Sunday Links: Interpreters, Video Games & Bugs Bunny

Here are five links for your Sunday afternoon:

"Interpreters in Baseball Making Sure Nothing Is Lost in Translation" [New York Times] Everything you ever wanted to know about Japanese interpreters (and a little bit more).

"Bats and Bytes Part 1: Early Baseball Video Games" [Bugs & Cranks]
Bugs & Cranks takes a look back at pre-1982 baseball video games. If you've ever held an Atari joystick, this is a must read.

"Measuring Spring Training Cliches" [Roto Authority]
Roto Authority is "systematically tracking" all MLB players who have arrived at spring training either "bulked up" or "slimmed down" to find out which players actually perform better in 2007. For the record, Red Sox second baseman, Dustin Pedroia, will be among the tracked.

"Wells weighs in on Boston" [Boston.com]
David Wells offers some insight into what life is like "off the field" as a Red Sox player: "It was the worst. You go to a mall with your kids and you have people always wanting to take pictures. They should call it 'Picturetown' not 'Beantown.'" Ouch.

"Bugs Bunny, greatest banned player ever" [U.S.S. Mariner]
As a good citizen of Seattle (I finally converted to a Washington State drivers license!), I try to keep up with a few Seattle Mariners blogs in addition to my daily Red Sox blog/news intake. In one of my all-time favorite blog posts, U.S.S. Mariner analyzes (in excruciating detail) Looney Tunes' "Baseball Bugs" (1946) -- Gas House Gorillas vs Tea Totallers. The post is almost a year old, but it was recently selected for the 2007 Best American Sportswriting annual so I thought I'd post a link to it. Congrats U.S.S. Mariner!

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