Thor'sLinks: 15 days to go!

In the grand scheme of things, there are original source sports reporters (those who have access to the source and have teh opportunity to provide original content and insight), aggregators (those who have access to the news wires and gather up all the most interesting and/or meaningful content from those original sources and repeat them for the masses), and people like me - an aggregator of aggregators. Obviously, if we lose the original source content we all starve for information. But instead of whining about the potential loss of original source content creators, why not flip the big bird to the legacy media cartel that cock-blocks everyone out of having direct access in the first place and provide an opportunity to grow original source content providers??? Shit howdy, people, how many hours of time do I have to burn to revisit all the real-world examples of how The Information Age has trumped one dinosaur after another before we stop asking the wrong questions? And how ironic that we are asking those wrong questions via the very mechanism that renders the questions being asked so wrong in the first place.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if a sports league, and each franchise in that league, had media information directors who spent their time reaching out to successful sports sites and enabled direct (even if remote) access to principals? If the MSM wants to hang on dearly to the cash cows, the easy shit like college football, let 'em. For now. But the fight needs to be carried to the market and the dinosaurs need to get out of the way.

Or, perhaps more simply, we merely watch as the blessed who possess access migrate to the same New Media outlets that are supported by aggregation visitors?

Have some Adapt-or-Die Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Quentin Flies In: Dodging retirement, the infamous Carlos Quentin has hooked up with the Twins for one last go-round. With any luck, we have yet another year to kick around the meme.............

Trout Porn: Fans will be fans, and we haven't written our 2016 Mike Trout hagiography yet, so have some sweet Trout love over at LASportsHub..........

Make-A-Wish: If you could grant Billy Eppler one wish for 2016, what would it be? And, no, you don't have any magic pixie dust to turn Daniel Nava into Ted Williams. Richard Justice up at MLB.com gives him 33 starts and 200 innings out of C.J. Wilson. Silly Richard. His innocense is so cute. We HH'ers know that in Anaheim, gritty veterans wil get their start and get their innings even if they stink like high hell...........

Vlad the Impaler: It's glorious to think of Vlad Guerrero swinging a baseball bat competitively again. 3 home runs in 26 swings during the Home Run Derby of the Carribean World Series, at 41 years of age, is sublime. I wish I could have watched it. If Vlad gets into The Hall, Ima gonna smile huge regardless of which cap he wears............

Skeletons in the closets: Jerry Dipoto's Newport Beach house has been sold. It would be cool to find an abandoned box in the attic that contained forgotten office files, like print outs of internal emails and shit..........

Going, Going, Gomes: Jonny Gomes is just one of those players whose career never, ever seems to die. He just keeps popping up someplace new for a cup of coffee. And now, that's going to be a cup of tea, as Gomes has signed on with Rakuten in Japan, where he can spend a few months flashing his shiny new World Series ring, and maybe earn himself an "h"............

Lovely Long Form: What about the Chicago Black Sox who were not named Joe Jackson? Whatever became of them?..........

Bat-ti-tude: Topps is pulling out all stopps this season with their player cards. Jose Bautista gets The Bat Flip. Damn cool............On Topic, if you are a Topps aficionado, have a browse at some all-time design rankings...........But, make sure to look and not touch, lest this be your destiny............

Uni IOS: Baseball uniforms? There's an app for that. Or, at least, there's gonna be soon. Wearables are coming to baseball performance collection, and we should expect them during training and practice sessions...........

Morales of the Story: Get in line, Craig Brown. Get in line............

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And now, being the full-service weekend linkage institution that we are, here is the obligatory moment we take out of each Thursday...for beer...

Friday: Every Friday for the entire month of February, at least, Stone Brewing Company will be continuing their Hops on the Harbor cruises with Flagship Cruises & Events, down in San Diego.............

Saturday: Bock Fest 2016 takes place at the Olympic Collection Banquet & Conference Center in LA..........The Puppy Bowl Pooch & Hooch Party Fundraiser at Camp Run-a-Mutt in Sorrento Valley is a good cause to celebrate brews............

Sunday: Some kind of football game or something.............

Stay safe, everyone!