SportsCentr

ESPN thinks Tim Lincecum is having an identity crisis.

It should surprise no one that the always-amped Hunter Pence really likes coffee. Here he is with SF’s premier coffee maker, Phil Jaber of Philz Coffee. I imagine that Pence mainlines about five Ethers per game, but I doubt he gets the mint leaf inside. By all accounts, the speech he made to the baristas was inspiring:

“ Look into each other cups - now! Look into each others cups, I want one more latte with you. It’s the most aromatic, the best coffee I have ever drank, and no matter what happens we must not give in and order decaf. We owe it to each other to brew for each other - one cup at a time. I need one more cup with you guys. I need to see which Modest Mouse album that barista with the stretched ears is gonna play tomorrow! I want to steam milk for that white girl with dreadlocks, while she’s ignoring customers to update her Pinterest page. I want to brew a free cup of coffee for that customer with the enormous head, because he reminds me of Bruce Bochy! Brew for each other not yourself. Brew each morning. Brew each moment. Because you guys are splitting your tips.”

Here’s catcher/first baseman/runway model Buster Posey in GQ. You can tell Buster is full recovered from the home plate collision in 2011. because he’s proudly showing off his ankles, like a harlot from the 19th century.

People might make fun of this photo shoot - OK, they WILL make fun of this photo shoot - but it’s a time-honored sports tradition that peaked with Kobe Bryant’s “White Hot” spread for the LA Times magazine. Kobe received a lot of mockery, and then six weeks later, he won his second championship in a row. Maybe that’s what Buster’s hoping for. Or, he’s just in it for the fitted capri-style sweatpants.

Time to start talking about a contract extension?

Kevin Durant hanging out with the Kung Fu Panda. Clearly, Pablo Sandoval is standing on a tiny ladder, or perhaps a crouching clubhouse attendant’s back.

Worth every penny.

(AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

From Tim Keown’s excellent profile of Sergio Romo:

PUNK. THE WORD still haunts him. He saw it in the faces of the cops in Arizona who pulled him over “a handful of times” as he drove his new BMW back and forth from his home to spring training in 2012. Arizona Senate Bill 1070, the controversial immigration bill, had gone into effect around the same time.

As Romo tells it, the first question was always the same: “Is this your car?”

Not, “License and registration, please.”

Not, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

But, Is this your car?

When Romo said it was, the next question was always: What do you do for a living?

“Why is that any of their business?” Romo asks. “I told him, ‘You’re only pulling me over because you see a guy with a big beard driving (a nice car and the state gives you the authority to discriminate.’

” And so, after the season, during the World Series parade in San Francisco, Romo wore a T-shirt that said, I just look illegal. There was a little something for everyone in the message. There was the prankster and the defiant guy whose stubbornness will never allow him to ignore a slight.

“Part of it was me being silly and goofy — look what I’ve got on,” he says. “Another part of it, legitimately, was that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve accomplished in life, people get treated the same. I know what it feels like to be discriminated against.”

Go read the whole thing.