Traina Thoughts: A Man Ate Alone at Outback on Valentine's Day in Hopes of Getting a Free Steak

Man live tweets about eating alone at Outback on Valentine's Day.

Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images

1. Nothing going on in the sports world right now is half as entertaining as one man's Valentine's Day mission. 

Twitter user @baconflavoring wanted to see if he could get a delicious free steak out of the wonderful Outback Steakhouse if he pretended a date ditched him on Valentine's Day. The guy played out the entire scneario on Twitter and provided a slew of updates. This was his initial tweet in the thread.

if I went to Outback Steakhouse by myself tonight and asked for a table for 2, then got progressively sadder as the night went on alone, do you think they’d give me my steak for free?

— Phteven (@baconflavoring) February 14, 2019

You should click that link and read the entire thread. I'll provide a couple of details here, but if you don't want the spoilers, skip ahead to item No. 2 right now.

Skip ahead for no spoilers.

Skip ahead now.

OK, here you go. The payoff at the end was great and the dude did a good thing by using this scheme as a way to donate to charity. At first, I was shocked he didn't order a Bloomin' Onion, but after thinking about it, it was the right move. A Bloomin' Onion is one of the worst things you could possibly eat on Valentine's Day. Gives you bad breath, makes you sick to your stomach, causes other issues I don't want to mention. All things that are big problems on a night when the chances are high for things getting amorous. Also, great job by Outback with its reaction to this saga.

How about you bring in a real date and the meal’s on us? The love connection is up to you though. ♥️ Send us a DM so we can make it happen.

— Outback Steakhouse (@Outback) February 15, 2019

2. Bill Walton celebrated Valentine's Day by rubbing chocolates all over his face and then throwing them at his broadcast partner Dave Pasch (which is the way these two made Thursday's list of the top five duos in sports media). Walton did this right after he mentioned that 10 years ago this week, he contemplated suicide. It was quite a transition that only Walton could pull off. 

Walton discussed how he got into such a dark place and why he ended up not going through with suicide on the SI Media Podcast last month.

3. Charles Barkley heaped high praise, in a way only Charles Barkley could, on Mavericks star Luka Doncic.

Charles Barkley on @luka7doncic: “That’s a bad white boy . . . we’re getting really close to little black kids in the ‘hood wearing his jersey.”https://t.co/ElgvorCtkn pic.twitter.com/nYN3QsaVtl

— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) February 15, 2019

4. Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry called the Anthony Davis situation "a dumpster fire" and we have to praise him for his honesty.

Alvin Gentry has had enough on questions about Anthony Davis. pic.twitter.com/o1QfoJjyQv

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 15, 2019

5. Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer is in yet another kerfuffle. This time he's caught up in some drama about his arbitration hearing, which he won. After beating Cleveland at the table, he gave this quote:

"You never know how the character assassination plays, and considering that's what ended it, it kind of put a black mark on what I thought was a really well-argued case on both sides. There's not room for that. Let's just stick to the numbers. Let the numbers tell the story. You don't need to bring character assassination into it, especially for charitable campaigns."

He also added, "They don't mention that I gave to 68 charities or that I donated more than $100,000," Bauer said. "Or that the whole point of the campaign was to bring awareness to all those charities, past the money I was giving them. Nothing about that. They just tried to say that I was bad for donating or for running that campaign."

Memo to Trevor Bauer: You can give to charity and still have character issues. Yes, you gave money to charity. You also bullied a college student and sent 80—EIGHT, ZERO, EIGHTY—tweets to her. Giving money to charity doesn't cancel that out.

6. This week's SI Media Podcast features a discussion with Sports Business Journal's John Ourand about all the latest sports media news including fallout from Bob Costas's controverial exit from NBC and the role the NFL played in it, the AAF's debut ratings, the NBA's ratings issues, the latest on ESPN firing Adnan Virk, why the NFL is expected to have the Dolphins play the Cowboys in the late afternoon Thanksgiving game, why the Patriots aren't likley to play on opening night, and much more. You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes.

7. DUET VIDEO OF THE DAY: Memo to J-Lo, this is how you do Motown. 

Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here. And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.

IN CLOSING: Prediction: Either Bryce Harper or Manny Machado will be unsigned on Opening Day.