Here’s this week’s edition of the weekend links, which actually have some writing to begin with and not just links! As always, these links first appeared at RandBall, your home for soccer kisser-uppers on the Minnesota internets.

Welcome to this edition of the weekend links! First off this week: yesterday, our local pro soccer team, the NSC Minnesota Stars, put on what I think may be the best promotion I’ve ever heard of. The team printed up 2,000 Stars scarves, then left them various places around the Twin Cities – the downtowns, Uptown, and the U of M campus especially – with an offer for free admission attached. If you found a scarf, you got the scarf, plus two free tickets to tonight’s home opener. That’s the Sid Hartman statue there in the photo, wearing his own scarf.

I nearly left work to go search. As it was, I found one on my way to lunch. I left it there – I can’t go to the game tonight, and I thought it only fair to leave the scarf for someone who could make it – but what an absolutely cool idea. I may buy season tickets just because I’d like to congratulate the Stars marketing department. The game’s at 7:30 tonight at the National Sports Center in Blaine, against Carolina, in case you’re wondering – I recommend it.

On with the links:

*Spencer Hall has some bad news for Grantland Rice, who just can’t make the cut in today’s world of sportswriting. Sorry, Grantland. You’ll have to go someplace where they don’t care how poorly and weirdly you write. Like Bleacher Report! (NOTE TO RAND: IF I CAN’T TAKE A GRATUITOUS SHOT AT BLEACHER REPORT, PLEASE REMOVE JUST THE FINAL SENTENCE OF THIS PARAGRAPH. BUT BLEACHER REPORT DESERVES IT BECAUSE THEY SUUUUCK.)

*PGA golfer Ben Crane has appeared on RandBall before, and now he’s returned with more videos. Ben Crane is either insane or a comic genius, possibly both, and either way he’s now absolutely my favorite golfer.

*Parker Hageman at TwinsCentric goes to the videoto try to figure out why Francisco Liriano can’t throw a strike. Late on Friday, it came out that Rick Anderson and Ron Gardenhire had a discussion with Liriano about his release point, so apparently Parker wasn’t too far off here.

*Finals week is coming up, and Canis Hoopus has published its final grades for the 2010-2011 Timberwolves. Let’s all look on the bright side: only one F! And four D’s, but still!

*And finally: The Sports Economist blog reminds us all that, when you see the “economic impact” statistics for any sporting event (in this case, the CONCACAF Champions League final in Salt Lake City), those figures are almost always wrong.

That’s enough for this week. Here’s hoping you found your scarf, yesterday. To all other sport teams in the area: there should be more scavenger hunt-based promotions. After my excitement yesterday, I feel very strongly about this.