Link Bank 6-7: Blogs with Balls Edition

-Blogs with Balls 3 was held within walking distance of TSB global headquarters, so it was imperative than I attend. My guest for the weekend was Hailtotheorange.com, and I spent a lot of time hanging out with Zoner Sports.com, Not Qualified to Comment and Docksquad Sports.com

-The event was a very unique and interesting experience for me, first of all it had a 97-3 guy to girl ratio, so this was definitely a business outing. Although a very fun business outing at that. I will say that being around just sports bloggers for all that time made me realize I’m not the most interesting and/or witty person in the room even though I think I usually am. But on the plus side, I’ve noticed that I’m one of the few who actually looks the same or better in real life than they do in their pictures on their blog.

-Sure, this event showed me that I still have some work to do in order to get to the next level, and it was a great motivator for doing just that, but it also made me feel very thin, athletic and attractive. Seriously, being in a room with this bunch will do that to ya.

-Highlight of the conference, the firewors right before lunch on Saturday in which Josh Zerkle of With Leather basically told the audience “do whatever you want, until you get caught and people tell you to cease and desist.” And Jason McIntyre who just sold The Big Lead for allegedly “low seven figures” pretty much agreed. I must have missed that after-school special where we taught kids these lessons.

-Being someone who considers himself to be wholesome, (not saying I actually am, but I definitely consider myself this way) I had a very big problem with this, and that’s why it was AWESOME to see Spencer Hall of Every Day Should be Saturday and Brian Cook (no not the former Illini legend) of mgoblog take these guys to task. I’m definitely on their side. But of course, remember a sports blogosphere divided cannot stand.

-We’ll have another, more in-depth post on BWB3 later today, so stay tuned.

-The biggest loser in all of sports, Forbes did a study which I spotted on Yahoo

We uncovered some interesting tidbits. Tampa, sad to say, is a pro sports loser. Three Tampa teams (baseball’s Rays, football’s Buccaneers and hockey’s Lightning) make our list. Tampa does have two championships (the Bucs in 2002 and the Lightning in 2004). And the Rays made the World Series in 2008 (they lost) and are off to a great start this year. But, historically speaking, these are anomalies. It’s been a tough go for fans in the Bay area.

Also, all but one of the teams on our list (the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, No. 10) is in the southern part of the U.S. The reason for this? Who really knows? Our theory: It may have something to do with the population migration to the Southern U.S. in the past 20 or 30 years. Sports leagues have followed the people, putting more teams in southern cities. Expansion teams can take a while to get up and running.

-As the Hawks are now just one win away from hoisting the Cup. Let’s recall the only other team qualify for the Stanley Cup Finals during my lifetime

-I love awkward moments, like this one from Henry Rollins in his early days as a member of Black Flag. This poor kid, I think Rollins was going to bash him here

-Joakim Noah My Town on Yardbarker

Tweet of the week: to our own PeterChristian

@thesportsbank read this link is that guy like a lamer Chicago version of Andy Rooney? What a buffoon.

-Yes, Pete that’s Wlater Jacobson of CBS 2 Chicago who is pretty awful, and an intolerable bore. He’s been around for a lot longer than I’ve been alive, and he’s somehow won some awards even though your analysis of him is spot on. I have no idea what he was trying to accomplish with that useless bandwagon rant. Again you can read the transcript here.

His “perspective”…(what a piece of crapola) sounds like that really bad Saturday Night Live sketch from the 1990s “Unfrozen caveman lawyer.”  “what is this game you speak of with it’s slot areas and neutral zones, I cannot comprehend this oddity of a modern game with it’s blue lines and offensive zone cycles.

-Since we’re on the topic of Saturday Night Live sketches, and bloviating blowholes trying to intellectualize sports where it clearly has no place, I bring back to the 80s and the George Will Sports Machine- yes that’s exactly what it sounds like. Starring Jon Lovitz as Tommy Lasorda and Corbin Bernsen as Mike Schmidt. Is it piffle or not piffle?