Brandon McCarthy. As you can see below, he values standing up for his teammates, which I suppose is the default position when you get no offensive support and your catcher is Kurt Suzuki (wait, that's not positive! shut up!).

PatrickWillis52 @KyleWilliams_10 keep ur head up. U r my brother n teammate N I would put u back there all over again. We all lost this game tonight not u.

BMcCarthy32 All the respect in the world for @PatrickWillis52 for that response to his teammate. Leadership personified. Proud to be his and a 49er fan.

The positive take on yesterday's games is that at least we won't have to watch Baltimore in the Super Bowl, I guess? And that Super Bowl XLII was really good?

Here's a positive spin on Dominican players not always being truthful about their ages.

Since it's Monday I'm bound to link to the KSK Peter King FJMification.

Heidi Klum and Seal are both single! I'm sure we all have chance to nab one of them.

Jose Canseco takes his knowledge from Moneyball (not the book):

JoseCanseco Billy beane call me would love to dh for you just give me a tryout that's all I ask

JoseCanseco Billy beane email me Jc7264@yahoo.com

JoseCanseco Baseball hates bill James but the Boston red sox hired him .that's from the movie money ball .baseball hates me maybe they can hire me

And finally, I present Monty Python nail polish.

Drop some links, be off-topic, be friendly.

Although I have no links, it's a tradition. AV's compatriot Manny Del Potro plays today (and this is a terrible picture of him).  By the time you read this, he may already have won. I'm always grateful I was conceived 9 months before my favorite tennis tournament.

In cycling, it's Vuelta a Espana time, where you can learn to pronounce Basque names and marvel at how hot Spain is. Nifty photos here.

Today is also the anniversary of Jose Canseco being traded to the Rangers in 1992. I figure if this trade hadn't happened, we might not have had what some consider the best sports blooper of all time (#1 for me is Midori Ito jumping out of the rink) to enjoy all these years.

So dump your favorite sports bloopers, memories of Marv Albert's trial, etc below.

It's our Argentinian friend's birthday today, as well as mine. I've never been to Argentina, but it sounds nice. There's tango, and Boca Juniors, and four species of penguins. Juan Martin Del Potro is also from Argentina (and I believe he's a favorite of AV's), but he is sidelined with a wrist injury and is therefore not defending his title in the US Open.

Good things about being born this time of year? Watching tennis (IT'S A YOUTUBE LINK!) and that all the bars in the Mission are free of Burning Man types.

Bad things? All your friends are out of town (at Burning Man) so you can never have much of a party.

Links, gossip, carbonada recipes all welcome below!

You can travel around the world wide web, but there's no place like home.

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MLB reminds us that Matt Holliday is just the latest goat in a long string of goats. He's probably being stalked by a snow leopard right now.

There have been two major leaguers named Goat. Goat Anderson played one season with the Pirates, and although his batting average was only .206 and his slugging only .225 (chicks dig the dead ball), his OBP was .343. Goat Cochran pitched two innings of one game, with one K, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned and no plate appearance. Someone should probably ease his pain by making a sappy movie about him becoming a small-town doctor. Just leave Amy Madigan's raspy voice out of it, please. It's only $2 to sponsor Cochran's page (Anderson's is $5!), seems like a good investment as the price will skyrocket when the movie comes out.

Who doesn't love chèvre? In the 8th century, the Saracens came to the west of France and left behind the goats and the recipe to make the goat cheese, says cheese-france.com. You can make a nice holiday salad using chèvre, dried cranberries, and pine nuts. Other good recipes: chèvre with candied figs, a Mexican-flavored "lasagne" using poblanos, goat cheese, spinach and black beans.

Kids of all ages can dress up as goats for Halloween, from Infants to pervy adults.

Mostly, goats are supercute, and Matt Holliday is not. Goats are cute without even trying. Matt Holliday couldn't be cute if he tried. He probably did try.

Lastly here's Nico's page.

Dump your weekend links, kids (get it?).

Also born today:

local boy and former A Tom Candiotti (someone should sponsor his page)

William Saroyan would be 101

a pair of child stars who turned out OK: Itzhak Perlman and Debbie Gibson

Padraig Harrington (your favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption? Never heard anyone say that before!)

Disney's buying Marvel comics, I'm guessing the internet will have something to say about this.

This Dave Duncan situation is interesting.

Funny or Die interviews the fabulous Helen Thomas

and from never-safe-for-work Kissing Suzy Kolber, Monday brings the Peter King rebuttal. That's enough of a present for me!

THELMA (taking map) Well, it looks like we can get on this road 81 that heads down towards Dallas, then cut over to...

LOUISE (interrupting) I don't want to go that way. Find a way that we don't have to go through Texas.

THELMA (looking at map) Wait. What? You want to go to Mexico from Oklahoma and you don't want to go through Texas?

LOUISE You know how I feel about Texas... We're not going that way.

THELMA I know, Louise, but we're running for our lives! Don't you think you could make an exception just this once?! I mean, look at the map. The only thing between Oklahoma and Mexico is Texas!

LOUISE Thelma! I'm not gonna talk about this! Now find another way or give me the goddamn map and I will! You understand?

Buster Olney asks will no one think of the children?

For happier memories, reminisce about 2002, when we scored 4 or more runs in 17 straight games with the Hardball Times, or go back decades to the first day of MTV.  Anyone know why the Tusk video was filmed at Dodger Stadium and not the Coliseum?

 A home for all your injury-related links below, ciao.