May 4, 2006

Link-O-Rama

  • I don't know about you, but between his daily radio appearances and the page of space that the Minneapolis Star Tribune allows him to waste every other day, I've always thought that the one thing the good people of Minnesota desperately needed was more Sid Hartman. Thankfully, we now have SidCast.
  • After being drafted by the Patriots last weekend, former Gophers running back Laurence Maroney was asked by the Boston media why he chose the University of Minnesota. For some reason I found his response amusing:

    I never watched sports and I just said I needed to pick a team and I didn't know where to start. I felt like I needed to pick a team close to home, so Illinois was the pick for me. But when I was getting recruited by Illinois, Minnesota came into the picture and I always wanted to go to a school that played Ohio State. I always wanted to go to Illinois, but then once they dropped my scholarship I figured I needed to go to a school that played Illinois and Ohio State, so Minnesota was the best fit for me.

    Not that I'm complaining, of course.

  • Speaking of Maroney, here's what Broncos coach Mike Shanahan had to say about him to Sports Illustrated's Peter King:

    I loved him. I think the Patriots got a steal. An absolute steal. I think he's going to be the best back in the league.

    That's incredibly high praise, but given that New England grabbed Maroney with the 21st pick in the first round I'm curious about why Shanahan didn't trade up into the top 20 to grab him. Denver moved up in the draft to snag quarterback Jay Cutler, so why wouldn't they have done something similar to grab a guy Shanahan thinks will be "the best back in the league"?

    For a young running back, the only thing better than landing on the Patriots would have been landing on the Broncos, who seem to churn out 1,000-yard rushers like they have some sort of a mold for them in the basement of the team complex. On the other hand, perhaps Shanahan didn't want to use a first-round pick on a running back when he can just make a 1,000-yard rusher from one of Mike Anderson's cleats and a rubber-band from Terrell Davis' braces.

  • The Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com is looking better than ever and is no danger of losing her title.
  • One of my favorite blog-related hobbies is tracking the search-engine queries that people use to arrive here. For instance, if you go to Google and type in "Jennifer Aniston's butt," this blog is the very first search result that pops up. While that may or may not be something to be proud of, being the place for information on Brad Pitt's ex-wife's butt is certainly interesting and about 50 people per week stumble upon AG.com because of it.

    I've been collecting some of search-engine queries that people have used to arrive here this week, and in doing so have decided that the vast majority of them can be broken down into two distinct categories. First, you have the perverted stuff:

    - A.J. Pierzynski shirtless
    - A.J. Pierzynski boxers or briefs
    - Derek Jeter naked
    - Clonie Gowen nude
    - Shannon Stewart nude
    - Twins stroking
    - Joe Mauer is sexy
    - Mike Lieberthal thighs
    - Doug Mientkiewicz's wife
    - Marissa Miller Perfect 10 video
    - Ken Griffey Jr. tickled

    Along with that, there's the inquisitive stuff:

    - Dick Bremer's salary
    - Matthew LeCroy pronunciation
    - Most recent Minnesota Twin with 30 homers
    - What happened to Ben Grieve?
    - Who is Jared Camp?
    - Important people named Aaron
    - Tim Raines' "rock" nickname
    - My dog has pain when I pick her up
    - Lisa Dergan and Scott Podsednik wedding
    - Matt Leinart girlfriend

    I don't really have a point to all of this, but I'm hoping that I'm not the only person who finds it somewhat fascinating.

  • On a somewhat-related subject, quite a number of people have landed here over the past few days while searching for information about LaVelle E. Neal III's sudden absence from the Star Tribune. Since LEN3 is the Official Twins Beat Writer of AG.com, I'm hopeful that he won't mind me telling everyone that he's dealing with a detached retina that will keep him out of action for a while.

    If you're like me and enjoy LEN3's hard work covering the Twins, drop him an e-mail to let him know that you're hoping he has a quick recovery.

  • A couple quick movie reviews ...

    Wedding Crashers was very disappointing, yet still funny. Rachel McAdams was incredibly charming, Christopher Walken is always solid, and I loved the Will Ferrell cameo, but the plot was iffy even for a comedy and the whole thing dragged on for way too long. Grade: C-plus.

    The Interpreter was the exact opposite in that I expected it to be horrible based on the title and the lack of hype, yet it turned out to be relatively good. I've never liked Nicole Kidman much and I always want to dislike Sean Penn in every role, but they both did a very nice job. I'm convinced that if the movie had a better title it would have made at least twice as much money. Grade: B-minus.

  • If I was wittier and had more energy, I'd love to come up with something like this for the Twins.
  • Anything that can be this funny while involving Adolph Hitler, Rick Springfield, and Adam Carolla's testicles deserves some sort of award.
  • I've always made the argument that college athletes should go pro as soon as possible in order to cash in on a big contract that may not always be there. I had yet to see a convincing, fool-proof argument to the contrary until now.
  • The intriguing story of Antonio "El Pulpo" Alfonseca.
  • Maybe all those wacky stat-heads weren't so crazy after all.
  • Remember those four innings when the Twins' offense looked good? That was fun.



    • No Comments

    No comments yet.

    Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.