June 18, 2009

Link-O-Rama

  • It took two decades, but Troy Aikman can finally enter the workforce.
  • Harold Reynolds, expert baseball analyst.
  • Picture of the Week, courtesy of some kid having his dreams crushed by Megan Fox:


    If it's any consolation, I'm of the opinion that she's overrated.

  • And speaking of my not-yet-published list of overrated female celebrities, ESPN may have stumbled across an idea for their 50th television channel.
  • By now you've probably seen and heard plenty about Artie Lange's appearance on the first episode of Joe Buck Live on HBO, so I'll spare you the details and simply offer up a handful of points. First, I'm a lifelong Howard Stern fan and a near-lifelong Joe Buck hater, so you can probably figure out my basic view of the whole thing. Second, anyone who invites Lange to be on a live show running on a channel without language restrictions and then acts shocked when he's filthy is either an idiot or a liar. Or both.

    Third, it should be noted that Buck's show was merely one of several media appearances that Lange made recently while promoting the paperback version of his bestselling book and he was an excellent guest on both Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Adam Carolla Podcast. Fourth, prior to Lange's segment the show was incredibly boring and humorless. Fifth, Buck is the same guy who freaked out about the "disgusting act" of Randy Moss pretending to moon fans in Green Bay. And finally ... Fiya!

  • I'm very excited about Mike Florio and ProFootballTalk joining the NBCSports.com family. Plus, at the bottom of the big announcement--which got tons of media attention throughout the week--is this note:

    "ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com" is the second major blog on NBCSports.com, joining "Circling the Bases," which focuses on Major League Baseball.

    Hey, that's me!

  • College Humor explains why I stopped watching Entourage several seasons ago:


    Wheel of Fortune has a wider range of storylines (and slightly better acting).
  • David Kahn got off to a nice start as Timberwolves boss with two good decisions this week, cutting all ties with Kevin McHale and turning down the Suns' offer of Amare Stoudemire for Al Jefferson and the No. 6 overall pick. Amusingly, news of the McHale decision came via Kevin Love's midnight Tweet.
  • My MinnPost colleague David Brauer put together an interesting recap of the local media madness that ensued after Love broke the story via Twitter, with appearances by friends of AG.com Seth Kaplan, Doogie Wolfson, and Howard Sinker. His recap contains the first utterance of the phrase "I assumed Doogie knew what he was doing" since our fantasy football draft in 1995.
  • Last month my suggestion that the Wolves should be interested in taking North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson with the aforementioned No. 6 overall selection was mocked by someone in the comments section who wrote that "Lawson isn't even the sixth-best point guard in the draft" and "picking Lawson sixth would be worse than every single move McHale ever made." Both of those statements were fairly absurd even before John Hollinger's "draft rater" on ESPN.com fell in love with Lawson this week:

    Two players are neck and neck for the top spot in this year's Draft Rater. You could easily guess that one of them is Blake Griffin, but most folks never would have guessed that the other is Lawson. Lawson, who is coming off an electric performance in leading North Carolina to the championship, grades out highly for several reasons:

    Although he's short for a point guard, his shooting numbers (47.1 percent on 3-pointers), strong assist rate and microscopic turnover ratio (9.1, first among point guard prospects) all point to him as an NBA keeper. ... [T]he rating is emphatic enough for me to say Lawson should be at the top of the college point guard ladder, ahead of Jonny Flynn, Jrue Holiday, Jeff Teague & Co.

    I'd certainly never suggest that Lawson is the best player in the draft, but my eyes and Hollinger's rating system both think that he'll be a very solid NBA point guard and getting that type of player with the No. 6 pick should be considered a victory for a team in desperate need of backcourt help. Instead he'll likely go in the mid-teens and have a better career than half the players picked ahead of him.

  • For some reason Craig Ferguson, a couple puppets, a guy in his underwear strumming the guitar, and another leather-clad guy lip-syncing "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz is incredibly amusing to me:


    That would be a pretty good example of why comedy is subjective.
  • Joe Morgan's mind is playing tricks on him.
  • Here's the shirt that all the guys at the SABR convention would wear if we weren't too fat to fit in them.
  • Murray Chass, who still refuses to call himself a blogger, wasn't very pleased after discovering that bloggers don't get quite the same treatment as New York Times columnists:

    Vaughn concluded our telephone conversation telling me not to call Friedman any more. I replied that if I write about the Rays again and feel the need to seek a comment from Friedman I will call and it will be Friedman's prerogative to call or not to call back.

    And then, just to prove that he's a blogger whether he's willing to admit it or not, Chass explained: "I like having no editors. Most of them, I have found, have been useless, if not downright incompetent." Heh.

  • When women say that "men are dogs" this could be what they mean.
  • Here are some of the highlights from my NBCSports.com blogging this week:

    - Joe Mauer, plate appearances, and hitting .400
    - Liriano and Johnson: A tale of two surgeries
    - Blister to blame for Santana's struggles?
    - LaRoches and Weavers making brotherly history
    - More arm issues and maybe surgery for Scheppers?
    - The Jerod Morris Hex? Ibanez lands on disabled list
    - Pirates turning down offers for Ian Snell
    - Manuel completes first year as Mets manager
    - Guillen might be done, so Tigers start shopping
    - Smoltz expects to make Red Sox debut next week
    - Quote of the Day: D-Train derailed again

  • Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is Jace Everett with a live version of "Bad Things" on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno:


    • Once you're done here, check out my "Circling The Bases" blog over at NBCSports.com.

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