April 29, 2011

Link-O-Rama

• I'm not a fan of the Vikings picking him 12th, but Christian Ponder's girlfriend seems nice.

• My mom sent me this link, for some reason.

• Rays outfielder Sam Fuld can be the leadoff hitter on the all-stathead team.

• Lots of people make fun of TSA agents, but based on this photo they're pretty smart.

• ESPN issued a press release with details about Bill Simmons' new website, GrantLand.com. Naming the site after early 1900s sportswriter Grantland Rice seems like an odd decision, but there's no doubt that Simmons has built an incredible staff of writers and editors that includes personal favorites Chuck Klosterman, Bill Barnwell, and Katie Baker. Big names like Malcolm Gladwell and Dave Eggers will also be on board when the site launches in June.

• GrantLand.com may or may not also add another personal favorite, Tommy Craggs.

• Among the candidates interviewing for the Houston Rockets' coaching gig are Kevin McHale, Dwane Casey, and Sam Cassell. Marlon Maxey, Gundars Vetra, Felton Spencer, and Gerald Glass were apparently unavailable.

• Once upon a time Tom (Anderson) was everyone's friend on MySpace. Now he's flipping real estate in Las Vegas. Let's see Aaron Sorkin write a great movie about that.

Tony La Russa's daughter, Bianca La Russa, is the newest Oakland Raiders cheerleader.

• Best wishes to my MinnPost colleague David Brauer as he takes a health-related break from covering the local media scene better than anyone else.

Matthew Leach of MLB.com did an excellent job blending reporting and analysis for his article about how the save statistic unfortunately controls managers' decision-making.

Charles Barkley is the new Andy Sipowicz:

Inside the NBA on TNT is good when they talk about basketball and great when they don't.

• Actors, doing actor-type stuff.

• I'm unclear if these are new pictures of former Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Elisha Cuthbert or Maxim is just trotting out old shots because she has a new ABC show, but it doesn't matter.

• In case you were wondering, Charlie Manuel is not Ric Flair.

• SABR is drawing some big names for this year's convention in Los Angeles. I mostly just drink and shoot the shit with my old friends from Baseball Primer, but so many of my favorite writers will be in attendance this year that I may have to actually make some attempt at schmoozing.

Tom Powers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press wrote a column about the Twins' many injuries that was so filled with cliched, rabble-rousing drivel it initially read like a parody. Sadly, he's for real.

• If you're a fan of stand-up comedy make sure to find a replay of Talking Funny on HBO, which featured Ricky Gervais, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld basically just discussing comedy and breaking each others' balls for an hour. I would have watched it for five hours.

• Podcast of the week: Adam Carolla spending 90 minutes with Joe Rogan and Brian Redban.

• According to a recent British movie rental company poll 30 percent of people lie about seeing The Godfather "to impress people." Of all the things to lie about, why pick something enjoyable that takes three hours? It's not like only a select group of people get to watch each movie.

• Netflix instant recommendations: Bronson, which is a C-plus film with an A-plus performance by Tom Hardy. Marwencol, which is an oddly fascinating documentary that defies description.

• I've kept advertising on AG.com to a minimum for 10 years and that won't change, but rather than always selling my limited ad space to ticket-brokers and the like I'm looking to partner up with someone advertising stuff that would be of interest to AG.com readers. I'm open to ideas beyond that, so to promote your product, service, local business, website, or whatever else to the thousands of people who visit this space every day please drop me an e-mail.

(To anyone vehemently against the notion of bloggers making a little money, my apologies.)

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

- Mat Latos has lost nine straight starts dating back to last year
- Derek Jeter leads MLB in ground-ball percentage, ranks 188th in slugging percentage
- Everyone else is injured, so Ryan Madson finally gets a shot to be Phillies' closer
- Rays bounce back from 1-8 start to climb above .500
- Astros announcer criticizes Lance Berkman in Houston return
- What fluke? Jose Bautista hitting .364 with AL-high eight homers
- Pittsburgh media already turning on first-year Pirates manager Clint Hurdle?
- Yankees sticking with Rafael Soriano in eighth-inning setup role despite 7.84 ERA
- Mariners plan to limit 22-year-old Michael Pineda's workload

• Finally, in honor of how the Twins are playing right now this week's AG.com-approved music video is Susan Tedeschi singing a live version of "Looking For Answers":

11 Comments »

  1. That Tom Powers article was lazy and shameful. Don’t drink and type, right? My fantasy is Gardy reading it aloud to the assembled press cameras for all to laugh at.

    Comment by brian — April 28, 2011 @ 11:48 pm

  2. What? I am outraged that I have been getting your work for years for free and I will continue to get it for free yet be bothered by the ads that I will never click on or pay attention to (don’t read this advertisers). I am thoroughly incensed that you would actually get paid to ply your craft. Sadly, from here on out we mid-thirty white guys will devote two hours a day to grantland.com because of its slick, indie-feel (yet highly corporate) wordsmith, sassy girls we want to watch sports with, and liberal doses of meta-meta-meta writing while outwardly grumbling about how much it sucks because we aren’t in the club. This may ruin/save my life.

    Comment by Freddy — April 29, 2011 @ 9:07 am

  3. The last time someone named Casey was the girlfriend of a star quarterback on draft day, it didn’t exactly turn out as expected… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Party_Down_episodes#Season_2_.282010.29

    Comment by Josiah — April 29, 2011 @ 9:57 am

  4. The Twins are getting me down, but the Powers column was over the top.

    Love the Susan Tedeschi video! She’s got a new album coming out on June 7th!

    Comment by funoka — April 29, 2011 @ 10:42 am

  5. A friend got me The Godfather on DVD for Christmas back in 06 or 07. I still haven’t watched it.

    Comment by Jason w — April 29, 2011 @ 1:05 pm

  6. There was nothing wrong with the Powers column. He is 100% correct.

    Comment by Confused — April 29, 2011 @ 3:06 pm

  7. I’m going to definitely have to watch Marwencol now. Netflix predicted a 5.0 rating from me, which is the first time I’ve ever seen that. Throw in the Gleeman endorsement and I can’t not watch it.

    Comment by Chris L — April 29, 2011 @ 7:22 pm

  8. Is it just me, or is there is an inverse proportion of the number of fantasy girl links to Twins wins? I must admit, fantasy girls are far more interesting than dissecting Alexi Casilla’s ineptitude, or why Gardenhire had Alex Burnett pitching in last night’s game.

    Comment by cmathewson — April 30, 2011 @ 12:38 pm

  9. This was clearly a manager’s loss last night. After giving up the run and being shaky, Burnett should have been given a real short leash (1 mistake) in the 8th. Far more depressing than any blowout from the series with the Rays.

    Comment by brian — April 30, 2011 @ 1:54 pm

  10. Ponder’s girlfriend is smoking!

    Comment by Jon L. — May 1, 2011 @ 6:50 pm

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