Wounds Taste Better When They're Salty

Not that one needs to enumerate the ways in which Renaldo Balkman was a disastrous moment in Knicks history... but check out the BDL Update at the bottom:

On the board at #20 in the 2006 NBA draft, where the Knicks selected Renaldo Balkman: Rajon Rondo, Marcus Williams, Kyle Lowry, Jordan Farmar, Sergio Rodriguez, Craig Smith, Boobie Gibson, Paul Millsap and Leon Powe.

Yikes.  It's one thing to point out (again) that Isiah Thomas turned down all those point guards, which has always been the big story of the Balkman selection.  But the thing that's so deeply thrilling in retrospect is how Balkman compares to other tweener-3/4 players like Smith, Millsap and Powe.  Those latter three grew into dangerous NBA rebounders and inside scorers.  Thomas' pick hasn't developed beyond the hustle-player level.  Brilliant!

Vengeance Now!

Today, I became a man again.  Today, I stopped hiding from reality, from truth.  Today, the world will resumed its spin about the poles.
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Today, I restored all my NFL-related RSS feeds to my newsreader.

The pride is back.

(Of course, if I discover 18 posts in one feed, and just 1 in another, I'm going to delete them all over again.  And the pride will be gone again.)

Still the one

With all the talk about K-Rod's race to the all-time single season saves record, and with the Yankees (ahem) struggles this season*, it's been pretty easy to overlook the season that Mo Rivera's having.
44.1 IP, 26 H, 6 R, 2 HR, 4 BB, 53 K, 1.22 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, .169 BAA.
That is straight-up absurd. To put it another way, every single one of those numbers is on pace for the best mark of his career. His greatest-reliever-of-all-time career. Even though I doubt he can keep this up, it's still nice to take a moment and realize that we're watching a man ply his trade better than anyone else has, ever.



*Not really struggling

Tim Lincecum Will Rip His Own Shoulder Off

Tim Lincecum of the Giants is the best young power righty in baseball.  Giants fans ADORE him... because the team knocks $1 off LF bleacher prices for each strikeout he posts.  I had the pleasure of watching him in person when I went out west recently, and he can sling it.

He is almost exactly my size.  This article explains how that's possible.  The third page wins, for delving into the physics required to pitch a baseball 90 MPH, and what that means for the human body:

"Rick, do you know what that means in g-forces?" the doctor asked.

"I have no idea."

"If your entire body was accelerated at that rate of speed for over 60 seconds you would die."

GAAAAAAAAAAH.  Lincecum's size and delivery has had scouts thinking "torn labrum" for ages... turns out his delivery is actually more efficient, physically speaking.  (Scouts wrong?  You don't say!  Next you'll tell me they were wrong about Derek Jeter's defense, you silly person.)