January 14, 2011

Link-O-Rama

• After years of campaigning on behalf of Bert Blyleven, blogger Rich Lederer and the Hall of Famer finally met in person at the Twins' fantasy camp in Fort Myers.

• Based on this picture, Dr. Dre will never be voted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

• If this ever reoccurs, my chances with the Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com will skyrocket.

• Making an unsuccessful movie in 1998 sent Oprah Winfrey into what she called "a massive, depressive, macaroni-and-cheese-eating tail spin." Or as it's called in my life: "Tuesday."

• On a related note, I'm responsible for approximately $265 billion of this total.

• No matter how good your week has been, it can't possibly be complete without seeing this:

Not sure if that shows pure joy or pure insanity, but I'm certain I've never had that much fun.

Christina Hendricks was in Playboy way back in 1999. Sort of.

Next thing you know I'll admit to "trying" donuts.

• Some pretty big news in the world of online sportswriting. I'm a huge fan of quite a few AOL Fanhouse writers, including must-reads Clay Travis, Michael David Smith, Ariel Helwani, Jeff Fletcher, Mike Chiappetta, and Tom Krasovic, so hopefully everyone lands on their feet.

• In retrospect, the original casting wish list for Modern Family is pretty amusing.

Kim Kardashian is "having a lot of fun" with Kris Humphries.

• Breaking this habit was a tough one for me, but blogging has made me a one-spacer for life.

• Judging from his 67-yard touchdown run against the Saints last weekend, Marshawn Lynch is the third Super Mario brother:

That's called "Beast Mode."

Ryan Howard listens to The Cranberries. Of course he does.

• Earlier this week I suggested the Twins should sign reliever Chad Qualls for $2 million, but yesterday the Padres did it instead.

Bill Murray is, as always, the man.

• After hearing some intriguing word of mouth, I watched Catfish this week. While certainly not a great movie, as someone whose social interactions occur online about 99 percent of the time I found it extremely interesting/unsettling. Definitely worth checking out.

• If you haven't seen Men of a Certain Age on TNT, you're missing one of the most underrated shows on television.

• In fairness, A.C. Slater probably had it coming.

• If you're familiar with Twins outfield prospect Rene Tosoni or the concept of "icing" someone, odds are you'll enjoy this video from his wedding:

Just for that, I moved him up three spots on my upcoming ranking of Twins prospects.

• My latest podcasting discovery: "The Long Shot" with Sean Conroy, Eddie Pepitone, Jamie Flam, and Amber Kenny. Lots of funny, laid back conversations and lots of good guests from the stand-up comedy world.

• Rules are rules, but Trevor Mbakwe wrote the nicest note to ever get someone arrested.

Bobby Valentine is apparently the new king of Stamford, Connecticut, which is home to the NBCSports.com offices.

Blake Griffin is a bad, bad man, as Mario Chalmers can attest to.

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

- Twins are "optimistic" that Justin Morneau "will be ready for spring training"
- All-times saves leader Trevor Hoffman announces retirement
- Mariano Rivera could pass Trevor Hoffman for all-time saves lead this season
- Kevin Kouzmanoff thought "where do I fit?" while A's pursued other third basemen
- Armando Galarraga could be odd man out for Tigers' rotation
- Jose Tabata "worked out in the gym every day this winter"
- Can Mike Stanton hit 40 homers in his first full season?
- Cornering the market on scrappiness, Diamondbacks sign Willie Bloomquist

• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is Marvin Gaye doing an a capella version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine":