Holy cow, sooooo much sports stuff this week…
- First off, the Cubs have a player worthy of the cult following he is (probably) gaining as I type – John Baker. First he scored the winning run in the bottom of the 16th inning Wednesday night, ending the longest game (time-wise) in team history, but that was only after pitching a scoreless top of the 16th and picking up the win, the first Cubs position player to do so in over 100 years.
- Bleacher Nation has more details, among other bullets, on Baker’s big game. The quote about his shower after the game is money. Cubs Den wonders if it was the best position player pitching performance of all time (bonus points for the Doug Dascenzo mention). Probably not really, but combine the pitching with scoring the winning run, on top of the growing realization among the fan base that OMG, THERE’S THIS AWESOME DUDE ON THE TEAM and it is certainly worthy of the word epic.
- Baker then doubled down by striking back after the Rockies tried to put their mark on old Wrigley field.
- The Cubs then had a mildly eventful trade deadline, highlighted by the last minute trade of Emilio (Freakin’) Bonifacio and James Russell to the Braves for a solid catching prospect. They also picked up a somewhat interesting pitching prospect to complete the Darwin Barney trade and got somewhat disgruntled pitcher Felix Doubrant from the Red Sox.
- Meanwhile, the ridiculous amount of talent being accumulated at AAA Iowa just keeps destroying baseballs. And yes, I’m linking to a lot of Bleacher Nation stuff – dude blogged for 37 straight hours to raise money for the Make a Wish foundation and I want him to get all of the traffic he can.
- In case you missed it, Jim Bowden made a fool of himself trying to steal someone else’s scoop on Twitter and getting totally busted, and then totally doing what you shouldn’t do when you’re busted. Having Jim Bowden as your resident ex-GM “expert” is a pretty good sign that your journalistic standards are slipping. Acting like Jim Bowden is an expert on baseball is like treating Dick Cheney like an expert in the nation building or George Lucas like an expert in prequels.
- Saints training camp is in full swing and I’m not the only one getting way too excited by Brandin Cooks.
- Another player I have high hopes for is CB Patrick Robinson, who looks fully recovered from his injury and has been one of the standouts of camp so far.
- Really interesting take in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) on the future of NFL defenses and how the Saints (!!!) are leading the way.
- The Wizards in a bit of an offseason lull, but, even so, some good pixels have been written about them this week. Here’s a quick primer on where they are, what they have and what they still need.
- Bullets Forever looks at how new acquisition Paul Pierce can help the ‘Zards get buckets (son).
- But, really, this is what you need to read about the Wizards this week. Truth About It’s Polish correspondent (no, really) provides a translated interview Marcin Gortat did in his home country and it is just brilliant. For what it’s worth, I’m really happy that the Ernie and Uncle Ted opened their wallets for the big Pole (#InappropriateNicknameAlert) and let Trevor Ariza walk. I liked Ariza, but I just think Gortat is really, really important to this team going forward.
- I try not to get too political on here, but I’m going to link to a couple of things I think are worthwhile. This is a great (if simplistic) look at why the middle east is such a clusterfuck.
- It’s always good to see someone from the “1%” (or any other extreme segment of our population) with some perspective. Though, I have to say, I’m really dubious of any kind of revolution in this country. Not because we have some tyrannical overlord shadow government that won’t allow it, or because people are sheeple, but because I think it’s just really difficult to compare the USA to any other country or empire (if you will) that came before. It’s a totally different creature in a totally different time and, to my mind and eyes, we’re much more likely to just keep gradually evolving until we’re something different.
- I’m really excited about the new Christopher Nolan movie, Interstellar. Also…
- Wrapping up the links a little short today, but based on this tidbit about an ’80’s Sony Walkman providing some major inspiration behind Guardians of the Galaxy, here’s your Song of the Week. It wasn’t an easy choice, by the way, this soundtrack is radical.
