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Here are some links for you to enjoy between checking the clock every five minutes to see if it's the weekend yet.
The Giants rely heavily on shortstop Brandon Crawford
Friend Of The Blog Wendy Thurm profiles Brandon Crawford. What makes him so good in the field? What's the difference in his bat between this year and the rest of his major league career? What's up with all those awkward family photos he tweets out? Two of those questions are answered!
Baseball's confusing and contradictory unwritten rules
Tim Kurkjian discusses the past and present of baseball's unwritten rules, with lots of quotes from players, who all seem pretty much okay with pitchers throwing at hitters in order to enforce them. On the one hand, there's a mentality in big league clubhouses that I will probably never understand about demanding respect for both the game and how much you've accomplished in it, fused with a sense of brotherhood and the outrage that comes when someone threatens your teammate. On the other hand, you're...like...throwing a baseball super fast at a dude, which seems...bad.
This chart suggests that 50 Cent's first pitch was indeed the worst ever
Check out Sotomayor, absolutely nailing her first pitch. Or did she? If you look at the video, you'll see that Sotomayor throws the ball about 30 feet, and there isn't even a plate there to throw it over. Yet she gets full credit for throwing a strike? What kind of political games is the Washington Post trying to play here? Are they trying to curry favor with the Supreme Court? Are they trying to make amends for putting OBAMA's pitch so far off the plate he could be Jonathan Sanchez? Or did it just not matter enough to put caveats on the chart? No, no, that can't be it. There HAS to be a malicious reason. And if not, I'll speculate and claim it's fact, because this is the INTERNET, dammit.
Replay working, but MLB could cut down on skipper strolls and tangos
Replay has been a good thing this year, but all the delays caused by managers stalling so that their replay guy can tell them whether they should challenge can get annoying. The important thing here is that umpires getting calls right is a matter of strategy, which is how it should be. After all, does a team that would waste a challenge on a close play really deserve to have a later play called in their favor just because it went in their favor? I think not!
Rendering of Hank the Brewers dog's bobblehead unveiled
HOW CAN I GET THIS I NEED THIS I NEVER UNDERSTOOD HOW INCOMPLETE MY LIFE WAS WITHOUT IT