Happy Time Linkerooskie

I intended to write something expansive and brilliant here, but it turns out when you miss 4 days of work, they require that you quadruple your effort on the day you return. Lucky for me, that still doesn't equal a full 8 hours of work. Unlucky, it does limit my blogging time. So instead of that mythical essay, I'll post some links.

-First, I found this awesome site today. It's called "Run of Play," and it's a sparkling gem of a soccer blog, and their editor wrote a nice piece on Uruguay's Luis Suarez and his divine handball.

For the sake of brevity, I'll just say that I thought it was a spectacular and hilarious move. My stepdad and I were watching the match in a bar in Maryland, and we couldn't stop laughing after the Ghanese guy missed the penalty kick. First off, it's spectacularly dumb that the refs can't just award a goal in that situation. But this being soccer, the lack of reason stands to...reason. Second, people are getting uppity because apparently Suarez was supposed to stick to some gentleman's code and just let the ball go in. What?! In the World Cup?! No way. Only a stuffy British earl would believe in that kind of moralistic crap.

As Run of Play points out, a similar tactic in the States would be applauded and admired (blatant pass interference on a sure TD is the example they use). In fact, it was kinda surreal to see it happen, because it's a scenario I've thought about on occasion. It's the last minute, the crucial goal is about to go in...do you just reach out and swat it? At least with a penalty kick, you have a chance that the guy will miss. When it happened, it was like watching a fantasy being played out for my benefit. I couldn't fully believe that things would fall like dominoes, but then they did; Gyan missed his chance, and Uruguay won on penalty kicks. To me, Suarez is a brilliant, devious little hero. I loved it.

-Bill Simmons of ESPN has once again made me forget that I don't care about something with his fantastic piece on Lebron. My favorite line, on the possibility that he'll end up in Miami:

In May, after the Cavs were ousted in the conference semifinals, I wrote that LeBron was facing one of the greatest sports decisions ever: "winning (Chicago), loyalty (Cleveland) or a chance at immortality (New York)."

I never thought he would pick "HELP!"

-On the less eloquent side of the spectrum, Drew Magary at Deadspin thinks Lebron is a "cocksucker."

-Paul Goydos became the 4th player to ever shoot a 59 on the PGA Tour. The course was a par-71, which means he was 12-under on the round. The other 3- Geiberger, Beck, and Duval, all did it on par-72 courses. Which means that Goydos is a huge loser.

-Here's a tear-jerker of an article from the Fayetteville Observer about Dean Smith, now 79, and his deteriorating health. I liked this quote from Stackhouse:

"Before, ... there wasn't one time before a season that I didn't get a handwritten note or a call from him," said Stackhouse, who is on the tail end of a long NBA career. "He always wanted to let me know that he was watching me and keeping up. I miss that. It was almost like on certain nights you'd get out on the floor and say to yourself, 'Coach Smith might be watching tonight. I have to be at my sharpest.' That was with me for a long time."

I'm sure Duke loyalist Nick will be around in a few seconds to tell me why Dean Smith was a cretin, but that quote says a lot. Have a great night.