July 24, 2009

Link-O-Rama

  • Day 1 of the great Twitter experiment included 25 updates (I'm not mentally prepared to use the word "Tweets" yet), 250 people signing up to "follow" me, one interaction with a girl I've not spoken to in over 10 years, the discovery of TwitterBerry to make posting from the SABR convention next week possible, one complaint about Ron Gardenhire not leaving Joe Mauer in the No. 2 spot, and lots of good advice about improving the overall Twitter experience. All in all, a solid first 24 hours. Addiction is on the way.
  • He's only been with the team for a couple weeks, but this picture of Jeff Francoeur from Wednesday night's game basically encapsulates both the current state of his career and the Mets' entire season.
  • Presented without comment, the powerful tale of my Circling the Bases blogmate Craig Calcaterra discussing the intricacies of baseball with his wife.
  • Seth Davis of SI.com wrote a great tribute on the 15th anniversary of Hoop Dreams, which for some reason I can remember watching for the first time while sitting in the hallway of my elementary school. Easily one of my favorite movies of all time and just as compelling 15 years later.
  • Rick Astley has moved on from his lucrative career in Rickrolling and is now fronting Nirvana:


    Honestly, that sounds kind of not horrible.
  • This site comes in handy for me several times per day, although often I'm not quite a big enough jerk to actually use it.
  • Cole Hamels is married to former Survivor contestant Heidi Strobel and Phillies minor leaguer Kyle Kendrick recently got engaged to former Survivor runner-up Stephenie LaGrossa. Somewhere a nude Richard Hatch is studying Philadelphia's depth chart.
  • Yet another solid reliever acquired at a reasonable cost by a contender while the Twins act like every decent player on the market would require trading away multiple top prospects.
  • As always, I'm a sucker for jokes in graph and chart form.
  • Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Jon Tevlin makes some very good points about the downside of having comments sections attached to articles, including: "I've had people refuse to have their photos taken because they were overweight ... people would call them names in comments." Fortunately my self-esteem is low enough that I post pictures of myself specifically for you guys to mock. In fact, that's the only reason I even own a camera.
  • When it comes to women's teeth I'm normally not a fan of the Michael Strahan look and True Blood lost my interest after five episodes, but for some reason Anna Paquin is still right in my wheelhouse.
  • Eddie Guardado is five outings away from becoming the 21st pitcher in baseball history to appear in 900 games. Trevor Hoffman (958) and David Weathers (932) are the only active guys ahead of him, although it's worth noting that 112 active pitchers have faced more career batters than Guardado's total of 3,965. Still, it's been a pretty good run.
  • Like me, Manny Ramirez is incredibly amused by Batting Stance Guy:

    Of course, FSN replaying his Kirby Puckett impression multiple times per game probably ensures that I'll be sick of him soon enough.

  • Jeff Garlin of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Kevin Hench of FOXSports.com were both great as guests on Adam Carolla's podcast this week.
  • This whole thing seems perfectly reasonable to me.
  • Alex Rodriguez loaned his car to girlfriend Kate Hudson, Hudson loaned the car to her friend, and her friend crashed the car. And for some reason I'm endlessly amused by that chain of events.
  • Matt Gagne of the New York Daily News wrote a lengthy profile of Sean Forman, who in addition to being one hell of a nice guy runs the world's greatest website.
  • Mets Walk-Offs looks back at Johan Santana's first career win.
  • Here are some of the highlights from my NBCSports.com blogging this week:

    - Red Sox get LaRoche from Pirates for pair of prospects
    - Rockies adding top prospect Chacin to bullpen
    - Kemp building case as baseball's most underrated player
    - Joe vs. Ichiro: The plot thickens
    - GM: Halladay not interested in signing extension
    - Quote of the Day: 'I can't see the point in coming back'
    - Good news, bad news for Olsen and his labrum
    - With deadline looming, Halladay isn't the only ace available
    - Details of Pedro's incentive-laden deal with Phillies
    - Soon every Cubs hitter will have his own coach

  • Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is Portishead, accompanied by a lit cigarette and the New York Philharmonic orchestra, doing a live version of "Glory Box":


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

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