Jon Marthaler bakes up a batch of delicious links just for you. Other times, you can find him here and here. Jon?
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Happy Saturday! It has been a wonderful week for links, and so let's get right on with it, no time to waste:
*Via Hockey Wilderness: the great Down Goes Brown blog is at it again, with a look inside Gary Bettman's Gmail account. (Non-hockey fans who need the jokes explained may use the comments to demand explanations.)
*Paul Lukas of ESPN and the Uni Watch Blog took a field trip to Minnesota to see the Pond Hockey Championship, go curling, see a Gopher hockey game, and generally take in the late-January sights. And yes, he does call us "the nicest people in the world."
*Even when being interviewed about video games, Joe Mauer is exactly the same - self-deprecating, always ready for a sheepish laugh, and - let's put this nicely - somewhat less than outspoken. Interviewer Adam Biessener managed to get in a few baseball questions, along with the gamer questions.
*Adam Peterson of Twinkie Town is a numbers guy extraordinare, and he's at it again, as he attempts to quantify a prediction of just how much better the Twins will be with Jim Thome and Orlando Hudson - and whether they're worth the extra cost.
*And finally: on the eve of the American cricket team getting smashed in another international tournament, the BBC raises the question: can cricket ever catch on over here? (For a start, it'd be nice if everyone involved with cricket stopped assuming that the reason Americans don't like cricket is that we're all dimwitted, childish goobers who can't handle anything more subtle than a John Woo movie.)
That'll do it for me; please enjoy your weekend, and try to turn your mind off during tomorrow's football game. Don't think about what might have been. It won't help.
