Mizzou Links, 7-20-07

• Bring on the jinx talk!! Mizzou Football is picked #1 in the North by the Big 12 media. (See fan reaction here, here, and here.) I enjoy being the underdog, and that role served us relatively well last year, but as I've said before, I'm trying a new tactic this year--naive optimism! Bring on the high expectations! Meanwhile, Gabe at PM previews one of the division's toss-up teams, Colorado. So much personnel has changed for them between last year and this year that it's hard to get a read on how good they'll be--probably not very good, but you just don't know for sure.
• Graham Watson (friend of Mizzou Sanity!) has a nice story about Mike Anderson's rough summer in Columbia. Welcome to Mizzou Basketball, Mike.
  
• Lindsey Hunter helps Team USA to the Bronze at the Pan-Am Games in Rio. It's their third straight Pan Am Bronze. Cuba won gold for the first time since 1995; they had won seven in a row at that point before losing in 1999 and 2003.
• And finally, Chris Carpenter is looking at Tommy John surgery. Get used to it, Cardinal fans. Somebody sold their soul for the 2006 World Series, and the devil's collecting. Expect 26 torn labrums in your future. That said, I'd say it's a worthy trade-off. Let me know who your buyer was, and I'll get in touch. Hell, the price should be pretty cheap for my Pirates--they already lose every promising pitcher to Dr. James Andrews...