top 10 sports links

Wow. Taking some heat for not keeping up the blog over break. Sorry loyal readers.

Back with another Top 10 list today. I sometimes try to stay away from sports on here because I know that a lot of my readership is not interested, but since 100% of my authorship is interested, today we're going with the Top 10 Sports Links on the web. I sincerely believe that some of these will be interesting even to those of you who don't know your Paul Assenmacher from a hole in the ground. Without further ado...

10. Top 25 Baseball Names of All-Time. We begin the Top 10 with a Top 25. And check out some of the highlights that only made honorable mention: Spanky Lavalierre, Bip Roberts, Skeeter Barnes, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Hipolito Pichardo...

9. RBI Baseball. From the "Some People Have Too Much Time On Their Hands" file, a site dedicated to arguably the greatest Nintendo game of all-time. If this were some ordinary web site, it wouldn't be worth mentioning here, but the extraordinary detail that went into this site is remarkable. On it, you will find (among other things): an RBI Baseball drinking game, the creators' rankings of the greatest/worst teams/hitters/etc. in the game, a Where Are They Now section detailing the current whereabouts of all of the players in the game, and a comprehensive record book for the four guys who put the site together. Truly impressive for guys without jobs.

8. Ole Miss Baseball Emmy Nomination. Just watch this. This guy is a freakin' goofball. And then he gets tossed.

7. Basketball-Reference.com. You've got to be a pretty intense basketball geek to enjoy this one. I love it. The best part is at the bottom of each individual player's page when it compares him to former players at each point in his career. For example, Michael Jordan's first 8 seasons were extraordinarily similar to Kobe Bryant's. After that Michael is more similar to guys like Dominique Wilkins and Vince Carter. Prior to that, Kobe was more like some guy named Winford Boynes (who did not win 6 championships and 7 MVP awards). It also tells you how much players make, which is depressing.

6. What If Sports. This web site is pretty well publicized and has won all kinds of awards (including, now, a spot on the teacher man Top 10 Sports Links list). You can do a lot of things here, but what's most interesting to me is that you can have football/basketball/baseball/etc. teams of different eras square off against each other and, in a matter of seconds, it simulates games with full play-by-play/stats/etc. For example, I just pitted Larry Bird's 85-86 Celtics against Michael Redd's 07-08 Bucks. The Celts won 108-95, but Andrew Bogut put up a valiant 17/8 in a losing effort.

5. Barton v. Winona State. YouTube clip of the 06-07 Division II National Championship--the greatest 45 seconds of basketball since I started watching seriously. Barton's down 8 when Anthony Atkinson goes to work.

4. The Sports Pickle. Imagine that The Onion were about sports. Some sample headlines: "Edgerrin James Can't Shake Feeling That He's Going To Suck This Season"; "Victorious Boxer Thanks Parents For The Childhood Abuse That Made Him What He Is Today"; "Brett Favre Says He'll Only Return If Packers Improve At The Quarterback Position"; etc.

3. Greatest Sports Highlight Poll. ESPN is currently sponsoring a poll to determine the greatest sports highlight of all-time. If you're looking for a way to kill an hour, go here and check out all of the nominees. Babe Ruth's called shot or Roger Maris's 61st? The Stanford Band or Buckner's error? Michael Jordan v. the Cavs or Michael Jordan v. the Jazz? Pretty awesome.

2. American Gladiators Application. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen, and it's totally legit. Some sample questions: What magazines/newspapers do you read?; Have you had any experiences that have traumatized you? If yes, please explain; What conversation topics are "off limits" for you at a dinner party?; What is the weirdest thing about you? And if none of that makes you laugh, check out #42 & 43. This show is awesome.

1. Jimmy V. This is Jim Valvano's speech at the 1993 Espy Awards. This clip is to sports highlights what "More Cowbell" is to SNL sketches. And that's why it's number one.

Later gators.