August 17, 2007

Link-O-Rama

  • I made my radio debut Sunday night, subbing for a vacationing Chad Hartman by co-hosting "Twins Weekly" on KFAN with Doogie Wolfson. I was nervous, which probably came across on the air initially, but I quickly settled in and the hour-long show ended up going pretty well. Doogie handled the hard stuff, like going in and out of commercial breaks and setting me up with questions, so all I had to do was basically sit back and talk baseball with an old friend.

    We also got a chance to chat with the Official Twins Beat Writer of AG.com, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, who called in midway through the show. I asked LEN3 about his blogging experience, we got him to take off his reporter hat to share some opinions on Terry Ryan, Torii Hunter, and Carlos Silva, and I even got in a subtle jab at Jim Souhan. The good people over at KFAN were kind enough to send me audio clips of the show, which you can listen to via the following links:

    - Twins Weekly on KFAN: Clip 1 (Intro, Nick Punto, Brian Buscher, Juan Rincon)
    - Twins Weekly on KFAN: Clip 2 (More on Rincon, Scott Baker)
    - Twins Weekly on KFAN: Clip 3 (LEN3 calls in)
    - Twins Weekly on KFAN: Clip 4 (More with LEN3)
    - Twins Weekly on KFAN: Clip 5 (Offensive struggles, Boof Bonser, Alexi Casilla, pending free agents)

    Things started out a little rocky when Doogie decided to lead off by telling everyone that he used to babysit me and then followed that up by discussing my lack of a girlfriend, but we ended up having some good discussions about a wide variety of topics. I was a little more serious than I would have liked (although I did make a Gleeman-versus-Bonser beer-gut comparison at one point), but for the most part I was just trying to avoid a Jeff Straub-like disaster, which was definitely accomplished.

    Thanks to KFAN and Doogie for allowing a complete radio novice to co-host the show. I had a lot of fun and it went much better than my talk-phobic mind expected, so hopefully I'll get a chance to do it again in the near future. I've always been a huge fan of talk radio and now that I know the whole experience can be so laid back and enjoyable, I'll be a lot more open to trying it. Take a listen to the five clips and let me know what you think (while keeping in mind that it was my first time in front of a microphone).

  • And there was much rejoicing.
  • While doing my daily news-gathering gig for Rotoworld earlier this week, I stumbled upon this sad note about the Devil Rays in the Tampa Tribune:

    The Rays fashion show scheduled for Sunday at the International Plaza in Tampa has been canceled because of slow ticket sales. The team is exploring other ways to help St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, the organization that was scheduled to benefit from the show.

    The Devil Rays are headed for their 10th straight 90-loss season, but that might be the most pathetic news in franchise history. Fortunately for them, the sexiest man in baseball is wasting away at Triple-A.

  • Speaking of sexy professional athletes, Eagles offensive lineman Max Jean-Gilles isn't one of them. It's difficult to pinpoint the best part of the picture--which may or may not be safe for work--but it might just be the two-word editorial that follows.
  • When I wrote earlier this week about the 1989 trade that landed Rick Aguilera in Minnesota, this isn't the reaction I had in mind. My write-up of Aguilera as No. 18 in the ongoing "Top 40 Minnesota Twins" series benefited greatly from friend of AG.com Will Young, who helped with the research by finding a whole bunch of interesting stuff that was included in the profile. Lastly, for those of you asking for links to the previous profiles in the series, here they are:

    - #18 Rick Aguilera
    - #19 Dave Goltz
    - #20 Camilo Pascual
    - #21 Gary Gaetti
    - #22 Zoilo Versalles
    - #23 Cesar Tovar
    - #24 Shane Mack
    - #25 Brian Harper
    - #26 Eddie Guardado
    - #27 Larry Hisle
    - #28 Tom Brunansky
    - #29 Kevin Tapani
    - #30 Jacque Jones
    - #31 Butch Wynegar
    - #32 Al Worthington
    - #33 Greg Gagne
    - #34 Matt Lawton
    - #35 Steve Braun
    - #36 Dave Boswell
    - #37 Jimmie Hall
    - #38 Eric Milton
    - #39 Scott Erickson
    - #40 Randy Bush

    I'm working on No. 17 right now, which means it should be done in six months. Or maybe Monday.

  • If my 2,000-word write-up didn't satiate your craving for Aguilera information, friend of AG.com Chris Jaffe has more over at the Baseball-Reference.com Stat of the Day blog.
  • Speaking of Baseball-Reference.com, here's another mainstream media interview with the site's creator, friend of AG.com and all-around nice guy Sean Forman. It's great to see that I'm not the only guy with a baseball website who allows himself to be photographed wearing a regrettable beard.
  • Like a fine wine that married Dennis Rodman and Dave Navarro, Carmen Electra seemingly gets better with age. Meanwhile, Jenna Jameson isn't faring nearly as well in her effort to avoid The Wall.
  • Here's something you don't see every day: An award-winning, veteran sports columnist leaving his newspaper of 22 years for ... a different newspaper.
  • Bugs and Cranks interviewed former catcher Brian Harper, who ranks just below Aguilera at No. 25 on my all-time Twins list. One of the topics they covered was Harper's reputation for being a sub par defender behind the plate, which is something that my write-up of him attempted to debunk somewhat. Harper was also asked to compare players today with players of his era, and refreshing replied: "This is not said very often, but I think the players are way better." No one speak a word of this to Joe Morgan.
  • Speaking of Morgan, Ken Tremendous from Fire Joe Morgan has a bylined column in this week's Sports Illustrated. Seriously.
  • It's sad when something trivial gets in the way of blogging, but some people struggle with priorities.
  • Never before has "Elisha Cuthbert in a bikini" been so disappointing, and I'm not even sure why.
  • If you missed it earlier this week, I'm now officially a citizen of SBG Nation.
  • Among the many things in life that confound me, atop the list is how anyone could possibly think that Joe Buck is a good announcer or a likable human being. I'll understand women and calculus before that makes any sense to me.
  • Check out the last paragraph of this article about the 1987 Twins reunion on the Star Tribune's site (assuming they don't correct it before you get a chance).
  • One can only hope that wearing a Twins hat last week played even a small part.
  • I can't decide which video is more impressive: Baseball Tennis and Cheerleader Through a Hoop.
  • ESPN.com's Rob Neyer on the hometown nine: "I thought the Twins would win 90 games this season because I didn't think they would manage their roster so foolishly."
  • Fellow Highland Park native Jack Hannahan, who starred in one of the best basketball games I've ever seen, was traded from the Tigers to the A's this week. Hannahan went 0-for-6 in his major-league debut last season and ended up going 0-for-9 in his brief stint with Detroit, but now gets a chance to play regularly at third base with Eric Chavez on the disabled list. He collected his first big-league hit Wednesday, doubling off Mark Buehrle, and knocked in his first run last night.
  • This development is probably good news when it comes to keeping Johan Santana around.
  • Two new blogs to check out: Curlz and Curveballs and Deaf Ears: King of Mediocrity.
  • Yesterday was my one-year anniversary of working for NBC Sports. From reporting alongside Peter Gammons, Ken Rosenthal, Jayson Stark, and LaVelle E. Neal III at the Winter Meetings in Orlando to taping weekly videos with Gregg Rosenthal and Tiffany Simons, it's been quite an experience. Plus, it's fun to cash checks from General Electric and show people a business card with the peacock logo on it. To help celebrate, watch me on this week's "Fantasy Fix" show (sorry, Tiffany's on vacation).


    • Once you're done here, check out my latest "Daily Dose" column over at Rotoworld.

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