May 14, 2010

Link-O-Rama

• My favorite story of the week involves a 22-year-old who posed as a 16-year-old and led his high school basketball team to the state tournament. And as an added bonus, the high school is the one Friday Night Lights is based on. Amusing quote: "Everyone just thought he was a big guy. He played the part good, skipping down the hallways acting goofy like a 16-year-old."

Stephen Strasburg hurled six no-hit innings earlier this week in his second Triple-A start and his next outing comes against Wilson Ramos and the boys at Rochester.

Keith Hernandez had a busy week. First he took a nap while calling a game and then Bernie Carbo revealed that he tried to pay someone to break Hernandez's arms in 1985. Seriously. Imagine if Carbo's plan was successful, perhaps robbing the planet of "I'm Keith Hernandez." I'm sad just thinking about it.

• Spotting my name in Richard Deitsch's must-read "Media Power Rankings" column on SI.com made my week, especially since he backed up my reporting on the whole MLB/Twitter story.

• No fewer than a dozen of you perverts e-mailed me links to "Elisha Cuthbert in a bikini" this week, but ... well, even the best pitchers lose their fastball eventually.

• However, at least these pictures of Brooklyn Decker doing bikini-clad cartwheels on the set of some new Adam Sandler movie were there to cheer me up.

• Padres right-hander Tim Stauffer had an emergency appendectomy after diagnosing himself via iPhone at three in the morning, which would be a great story to tell if he wasn't out for 4-6 weeks now.

• Not satisfied with using the old "statheads living in basements" routine Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe has heroically added "eating pudding" to the cliche.

• One of my favorite shows has added one of my favorite underrated actors in Adam Scott.

• And if you've never heard of Scott, here he is co-starring with Joe Mauer in a commercial:

Scott is the guy in the commercial who isn't the best player in baseball at his position.

• Speaking of casting decisions I approve of, NBC has a new show coming out starring Olivia Munn and The Waitress from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Apparently the casting meetings were held in my dreams.

• On top of everything else, Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Mila Kunis is a nerd too.

• Unfortunately for everyone involved, the Mariners are much better at sleeping during games and blackballing reporters than they are at playing baseball.

• Fat-O-Meter update: All the damage from briefly falling off the dieting wagon last week has been undone and I'm back to being down 64.0 pounds overall, which puts me dangerously close to merely "really fat." My new goal is to lose enough weight to actually fit into one of the outstanding "Thome Is My Homey" t-shirts that the TwinsCentric boys are selling. For those of you who aren't fatsos, I recommend buying one.

• Speaking of the TwinsCentric crew, they're throwing another get-together tomorrow at noon to watch the Twins-Yankees game at Majors Sports Cafe in Bloomington. I drove all the way to Blaine for the last one and didn't regret it, so I'll be there for sure. It's definitely worth going, if only to marvel at how fat someone can still be after losing 64.0 pounds (and also to hang out with Seth Stohs, John Bonnes, Nick Nelson, and Parker Hageman).

• My fellow Karl Pilkington fanatics should enjoy this.

• In the ongoing sports bloggers versus female comedians battle, angering A.J. Daulerio has not worked out well for Sarah Silverman.

• Sixteen months after KFAN fired him, Chad Hartman has been hired as the new mid-morning host on WCCO. As my MinnPost colleague David Brauer notes, Hartman will go head-to-head with Paul Allen, although I'm sure he'll talk non-sports more than sports.

• As a late addition to Link-O-Rama here's a Twins-Yankees series preview that I recorded this morning with Ted Berg for the New York sports channel SNY:

• Is it bad sign for my diet and chances of ever getting not-fat that instead of eating I'm now relegated to just browsing through pictures of food that looks good?

• Jets coach Rex Ryan has shed 40 pounds in two months thanks to gastric bypass surgery.

• For those of you not completely bored with all the diet talk, I'd love to get some suggestions for low-calorie meals that require zero cooking skill. I'm not looking for anything extraordinarily healthy beyond the low calorie count and I'm not looking for anything that takes much effort, just decent-tasting ideas that are somewhat filling and easy to make. After three months, I'm getting sick of oatmeal, deli meats, and Lean Cuisine.

• New blog to check out: Wet Socks.

• Some of the highlights from my NBCSports.com blogging this week:

- Royals fire Trey Hillman minutes after victory
- Andre Ethier is undisputed king of walk-off hits
- Carlos Zambrano will stay in the bullpen for now
- Bobby Jenks wants everyone to "chill out"
- Orioles sending slumping Nolan Reimold to Triple-A
- Juan Cruz has surgery after being cut by Royals
- Alex Rodriguez ties Frank Robinson for seventh on homer list

• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is The White Stripes doing a live version of "Seven Nation Army":

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