Weekend Links with Jon Marthaler

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 Hockey Weekend Across America! One of the nice things about being a fan of many different sports is that you can immediately move on when something bad... uh...

Oh, who am I kidding. I'm not over last Sunday. With baseball and hockey and basketball, either the series goes on, or you've had seven games to cushion the blow a bit. Football isn't like that; all it takes is one game to get out of hand at the wrong time, and it's over for a year, and the fans are left staring at the ceiling at 2 a.m., mentally replaying the game and wondering what could have been. I don't understand the people who get over these games immediately or who claim not to feel awful. Darrin Nelson in the 1987 season is one of the first sports heartbreaks I can remember, and ever since then I've been waiting to find out what it feels like on the other side. Why be a fan of a specific team at all, if not for that reason? And to be so close, and to have that dream within reach, to have that brass ring within your grasp - and then to see it slip by - no, I'm not over this.

Nevertheless, I can narcissistically wallow in self-pity forever, but at some point we will have to talk about something else. (Though neither Rand nor I have really moved the discussion forward, have we?) On with the links:

*Jim Thome is a Twin... and The Dugout seems to know why. (Hat tip to Stu for pointing out this one.)

*Twitter may be stupid and pointless - but not always. It helped one grieving family connect with their lost son's favorite player.

*And finally: Over the Baggy has a fairly exhaustive analysis of Pat Neshek's throwing motion - and is worried that we've yet to see the last of the reliever's arm problems. An interesting read, for sure.