November 9, 2012
Link-O-Rama
• Changes at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, as Joe Christensen and Phil Miller are swapping roles in 2013, with Christensen covering Gophers football and Miller covering the Twins. I'm sad to see Christensen leave the Twins beat he did so well while increasingly blending stats into his work and being nice/understanding to bloggers. With that said, Miller is an excellent writer, an even better guy, and was stellar on the Twins beat in his St. Paul Pioneer Press days.
• "Saturday Night Live" really ought to just have Louis C.K. host every week.
• I'm thinking about getting a similar tattoo that reads "You've Made A Terrible Mistake."
• I saw Artie Lange, Dave Attell, Jim Norton, and Amy Schumer perform a great stand-up comedy show Saturday night at Mystic Lake Casino. One of the running jokes of the night was how no one--comedians or audience members--could drink, but apparently that's all changing.
• Now the real insanity test will be if I keep watching "Survivor" after Jeff Kent's crazy exit.
• If we pretend for a moment that the Twins might actually sign a top-of-the-rotation starter, who are their options?
• This week's "Gleeman and The Geek" episode was recorded Sunday at Stella's Fish Cafe and featured me getting so annoyed with John Bonnes that I threatened to punch him in the face. After the podcast mercifully ended we headed upstairs to hang out with a few dozen people who got together in the name of charity to watch the Vikings game, at which point Bonnes thought it would be a great idea to shoot this four-minute (four-minute!) video of me:
My co-stars are Dana Wessel of 1500-ESPN and Chris Long of KSTP
• And speaking of Bonnes' anti-semitism discussed in the video, congrats to Delmon Young!
• Charles Barkley leaving "Inside The NBA" would make me incredibly sad, but in the meantime at least this was funny.
• Sideline reporter Robby Incmikoski is leaving FOX Sports North to take a job in Pittsburgh, where hopefully the bloggers aren't such big jerks and he can live in peace.
• Say what you will about Tim Tebow, but the man has good taste.
• Remember all those "best shape of his life" stories from spring training? How did those players actually fare this season?
• Once upon a time Brien Taylor was a No. 1 overall pick and baseball's best pitching prospect. Now he's going to prison for selling crack.
• Melky Cabrera is a finalist for the "Heart and Hustle" award despite his suspension.
• This is definitely my favorite form of child abuse.
• I have no doubt this show would be terrible and no doubt I would watch it.
• One of the most amusing knockouts you'll ever see.
• Baseball Think Factory is where all the good international scouting directors got their start.
• If you liked the Pepsi commercial in which Kyrie Irving was made up to look like an old man and played basketball you'll really love the new version with Irving and Kevin Love:
Love does a pretty convincing job stumbling around the court initially, although the whole being 6-foot-10 thing is tough to hide.
• Andrei Kirilenko and Nikola Pekovic made Alexey Shved cut his hair.
• Gregg Popovich's contempt for in-game television interviews is already in midseason form.
• Any fellow Maximum Fun podcast fans want to go with me to this convention next year? I'm mostly serious, I think.
• Speaking of which, for anyone into podcasts I wrote a lengthy article reviewing my favorites.
• In at least one key area Bryant McKinnie hasn't lost a step since leaving the Vikings.
• Old friend Mike Redmond has replaced Ozzie Guillen as Marlins manager and weather-wise Miami is a pretty good locale for naked batting practice.
• Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis is good story and his wife is a great story.
• Popeyes is trying to move into KFC's turf in Minnesota.
• Carson Cistulli's chat with Matt Klaassen was very enjoyable if you're interested in two baseball writers talking about anything but baseball.
• AG.com reader Mike Fuchs compared Target Field to six other ballparks he visited recently.
• Some of this week's weird and random search engine queries that brought people here:
- "Dana Wessel hair"
- "Gleeman and Christopher Walken"
- "Jose Mijares girlfriend"
- "Jacqueline Bisset podcast"
- "Snoop Dogg bobblehead"
- "Statistical analysis for hire"
- "Nude party notes"
- "Marijuana and Chinese food"
- "How many donuts would equal 40 pounds"
• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is "Don't Sweat The Technique" by Eric B. and Rakim:
