From My Brain to Your Eyes: Top 10 Sports Moments of 2012

I love lists.

There is no better season for list-lovers than the end of the year and the 'best of' everything. Songs, films, local chefs, political sex scandals, previously undiscovered facial expressions of Claire Danes. And, of course, sports.

What fun! Let's play.

This isn't an overall best sports stories of the year, but more of a collection of memorable moments -- and all off the top of my head, which I guess is as good a way as any to assess the memorability of a moment.

In no particular order:

THE REPLACEMENTS

Well, that happened. It still hurts my feelings and makes me curse.


LeBRON VICTORY-DANCING ALL OVER THE WORLD

He had a big year. And that big LeBron grin is irresistible to me. It's like the happiest place on earth is in Lebron's mouth.  [more LeBron victory-dancing]


CHUCK PAGANO'S LOCKER ROOM SPEECH



I'm dancing at two more weddings, and we're hoisting that trophy together. That doesn't read like a stunningly powerful line, but it certainly is delivered as one. 


GABBY DOUGLAS

There were many, many great Olympic moments -- Ryan Lochte talking about pissing in the pool notwithstanding -- but watching little Gabby Douglas dig deep and just kill it is my favorite.


PERFECTION

Six no-no's this season, three of them perfect games. Not exactly one 'moment', but a general feeling is evoked when I think of this. This feeling: good god, that is amazing.


THE BUTT FUMBLE

I mean.


SHHHH....



Okay, so this is a slightly different version of this moment than the one you saw on ESPN. This is the the 'how it went in my head' version.


JOSH HAMILTON's FOUR BOMB NIGHT IN BALTIMORE

So memorable I even wrote a short-short story about it. Sort of.


CHRIS KLUWE TAKES A STAND

And introduces the world to the excellently phrased and awesomely memorable, lustful cockmonster.


MAUER GETS BOOED AT TARGET FIELD, I LOSE MY DAMN MIND

Muffinbutt bounced back and had a great 2012 season, thank god. Because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to handle another rough year -- not in disappointment with Mauer, but with the haters.

So, there we have it.

Sorry, I don't know anything about hockey or golf or much about the NBA not having to do with LeBron James' mouth.

Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR, buddies. Ciao.
-christine
     

Just a Quick Question

Read this and then tell me...

is it weird that I find the imagery of Morneau and Muffinbutt cutting fresh produce together kind of totally hot?

Bro, I picked up this organic kale at the co-op before bp today.  You'll die for it.  I'm serious, you'll just die.

I thought so.

Thanks, buddies.
-cr.

Meet Batting Stance Guy

Hey, do you guys know Batting Stance Guy?

I think I'm late to the party on this guy, but am now a big fan. I ran across him doing some research on an upcoming post on actors-as-baseball players (stay tuned), and just got sucked right in. As you can probably guess, he imitates batting stances (and more-- there's a lot of fun stuff on his site) of what seems like every ballplayer ever, including fictional ones.

He's (hot) not totally perfect, but does quite impressively capture the essence of each stance with both spot-on exaggerations of the tiniest movements and also perfect mirroring of the bigger flares, like bat tosses and twirls, hair flicking, or tongue stickingouting.

I can't even imagine how this skill (talent?) developed or how much baseball this guy has taken in in his life, but watching him has really made me think about batting stances in general. You get so used to seeing them that it's easy to forget the screwy idiosyncrasies each player brings to the plate -- every time.

Here's his take on some Twins players, past and present:



I know! It's funny because it's true. (I laughed out LOUD at Torii Hunter.)

Really though, I think something could be learned from this guy. Teams should hire him. I mean, how could anyone have let Greg Gagne bat that way? Anyway, he does every team just like this, several past and present. Click to his his website above and then sort by team.

Baseball!

Ciao, buddies.
-cr.

p.s., the more I watch this, the more impressed I am, especially with the more subtle moves... Check out his posture on Joe Mauer. It makes me want look at Joe's lovely muffinbutt a little closer (you can take that anyway you want, it's probably true) to see if he's actually arching his back and sticking it out a bit and maybe it's not as gloriously muffiny as it seems. Total America's Next Top Model move, Joe. (Points to anyone who can name it.) I'm pretty sure the only effective way to test this is with my teeth.