Morning Link Dump - 02/28/11
Obligatory Sports Babe
This morning, even though she was featured in this space like a week ago or something, we'll go with SI Swimsuit cover model Irina Shayk, who this weekend reportedly became engaged to Portugal and Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo.
Quote of the Day
"Although it's ironic to say it, we have lost a giant." - The great Vin Scully, commenting, via Ken Davidoff of Newsday on Twitter, on the passing of baseball legend Duke Snider. Snider, of course, was a long-time Dodger, who are the main rivals of the Giants.
Of Golf and... Keith Richards?
"One of the chief liabilities of being a golf obsessive is that you find a connection to the game in almost everything you do, see or read. Take Keith Richards's autobiography, 'Life,' for example. It's a juicy tell-all about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, especially dishy about his complicated relationship with fellow Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. But for me the most satisfying portions of the book dealt with Richards's pains to learn and master the guitar. Why? Because it read so much like the journey that master golfers make," writes John Paul Newport of the Wall Street Journal.
"Drug-addled reprobate that he admits to being, Richards makes a forceful case that would-be guitarists need to devote themselves first to the good old-fashioned fundamentals of the acoustic guitar. 'Don't think you're going to be Townshend or Hendrix just because you can go wee wee wah wah,and all the electronic tricks of the trade,' he wrote.
"He devoted years of surprisingly diligent effort to figuring out how the great blues masters played the key chords they did, then years to finding his own sound. The parallels to the stories Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino tell about finding their own swings is striking."
Julio Cesar Got A Little Depressed
"Inter Milan ‘keeper Julio Cesar was so upset about gifting Mario Gomez a last-minute goal in the Nerazzurri’s 1-0 home defeat to Bayern Munich on Wednesday night that he left his car in the Giuseppe Meazza’s vast underground carpark and walked home instead," explains Who Ate All The Pies, which... wait, what???
"Both Inter coach Leonardo and owner Massimo Morratti were quick to absolve the Brazilian of any blame for the Italian side’s aggregate short-fall (it was only the first-leg after all!), though it seems their consolatory words fell upon deaf ears.
"According to stories emanating from the Italian press, Cesar was so distraught after he fumbled Arjen Robben’s low, 90th-minute shot directly into the path of Gomez that he couldn’t face being stuck in the post-match traffic alone with his thoughts."
Move Them To Canada Already!!!
"Evidence that ESPN’s obsession with the Heat is justified, at least from an interest standpoint: The Heat has surpassed the Lakers as ESPN’s most-watched basketball team and has become so popular locally that only two other NBA franchises are producing higher local cable ratings," explains a report from the Miami Herald. "At the opposite extreme are the Panthers, who are drawing a slightly smaller average local rating than last weekend’s infomercial hawking an ice-crushing blender. ...
"To give you some perspective on how few people watch the Panthers, consider this: Their .19 local rating was the worst in the NHL among the 22 teams studied by Sports Business Daily (numbers for Carolina, Nashville and Canadian teams were not available).
"That’s lower than the rating for a kid’s show named Doodlebops at 7 a.m. Sunday on WFOR-4, lower than an AbCoaster exercise equipment infomercial on WFOR last Sunday, and lower than the Ninja Professional Blender, Chopper and Ice Crusher infomercial on WPLG-10.
"So far this season, 82,191 homes have tuned in to Heat games on Sun Sports, on average, compared with 3,000 for Panthers games on FSNF."
Quote of the Day II
"We pay $2.2 billion to show these games... we can't have 24 bad teams." - Charles Barkley's post-trade analysis of the NBA, by way of our friend, and weekend Buzz editor, Matt from Sharapova's Thigh, via Twitter.
Quickly
Devil Ball Golf thinks the Tiger era is officially over, as Martin Kaymer becomes golf's top ranked player.
Andrei Arshavin continues to have the greatest fan Q&A's ever, and Dirty Tackle continues to publish highlights.
The Slanch Report shows us Floyd Mayweather's birthday cake, and its complete lack of subtlety.
The Orange County Register takes a look at Baseball America's 2001 Top Prospects list, and how the players cited on it have fared.
The 700 Level looks at some curious data having to do with the heights of NBA players over time.
Who Ate All The Pies has spotted an Italian soccer broadcaster who has a little bit of a difficult time being objective about his team.
FanGraphs tells us a bunch of things we may not have known about the Tom Sellick classic (er... just go with me on this) Mr. Baseball.
Banksy + Keyboard Cat = WIN
Banksy may not have taken home the Oscar last night (or... did he? How the hell would I know?), but he can take solace in the fact that Inside Job doesn't have a wicked-awesome Keyboard Cat parody! (via Mashable)
