Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Cleveland Cavaliers”

23 Jun 2011

The only Cavs draft preview you’ll need

The Cleveland Cavaliers head into tonight’s NBA Draft in a good position, holding the No. 1 and No. 4 picks.

Who will they pick? We’re pretty sure general manager Chris Grant knows what he wants to do.

And that’s all we can really ask for as fans.

Forget mock drafts, even especially detailed ones. Don’t worry about which seven-foot European player – that most people have never seen play – the team may or may not select.

Because when it comes to drafting, the only real certainty is nobody knows.

As fans, we should expect the front office to do its homework, figure out what positions are weakest on the team, and draft the player they think best fits their team’s system.

Consider the past two drafts by the Browns: they needed help in the secondary, they draft Joe Haden and T.J. Ward. This year, defensive line was an issue and they chose Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard.

After that, it truly is a crapshoot. There rarely is ever one singular player that a team must have, so getting too worked up leading into a draft is not really productive.

Clearly there are wrong draft picks. If the Cavs had selected Darko Milici instead of LeBron James in 2003, that would have been a bad pick. But what if the Cavs weren’t picking first that year? If they had selected Carmelo Anthony or Dwyane Wade that year, would things really have been that much different the past seven years?

The thing with draft picks is you just never know.

A team can make the right pick and things can still not work out. Players can have their careers cut short by injury (think Austin Carr and Brad Daugherty), or their time with the team can be limited by bad trade decisions (Mike Mitchell, Ron Harper).

As long as the Cavs have done their homework and identified where they need help, and don’t do anything crazy (someone should keep a close eye on Dan Gilbert), then everything will be fine tonight.

Remember: if fans can figure out what the team’s weaknesses are, then the team can figure it out.

So if the picks are Kyrie Irving and Enes Kanter, or Irving and Jonas Valanciunas, or Derrick Williams and Brandon Knight, it will be OK.

Whatever they do, it will help the rebuilding process. Link

Posted in Chris Grant, Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA, NBA draft | Leave a comment
20 Jun 2011

Opportunities abound for Browns defense

Lots of interesting news swirling about some of Red Right 88’s favorite sports teams today.

First off, Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Dick Jauron sat down with the Beacon Journal‘s Nate Ulrich for a Q & A and a few points stood out to us:

  • Jauron wants a physical defense: “We really need a to step up and be a very touch and physical team, not only throughout the whole league, but particularly in our division.”
  • What about the switch to a 4-3? “There are challenges. … The personnel mix is different. The numbers are different. There’s a lot of significant differences. It’ll take some work.
  • The team likes its linebackers – to a certain extent: “We’re really happy with … the starting three, the veteran three with Scott Fujita and Chris Gocong and D’Qwell Jackson. The front three, we’re depending on those guys, really, to play like the veterans they are … and hopefully stay healthy.”

For starters, what’s not to like about a physical defense? We’re so tired of watching the Browns get slapped around by other teams and their defense not being able to dish it back out (and not in the illegal Pittsburgh way).

The Browns need to be able to take a shot and give it back just as good – in the words of Al Swearengen: “Stand it like a man… and give some back” – especially in the division. They showed late in the 2009 season that if you stand up to teams like the Steelers you can get them to quit.

Next, rebuilding the defense is going to take time and patience – no matter how tired Browns fans are of hearing that.

In his book, Take Your Eye off the Ball, Pat Kirwan said it should two years to make the switch from a 3-4 to a 4-3 – if a team is smart about it. Teams generally have three to four players in their front seven with the skills that translate to the new defense. If the front office does its homework, a team can fill out the front seven in two drafts and one free agency period.

The Browns are on their way to rebuilding the front seven after drafting Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard to join Ahtyba Rubin on the defensive front. The front four the Browns should be modeling themselves after is Minnesota’s with Kevin Williams and Pat Williams at the tackle spots, and Jared Allen and Ray Edwards at the ends.

Taylor and Rubin can take up a lot of space in the middle, Sheard can hopefully put some pressure on the quarterback and the Ray Edwards role could be filled by … Ray Edwards, who is currently a free agent.

The linebackers do concern us, primarily because there is little depth behind the three players Jauron singled out. We saw what happened last season when Fujita went down with an injury; if any of those three go down again this year there’s not much on the bench to fill the void.

The only quibble we have with Jauron is his use of the word “challenging” – these are opportunities for the Browns, not challenges. The team has the opportunity to finally build a solid defense, one that isn’t an embarrassment against the run and one that can make the opposing offense react to the defense for a change.

And what’s not to like about that?

***

The magic was back at Progressive Field this weekend as the Cleveland Indians swept Pittsburgh.

Cord Phelps sealed the deal on Sunday with a three-run homer in extra innings.

We have to feel bad for Justin Masterson, though. Masterson gave up two runs in the first inning then combined with pretty much the entire bullpen to hold the Pirates scoreless for the next 10 innings. But Masterson walked away with a no decision.

The bullpen has not allowed a run in 22 2/3 innings over seven games.

Masterson, who is now 5-5 with a 3.18 ERA on the season, hasn’t earned a win since April 26. In that 10-start stretch, he is 0-5 with an ERA under 4.00 and has allowed two or fewer earned runs seven times.

He must have done something wrong, because the Tribe has scored all of 20 runs in Masterson’s last 10 starts.

It was nice to see the Indians right the ship, even if it is only temporary and was just against the Pirates. While you can’t count on the Tribe to sweep, they do need to get back into the habit of winning series so that they can start rebuilding their record.

Much like we pondered a few days ago about what the Indians should do with Fausto Carmona, Terry Pluto presented some scary numbers about Carmona in today’s Plain Dealer. According to the article:

  • Carmona’s ERA is the highest of any regular starting pitcher in the American League
  • Carmona allows 40 percent of baserunners to score, also the highest rate among AL starting pitchers
  • Carmona has already given up 14 home runs (in just 91.2 innings pitched) compared to just 17 (in 210.1 innings) last year.

Depressed yet?

The good news is the Tribe has options,with Jeanmar Gomez and Zach McAllister pitching well in the minors. If Carmona or Mitch Talbot continue to struggle, one of them could be moved to the bullpen to make room for Gomez or McAllister.

If the team does have to make a decision between Carmona or Talbot, it will be interesting to see how much salary (Carmona makes $6.2 million vs. $431,000 for Talbot) will play into the decision.

***

The U.S. Men’s National Team finally played a solid game, beating Jamaica 2-0 to advance to Wednesday’s semifinal of the Gold Cup, where they will get a rematch with Panama.

The Americans were aggressive again on offense and were rewarded for their efforts with goals by Jermaine Jones and Clint Dempsey.

The bad news was Jozy Altidore left nine minutes into the game with a hamstring injury and, after the game, U.S. coach Bob Bradley said he didn’t know what Altidore’s status would be for the remainder of the tournament.

But that’s a concern for another day. For now, it’s good to see the team have its best game of the tournament heading into the semis and raise our hopes for a final date with Mexico next Saturday.

***

Oh yeah, the NBA Draft is this week. The Cavs are playing it close to the vest about what they plan to do with the first and fourth picks in the first round.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Gold Cup, United States | Leave a comment
13 Jun 2011
3 Comments

Karma is a fickle mistress

We’ve tried our best to stay out of all the hoo-haa surrounding the Miami Heat during the NBA playoffs.

Frankly, with the Indians racing out to the best record in baseball then squandering it away, the Champions League, the U.S. soccer team in the Gold Cup, Kent State’s baseball team just missing a trip to the Super Regionals and the Cavaliers winning the draft lottery, we’ve been occupied with other topics.

But we admit to feeling a sense of relief and schadenfreude after the Dallas Mavericks closed out the Heat with three consecutive wins to take home the NBA title.

The Mavericks proved, at least for another year, that a team can beat a group of individuals, no matter how talented. The Heat, primarily LeBron James and Chris Bosh, learned the hard way there are no shortcuts to success.

And that’s a rare lesson in this age of instant gratification.

Once LeBron decided to leave Cleveland via free agency, we tried to move on – what was done was done. And for the most part we did OK during the season.

But it was hard to quit James when he wouldn’t go away – most notably when he tweeted following a 55-point Cavs loss to the Lakers that, “Crazy. Karma is a bitch. Gets you every time. It’s not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!”

James put out so much negative energy that it was only a matter of time before karma got back at him, and she waited until the finals to exact her revenge on James.

From Brian Windhorst at ESPN:

Just like last season in Cleveland where James’ performance in the clutch was the polar opposite of what his talent and history called for. Just like when the top-seeded Cavs got behind the Celtics, as soon as the Mavs turned the tables on the Heat midway through this series James’ swagger and game left him. When the Heat were beating the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, series they took control of early, James was a brilliant frontrunner. At his best, really, finishing those teams off.

But as he went through another puzzling game Sunday — dishing repeatedly to Juwan Howard at the rim instead of taking the ball to the basket himself, passing up wide-open shots when the ball came his way, standing and watching on defense like it was a summer camp drill at times — it got more and more clear.

James couldn’t do it.

From Joe Posnanski at Sports Illustrated:

That’s why the sequence with four minutes left will stay with me for a long time. Miami needed a basket of course — being down eight with four minutes left is not life-threatening in the NBA, as we have seen time and again, but it is not ideal, either. Anyway, as much as the points, Miami needed a game-changing moment. LeBron James is breathtakingly good at making such moments.

Here’s what LeBron James did instead: He stood outside the arc, about 25 feet away from the basket. He did not move. And the two times the ball was passed to him, he passed it away instantly … as if playing hot-potato.

There was absolutely no other explanation that made any sense: LeBron James did not want the basketball.

I honestly could not believe what I was seeing. Maybe I should have expected it. Maybe I should have seen it coming. After all, I had seen LeBron James quit during the final minutes of his Cleveland career when the Cavaliers lost to Boston in the playoffs. I had heard him tell Cleveland fans that they expected too much of him. I had seen him take what looked like the easiest road to a championship when he signed on with Wade and Chris Bosh down in Miami. I had seen the disappearing acts he’d been pulling in the fourth quarters of this NBA Finals. Heck, throughout this game he seemed only moderately engaged. Still … I did not see this coming.

And Bill Simmons at Grantland:

Digging deeper: LeBron averaged 3.5 threes and 8.4 FT attempts during the regular season. In Rounds 2 and 3, he averaged 4.1 threes and 8.6 FT attempts. In the Finals, that flipped: 4.7 threes, 3.3 FT attempts. He stopped getting to the rim. You could say Dallas figured out how to defend him (to a degree, true), that the zone screwed him up (I guess), that Shawn Marion got into his head (possible), but really, he was afraid to attack the rim for whatever reason. Which, by the way, is his single greatest skill.

Everyone is looking for a reason why LeBron and the Heat came up short, and the answer is right there: karma.

After the game, James, as is his norm, was left looking for someone to blame. Last year, it was his Cavs teammates. He didn’t have that option this year because he chose his teammates, so he went after Cleveland (see what we mean about him not going away?)

“All the people that were rooting me on to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life they had before,” James said. “They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want with me and my family and be happy with that.”

Even though the Heat lost, this is not a victory for Cleveland, no matter how hard the national media tries to sell that story. It wasn’t a win for Cleveland when the Lakers beat Boston last season, or when they beat Orlando in 2009.

We’re not going to the team shop this weekend to pick up a Cavs 2011 NBA Champions T-shirt; our Sports Illustrated commemorative championship package won’t be arriving in the mail in 6-to-8 weeks.

There is one way Cleveland did win last night, however.

We’ve now made it through an entire season post-LeBron, we’ve gone through the heartbreak of the Decision, lived through the circus of the Heat’s first trip to Cleveland, and cheered (and jeered) our way through an injury-filled season of disappointment that became sweeter when the Cavs grabbed two of the first four picks in the draft.

It is now time for those last few holdouts to turn the page. Let’s cheer for who the Cavs are, rather than for who they are not.

Because you never know when karma is going to grow tired of hanging out in South Beach.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, karma, LeBron James, Miami Heat, NBA
12 Jun 2011

What is there left to say?

The Cleveland Indians lost again on Sunday, falling to the Yankees by the score of 9-1

The Tribe has now lost 14 of its last 18 games.

The offense struggled … again … some more on Sunday against New York.

The past two days the Indians have faced Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, who are a combined 150 years old and were pulled off the scrap heap by the Yankees.

In 13.1 innings against the duo, the Tribe managed nine hits and one run, while striking out a dozen times.

Sheldon Ocker of The Beacon Journal assures us that the offensive slump will end. He’s covered the Indians for decades, so if you can’t trust the Socker who can you trust?

But it’s hard to see how the team will get this turned around.

Terry Pluto at The Plain Dealer followed our lead in wondering what the Tribe will do about Fausto Carmona, adding this nugget: The batting average against Carmona with no one on base is .212. With runners on base, .343. With the bases loaded, batters are 5-of-7. Yes, it is a matter of controlling emotions and confidence.

Luckily for the Indians, the Tigers also lost on Sunday, so the team’s remain tied for first place in the Central Division.

Worse-case scenario is the Tribe heads for Detroit after Monday night’s game against the Yankees trailing the Tigers by just one game.

With everything that’s gone wrong for the past few weeks with the Indians, that’s really not all that bad.

***

Switching to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Jason Lloyd in The Beacon Journal posits that the team may be looking to trade point guard Ramon Sessions if the Cavs, as expected, draft Kyle Irving with the first pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

Sessions’ agent, Chubby Wells (hey, he may just be big boned) hasn’t requested a trade for his client, but that could change after the draft.

The thinking is that Baron Davis will mentor Irving and keeping Sessions as a third point guard is a luxury that won’t work out.

We see one big problem with that scenario: it is highly unlikely that Davis will make it through a full season without getting hurt.

The 32-year-old Davis has only played a full 82-game season once in the past nine years. On average, he makes it through 62 games a year.

So what happens when Davis goes down to an injury this year and there is no one to share the load with Irving?

Yeah, that’s what we thought.

***

Finally, our latest on the situation the U.S. Men’s National Team finds itself in at the Gold Cup.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Gold Cup, NBA, United States | Leave a comment
28 May 2011

Cavs looking to make a deal?

Apparently, the Cavs may not be willing to settle for having the No. 1 and No. 4 pick in next month’s NBA draft.

According to ESPN, “sources” say the Cavaliers are in discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons about a three-team trade that would give Cleveland the top two picks of next month’s NBA draft.

Wait, it gets better.

The Cavs would reportedly use their $14.6 million trade exception to trade for Detroit’s Rip Hamilton and also receive the Pistons’ first-round pick, No. 8.

The Cavs would then send the No. 8 pick and the No. 4 pick to Minnesota for the Timberwolves’ pick, No. 2.

Finally, the Cavs would buy Hamilton out of the last two years of his contract, which calls for him to make $25 million.

So let’s summarize: the Cavs would get the No. 2 pick in the draft (meaning they would be picking 1 & 2), they wouldn’t have to give up any players, and it would only cost them cash?

Why would they not make that trade?

As with any rumors originating from ESPN “sources,” it’s impossible to know how much truth there is to this.

Piston beat writers Vincent Goodwill (The Detroit News ) and Vincent Ellis (Detroit Free Press) both say the story has no legs.

More than likely, the trade falls into the category of “if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.” At least this far away from the draft. As we get closer to draft night though …

In any event, it is good to think that the Cavs are being creative and aggressive in trying to improve the team.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA draft, NBA trade | Leave a comment
27 May 2011

Turns out, their is an I in team

With their victory over the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Miami Heat continue to disprove the old adage that there is no I in team.

By making the finals in the first year of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh playing together, the Heat are creating a new model for the NBA where the individual is more important than the team.

The Heat deserve some credit, we suppose. They manipulated the system to their advantage, the players colluded to play together, and now they have been rewarded with what could be the first of multiple trips to the NBA Finals.

As for the Bulls, the writing is on the wall. They learned the same lesson the Cavs learned the past two years: one superstar player and a supporting cast of role players isn’t going to get it done in today’s NBA.

And really, how are the Bulls any different than the Cavs of ’08-’09 and ’09-’10?

They both were led by a dominant player (Derrick Rose and James), with a group of role players (Carlos Boozer/Antwan Jamison, Joakim Noah/Anderson Varajeo, Keith Bogans/Mo Williams) and a head coach that preaches defense first (Tom Thibodeau/Mike Brown).

How long before Rose decides, rather than looking for help, that he can’t beat the Heat and leaves Chicago? Does anyone really think that in a couple of years, when Kobe Bryant is done in LA and Dwight Howard and the Lakers come calling, that Rose won’t head out west?

The Heat haven’t won the title yet; the Mavericks still have a say in this.

But we’ve seen the future and it doesn’t look pretty, at least in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

***

Former Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse, who suffered the most inexcusable injury in baseball history, feels sorry for San Francisco catcher Buster Posey but doesn’t join the hoopleheads in calling for a rule change to protect catchers.

“The game has been around more than 100 years, and now they’re going to start protecting catchers?” Fosse told The San Francisco Chronicle. “I can’t see anything that can be changed. In high school, you can’t run over a catcher. But that’s high school. This is professional baseball. The idea is to score runs. If the catcher has the ball and he’s standing there, the runner has to stop? Is that the protection?

“I can’t believe anything can be done, and I don’t see how you could regulate something like that.”

***

The football season comes to and end on Saturday when Manchester United takes on Barcelona in what should be an exciting final of the Champions League.

Will the game by the last hurrah for Barcelona and Spain?

Can Manchester United learn from the mistakes of 2009?

Can Edwin van der Sar go out a winner?

Finally, six of the best matches between the two teams.

And just think, with a 2:45 p.m. kickoff from London’s Wembley Stadium, we’ll be able to watch the final and only miss a couple of innings of the Tribe game vs. Tampa.

Posted in Barcelona, Champions League, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, hoople heads, Manchester United, NBA | Leave a comment
18 May 2011

What a difference a year makes for Cavs

What a long, strange year its been for the Cavs.

A year ago, we were waiting to see if owner Dan Gilbert would fire the most successful coach in franchise history. Once Gilbert made Mike Brown the scapegoat for the team’s playoff failings, we spent time dreading that Gilbert would hire Tom Izzo before wiser heads prevailed and the team hired Byron Scott.

General manager Danny Ferry left when his contract expired.

We all witnessed the debacle at the Boys and Girls Club in Greenwich, Conn.

Then there was the season filled with injuries, a 26-game losing streak and a nagging feeling that the Cavs were becoming irrelevant in the NBA.

But last night’s NBA Draft lottery wiped the slate clean.

”Shocking events took place last summer and it was a slow, long, painful haul to get through it,” Gilbert said in published reports after the lottery. ”Maybe this will be the final straw in getting over the hump, getting to the other side and having a lot of hope for the future. That’s what we need.

”Above all, it means hope, and this is a lot of hope for one night. When you combine this with everything else going on, optimistic days are ahead.”

The Cavs now hold the No. 1 and No. 4 picks in the upcoming NBA Draft, giving them an opportunity to continue the rebuilding process.

The last time the Cavs found themselves in this position was 1986 and their are similarities to that draft and this one.

The key lies with the front office.

In 1986, the Cavs were able to trade Roy Hinson and cash to Philadelphia for the 76ers No. 1 pick – the first overall – so they could select Brad Daugherty. They then used their own lottery pick – No. 7 – to select Ron Harper. Finally, the Cavs traded a future second-round pick to Dallas for Mark Price.

How’s that for a day’s work?

The current front office deserves credit for making a trade similar to the Daugherty trade, as they were able to turn Mo Williams and Jamario Moon into Baron Davis and the Clippers’ No. 1 pick – the very pick that turned into the top selection in this year’s draft.

Well played.

”This gives us two good, very young players to add to our core and keep growing,” said Cavs General Manager Chris Grant in published reports. ”It’s not a process that happens in one night. It’s a process that takes some time. . . . Regardless of the outcome, we were going to get two good players and we were excited about that. This makes it a little bit sweeter.”

Grant and the scouts now need to do their work to ensure the Cavs really do walk away with two good players – at the least. If they can do that, the Cavs will be that much closer to returning to their winning ways.

Of course it will take time. Don’t forget, the ’86 Cavs went 31-51 in their first year together – it wasn’t until their third season that the team had its breakout 57-win season.

But, while the team would be better if LeBron James was still on the roster, the Cavs are better off than they were when they won the lottery in 2003. That fall, James joined a roster that included Kevin Ollie, Ricky Davis, Dajuan Wagner, Ira Newble, DeSagana Diop and Tony Battie, to name a few.

Now the Cavs will add two potential impact players to a roster that includes Anderson Varejao, Antawn Jamison, Baron Davis, J.J. Hickson, Ramon Sessions and Boobie Gibson.

Not a powerhouse by any stretch, but certainly better than the group from ’03.

And what’s not to like about that?

***

At every good party someone has to play the fool and last night it was Minnesota general manager David Kahn.

“This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines,” Kahn said after the Cavs won the first pick. “Last year it was Abe Pollin’s widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in common is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told Kevin: ‘We’re toast.’ This is not happening for us and I was right.”

It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Kahn was at the center of this. He’s the same GM who drafted three point guards in the first round in 2009 (of the three, only Johnny Flynn has played for the Timberwolves), called Darko Milicic “Manna from Heaven” and blamed Michael Beasley’s trial and tribulations on “smoking too much weed.”

***

Here’s one man’s vote for the Cavs to take Kyrie Irving with the No. 1 pick.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, Kyrie Irving, NBA draft | Leave a comment
18 May 2011

Cavs hit jackpot in draft lottery

The Cavs hit the jackpot in Tuesday night’s NBA Draft lottery, taking home the No. 1 and No. 4 picks in the upcoming draft.

Things broke right for the Cavs as their pick fell into the No. 4 slot while the pick they received from the Clippers in the Baron Davis deal landed them the No. 1 pick.

Maybe the draft lottery was karma from last summer and the injury-plagued season the team just endured? In any event, the Cavs now have a very real opportunity to accelerate the rebuilding process.

The Cavs should be able to walk away with two solid picks in what “experts” are calling a weak draft class. If it turns out to be true that this draft is thin, having two of the first four picks is definitely the way to go.

The gold standard for the Cavs is obviously the 1986 draft, when the team selected Brad Daugherty and Ron Harper in the first round and traded for Mark Price, a second-round pick by Dallas.

But since then it’s been more miss than hit for the Cavs when it comes to the draft lottery as they have only hit on four picks – Kevin Johnson, Terrell Brandon, Andre Miller and LeBron James.

And just look at some of the draft misses – it’s not pretty: Vitaly Potapenko, Derek Anderson, Trajan Langdon, DeSagna Diop, Dajuan Wagner and Luke Jackson.

But that’s ancient history. It’s a new day in Cleveland basketball.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

***

How bad was Vin Mazzaro’s performance Monday night against the Indians?

Try historically bad.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Mazzaro was:

  • the first pitcher in modern baseball history to allow 14 runs in less than three innings of work
  • the first reliever to allow 14 runs since Tommy Warren in 1944
  • the fifth reliever to allow 14 earned runs (he was the first to do it since Les McCrabb in 1942)

Oh, and he was sent down to the Royals’ AAA team after the game.

***

Say what you will about David Beckham – he certainly has his share of critics – but the dude still knows what to do with a free kick.

It’s ridiculous what he does here – and he knows it. Beckham tries to keep his cool after the goal, but he breaks into a smile pretty quickly.

Amazing.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, David Beckham, historically bad pitching, NBA draft | Leave a comment
15 May 2011

A real dog of a weekend

The weather and Tottenham Hotspur conspired to make it one crappy weekend in these parts.

After the Indians started a new home winning streak Friday night on Travis Hafner’s two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth – with more than 33,000 in attendance – the weather washed out games Saturday and Sunday.

”Now it feels like [Friday’s win] was ages ago,” manager Manny Acta said in published reports after Sunday’s rainout. ”We really wanted to use all that energy we got from that walk-off homer on [Saturday] and [Sunday]. It’s too bad that we couldn’t use all the energy we had built up. It feels like a long time ago when Travis hit that home run.”

So instead of building on the enthusiasm of another late win, the Tribe sat around for two days and now heads back out on the road for four games.

Of course.

The NBA playoffs carry on, sans the Cavaliers.

Because of the owners, the NFL lockout drags on, so there are no rookie minicamps or OTAs to think about.

And with a chance to clinch a spot in Europe for next season, Liverpool lost – at home no less – to Tottenham Hotspur.

It probably shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise that, in a week where there was so much hoopla around Kenny Daglish being name permanent manager, the Reds would come out a bit flat. Of course, they were playing at home, so we may be going a little easy on them.

But there’s no question we could have done without Luis Suarez falling down every five minutes. Once it became obvious that referee Howard Webb was not going to be calling any touch fouls, Suarez needed to man up and start playing.

And Webb will receive some criticism over some of his calls, especially his foul call on John Flanagan that resulted in a penalty kick to Spurs.

But bottom line, Liverpool didn’t play well enough and didn’t deserve to win.

There is still an outside shot Liverpool could grab fifth place. If they beat Aston Villa on the road next week and Spurs lose at home to Birmingham, the Reds take fifth.

Maybe it’s for the better if they don’t, though. If Liverpool doesn’t have to worry about competing in the Europa tournament next year, they can focus solely on the league and shoot for something bigger than pool play with Levski Sofia and Club Brugge.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Liverpool, wasted weekend | Leave a comment
06 May 2011

Dreaming of championship bling

It’s been so long since we’ve seen a championship team here in Cleveland that many people probably don’t remember that when a team wins a title they are rewarded with gaudy rings.

But they used to win championships in this town (seriously) and they gave out some cool stuff in the pre-ring days.

The 1954 Indians gave players these sweet cuff links, along with tie tacks and stickpins with the same motif, all cast in gold and set with rubies for winning the American League.

Those are so cool we would have no trouble running out and picking up some French-cuff shirts just so we could wear the cuff links.

These cuff links were presented to Tris Speaker in 1920 for leading the Tribe to its first World Series championship and hitting .388 along the way. (And that led to the Indians wearing the greatest uniforms in the history of forever in 1921).

After the Browns won their third consecutive All-America Football Conference championship, the team gave players these tie clips.

When the Browns, Indians or Cavs next win a championship, they need to remember their heritage and make some of these items available for fans.

We know we’d have no trouble dropping some coin on them.

(Major h/t to Uni Watch)

***

They had to go extra innings, and closer Chris Perez made it more interesting than it had to be, but the Indians beat Oakland on Thursday to take 2-of-3 from the A’s.

The Tribe starters were in a groove in Oakland, as Fausto Carmona, Josh Tomlin and Jeanmar Gomez combined to throw 21 innings in the series, giving up just 14 hits and four earned runs (a 1.71 ERA).

So the Indians are halfway through their West Coast trip and the second-place Royals haven’t made up any ground.

So far, so good.

***

We heard an interesting stat this afternoon on Sirius Mad Dog Radio.

Only three times in major league history has a team made the playoffs after being 10 games or more back after the first 30 games of the season. (We tried to catch the teams Chris Russo named, but he was going so fast we only heard the 1914 Boston Braves).

So we can pretty much write off the White Sox this season (11 games back) and we’ll throw the Twins (9.5) in there as well.

Indian Fever, baby. It’s spreading.

Posted in Chris Russo, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians | Leave a comment

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