting the snooze bar (HTS).

If not, you’ll know why and knowing is half the battle. We thank you for your readership and look for our triumphant return early next week when we’ll be posting like we regularly do.

To paraphrase the late, great Jack Buck: “For this time, till next time. Have a good week.”

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To all the veterans who have died and who served for the United States’ continued freedom: we thank you for your sacrifice; to all those who are currently serving in our nation’s military: may you stay safe and continue to protect us and others in your duties.

From us to all of our readers (the four of you): have a great Memorial Day holiday and we look forward to return to our regularly scheduling posting on Tuesday.

Until then, stay safe and party responsibily…and save a bratwurst for us.

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NBA Draft eclipses playoffs (DanShanoff.com)

You want to know what will beat the NHL Western Conference playoff game in ratings tonight (hold the Preakness jokes, please)?

The NBA Draft lottery, of course! And friend of The Buried Lead Dan Shanoff will be blogging the NBA Draft Lottery at Deadspin tonight at 8:15 PM EDT. We won’t be keeping up with it since we’ll be enjoying sitting through the Cardinals getting blanked by a lefthanded starter the Pittsburgh Pirates-St.Louis Cardinals game instead.

So click the link and follow along and we’ll have the draft recap in tomorrow’s Hitting the Snooze Bar.

Nine out of ten ain’t bad
– Meatloaf

(Author’s note: The Best of Nine will be moving to Fridays effective this week. It will return to Mondays when the NFL returns or Puxatawny Phil sees his shadow.)

9. Peyton Manning gets the gorilla off his back. We realize that the Indianapolis Colt quarterback won the Super Bowl a week ago Sunday, but a look back here is warranted. Bill Polian’s masterstroke draft pick in 1998 (it was either he or some guy named Leaf) has turned out to be something special. After years of not getting past the New England Patriots and into the Super Bowl, Manning slayed that dragon by downing them at home in late January, 38-31.

In that contest, the pride of New Orleans pulled his team back into the game after they fell behind 21-3 in the first half. The comeback was fueled by a 6:47 drive right out of the gate that put the score at 21-14. He then followed that up with a quick score 76-yard, six play drive that was capped off with a one-yard pass to tackle-eligible DT Dan Klecko.

After some back and forth by both teams, Manning and running back Joseph Addai put the final nail in the Patriots coffin with a 1:17 drive late in the fourth quarter to hit the final score of 38-31.

Cheers to Peyton.

8. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training. That sentence alone sends shivers up and down the spines of the folks at The Lead.

7. The Dallas Cowboys are pleased to announce the hiring the Wade Philips as head coach. Phillips, the former defensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers, was hired by the Dallas Cowboys Thursday to succeed the retiring Bill Parcells. Phillips has had four head coaching stops before (two interim gigs in New Orleans and Atlanta; two full-time positions in Denver and Buffalo) and has compiled a 48-39 record (.552) in six and a half seasons.

There are two ways to look at this hiring.

More after the jump »

Folks (all three of you) –

Many apologies for the delay in getting this site back up and running for your viewing pleasure. We hope that this delay, albeit longer than promised, was well worth it. There were some issues with the new design working with a software update by WordPress, but it looks like that has been rectified. Some bugs remain and we hope to have them fixed soon.

With a new great look and easier to read content, we hope that you continually make The Buried Lead your home for current sports news, notes, takes and whatever else you come to us for.

We look forward to getting this thing in gear with some new, original content in the coming days.
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My apologies to the five folks who may (or claim to) view this site on a regular basis. It seems that the blogging software update isn’t going as smoothly as planned.

We hope to fix this issue as soon as possible.

We know how much it pains you to read this, but there will be no news updates today.� Enjoy your NFL League Championships and we’ll see you again on Monday…

Headin’ up to San Francisco
For the labor day week-end show
I’ve got my hush-puppies on
I guess i never was meant for glitter rock and
Roll
And honey i didn’t know
That i’d be missin’ you so

Chorus:
Come monday, it’ll be all right
Come monday, i’ll be holdin’ you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown l. a. haze
And i just want you back by my side

Yes, it’s been quite a summer
Rent-a-cars and west-bound trains
And now you’re off on vacation
Something you tried to explain
And darlin’ it’s i love you so
That’s the reason i just let you go

Come monday, it’ll be all right
Come monday, i’ll be holdin’ you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown l. a. haze

And i just want you back by my side

I can’t help it honey
You’re that much a part of me now
Remember that night in montana
When we said there’d be no room for doubt

I hope you’re enjoyin’ the scen’ry
I know that it’s pretty up there
We can go hikin’ on tuesday
With you i’d walk anywhere
California has worn me quite thin
I just can’t wait to see you again

Come monday, it’ll be all right
Come monday, i’ll be holdin’ you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown l. a. haze
And i just want you back by my side

I spent four lonely days in a brown l. a. haze
And i just want you back by my side

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through The Lead
Not a creature was stirring, not even Esix Snead.
The bunting was hung all along the foul pole with care
In hopes that St. Albert would soon be there.
The fans were nestled all snug in their red seats,
While visions of World Series trophies were dancing in their heads.

Okay, so that last line didn’t rhyme , but you get the gist — 2006 was a good year to be a Cardinals fan (and we are)….

The Lead shall return later this week with all-new material, including a fresh ‘Best of Nine’ that salutes the year that was, 2006…

Every month, I’ll try and update what’s going on with the site and what lies ahead in the future with it.

Currently, as all three of you can see, the site continues to get tweaked in hopes of improving it for you, the reader. Right now, the site is growing with posts and news information that hopefully gets read and keeps you abreast of what’s going on in the world.

As such, I’ve added more categories (golf, NCAABB (hoops), NCAAFB (football), NFL, MLB and NBA) to make the site easier to navigate and find articles pertaining to your specifications. Before, everything was generalized and might have made searching for past posts a bit difficult. This change will take effect on stories posted from December 1 forward and this tweak should improve things.

New, original pieces by The Buried Lead (such as “The Best of Nine”) will appear on a frequent basis, targeting the Monday-Wednesday-Friday format. Being that my main PC is messed up at the moment and the holidays coming upon us, those frequencies may not quite hit that target.

I think I’ve said enough and have bored everyone of you to tears, so with that — happy reading/commentating!

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