February 12, 2010

Link-O-Rama

  • It was fun while it lasted, but apparently I'm no longer cool.
  • HitFix.com's Daniel Fienberg wrote a slew of lengthy, excellent essays celebrating the best television shows of the past decade. If you're as into great TV as me, I'd suggest starting at his No. 1 show and then working your way through the whole series.
  • If you only read one story today about an MLB player's grandfather starting a drunken brawl with cops by groping an NBA player's wife, make it this one. You're welcome.
  • I'm not normally apt to pick on my fellow fatsos, but this could be my only opportunity to actually look good compared to an NFL first-round pick.
  • I'm worried that the unique stipulations in Ronnie Belliard's new contract with the Dodgers may give NBCSports.com and Rotoworld some ideas.
  • I'm not sure we're totally ready for him, but Mini Daddy is about to take over the music world:
    You know a video is good when you can't understand a single word and don't care one bit.
  • I'm not sure how to explain it, but this absurd "day in the life" of former Red Sox backup catcher Doug Mirabelli really cracked me up.
  • Public service announcement: One of the most underrated television shows ever, The Larry Sanders Show, is now available on Hulu. Hey now!
  • And if you're already a The Larry Sanders Show fan, then this story will make you sad.
  • Rotoworld got a couple nice shout-outs recently. Peter Gammons told SI.com that "there are some people with great thoughts and minds writing for Rotoworld" and Cardinals pitcher Blake Hawksworth described how he "got on Rotoworld" to learn of the team re-signing Matt Holliday.
  • Speaking of Rotoworld, our annual Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide is now available. I'm the editor, and along with Matthew Pouliot, Drew Silva, D.J. Short, and several other writers spent an insane amount of time working on the product for the past couple months, so if you're a fantasy baseball player please consider checking it out. Just last week we received the "Best Online Draft Kit" award from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, so it'll definitely be worth the money and also keeps me employed.
  • Some unfortunate news about the Mad Men cast for the upcoming season, although staring at these pictures will probably wipe it from your memory.
  • Three words: Ron. F***ing. Swanson:
    And it's reassuring to see that even in real life he's "a simple man who likes pretty, dark-haired women and breakfast food." Words to live by. And maybe even die for.
  • Grant Desme has me thinking about quitting this whole writing thing for rabbinical school.
  • As if the combination of a post-apocalyptic wasteland and a longtime Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com candidate didn't put The Book of Eli far enough into my wheelhouse, one of the early scenes featured Denzel Washington listening to Al Green. Only the lack of Chinese food and Joe Mauer kept the movie from essentially being custom-made for me and the whole thing was visually stunning, but somehow it just missed being a great move. I'd instead call it good, hugely enjoyable, and intriguing. Grade: B.
  • While the film falls just short of being great the aforementioned Mila Kunis gets an A-plus, because in addition to looking fantastic she did a very nice job with kind of an odd role. She's been on the Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com short list for quite a while now and seeing The Book of Eli may have convinced me that she's ready for the throne, although a couple new contenders have emerged lately. I'll get into that further next week, but for now you can study Kunis' case here and here and here.
  • Kunis may be gaining on her, but reigning Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Keeley Hazell won't give up the title without a fight.
  • Friend of AG.com and former KFAN radio personality Doogie Wolfson has landed a new gig working with Joe Schmit at the local ABC affiliate. Always nice when good stuff happens to good people.
  • Speaking of KFAN, they may finally have competition in the local sports radio scene after yesterday's announcement that KSTP-1500 is becoming an ESPN affiliate. Unfortunately it sounds like the shift to all-sports mostly just means adding a bunch of syndicated ESPN shows rather than new local voices, with the bulk of KSTP's in-house programming still consisting of Patrick Reusse and Joe Soucheray.
  • Earlier this week a college student e-mailed to inquire about an internship. I'm thinking about doing it, Kramerica-style:
    Think how much better my blogging could be with an actual chicken.
  • The highlight of my week: Dennis Scott sent me a message on Twitter. To celebrate, I watched this.
  • Vikings play-by-play man Paul Allen got kind of worked up announcing Brett Favre's interception.
  • When he's not busy designing the banner for this blog, Dan Olson is getting back on the mound after an 11-year hiatus in the hopes of impressing at an MLB tryout camp.
  • In ranking the 10 best "parents' basements" among baseball bloggers, Sam Hutcheson pretty much nailed my living conditions.
  • Some of the highlights from my NBCSports.com blogging this week:- Dykstra is back, with some more can't-miss investment advice
    - Another sad 'Dykstra on investing' update
    - Chipper and McCann think Heyward is ready
    - Indians may give rookie Brantley a shot in left
    - Yankees find their platoon bat in Thames
    - Erstad may have made his last scrappy out
    - Shields unlikely to be ready for spring training
    - SABR is giving away a free baseball book
  • Finally, in honor of Stephon Marbury being washed-up enough to have access to all the tea in China this week's AG.com-approved music video is Richie Havens covering "Tupelo Honey" by Van Morrison:

  • Once you're done here, check out my NBCSports.com blog and Twitter updates.

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