I don’t know what kind of weather system blew through Kansas City tonight but our planet’s prevailing physics don’t appear to apply in the Show Me state.

What other possible explanation could there be for a baseball swing that short and compact to impart such violent force upon a baseball? The kind of force required to send a baseball careening some 460 feet the other way needs a bigger swing and a bigger man, doesn’t it? HOW? WHY? I’M BAMBOOZLED.

SUPERLATIVE SUPERLATIVE MIKE TROUT EXPRESSION OF DISBELIEF PROFANITY SUPERLATIVE.

We pride ourselves on fine tattoo reporting around here. From Von Miller’s arm chicken to the largest and stretchiest Dolphins tat ever, we document the history of NFL ink. It takes hard work, perseverance, and the ability to click a computer mouse and use a keyboard. Advanced stuff.

But this is the first time I’m not sure if I should be frightened, or impressed. Both?

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Devang Desai, Sean Keay, James Bigg and Richard Whittall discuss which footballers would make great cast choices for the Office, what we hope to see in the upcoming Confederations Cup, and which were our Vieiras and Vidukas from the entire football season. Thanks as ever for sending in your questions!

You can download it here and subscribe on iTunes here. You can also find the RSS Feed here.

I don’t believe in fate or destiny, but I understand why others might. Sometimes, seemingly unrelated circumstances coincide so perfectly to form a singular result that it’s difficult to not believe in an unseen and powerful guidance shaping the outcome.

Like many Canadians of a similar background and age to my own, I loved open-wheel racing before I even understood that it was open-wheel racing that I loved. Also, like many Canadians of a similar background and age to my own, my love for North America’s premier source for open-wheel racing came to an abrupt halt in the mid-nineties when the departure of Jacques Villeneuve from the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series conspired with the introduction of the Indy Racing League (IRL) – and subsequent desecration of the Indy 500 – to reduce the relevance of the sport on the entire continent.

Eighteen years later, the IndyCar Series is haunted by this past, even as it strives to return to a time when its brand of racing attracted new fans and captivated long-time supporters. Leading the charge to fight these ghosts and bring the sport back to an era of increased public interest is a 26-year-old driver from Oakville, Ontario – James Hinchcliffe.

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There are a few of these videos from Amir Johnson’s trip to Google’s new Toronto offices, but I like this one the best, and not just because it features my current favorite track off a spectacular rap record, even though I will admit that is a really big part of it. No, I like this one the best because I think it would be great to hang out in a secret closet party with Amir Johnson, and I’m pretty sure he would actually throw one. I mean, if he’s going to spend an hour getting put in to zombie makeup, he must know of somewhere with a bookshelf dance club. Hit me up, bro.

(via Raptors Republic)

If there’s one thing the University of Cincinnati baseball team is good at, it’s knowing how to sabotage post-game interviews. They finished 24-32 this season, but their best plays occur after the game in their post-game interviews. Just watch the video and check out the skill.

I understand that Brad Richards has not played well for the Rangers in the eyes of John Tortorella. There’s a reason he’s been demoted and given minimal minutes. But now it’s come to this:

Brad Richards says he is not playing tonight. He said Tortorella called him this morning to tell him.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) May 23, 2013

“Nothing is over, work harder and try my best to never let it happen again,” Richards said.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) May 23, 2013

Re. Richards, this was brewing. He was on 4th line b/c he wasn’t playing well enough to be in top-9. Next logical step was the press box.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) May 23, 2013

With this move, we’re left to believe one or a couple of a few things about the well-compensated captain’s situation:

A) John Tortorella is right right in his assessment that the Rangers are better served with Brad Richards not playing at all. They’re better off with Arron Asham, or Mats Zuccarello or whoever they decide is more deserving than him.

B) John Tortorella is right that he’s not playing well, but wrong in healthy scratching him because he’s at least better than whichever 12th forward you plug in for him.

C) John Tortorella is entirely wrong (and has likely hurt the play of Richards, or at least the team, with his management of him).

D) John Tortorella likes attention.

Personally, I subscribe to B. I also subscribe to C and D, though. “Over-coaching” is a word that springs to mind.

The point that I made on the podcast about Richards was pretty basic: if you’re John Tortorella, you either believe that Brad Richards is a good NHL player playing poorly, in which case you should play him because good players who’ve been playing badly will have an over-correction of sort to get back to their average (or at least will play closer to how they normally do),

OR,

You believe the player playing badly is just a bad hockey player, in which case this “bad” is normal and you can expect to see more of the same and therefore no correction.

Brad Richards is not a “bad” hockey player. Quite good, in fact.

If Richards has been playing bad (it’s tough to tell given his usage of late, tough to get into a game as a skill guy playing eight minutes), then it’s only a matter of time before he has a good game. By putting him in the stands, you avoid getting the guy’s bounce-back games, piss him off in the process, and in Tortorella’s case, probably make one of your last Become The Center of Attention moves of your time with the Rangers.

I think making him a healthy scratch is intentionally fielding a lesser line-up, which is putting yourself ahead of the team as coach, which is selfish and wrong.

And you?

In the latest installment of RaptorBlog Radio, Drew, Oliver and I get together to discuss the “sort of” firing of Bryan Colangelo, the current state of the Raptors organization, who may replace Colangelo, and what might become of Dwane Casey.

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