Does the meat on this sandwich look good to you?

I am not a fan of pork belly.  Some people love it, but I don't understand the enjoyment of eating a giant glob of fat.  Having said that, I feel like the pork belly in this Arby's sandwich has to look fairly unappealing even to those who do appreciate pork belly.

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I need to be able to send myself email from my brain

Most of my best ideas come when I am doing one of the following three things: Jogging, showering, or lying in bed trying to fall asleep.  I guess that makes sense though, since those are the occasions that my brain is unoccupied and free to wander.

However, it's a sad irony that those are also the times that it's most difficult for me to make note of these inspirations.  Solution?  I need to be able to send myself an email directly from my brain.  Then when I wake up/get out of the shower/get home, there it is, sitting in my gmail inbox.

That should be doable, right?  I mean, it looks like people first started figuring out how to send emails between brains back in 2014, and I don't even need to get my messages into a second brain.


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Can this 16-year-old 7'2" basketball player be for real?

I saw this tweet from Bleacher Report yesterday, and if you're not already familiar with Chol Marial, it's definitely worth watching the 45-second video:

He’s 16 years old, 7’2” and already longer than anyone in the NBA—and he’s still growing. Oh, and he's 💦 from deep pic.twitter.com/bBEGej73u1

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 5, 2016

My first thought is, I can't even imagine what it must be like for the kids who have to take on Cheshire Academy--I'm pretty sure the starting center on my high school team was 6'3".  Here's another clip I found of Marial as a freshman last season:



I wouldn't be surprised if he's actually 19, but still...



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Memo to Toronto Blue Jays: Two locker-room celebrations in three days is weak sauce

The Blue Jays celebrated clinching a playoff berth on the final day of the season Sunday with a champagne-soaked celebration in the visitors' locker room at Fenway Park:

On Tuesday, two days later, Toronto beat Baltimore in the Wild Card Game to advance to the American League Division Series--and then went through the entire ordeal again:

New t-shirts.  Probably new goggles as well.  And a whole bunch more champagne.

I get it the first time--you're celebrating the success of a 162-game season.  But seriously, what's different about your mindset 48 hours later?  "Woo-hoo!  We haven't been eliminated from the playoffs since we qualified two days ago!  Let's get nuts!"  I have to think some of the players must have been thinking "Seriously?  Are we actually going to do this again?  Do I really have to put on all that stupid crap and get soaked in booze for the second time in three days?"

This reminds me of that episode of How I Met Your Mother where Ted throws a party so he can hang out with Robin, but when she doesn't show up he hosts one the next night too, then the night after that also:



The postseason continues for the Blue Jays in Texas at 4:30 pm Thursday.  Hopefully they can still play after two days of partying.


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What do you think of this "Anchorman" parody starring ESPN TV hosts?

ICYMI: Here's the much anticipated 'Co-Anchorman' spoof you've all been waiting for pic.twitter.com/ykt341sqlK

— His And Hers (@HisAndHers) September 27, 2016

Yes, it's pretty amazing, the introduction in particular I am very fond of.  However, as a whole, I'm actually a little disappointed.  It's basically the entire scene from Anchorman reenacted word-for-word.  Sure, I like the authenticity, but where is the creativity?  I would have preferred they try to do things along the lines of what happens in the movie that also relate to them being sports personalities.


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I wonder how foolish the Nationals feel now for shutting down Stephen Strasburg back in 2012?

In 2012, I wrote a blog titled The Washington Nationals are out of their freaking minds.  At the time, they had the best record in baseball and were likely World Series favorites.  Washington voluntarily shut down Stephen Strasburg after 159.1 innings in an attempt to keep him healthy for future seasons.  Without their stud pitcher, the Nationals lost in the Division Series to St. Louis and blew a chance to win the first championship in franchise history.

A year later, the Nationals missed the 2013 playoffs and Strasburg spent some time on the DL.

In 2014, Washington won the National League East, Strasburg was healthy and threw a career-high 215 innings, but the Nats again fell in the NLDS, this time to San Francisco.

Last season, the 2015 Nationals failed to reach the postseason and injuries limited Strasburg to 127.1 innings.

And now, in 2016, the Nats are back atop the NL East, but once again they'll enter the playoffs without Strasburg, who's battled a sore elbow and hasn't pitched effectively since August 1.

How's that plan from 2012 looking these days?


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Awesome Old Video Clip of the Week: David Ortiz's first home run with the Red Sox

I don't even know where to begin to attempt to write some sort of David Ortiz career retrospective, so on the day of his last regular-season game, I'll just go with this:

In his sixth season with the Twins, a 26-year-old Ortiz hit 20 homers and drove in 75 runs in only 412 at-bats, but Minnesota released him anyway in the fall of 2002.

Ortiz's Boston career began as a platoon player, splitting time with Jeremy Giambi.  Big Papi's first Red Sox home run, the 59th of his career, didn't come until April 27, 2003, in Boston's 25th game of the season:



Ha, remember J-Lo and Ben Affleck?  They were the story that day in Anaheim--nobody on the planet could've guessed Ortiz would slug another 482 homers in a Sox uniform (and 17 more in the playoffs).  Ortiz didn't go yard again until May 24th of that year, game No. 48.  In fact, following a 6-4 win over the Tigers on June 26, Ortiz had a total of just three home runs for the 45-32 Red Sox.

However, after finally winning the full-time DH job, Papi blasted 28 dingers over Boston's last 85 games in 2003 (for a total of 31 in 448 at-bats), and the rest is history.


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