May 4, 2012

Link-O-Rama

• What an incredibly sad way for one of the greatest baseball careers of all time to end. Damn.

Jered Weaver's no-hitter against the Twins involved an added degree of difficulty.

• SABR announced that Terry Ryan, Dave St. Peter, Roy Smalley, and Ron Coomer will be among the speakers at this year's convention in Minneapolis, which begins June 27. It'll be my ninth consecutive SABR convention and I'm hoping to see a ton of AG.com readers there.

Kate Upton may not be much to look at, but she's a great dancer.

• It'll be tough to top Tim Welke for worst umpire call of the 2012 season. Or the decade.

• I had a great time talking Twins and blogging/media with Paul Allen on KFAN earlier this week and the full appearance is available online. And as always you can hear Gleeman and The Geek live on KFAN at 4:00 on Sunday.

• My podcast co-host says I look like Richard Lewis and there's never been violence, yet Vikings running back Caleb King nearly killed a man who said he looks like Eddie Murphy.

• This story explains why I don't date or go to the dentist. Better to play it safe.

Shaquille O'Neal has single-handedly made "Shaquille" into an actual name people use.

Happy birthday to Jessica Alba, who was 22 years old when she captured the Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com title, 24 years old when she lost it to Elisa Cuthbert, and is now 31.

• On last week's Gleeman and The Geek episode we discussed dipping Francisco Liriano in chocolate and inviting Delmon Young to a Hanukkah party. And also some baseball.

• As someone who once had a conversation with his grandmother about the origins of Kim Kardashian's fame this video of three grandmothers reacting to her sex tape is amazing:

Ray J has to feel pretty good about their review of his performance too.

• Last night Bryce Harper became just the fourth teenager since 1980 to bat third in a major-league game. And he drove in the game-winning run with an opposite-field double.

• I'm not sure if this is ironic, exactly, but it's definitely something.

• Imagine the amount of shit being talked in the fire extinguisher community this week.

• Who is the fastest man in baseball? If you don't know him yet you soon will.

• Minor leaguers are frequently suspended for marijuana usage, but players on 40-man rosters aren't even tested for it.

• Congrats to friend of AG.com and original Dodgers blogger Jon Weisman for his promotion at Variety magazine.

• Podcast recommendation: Jesse Thorn's lengthy chat with Michael Ian Black on Bullseye was a great mix of funny, serious, and interesting.

• For now they're both in the "very good but not great" category, but I'm glad to see that HBO has renewed Girls and Veep for second seasons. I'm still bitter about Luck, though.

• At the risk of going against blogger stereotypes I've been working outside on my balcony now that the weather is so nice, but the fact that laptop screens become nearly unreadable in sunlight makes it tough. Does anyone have a suggested easy fix that doesn't look ridiculous?

• Netflix recommendation: Bill Cunningham New York, which is a documentary about a weird and talented and loveable and obsessed man who found a job he truly loves.

• To preview the Twins-Mariners series I did a Q&A with Jon Shields of Pro Ball NW.

• I've linked to him before, but as always Edward Thoma of the Mankato Free Press is doing some very good Twins blogging.

• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is Ingrid Michaelson doing a one-woman band cover version of "We Found Love" by Rihanna without using any instruments:

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