Tuesday Link Dump - Meet Blake Thomsen

Later this week or next week - depending on factors like "how burnt out from writing do I get?" and "do the Baltimore Orioles give me a heart attack?" - I'll be putting together a comprehensive ranking of the 20 stadiums in the English Premier League.  Helping me with that (and promoting it on his site) will be Blake Thomsen of The Cauldron - a fellow startup site just like this one except (a) they stick entirely to sports and (b) have a whole host of professional, quality writers (headed up by my favorite non-Bill Simmons sports writer of all time Andy Glockner) as opposed to just my amateur candy ass.

Anyway, since I can't pay Mr. Thomsen in anything other than food stamps, I will kick off today's link dump by linking to his newest piece about Manchester United trying to score the gols as frequently as they give up the gols as well as the first piece of his I ever read and the one that got me hooked on his writing about Chelsea's Spanish Inquisition on the rest of England.  Oh and I also have to link to this one by him because (a) look at that pitchfork and (b) it's about the 1994 Caribbean Cup meaning that if it was worth writing about, something epic HAD to have happened.

Okay, now for the rest of the links.....

Chris Low, excellent SEC writer, on this upcoming Saturday being the biggest day in Mississippi history since we let them back in to the Union.

We Need To Talk - the first ever all female sports show - debuts tonight at 10 PM on CBS Sports Network (it's in with your sports channels somewhere.)  Richard Deitsch, the Godfather of sports media journalism whom I never try to go too long without reading and (especially) Tweeting at him, has your full preview.  I hope to write some sort of review tomorrow or later this week.  I'll say this - I'm more excited to watch it and write about it than Gotham, which may or may not get scrapped because this week is just too damn busy.

The incredible story of Paderborn, top 11th in the Bundesliga.  They were top last Tuesday when Dale Johnson wrote the piece but losses to traditional Bundesliga powers Bayern Munich and Borussia Monchengladbach have dropped them to midtable.  Still a wonderful underdog story worth your time.

Soulja Boy Tell 'Em and K. Michelle had one of the great Twitter beefs of our time.  It doesn't matter if you don't know who either is (you probably haven't forgotten Soulja Boy from this) because an epic Twitter beef is an epic Twitter beef and this one more than qualifies.

Oh hey, The Cauldron again.  Seriously folks, give that site your eyeballs after you're done giving them to me.  Wendy Thurm with an excellent breakdown of the collapse of the Oakland A's - which may or may not reach its shocking conclusion tonight.

Hockey's back in 8 days.  More positive links about hockey to come in the future but unfortunately all I've got for you today is The Freezing, Hungry Lives of NHL Ice Girls; an excellent, apolitical work by Mother Jones.

In news that should be a surprise to no one, Gluten's not the devil just like carbs weren't the devil just like...

Wale - another rapper you probably don't know (which is a shame because he's from the DMV AND he's EASILY the most talented major rapper on Rick Ross' Maybach Music Group) - thinks WWE RAW sucks right now and he's not wrong.

How College Football Teams Choose Opponents.  Important to note that this could be flipped all upside down now that the Playoff is here and strength of schedule is paramount now.  Still a fascinating read.

Middle school team pulls off "The Ugly Kardashian" trick play.  I got nothin else here.

Bob Wojnowski goes IN on Brady Hoke.

Workaholism: The addiction of this century.

And finally: A Slice of Life in 1985 - the last time the Kansas City Royals played postseason baseball before tonight.

Enjoy your reading!  And hopefully include this blog in it!