Throwback Thursday (aka links dump)

Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood that famous quote from Forrest Gump. If it’s a box of chocolate covered cherries, don’t you know exactly what you’re going to get?)

On the one hand, I’m happy to report that I’m catching up/running out of these old links. On the other hand, it’s been cool reminiscing.

I highly recommend Pocket as a way to hold onto links you come that you want to keep. Unlike bookmarks, Pocket keeps the entire page and makes it relative easy for you to find stuff you “pocketed.” I have keepers going back six years — more than 5,000 links — and I’ve decided it’s time to start cleaning house so here are some submitted for your amusement, perusal, and education. Some are not current, but in a sense, they’re timeless. Note: Sometimes individual sites remove the content or simply cease their existence, so Pocket isn’t 100 percent foolproof.

ESPN recently shuttered Grantland, which was created, ostensibly, as an outlet for long-form sportswriting in an era where attentions spans have
Sorry, what was I saying? Anyway, I lost patience with Grantland when it started taking what I felt was much of a pop culture slant, since there are plenty of those around. These days I lean towards The Classical, which posted this piece in 2012.
Ballpark Digest published this about Making It in the Minors: A Team Owner’s Lessons in the Business of Baseball, by Art Solomon.
Before Travis Sawchick wrote Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak, there was this from Forbes about “How Baseball Is Using Big Data To Manage Risk.”
Just about every Mets fan knows about the debate over the innings limitations advised by Matt Harvey’s agent as they were fighting for the NL East title. There were many comparisons made to fellow Tommy John “survivor” Stephen Strasburg. Here’s one of the first pieces about how the Nationals were handling their poster boy at the time.
Knuckleball was a pretty good documentary about R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield. This is from the film’s official website and this from Uproxx, trying to convince this this wasn’t one of the Funny or Die projects (as opposed to Ferrell Takes the Field, a recent HBO special.)
There have been a few behind-the-scenes books about what goes on at the ballpark to get ready for a game. Here’s a similar-themed piece from Baseball Prospectus.
Before David Denson came out as baseball’s first gay player, there has been speculation about what that would “mean.”
Do you remember that Tony LaRussa wrote a book? (Hint: It was One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season)
Do you remember that Adam Greenberg was hit in the head in his Major League Debut for the Chicago Cubs in 2005? He spent a loooong time trying to make a comeback. The Cubs wouldn’t give him that One At Bat. The Florida Marlins did and were chastised for it by many as a publicity stunt. Seems that no good deed goes unpunished.