One year ago today I posted Friday Filaments (Re-revisited), with the goal of posting them every Friday for a year. Well, I came close. A few were posted late, but, as luck would have it, last week’s was the only one I truly missed. #SoDylan. However, instead of getting down on myself or giving myself a break, I’m going to rededicate myself to posting the weekly links every single Friday for the next year. Finger’s crossed.
Also, I’ll be attempting to live blog during the Saints game tomorrow. Due to a confluence of circumstances, the game will be shown on TV here in Maryland, so I will be offering my observations and pithy comments, as soon as I look up what pithy means.
I’m not wearing that…
Hopefully it’s a better result than last week, which I’m thankful I did not get to see. In fact, last Sunday was a spectacularly awful sports day. Literally every team I was rooting for lost. Well, I was rooting for Serena.
- Sahadev Sharma, the Ryan Seacrest of Cubs bloggers, with a nice piece on Mike Olt and why the new-found success he had at AAA might be sustainable.
- Good read on Starlin Castro and how he is dealing recent tragedy and the expectation of leadership. I root endlessly for Castro, despite the rumblings that he could be traded in the offseason (my prediction: it won’t happen unless the return is huge). Which makes the next bit of news especially sucky.
- Starlin is likely out for the rest of the season with a high ankle sprain. But, despite that disappointment, it was a great bounce-back year for Castro.
- Congrats to Jorge Soler on the impending birth of his first child. In celebration, here’s a bunch of highlights from the big Cuban: making a sliding catch, turning a bloop single into a double, making a leaping grab in front of the ivy, showing off the cannon attached to his right shoulder, and doing what he does best. And those are just plays from this month!
- Kris Bryant’s trophy case is filling up rapidly. Kyle Schwarber is doing his best Kris Bryant impersonation. This is how ridiculous the Cubs farm system is right now – we’re all rightfully freaking out over Soler/Baez/Alcantara coming up this year, and next year we’re going to be freaking out over Bryant/Russell/Almora, then the year after that we’ll all be on Schwarber-watch. Most teams would be ecstatic to have, like, three or four of these guys.
- Though they don’t get the press the position prospects do, the Cubs have also amassed some pitching talent. Kyle Hendricks has looked like a big league regular, if not star, since coming up and there is great depth in the likes of Dallas Beeler and Eric Jokisch. Then there’s a two man wave of Pierce Johnson and C.J. Edwards who might have a little more upside. Then, down in Class A ball, Jen-Ho Tseng and Duane Underwood look like they could potentially be the best of the bunch, as they have the Kane County Cougars on the verge of a championship. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, considering all of the big, mostly young, arms they’ve drafted the last two years.
- When the big league team finally gets that elusive championship, this fan is prepared.
- Fangraphs adds some validity to the thought that left-handed starters don’t throw as hard, yet still seem to be just as, if not more, effective than their normal counterparts (wink, wink).
- This is just a perfect match: Bill Murray reading Mark Twain. Yes, out loud. And, yes, it’s Huckleberry Finn. Really good article accompanying the video and talking about the controversy that has swirled around Twain’s classic novel.
- Awesome webcomic alert! This one is Kingdoms Lost by French cartoonist Boulet.
- Most of us will never get to go into space, but there are some apps that can make you feel a little closer.
- I’m can’t remember why I clicked on this link, but the artwork is incredible.
- All I can say about the new Zen Pencils is, YOU CAN DO IT!
- The Baltimore Ravens handily beat the Steelers last night, so here’s 10 facts about ravens.
- Everyone should read this, also from Mental Floss, pick a few phrases, and start using them at once. Don’t worry if you have a hard time choosing, I’m sure you can noodle it out.
- I have been on a hardcore David Bowie kick lately, then I remembered this.
- In what has to be one of the unlikeliest things ever, 90’s era rocker Andrew W.K. is one of the sagest philosophers of our generation. And not just about partying.
- This is customer service gold (I’m just going to close my eyes and tell myself it’s real).
- I can hardly talk about the Saints season opener, I’m glad I couldn’t actually watch. From what I’ve read, the biggest issue was tackling, something Rob Ryan promises will get better.
- One of the better cornerbacks the Saints have had in my lifetime retired.
- An awesome gesture by Sean Payton.
- I don’t do predictions (because I’ve tried), but here are some people making predictions about this weekend’s game against the Cleveland Browns.
- Has this ever happened before?
- Would you hire Roger Goodell? Incidentally, I’m intentionally not linking to anything else Ray Rice related, but I may do a post on it later.
- It’s easy to forget what real journalism looks like, but here is a great example. Louisiana is not as big as you think it is.
- Not much Wizards news, as expected in this part of the off-season, but some fans are wondering if they could assemble two of the Celtic’s last Big 3.
- I actually didn’t get this posted yesterday because I had to leave work and go catch a train. Then I realized that today was the one year anniversary of relaunching these Filaments, plus it was Friday night and I’m sure people had better stuff to do, so I decided to wait until today. In any case, in honor of my daily commute, here’s your the Song of the Week.
