Year in Review – Second Quarter
As we enter the last few days of 2011, it’s time to take a look at the past year in sports.
While it was another year without a title from any of Cleveland’s teams, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting.
For the First Quarter, check here.
April brought the first full month of Tribe baseball, and the Indians got the season off on a nice start, especially the starting pitching. The month included a 9-2 stretch where the starters threw 74 innings and gave up just 15 earned runs – a 1.82 ERA.
The month also meant the best day for Browns fans each year – the NFL Draft.
Browns fans know, based on his previous work, that the team is in good hands with general manager Tom Heckert and fans were rewarded when Heckert selected three starters in the first two rounds – Phil Taylor, along with Jabaal Sheard and Greg Little.
We tried to warn people that the Madden Curse is real, but no one listened and Peyton Hillis was voted to the game’s cover.
And when it comes to Cleveland teams, we realized it is always good to have options.
May saw the Indians continue on their hot streak and turn into the team that Cleveland needed. The Tribe was led by its starting pitching, a bullpen that didn’t get any respect and a never-say-die attitude from the offense.
Unfortunately, by the end of the month cracks had started to show that would plague the team for the rest of the year.
The Cavs hit the jackpot in the NBA Draft lottery, taking home the No. 1 and No. 4 picks in the upcoming draft.
And Jim Tressel paid for his years of lies by “resigning” as football coach at Ohio State.
June saw the Kent State men’s golf team on the verge of its second-consecutive Top 20 finish on the season and the baseball team just miss out on the first visit to the Super Regionals in school history.
The month was not kind to the Indians, who fell out of first on June 14. Leading the downfall was the continued decline of starting pitcher Fausto Carmona.
The rebuilding continued for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA draft, as the Cavs found coach Byron Scott his point guard in Duke’s Kyrie Irving at No. 1 and selected Texas power forward Tristan Thompson.
At the end of the month, the Cavs finally decided they had seen enough of the enigma that is J.J. Hickson, trading the third-year forward/center to Sacramento for small forward Omri Casspi.
And the U.S. Men’s National Team made it to the final of the Gold Cup, only to lose to Mexico 4-2 – after holding a 2-0 lead.
Coming Wednesday: The Tribe makes a major move, the U.S. Men’s National Team starts the Jurgen Klinsman era and the Browns open the 2011 NFL season in less than stellar fashion.
(Photo by Getty Images)
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