Odds and ends before the weekend

We haven't done a links post since a long, long time ago.... It used to make me smile.

• We kick things off with a quote from the man upstairs, owner David Glass, via Bob Dutton of the KC Star:
  
  

  “We’ve got a lot going for us next year. The stadium is going to be sensational. I was up there a couple of weeks ago and toured through the construction, and I can visualize now much better what it exactly is going to look like. Fans are going to love it. I’m a fan, and I’m going to love it. And we need a good product on the field to complement what’s happening with the stadium.”

  
  Thus an increase of payroll to about $70 million.
  
  

  "You just put money in," he said with a chuckle. "It's simple."

  
  In this day and age, we imagine it was a dark, hoarse, ironic chuckle.
  
  (On a related note: I was at Walmart last night and noticed that the prices on the display signs have excised decimal points and are only displaying single-digit numbers, like $7 and $5, which I understand is not all that different from $6.99 and $4.99 in real terms, and that after tax it's more like $7.07 and $5.06, but I couldn't help thinking, after seeing the prices listed as skinny integers, HOLY CRAP THIS IS CHEAP!)
  

• As Rickey Henderson prepares to enter baseball's Hall of Fame (we can not wait for his speech), FanIQ compiles the 25 best stories of "Rickey being Rickey."
  
  Some of these might be apocryphal, but who cares? Trust us when we say there is no one story that deserves to be excerpted over the rest. They're all good, especially the first 10, and if you read to No. 23 and think you want to stop... don't.
  
  
• More Rickey, via Baseball Think Factory: Golden Baseball League Makes Rickey Henderson $1M Hall of Fame Offer.
  
  
• And while we're talking BBTF: their readers are tough. Check out the comments.
  
  
• With a homicide rate of 48 per 100,000, Venezuela is the most dangerous country in Latin America and one of the most dangerous in the world. Now they can put a rather well-known face on the worsening crime rate: Henry Blanco, former reserve catcher for the Cubs, whose brother was kidnapped and murdered earlier this week. Not much more really to say about this except the obvious: just awful.
  
  
• Join Alex Gordon and Sluggerrrrrrrrrrrr (is that enough R's?) later today (3 p.m. at 1225 E. Santa Fe, next to the Salvation Army Thrift Store) as they distribute winter clothing and gifts to those in need.
  
  
• And finally, local blogger Nick Sloan asks, "How big of a surprise would it really be for the Royals to win the American League Central?"
  
  To which we say: shhhhh. Don't jinx it in December. Also, don't steal our thunder: we were going to make that prediction come March.
  
  (But really: it would be a fairly sizable surprise.)
  

TGIF, everyone. The weekend approaches. Commencing countdown, engines on...