December 30, 2011
Link-O-Rama
• Boof Bonser is back with San Francisco on a minor-league contract, so Giants fans are surely just fine with that trade now.
• As always, corrections are a very important part of journalism.
• John Biggs of the New York Times did an interesting article about who owns Twitter accounts and their followers, which is something Judd Zulgad had to deal with locally when he switched from the Minneapolis Star Tribune to 1500-ESPN.
• Glen Perkins is one of the few professional athletes worth following on Twitter, and not just because he shares my desire for Ricky Rubio to make neck beards acceptable in Minnesota.
• On a related note Britt Robson has a nice article at SI.com analyzing Rubio's first two games.
• As part of an ongoing series of posts about transitioning from lawyer to baseball writer Craig Calcaterra explained how I ruined his life.
• Scott Raab of Esquire has a pretty accurate take on why writers write.
• Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com candidate Kelly Brook's annual calendar is out.
• If you stick around until (or fast forward to) the end of this week's "Gleeman and The Geek" episode you can hear my dieting advice, which is a lot like Drew Butera sharing his hitting tips.
• Even if the lockout soured you on the NBA this welcome back video from TNT was amazing:
Kevin Love makes an appearance fighting for a rebound with Jerry Lucas.
• April Ludgate highlights are the best highlights.
• Keith Law, who left Baseball Prospectus to take a job in the Blue Jays' front office a decade ago, may soon be leaving ESPN.com to take a job in the Astros' front office. That could put an end to his Twitter account, but hopefully they'd at least let him keep reviewing Top Chef.
• My favorite football announcer, Mike Mayock, got some much-deserved national praise from Sports Illustrated media critic Richard Deitsch.
• Maria Menounos' football career continues.
• Sadly, this is a fitting end to a spectacularly awful year in Minnesota sports.
• Earlier this week I fell asleep with my laptop on and woke up to find this page on the screen, which is extra weird/nerdy when you consider I haven't played the game in at least 10 years.
• I'll still be working from bed in Minnesota, but Elizabeth Kim of the Stamford Advocate penned a lengthy article about the new 300,000-square foot NBC Sports offices in Connecticut.
• It's painful for me to see Michael Jordan with his new wife after eating "Juanita's macaroni and cheese" at his restaurant in Chicago about 20 years ago. It was good, too.
• John Legend's taste is apparently even better than his voice.
• Don Cherry's hockey analysis and flamboyant suits are well known, but he has another skill:
Imagine how much more work would get done around the world if everyone had a piano desk.
• Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post wrote an intriguing column examining the prominent role marijuana plays in professional sports.
• Congrats to one of my favorite baseball writers, Matthew Leach, for his MLB.com promotion from Cardinals beat reporter to national columnist.
• Podcast recommendation: "Your Mom's House" with Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitsky.
• I didn't know Greg Spira well, but got a chance to see him each year at the SABR convention and he was a great guy despite getting a raw deal health-wise. He'll definitely be missed.
• For anyone curious about what Hanukkah cookie-making looks like, here's a blurry picture.
• My beloved Hardball Dynasty league on WhatIfSports.com starts a new season next week. If you're interested in joining, click here for more details.
• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is Billy Bragg singing a live, solo version of "A New England" from 1985:
That whatifsports.com is a seriously fun website. That hardball Dynasty fills in the winter baseball void so well. I have knocked out 26 season so far and each time it is a blast. If you don’t get into one of the gleeman worlds there are still plenty to choose from. Just think you can make the Minnesota Twins into what ever you want them to be.
Comment by Tom — December 30, 2011 @ 12:44 pm
A.J. Pierzynski was traded to the Giants as Benito Santiago Had filed for free-agency. Reading that made me chuckle a bit.
Comment by Feloniousj — December 31, 2011 @ 5:52 am
I spent most of yesterday finishing my rewatch-the-2011-post-season-on-Roku project while/and listening to (I think) 10 or 11 of the Gleeman and the Geek podcasts with the playback speed set to 1.5. Lemme tell you, you guys are incredibly engaging when you’re (seemingly, to be clear) REALLY coked up. All the incisive little interjections become that much more lightning-swift-‘n’-rapier-like.
For what very little it’s undoubtedly worth (possibly negative value, ala Capps/Blackburn pitching through injury), I found myself vehemently agreeing with you on almost every point of disagreement. I don’t read Bonnes super-regularly, but somehow always had the idea he was more sabr-y than he comes off. (I do remember the WPA-for-closers Span/Storen column that wholly missed [despite paying lip service to] the whole volatility of WPA thing, but figured that was just an ill-conceived contrarian piece.) The platoon “debate” gave me a legit LOL moment. JUST NAME ONE PLATOON EVER, indeed! The odds are overwhelming that there is a REASON it’s impossible, that being: There’s a pretty, pretty, pretty good chance the red-faced buffoon simply (1) does not understand or (2) (wrongly, if the goal is to score runs and thus win baseball games) does not value the benefit of the platoon split. How that is even controversial or subject to any doubt whatsoever is at least as beyond me as it was you. I actually found myself wishing you guys would go a little further with some of your disagreements, look into them a little more systematically, as the Geek leaves way too much discussion points with an “I guess I just feel” sorta statement for my comfort level. But all in all, they’re seriously fun listens (at least on crack-speed) and I would happily lap beer at a table and listen to you two go back and forth. Which is more or less what I did all evening, actually.
Re: Hardball Dynasty: Have you played Out Of The Park baseball (12)? I just found it and find it to be an awesome GM/manager sim. Most people seem to think the sim engine is like THIS close to diamond-mind at this point, and obviously it does all the GM stuff diamond-mind doesn’t touch. You can do leagues with totally fictional teams and players (which is how many, many people use the product), leagues starting from a historical point but with an uncertain future, etc. Same coaching/scouting/drafting kinda stuff. But you just pay once (and right now it’s only 20 bucks) instead of monthly or whatever. I suppose you have to do actual networking if you want every team in your league to be run by a person, but there are very active forums and everything I’ve read leads me to believe it’s really easy to join/set up/fill out a league.
Comment by toby — January 2, 2012 @ 12:25 pm