Watch a baseball player get impaled by a shattered bat

Chicago Cub Tyler Colvin was leading off third base when his teammate's bat shattered and struck him in the chest. He's now out for the year.

*Buy baseball bats at Amazon.

LeBron wasn't the only guy to decided to "take his talent" elsewhere

When Kobe Bryant announced that he was skipping college, he phrased it as "I've decided to take my talent to the NBA." (4:50 in.) Via.

*Buy LeBron posters at Amazon.

Soccer goalie celebrates stopping the ball, forgets to account for the extra spin...

Watch as a soccer goalie starts prematurely celebrating stopping a penalty kick. Via.

Link roundup

1. Joe Montana says the movie Rudy was fiction.

2. Horrible Logos, $5 each. Via.

3. Last Exit to Nowhere is giving away a shirt for the worst film quote today.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Why do so many excellent athletes come from small towns? Maybe it's because there's nothing better to do there. Or maybe it's because it's much better not to specialize in a single sport too soon.

2. Highlights from the Inception screenplay.

3. Blogger is steadily getting better and better. Now there's integrated stats.

*Buy Inception spinning tops at eBay.

Vasiliy Koshechkin has cute cats on his hockey helmet

Vasiliy Koshechkin has cute cats on his goalie mask - - one of the 20 excellent helmets displayed here. Via these sites.

*Buy NHL bobbleheads at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. More information about the British spy, whose decomposed body was found locked inside a large sportsbag in the bath.

2. Google Code University, a collection of tutorials on languages like Python, Java and Go for relative beginners. Via.

3. "The highest paid athlete of all time was a charioteer from ancient Rome, say researchers."

*Buy Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Particularly good edition of Layer Tennis. Be patient, almost all of the entries are animated. (Click on the numbers directly below the banner.)

2. John Salley talks about the time mobsters demanded he reveal inside information about the Pistons.

3. The unfathomably ridiculous story of Comet the Super-Horse.

*Buy sketch cards at eBay.

Link roundup

1. "A few weeks ago, according to official and private reports, the Iranian air force shot down three drones near the southwestern city of Bushehr, where a Russian-supplied nuclear reactor has just started up. When the Revolutionary Guards inspected the debris, they expected to find proof of high-altitude spying. Instead, the Guards had to report to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the air force had blasted Iran's own unmanned aircraft out of the sky."

2. Deadspin revealed that the Marlins took the people of Florida for suckers and tricked them into funding a new stadium.

3. Operators lost control of a US Navy drone for about a half hour - - it flew into restricted airspace before they got it back under control.

*Buy remote control planes at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Freakonomics interviews a Football Outsider.

2. UCLA is pitching its law students on a job as a chauffeur.

3. Rugby player bites down on a blood capsule to fake an injury (and allow a substitution), and then convinces the team doctor to cut his mouth to make it look legit.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. After a year out of football, Pacman Jones is trying to make the Bengals. Ochocinco torched him in practice.

2. Fark on a CNN article:

Majority of Americans: Immigrants are lazy free-loaders who take our jobs by working harder for less pay.

3. I've been waiting for this feature for years - - Metroid The Other M will feature a cinema mode:

This theater-mode movie is about two hours in length and divided into chapters like a DVD film. It's not just the movie cutscenes straight from the game, though -- there's some pre-recorded gameplay bits to it as well, although those sections aren't recorded off your own moves as you beat the game.

Via.

*Buy Metroid toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Rick Cho was recently hired as the new Portland Trailblazers General Manager. Here's the interview process:

I met with [team president] Larry Miller on Tuesday in Las Vegas. And then I met with Nate [McMillan]. Larry wanted me to connect in person with [owner Paul] Allen on his yacht in Helsinki.

What's he doing in Helsinki?

Just vacation. Going around Europe.

So on Wednesday I flew from Vegas to Toronto to Helsinki, and with the time change I got there Thursday evening. I went straight to the yacht, and I met there for more than three hours with Mr. Allen. Just the two of us. He asked me a lot of questions.

Later that night at the hotel Larry called me and offered me the job.

2. "Two prisoners have escaped from a jail in Argentina, reportedly while it was using a dummy to man one of its guard towers." Via.

3. "A ship from Korea carrying supplies to build housing for military buildup workers in the American territory of Guam was denied permission to dock when inspectors discovered thousands of spiders in its cargo."

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Link roundup

1. Baseball manager Bobby Cox recently broke the record for most career ejections. Sports Illustrated looks at whether the ejections improved his team's play.

2. If you missed it, BP had to admit that it released clumsily photoshopped images showing its response to the oil spill.

3. If Darth Vader had starred in Pixar's Up.

*Buy Up toys at eBay.

Phantom punch

Watch Paul Briggs go down 29 seconds into his fight against IBO cruiserweight champ Danny Green, and then listen to the commentators discuss whether a punch even landed. Briggs denies taking a dive.

*Buy boxing posters at eBay.

LeBron's Choice

UPDATE: Well, I gave ESPN too much and too little credit. They absolutely deserve credit for figuring out that LeBron was headed to Miami, and reporting as much. But they also put together an excruciatingly unwatchable show. Very strange for LeBron to choose to make the announcement a tv event, and then act like he was facing a firing squad during the show.

As of 5:05, ESPN is still reporting that all signs are LeBron signing with Miami. If LeBron signs with Cleveland instead, we'll know that ESPN is totally unreliable and/or totally unreliable because they're intentionally manufacturing a fairy tale (like their parent company, Disney). So, the narratives to look for in tonight's epic show:

1. Fairy Tale: Once upon a time there was a king in cleveland. He experienced a challenging defeat and was sorely tempted to abandon his kingdom and move to a glamorous city. But he was brave and loyal, and stood by his faithful subjects.

2. Watch ESPN and LeBron play up the misleading claim that advertising dollars earned during the one hour show are going to charity. Compare that claim to any visible evidence of LeBron's personal sponsors, which include Nike, State Farm, and Microsoft, which has a giant Bing search box on LeBron's personal site.

To get up to speed for tonight's telecast, read Bill Simmons's article on LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. Wade and Bosh apparently had a documentary crew follow them around as they wrestled with their decisionmaking.

And here's two LeBron videos:


Lebron degrading a ballboy.



LeBron losing at HORSE.

Link roundup

1. Police officers in Southern California were simply investigating reported drug sales when they stumbled upon a body - - the suspect had preserved a woman's body with dry ice in a swank Newport Beach hotel room for a year.

2. Fascinating comic about homeopathy, especially discussing the claim that water has a memory. Via.

3. Bare knuckle fighting is much safer than boxing with boxing gloves on.

*Buy The Art and Aesthetics of Boxing at Amazon.

Bill Simmons's ideas for improving the NBA draft telecast

From Bill Simmon's 2010 NBA Draft Diary:

Suggestion No. 1: Have real NBA players conduct the interviews with the rookies after they get picked. I'd pick three of the league's most gregarious stars (I'm thinking Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant and Grant Hill) and have them do it for every pick, almost like an NBA version of "The View." Wouldn't that loosen up the rookies a little?

Suggestion No. 2: Have two funny NBA players (I'm thinking Jared Dudley and Chris Kaman) rate the outfits of each pick as the draft goes along. Yeah, like you'd change the channel.

Suggestion No. 3: A David Stern cam. Put a camera on his tie and let's see where he goes between picks. I've always wanted to know.

Suggestion No. 4: We don't need a real sideline reporter for the draft. We're not breaking real news here. So what about Ron Artest? You're telling me he wouldn't want to prowl the crowd and interview parents, fans and coaches? Who's a bigger attention hog than him? More importantly, didn't we learn from the 2010 Finals that you can never have enough of this formula: "Ron Artest + live microphone"?

*Previously: Kobe Bryant/Black Mamba t-shirt.

*Buy NBA bobbleheads at eBay.

Roller Derby pin-up (link roundup)

Roller Derby pin-up by Joshua Smeaton for the Oni roller derby anthology, Jam!. There's a 17-page preview here.

And a few more links:

1. "Locks don’t stop thieves, they just keep honest people honest." Via.

2. Jeff Blake and commentator Pam Shriver got into a shouting match during Blake's match at Wimbledon.

3. SDCC Exclusive Liquid Metal T-1000 by Neca.

4. Photo of Chris Sanders posing with a funny mascot.

*Previously: Roller Derby Poster.

*Buy roller derby posters at eBay.

The Magician (link roundup)

Tarot Card/Promotional postcard by Edward Kwong.

And a few more links:

1. Toy Story 3 Easter Eggs.

2. Writer talks about the time he hung out at a club and hotel with various NBA players including Ron Artest. Via.

3. Photos show Los Angeles at night in 1908, 1988, and 2002. Via.

*Previously: The Super Punch Tarot.

*Buy tarot cards at Amazon.

The Climax (link roundup)

Poster for The Climax, one of several amusing ads recently posted by Mitch O'Connell.

And a few more links:

1. The 62-person University of Waterloo Warriors football team will miss the entire 2010-2011 season after nine members tested positive for steroids. Via.

2. Back in 2003, China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, returned to Earth after orbiting the Earth in a Chinese capsule. But a flaw in the capsule exposed Liwei to excessive G-force pressure, splitting his lip and drenching his face in blood. When he landed, workers opened his capsule, cleaned him off, closed the door, and then reopened it for the news cameras.

3. Reservoir Troopers action figures.

*Previously: Climax High Point.

*Buy Chinese propaganda at eBay.