Link/Announcement Roundup 7/9

By Paul M. Banks

-You’ve probably noticed all the changes going on around here lately, and all the new names in the bylines. Yes Phase I of The Sports Bank.net expansion is now complete. After locking down Chicago and Illinois, we ramped up our Wisconsin and Minnesota coverage, and then moved into Michigan. We now have about 20 writers on staff. Look for more TSB expansion: “Your Most Valuable Option for Midwest Sports” coming later in ’09.

-You might have also noticed a lot of do-dads and widgets added to the site. Including the links to Yardbarker and Ballhype- to increase the rankings on each.

-Yes, the Cubs have perhaps the cheesiest and pansiest victory song of all. Have you seen this parody of it?

-But even worse than the late Steve Goodman’s offering, is Randy Newman’s “I love L.A.” the L.A. Dodgers’ paean of triumph. Which we all got especially sick of hearing when the Lakers won another NBA Finals. And here’s one of the best baseball movie scenes of all-time: The 80s style montage in “The Naked Gun” set to that annoying song

-Our 2010 NBA Mock Draft on Walter Football.com comes up in the top 5 on Google when you type in “2010 NBA Mock Draft. Huzzah!

-I want to congratulate ESPN’s Steve Berthuame who stated on the June 21st episode of baseball tonight “in a manner of coincidence and not irony, Justin Verlander had the same home plate and first place umpire in both of his starts against the Brewers”

-We’ve had enough public figures talking about a coincidental circumstance, and mislabeling it as ironic. Ex: at the NBA Draft Combine, Gerald Henderson spoke about his best friend Wayne Ellington, “Wayne’s my best friend, I played with him in high school together, he had a great career at Carolina and it’s just ironic that we came out of high school the same year and we’re going on to the next level the same year”

-Did you hear the rumor that Jay Bruce is gay? Yeah, apparently Bruce himself was not aware of the fact that he’s supposedly gay. This link is for intelligent, mature, well-rounded grown-ups, not the moronic cretins who make people hate the internet.

-And please check out Outsports.com, it’s a very well-done and high-trafficed alternative lifestyle sports site.

-Follow Soxman on Twitter

–Northwestern sophomore John Shurna or Juno’s Paulie Bleeker as I call him is starting for the United States in the FIBA U19 World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. The U.S. to a perfect 6-0 at the Championships as it is set to face Canada (3-3) in the quarterfinal round Thursday. Shurna’s averaging 6.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game so far. His best overall performance came in the United States’ first game against Iran as he notched a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

-People thought Sarah Palin’s resigning on the day when no one is online, and nobody pays attention the news is brilliant? Are these voters “special needs” people?

-Yeeshhh! Usually I don’t link to things that suck. But the fact that someone would publish this pathetic piece of racist hate speech is frightening. never even remotely close to anything resembling a sense of humor. Is this guy in the KKK?

The Media Bank.net………”See who’s been withdrawing from the Sports Bank lately”

• A Sea Of Blue linked here saying, “Scott Skiles has reason to smile after getting Jen …”

• Midwest Sports Fans linked here saying, “Before I link you to the podcast that I did last n …”

• MLB FanHouse linked here saying, “Mark DeRosa helped the Chicago Cubs to two consecu…

• Deadspin linked here saying, “After 15 seasons running the Timberwolves, Kevin M …”

• Raptors Republic linked here saying, Turkoglu Bringing More Euro to Toronto | thesportsbank.net