End of Week Link Roundup

I know, I know, the week ended a few days ago. But in between attending UMass Amherst graduation (of which Julius Erving is an alum), mourning the loss of Law & Order, and trying to figure out how to sort of quit Facebook, I've been busy. So instead of Friday afternoon reading, here's some reading for your Sunday night or Monday morning:

Yankees

• One person that's been absent from the Yankees: Gene Monahan and the Daily News has all the details
• CC Sabathia is not a Josh Beckett wildness fan according to SNY's Sam Borden
• River Ave Blues looks at the Yankees' off-season targets and tries to figure out what they're doing now. One of them, Eric Brynes just retired according to MLBTradeRumors
• Meanwhile, Steve at TYU looks at former Yankees to see how they're fairing and the New York Times' Ben Shpigel says that the Yankees are missing them some Johnny Damon. The New York Post's Joel Sherman said that Damon had a blast beating his old mates. 
• NoMass wants to get Derek Jeter some rec specs and Joe at River Ave Blues says that Derek has been hitting the same but differently in 2010. 
• The Futility Infielder, Jay Jaffe, just wants to get Javier Vazquez some better pitching results and ESPN's Rob Neyer says that Javy showed some signs of life
• Steve at TYU declares it's Joba '07 again and Jay at Fack Youk takes some exception. 'Duk at Big League Stew says that Jose Valverde out-Joba-ed, Joba. Jason @ IIATMS wants to talk about Valverde's antics
• Dallas Braden's grandma is no fan of A-Rod according to ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand and ESPN's Rob Neyer remembers when Braden was a non-prospect. Bradenia is growing according to Flip Flop Fly Ball and Braden got his 15 minutes of fame at Letterman according to ESPN
• Speaking of prospects, Moshe at TYU has details of Ivan Nova being called to the big leagues and The Oakland Press wants to know if Austin Jackson is as good as advertised (H/T Alex)
• The Yankees 2011 contract situation from MLBTradeRumors. Tim Redding is back
• Steve at WasWatching details the disabling of Alfredo Aceves and Deadspin makes a crack about Nick Johnson's injury

Other Sports

• Jay-Z and Eminem will lead-off the concerts at Yankee Stadium according to USA Today
• Yahoo!'s Big League Stew has details on David Wright going hilariously bonkers and Uni Watch has some interesting details on Dan Warthen's Judaism and Keith Hernandez's lack of knowledge of that religion. The Mets just may need "The Animal"
• MLB teams are now scouting the umpires according to Yahoo! and Larry @ IIATMS has a 4-part series on a salary cap in baseball
• Bad news for a high school athlete: he shouldn't have been in high school according to ESPN
• Some requests for Winnipeg's second hockey team from Yahoo!'s Puck Daddy (H/T Josh) and Subway Squawkers became a big Flyers fan
• Darnell McDonald may be screwed out of a spot no matter what he does according to The Providence Journal. 
• Ex-Giant Brad Benson may have the best ads ever according to Deadpsin and current NFL players are getting by with using street drugs according to the New York Daily News
• BA's Jim Callas ranks the top prospects retrospectively and ESPN's The Travel 10 maps out a road trip. Is baseball's best player Chase Utley?
• The NY Post says that Sammy Sosa is black again and ESPN's TMI blog thinks that Barry Bonds' record will soon fall
• Although I disagree, The Star's Richard Griffin says it was the right decision to move the Blue Jays series against the Phillies. Should the Red Sox stand by Big Papi?
• Bill Simmons led a Celtics cheering party from Twitter according to Mediaite and Deadspin says that Simmons will be going back to work for ESPN
• Arnold Palmer is finally making money off of his drink according to CNBC's Darren Rovell
• My dream: moving from writing about baseball to working for a team as Sky from The Baseball Analysts recently did.
• The Griffey Saga. More people weigh in. Now he's crying.

Potent Quoteables:

• In Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski's scathing article on LeBron James: "They’ll chase the one title he’s forever chased: the biggest free agent of his generation"
• The Wrap in the conclusion of their post about the Jersey Shore cast being recast in Season 3: "In related news, the world will somehow continue to spin on its axis."

Potpourri

• Ferris Bueller is on Twitter according to EW
• Charles Logan's new role from New York Mag (H/T Jay) and EW's Ausiello has some good scoops on the new season of Dexter
• The Kagan nomination is about gay rights according to Newsweek and Politico's Ben Smith talks about the "softball question"
• Laura Bush is actually for gay marriage and legal abortion according to Feministing
• Bill Clinton is for auctioning himself off to pay of his wife debts according to The Times
• Dig a tunnel, get a steak from Ben at 2nd Ave Sagas
• A LOST auction preview from EW and HitFix's Alan Sepinwall has a good interview with the masterminds behind the show
• Bad news from the New York Times: some of the jobs lost during the recession are never coming back

Picture from the Boston Globe