Before getting to the weekly link dump, a quick thanks to everyone who stopped by here this season. According to Site Meter this blog had 602,000 visitors between Opening Day and Tuesday's one-game playoff loss to the White Sox, and many of you were also kind enough to support my various work at Rotoworld, NBC Sports, and MinnPost. If you're relatively new here and wonder what AG.com is like in the offseason, it's pretty much business as usual.
There will be near-daily entries from now until spring training mercifully arrives again, including trade breakdowns, analysis of free-agent signings, in-depth prospect rankings, live chats, the continuation of my Top 40 Minnesota Twins series, and of course a new Link-O-Rama each Friday. If you've enjoyed reading this blog during the season, my guess is that you'll also enjoy reading it during the offseason. Anyway, thanks for reading and feel free to stick around for the too-long winter ahead.
There are quite a few perks to having a blog with a nice-sized audience, but near the top of the list is the fact that 23 people e-mailed me the following link: The 10 Sexiest Keeley Hazell Videos Of All Time. Sadly, one of the perks isn't a free copy of the Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com's official 2009 calendar.
Former Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Jessica Alba has likely made enemies of moms everywhere by lookinglikethis three months after giving birth to her first child.
If you haven't yet seen the video from earlier this week of Raiders owner Al Davis' truly epic press conference to announce the firing of head coachLane Kiffin, do yourself a huge favor and check it out. Seriously, you won't be sorry. My favorite moments were Davis tracing the words with his finger while reading from a letter being shown on an overhead protector and smiling while asking someone in the room "how's your mother?" seconds before absolutely eviscerating Kiffin.
Of course, choosing a favorite moment is like a parent choosing a favorite child, because in reality the whole thing kept me fascinated non-stop for an entire hour and like a classic film previously unseen goodies emerge with each new viewing. It's the feel-good press conference of the year and if you only watch one possibly insane 79-year-old Hall of Famer try to ruin the career of the 33-year-old coach he just fired, make it this one. Two thumbs up!
Finally, some theater for those of us who once fell asleep watching Rent on Broadway.
Yes, that's an end-zone game of Duck Duck Goose (or Duck Duck Gray Duck for us Minnesotans).
Not satisfied with making a mediocre, dumbed-down version of Richard Matheson's excellent novel, Hollywood is reportedly now set to produce an I Am Legend prequel.
Not only did an AG.com reader crowbar a reference to me into Jerry Crasnick's recent ESPN.com live chat, Crasnick actually threw me a compliment back:
Joe (Minneapolis): In reference to venerable Twins blogger Aaron Gleeman, I think there needs to be a "free Grady Sizemore" campaign started. This guy totally deserves the award. Thanks for the chat Jerry!
Jerry Crasnick: Joe, Aaron Gleeman is terrific, and Keith Law, my ESPN colleague, feels the same way. But I just don't see it.
Aw, shucks.
Speaking of gratuitous mentions of me on other sites, here's one from Craig Calcaterra:
Please make a point to peruse the blogroll to the left and click through to as many of those sites as possible. I am stingier than many when it comes to those things, but that means that you can be assured that I read and value all of those joints and believe that you will enjoy them every bit as much as I do. Well, maybe not Gleeman. I just read him in the hopes that he'll post pics of that chick from The Office.
Sure, but why stop at just pictures? Here's a video of Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com second runner-up Jenna Fischermaking an appearance on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson:
News of Jason Williamsretiring at the age of 32 made me feel old. He was style over substance to be sure, but those run-and-gun Kings teams were awfully fun to watch because of that style. Plus, as a fellow white point guard with little interest in defense and an obsession with overly difficult passes, White Chocolate immediately became one of my favorites when he showed up a decade ago.
Blogger and stand-up comic Scott Longwas in the KFAN studio for my appearance on "The Power Trip Morning Show" a couple weeks ago. He wasn't planning to bring it up, but having read his blog my first words were: "Are you guys aware that Scott is a White Sox fan?" We then each spent 20 minutes trying to top the other guy's pessimism regarding his favorite team's playoff chances. On a related note, today may be the last of my weekly Friday morning appearances, so give it a listen at eight o'clock.
