September 24, 2010

Link-O-Rama

• Hey look, the Twins have the best record in baseball.

• As a college dropout who's secretly hoping to be retired by age 33, this study confuses me.

• I can certainly understand not liking Dave Matthews, but this might be taking it a bit far.

• Stories like this one scare me away from a life of crime.

• This beats the hell out of that G.B. Leighton song FSN plays every damn night.

• I may be willing to pay extra for Derek Jeter's old apartment, but only if Minka Kelly stayed there after he moved out.

• I'll be on 1500-ESPN after tonight's Twins-Tigers game, co-hosting "Twins Wrap" with Darren Wolfson. Starting about 30 minutes after the final out we'll talk Twins and take phone calls for at least an hour. Stay up late and call in, or just listen online here.

UPDATE: We'll talk plenty about Ron Gardenhire all but ruling out Justin Morneau until 2011.

• My favorite Mad Men quote of the week, in picture form.

• Based on this interview with AMC's website, Kiernan Shipka (aka Sally Draper) is either the world's most brilliant 10-year-old or someone with a horrible sense of how 10-year-olds speak is answering the questions in her name. I'm honestly not sure which, but "fortunately the hair department is quite amazing"?!

• Apparently clothing from the 1960s is to Christina Hendricks what long hair was to Samson.

• Inspired by Felix Hernandez's latest tough-luck start yesterday afternoon, here's my rant on how silly it is to evaluate pitchers on "wins" and "losses."

• The first and last time I'll ever be compared to Carl Crawford. More like Carl's Jr.

• Do you think this comes in a XXXL?

• This commercial is hilarious, but I can't decide if it's intentional or unintentional:

Either way, genius.

• It never ceases to amaze me that the woman in these pictures is someone's mother.

• Journalism Barbie seems like sort of a misguided idea, although surely most guys in the Jets' locker room would approve.

• It takes a special kind of 53-year-old man to use the phrase "poopy pants" on the radio.

• So far I've only liked two (or maybe two-and-a-half) of this season's new television shows: Boardwalk Empire on HBO looks great (and has already been renewed for Season 2), Terriers on FX looks very good, and Running Wilde on FOX looks like it may be decent. Otherwise, meh.

• This isn't quite the sideways-world high school Lost spinoff I was hoping for, but it'll work.

Jose Bautista is the Kim Kardashian of 50-homer, 100-walk hitters.

Red Man is no Green Man, and Matt Diaz is no friend to the drunken doofus.

• In case you don't have time to watch Maury every day, you can get the highlights here.

Katy Perry was too hot for Sesame Street, which no doubt could have set an all-time ratings high in the "men ages 25-54" demographic.

• The team with the most strikeouts in MLB history has scored more runs than the two teams with the fewest strikeouts this season, because a strikeout is just an out.

• University of Minnesota law school student Joshua Fisher was profiled in the New York Times for his blog's coverage of the Dodgers' divorce-related drama.

Jason Whitlock also got the New York Times profile treatment and he always intrigues me.

GQ magazine's oral history of Goodfellas is a great read.

• KFAN morning show co-host Cory Cove signed a three-year contract extension.

• This year's The Hardball Times Baseball Annual is now available for pre-order, and as always I highly recommended it.

• Here are some highlights from my NBCSports.com blogging this week:

- David Wells calls Joe Torre a "coward" and "terrible manager"
- Cardinals released Felipe Lopez because they were sick of him showing up late for games
- Brewers hitting coach says Alcides Escobar "has to change his mechanics"
- Bobby Jenks "may have thrown his last inning for White Sox"
- Impending free agent A.J. Pierzynski has "no idea" if he'll be back with White Sox
- Alex Gordon: "I'm going to dominate next year"
- Russell Martin faces an uncertain future with the Dodgers
- Dan Uggla wants a five-year, $58 million contract extension
- Finally! Chris Carter gets first hit after starting career 0-for-33

• Finally, because between her name being Florence and her choice of footwear the degree of difficulty is insanely high, this week's AG.com-approved music video if Florence and the Machine doing a live version of "Dog Days Are Over":