Links of the Week: Megan Fox, Bruce Springsteen, and the Everlasting Battle Between Old School and New School

As sad as it is, the summer is over and fall is here. I mean, sure it is football season, so that almost makes the drop in temperature, influx of rainy days, and well, the drop and temperature worth it.

Fall is a strange season though. School goes back in to session, people seem to head back to work at full steam, and everything just seems busier. I've never understood the folks that say fall is their favorite season. The summer is just warmer and more relaxing. I mean, I get the whole "seasons changing" thing, but isn't that best for spring?

And I refuse to believe anyone actually likes winter the best of all the season. I am sure they usually are thinking of those nice days where it is sunny and there is a fresh coat of snow on the ground, and not those days where the wind-chill is 10-below and there is that layer of ice on your windshield that is thin enough to make you dig at it for twenty minutes, but thick enough to where never comes off.

As so, on the positive note that, for me, the football season somehow balances off all of my perceived negatives of fall (mainly, the start of winter), I give to you the Links of the Week:

Last week, Bruce Springsteen turned 60. I used to be very indifferent toward The Boss; I figured it was a generational thing, sort of like U2. Well, I was forwarded a couple of links of The Boss on his birthday that triggered my memory. Here is a video of Bruce performing with (and destroying) Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers. It's outstanding. Dylan does his usual brooding sound at the beginning, the Bruce shows him a thing or two in the next verse. Dylan tries to pull a "Bruce" and then the Boss destroys him.  Well worth a watch.

Two of my favorite things: Sesame Street and Mad Men. Awesome.

Okay, stay with me on this one. I am going to try and explain this, though no words can truly do this video justice in its awesomeness. This is a video... of a flying Polar Bear holding a hockey stick.. who destroys planets, galaxies, and satellites as he flies past in deep space... and then when he lands, he destroys Anchorage, Alaska. It's a hockey team's introduction video and yes, this actually exists and its as excellent as it sounds.

This website has a gamed called, "Who Said It: Megan Fox or Mike Tyson?". Like you wouldn't click on that.

When I was in ninth grade, my high school baseball team would have to take really long bus rides to games. Since, well, I didn't really play all that often, I usually snuck magazines on to the bus on the way to the game, when we were supposed to "focus" (as a coaching mechanism, I never got this. Why wouldn't you want your players to be relaxed?). Anyway, I remember reading an article from ESPN The Magazine about Tiger Woods and how one day, at the age of about 50 or so, he would be the first billionaire athlete. Well, this week it happened: Tiger has earned a billion dollars in his career. Oh yeah, he's only 33.

The only thing more unbelievable than this shot going in is this group of friends calling themselves "Dude Perfect". Here is the shot from another angle... is it real or fake?

Reason #6,297 why I am glad only three and a half years of my life took place during the 1980's.

Since I don't watch college football (reasons to be explained at a later date), I could not be more excited for college basketball, especially since my Alma Mater Purdue is projected to be so good this year. For instance, here is a link calling VHS grad Robbie Hummel to be the third best small forward in the NCAA. I love college basketball, there are very few reasons for me to not love the sport...

... geez, thanks Andy Katz.

Oh, the classic debate between "New School" and "Old School" baseball writers. Via The Big Lead, here is an article that proposes changing the "Triple Crown" categories of batting average, home runs, and runs-batted-on to a more modern (and arguably accurate of true greatness in baseball) to batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. The later set of stats generally show a more accurate representation of a great MLB player.

Another solid article from ESPN's Jerry Crasnik of 9 players who have done well on bad teams this year. My only beef with this article is that it is seriously lacking any Derrek Lee.

The New York Daily News' Frank Isola put together an article about a guy who I think is the most intriguing man in sports: Worldwide Wes. Worldwide Wes is the "Mr. Wolf" of professional sports: a guy who comes in discreetly and... well, solves problems. In this article, Isola sheds some light on the role, however unethical, of Worldwide Wes in regards to the Knicks' pursuit of LeBron James.

Until next week!