November 4, 2011
Link-O-Rama
• It turns out "replacement level" means something totally different in the non-baseball world.
• I'm not much for petitions, but this is certainly a worthwhile cause. They've suffered enough.
• An important reminder from my mom's favorite player: Being fat isn't the same as being jolly.
• Kris Humphries stayed with the Gophers longer than this.
• Scarlett Johansson quote of the week: "There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like I was shooting a porno. Although there's nothing wrong with that either. I know my best angles."
• Cory Provus will replace John Gordon as the Twins' radio play-by-play announcer. Provus previously worked with Bob Uecker in Milwaukee and Brewers fans on Twitter gave him lots of very positive reviews yesterday.
• This news is responsible for more nerd fantasies than all six Star Wars movies combined.
• Of course, it's not all good news on the fantasy girl marketplace.
• As promised, I now have both of these in my closet.
• Nick Diaz shouting "train by day, Joe Rogan podcast all night" after defeating B.J. Penn was my favorite post-fight moment in UFC history.
Except for the whole training part, I'm the same way.
• Mark Brunell has earned $50 million during an 18-season NFL career that's still going at age 41, but once he retires he'll be working as a medical sales representative to make ends meet.
• Remember how Michael Beasley's publicist annoyingly sent me 20 e-mails in the span of two days last week? Despite being perfect for each other they've parted ways already.
• My favorite journalism school teacher, Paul McEnroe, wrote a really interesting article for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
• More than three million people still pay to subscribe to AOL's dial-up service. Seriously.
• My musical taste is often mocked, and rightfully so most of the time, but two of my favorites are struggling with eerily similar throat problems that seemingly could threaten their careers.
• Once upon a time, before he managed 5,000 games and wore jeans on late-night television talk shows, Tony La Russa was just a Triple-A infielder with a weak bat and strong sideburns.
• John Bonnes, Seth Stohs, Nick Nelson, and Parker Hageman apparently did a group photo shoot for their TwinsCentric blog on the Star Tribune's website and it reminded me of this:
"Straight Outta Warroad."
• Speaking of the Star Tribune's website, they moved to a metered paywall for content, which is a bold move to say the least. StarTribune.com sports coordinator and Twins blogger Howard Sinker is scheduled to be our guest on next week's "Gleeman and The Geek" episode, so we'll definitely get into the newspaper talk along with the usual baseball stuff.
• And if you haven't checked out this week's "Gleeman and The Geek" show yet, it's probably worth listening to just to hear us compare Aaron Hicks to a bad Adrian Brody movie.
• SB Nation hired one of my favorite baseball writers, Amy K. Nelson, away from ESPN.
• My latest podcast discovery: "The Champs" with Moshe Kasher and Neal Brennan, which is the perfect mix of funny, serious, interesting, and silly. Listening to their two-part episode with Blake Griffin immediately made him my favorite NBA player.
• Kasher and Brennan also recommended watching Eddie Murphy's first guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, which mostly made me sad that he's spent the past 15 years making kids movies.
• Listening to Sarah Silverman chat with Julie Klausner was a highlight of this Hebrew school expellee's week.
• Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat are among 10 candidates on the special "golden era" Hall of Fame ballot. To me they both narrowly miss the cut, but I'm sure many Twins fans feel differently.
• This guy is the Twins' new Triple-A hitting coach.
• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is "How You Like Me Now?" by The Heavy:
