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In Cleveland, hope dies last

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19 Apr 2011

It’s always good to have options

In life, it’s always good to have options. And the same can be said for Cleveland’s sports teams.

With the NFL Draft a little more than a week away, the Browns have plenty of holes to fill and options as they currently hold the No. 6 selection in the first round.

If they want to fill a hole at wide receiver, A.J. Green or Julio Jones should be there.

If they want to continue working on the defense, a defensive lineman – Robert Quinn, Marcell Dareus, Da’Quan Bowers or Nick Fairley – should be available.

You want a linebacker? Maybe Von Miller falls if the teams ahead of the Browns go quarterback heavy.

If the Browns want another cornerback, Patrick Peterson or Prince Amukamara will be available.

Options.

Or if general manager Tom Heckert believes he can move down in the draft and still get someone the team wants, they may find trading partners with Houston (No. 11) as the Texans reportedly want a cornerback or Miami (No. 15) as the Dolphins may be looking at a quarterback – if one falls to No. 6.

As long as the Browns don’t take a quarterback with their first pick, we’re confident they will make the right call. Based on last year’s draft, we have faith in the front office until they give us reason to doubt them.

***

The Cavs also have options as they prepare for this summer’s NBA Draft.

Holding two lottery picks (their own and the Clippers) means that, best-case scenario, the Cavs come home with the top two picks in the draft. Worse case, they take the 5th pick and the 11th.

No matter what happens at the draft lottery on May 17, general manager Chris Grant is ready.

“From our standpoint, we’re in a really good position: high picks, trade exception, flexible contracts,” Grant said in published reports. “Every year we know one thing: We know there’s 10-15, 12-15 good players. Our job is to figure out who those guys are. Those are the marching orders we give our scouts: Go figure out who those guys are.”

So while, according to draft “experts” this may be a bad year to be in the draft lottery – having Harrison Barnes, Jared Sullinger and Perry Jones available certainly would have helped – if the Cavs do their homework they should come out of this alright. And having two lottery picks certainly increases the chances of finding solid – if not necessarily spectacular – players.

And we like what we hear from Grant. He seems thoughtful and we get the feeling that the Cavs are in good hands with him calling the shots. The fact he turned Mo Williams and Jamario Moon into a lottery pick can’t be understated.

Coach Byron Scott did his part in getting the team through a tough season. Now it’s Grant’s turn to step up and give the team some much-needed reinforcements.

***

Thankfully the Indians have options when it comes to their starting pitching, as Mitch Talbot is going to be out – possibly for a long time.

The Tribe called up Jeanmar Gomez to take Talbot’s spot in the rotation and Gomez is scheduled to start tonight’s game in Kansas City against the Royals.

Gomez made his major-league debut last year in July and returned to the Tribe on Aug. 1. He spent the rest of the season with the Tribe, compiling a 4-5 record and 4.68 earned-run average. In two starts this year at Triple A Columbus, Gomez posted a 2-0 record and 1.42 ERA.

Hopefully someone clued Gomez in to the fact that the starting pitching has been lights out so far.

***

We get why ESPN hypes Jon Gruden. He works for the network and they have a brand to sell, and Gruden is nothing if not a brand at this point.

His Quarterback Camp segment on ESPN is completely unwatchable and the five minutes we caught this morning where he was gushing about Blaine Gabbert’s shoe size and ability to wear a baseball cap backwards makes us so, so glad the Browns didn’t hire him as coach. (We think it was Gabbert, it was difficult to tell because our ears were bleeding from Gruden’s rambling).

What’s harder to figure out is why any media outlet not affiliated with ESPN continues to sell the myth that Gruden is some kind of quarterback guru, hanging on every word he utters.

Seriously, what quarterback did Gruden ever develop?

Former Tampa quarterback Shaun King, who played two years under Gruden, agrees, telling JoeBucFan.com that he won’t watch the program:

“I won’t watch it,” King said. “I disagree with the premise of the show. The premise is that Gruden is some kind of quarterbacks guru and that having him as a destination for a rookie QB is the ideal situation for a rookie and that just hasn’t proven to the case.”

Thank you, Mike Holmgren, for being smart enough to not let Gruden get his hands on Colt McCoy.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Jon Gruden, NFL draft | Leave a comment
15 Apr 2011

The week that was in our sports world

Even with the end of their eight-game winning streak, the Indians West Coast trip was a major success for the team.

Sweeping the Mariners helped the Tribe go 4-2 on the trip, even with two losses to the Angels.

Even in the losses the starting pitching was superb.

Fausto Carmona had another solid outing, going seven-and-two-thirds innings, giving up four hits and two runs in the streak-breaking loss. After the Opening Day abomination against the White Sox, Carmona has given up two runs and only six hits in his last two starts, covering 14 and two-thirds innings. That’s a 1.23 ERA.

Of course Carmona has received zero run support (literally) in his past two starts; if that trend continues he could turn into this year’s Kevin Millwood.

Carlos Carrasco was almost as good the next night, giving up just three earned runs in seven innings of work. Just like Carmona, Carrasco has rebounded from a poor first start to post a 2.77 ERA over his last two starts, covering 13 innings.

The Tribe will need that kind of starting pitching, especially with so much of the offense currently struggling. The team has scored just three runs in its last 28 innings, and Carlos Santana (0-for-20), Matt LaPorta (0-for-10), Jack Hannahan (0-for-8), Travis Hafner (0-for-9), Orlando Cabrera (0-for-11), Asdrubal Cabrera (1-for-10) and Travis Buck (0-for-7) are all currently lost at the plate.

While it’s unlikely the Indians will put together another long winning streak, their pitching and defense should keep them in most games. The important thing is that they don’t now go on a five- or six-game losing streak, negating all the good they have done so far.

If they can take two-out-of-three from Baltimore this weekend (weather permitting), they will head to Kansas City for an early-season showdown for first place.

Wait, did we really just write that?

***

The Cavs ended the season this week by winning four of their final six games.

Shockingly, the team didn’t finish with the worst record in the NBA, the Timberwolves somehow managed to beat them out for that “honor.”

So the Cavs probably weren’t as bad as their 19-63 record would indicate, even with a 26-game losing streak and a stretch where they lost 36 of 37 games. If injuries hadn’t taken Anderson Varajeo and Antawn Jamison away from them, those two combined with Baron Davis and J.J. Hickson would have certainly resulted in more wins.

But that’s OK. This team needed to bottom out before it could get better, and another 10 wins or so this season wouldn’t have meant anything in the grand plan.

Now the Cavs enter a summer that should bring many changes to the team.

With two lottery picks and two second-round choices, the team should have a new look next season.

“I haven’t really thought about that,” coach Byron Scott told The Plain Dealer. “I’m just trying to relax a little bit now. (General manager Chris Grant) and I will talk. Obviously, we’re going to sit down and start talking about the future of this basketball team from a player standpoint. But we haven’t talked as of yet. We’ll probably start talking some time early next week.”

Just as important, the team is now a year removed from the departure of LeBron James, which means they should be able to focus solely on rebuilding the team and not worry about parking spaces, which players are being too friendly, or any of the other subplots that dominated this season.

Just like last summer, it will be an interesting and important off-season for the team – but this time it will be for the betterment of the team.

***

The end of the Cavs season also meant the end of Joe Tait’s 39 years as team broadcaster.

There’s no possible way to do justice to how good Tait was at his job and how much he meant to Cavs fans everywhere. We’ll just add our one Tait story to the growing list of tributes:

While in college we worked in the Sports Department at The Beacon Journal as a part-time agate clerk. One night, while waiting for the West Coast scores to come in, the phone rang. We answered and the voice on the other end asked for the score of that day’s Mount Union football game.

He didn’t identify himself, but there was no mistaking that voice, it was Joe Tait calling in – the Cavs were on the road, if we remember correctly – looking for the score. (In the pre-Internet days, people called the local paper looking for information).

We gave him the score and he said thank you.

And that was our one brush with greatness.

***

With less than two weeks to go until the NFL Draft, the Browns reportedly have their draft board set.

“[Our draft board] is pretty much set,” General manager Tom Heckert said on a conference call with season-ticket holders. “There are obviously some tweaks. We’re not exactly sure exactly who we’re going to take with the first pick. It all depends on what happens in front of us. Right now, we’re just going through different scenarios. If we trade up, who do we trade up for? If we trade back, who can we still get? Those are the things we’re pretty much thinking of.”

We have some thoughts on who we would like the Browns to pick which we’ll save for later. For now, as long as they don’t draft a quarterback with their first pick – whenever that may be – we’re fine. Based on last year’s draft, we trust the front office to make the right selections on draft day and will continue to do so until they prove otherwise.

***

The Champions League semifinals are now set: Manchester United will face Schalke and Barcelona will take on Real Madrid.

Man U should go throw to the final comfortably, although Schalke did take out last year’s winner, Inter Milan.

Apparently Barcelona-Real Madrid is some kind of big rivalry? We kid!

Anyway, should be a fun round of games.

***

Finally, today is the anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, when 96 innocent football fans tragically died when many of them were crushed to death at a FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough ground in Sheffield, England.

We don’t really feel comfortable talking about the tragedy as we have only been Liverpool fans for a few years, so if anyone is interested, EPL Talk is the place to go.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Joe Tait, Liverpool | Leave a comment
05 Apr 2011
1 Comment

Be thankful for what we have, Cleveland

We were in Chicago through the weekend which means we were exposed to a variety of Chicago sports announcers during the opening weekend of the baseball season.

Oh my.

With the Tribe taking on the White Sox we caught much of Friday’s and Saturday’s games; trust us when we say Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone are extremely difficult to listen to.

They openly root for the White Sox and took every opportunity to put down the Indians, at one point claiming that, “when the Indians have their fire sale this season, there really aren’t any players other teams will want.”

Sure, no one would want Carlos Santana, Shin-Soo Choo or Chris Perez, just to name a few, if the Indians were to put them on the market (which they obviously are not going to do).

As we were staying with Cubs fans, we watched some of the Cubs as well. While nothing to get excited about, Len Kasper and Bob Brenly were passable, probably because Brenly has some experience on the national level and hasn’t been infected yet with homerism.

Friday night brought the Bulls, with Neil Funk and Stacey King. While Fred McCleod and Austin Carr can play favorites at times, they could learn a thing from Funk and King about backing the home squad.

Although dinner at Portillo’s almost made up for the bad announcing.

The strange part is, you would think the bigger the market the more professional people would be. Big cities, like Chicago and New York, get a rep for being tough places for athletes but you’d never be able to tell from the fawning announcers.

We lived in North Jersey for most of the ’90s and it was just as bad, especially the nightmare pairing of John Sterling and Michael Kay on the radio doing Yankee games. We’ve never been able to confirm it, but we’re convinced we heard Sterling weeping on the air when the Indians beat the Yankees during the 1997 playoffs.

The trip just reconfirmed what we said last summer, that we really are spoiled with the announcers we have (and had) in Cleveland. From Joe Tait on the radio with the Cavs, to Tom Hamilton (radio) and Rick Manning (TV) for the Indians and Jim Donovan and Doug Dieken on radio for the Browns, we think we have it pretty good around here.

For an alternative take on the White Sox announcers, check out this post at Waiting for Next Year. Writer Mark Leonard watched the same games and came away with a different perspective. It’s a good read.

***

Nice work by Elton Alexander at The PD on the coaching carousel that is Kent State men’s basketball.

According to the article:

  • Kent struggles on practically every level, beginning with its inability to pay competitive salaries – Geno Ford more than doubled his salary with his move last week to Butler.
  • Kent State plays in M.A.C. Center, which at nearly 60 years old, is the oldest facility in the MAC.
  • There is no basketball practice facility.
  • Coaches share an office with the women’s basketball team. Both teams share a secretary.
  • Two assistant coaches share a converted 4×10 hallway for a workspace.
  • Basketball budgets have been cut for at least the last three seasons.
  • Marketing efforts are practically nil.

While the athletic department has a system in place that keeps working, we can’t help but wonder how much longer they can keep making the right call when it comes to hiring a coach.

We’re also worried that in the school’s efforts to try and pump up the football program – which hasn’t been relevant since Jack Lambert was a Golden Flash in the early ’70s – they are going to screw up the basketball team.

When athletic director Joel Nielsen hired former Ohio State assistant coach Darrell Hazell in December, Nielsen gave Hazell a significant raise over the salary of former coach Doug Martin. That apparently left little money for the basketball team.

The fact that Ford left Kent for Bradley – a school without a football program – says a lot about the current situation at KSU.

***

Sticking with our alma mater, congratulations to the women’s gymnastics team, which qualified for the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, which will be hosted by Kent State at Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center, April 15-17.

Not only is this the first time the Golden Flashes have qualified for the NCAA Championships, they are also the first women’s gymnastics program in MAC history to qualify.

Well done.

***

Tottenham Hotspur is in deep trouble in the Champions League.

Posted in Champions League, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Kent State
31 Mar 2011

The circus has finally left town

While we were certainly happy – and surprised – the Cavs beat the visiting Heat on Tuesday night, we’re just as happy we’ve made it to the point where now Miami should just be another game on the schedule.

Tuesday’s win doesn’t really change anything – the Heat are still a playoff team and the Cavs are headed for the lottery – but with only a handful of games left in this season its time to turn the page and put all the nonsense behind us.

We don’t want to hear anymore about parking garage issues, about Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert tweeting, about who came out for player introductions, about karma or which players laughed and which ones were serious.

We’re ready and willing for the Heat to be just another game – at least until the Cavs rebuild and can consistently compete with Miami.

The circus has left town. It’s time we turn the page.

But we’ll never get tired of this.

***

While the Cavs are winding down, the Indians are ready – weather permitting – to open another season.

For some reason we really can’t put our finger on, we’re much more optimistic about the team than we were at this time last year. Maybe it’s because the Indians have the youngest 40-man roster in the league, or it could be that, after the season we’ve just been through with the Cavs, we’re looking for something to believe in.

It could be something as simple as, with baseball season starting that means summer in Cleveland isn’t that far behind.

In any event, despite what White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says, we think Cleveland’s as good a place as any to get the season rolling.

***

Liverpool’s shirt sponsor, Standard Charter, wants the team to start signing more Asian players because it will be good for the bank’s business.

“The real power for what Liverpool could do for us, and I think for the English Premier League, is if there was a way they could nurture foreign players from Asia … a great Asian player — you see what Park Ji-sung does for Manchester United,” Gavin Laws, the bank’s head of corporate affairs, said at the SoccerEx conference.

“The markets in Asia and the Middle East are so nationalistic, they are very proud about their countries. [Matches] become huge events. One appearance from a player, say from Dubai in the Premier League, and you’d have the whole of Dubai watching it.”

Well, as long as it would be good for the bank’s business, why not? Let’s not focus on signing the best players so you can compete for championships and gain exposure that way, let’s just let a corporate suit decide what market is best for business.

Hopefully the Dolans don’t get wind of this, we all know they need every penny they can get.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Liverpool | Leave a comment
20 Mar 2011

Could Byron Scott be one and done?

It’s just speculation at this point, but could Byron Scott leave the Cavs after only one season as coach?

According to Marc Stein at ESPN, writing in Saturday’s Weekend Dime, it’s a possibility, depending on if Phil Jackson decides to retire as Lakers coach after this season:

The persistent word out of Lakerland is that Phil Jackson, at 65, is serious when he says that this will be his last season coaching Kobe Bryant. Far trickier is figuring out who sits at the front of the line to replace him.

Veteran assistant Brian Shaw is the only member of Jackson’s staff in the mix, but Shaw (who appeared to be a front runner last summer for the Cavs job), according to one team insider, might have “a better shot than anybody else” purely because of proximity. Rumbles also persist that Lakers alumnus Byron Scott has an out in his contract with Cleveland should the opportunity to come home and coach L.A. arise, but Scott and the Cavs have steadfastly denied it.

Again, this is all just speculation on Stein’s part, but if Scott does have an out clause in his contract and he did use it to take the Lakers job, we’d really have to start questioning how Dan Gilbert is running the team.

After firing the most-successful coach in franchise history, and then flirting with certain disaster by courting Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Gilbert finally hired a veteran coach in Scott.

But why give Scott an option to get out of his contract? Was he such a must have coach that the Cavs had to give him the out, especially knowing the Jackson is closer to the end of his coaching career than the beginning?

Gilbert gets a bit of a free ride in this town because he bought the team just as LeBron was maturing and he’s willing to spend money, albeit in a sport with the smallest roster size of the three major sports.

People will always criticize the Dolans because they won’t have a $200 million payroll with the Indians, and Randy Lerner because he doesn’t sit behind a desk in Berea every day.

But what if it turns out Gilbert is really the one we should be worried about?

(h/t to Waiting for Next Year)

***

It’s probably a good thing the Cavs have only 14 games left in the season, especially after a knife-wielding man had to be subdued by police at the Staples Center because Cleveland’s game with the L.A. Clippers.

No confirmation on whether the man was a season-ticket holder just looking to get his money back.

***

We already knew Lonnie Chisenhall was not going to be the Indians Opening Day third baseman. Now it turns out Jason Donald won’t be either.

Turns out what the Tribe thought was a bone bruise is actually a cracked bone at the base of Donald’s left middle finger.

“It’s disappointing, but I’m looking at it as just a bump in the road,” Donald told The Plain Dealer. “I want to get the hand healthy and strong for the season.”

Manager Manny Acta said Jack Hannahan, Luis Valbuena and Jayson Nix are candidates for the third base job. The Indians don’t think prospect Cord Phelps, who is still in camp, is ready. Adam Everett is being viewed as a utility infielder, not an every day starter.

Indian fever, baby. Catch it!

***

It’s probably a good thing the Browns don’t let fans bring flares into Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Of course, seeing Hines Ward lit up like this does have it’s charms.

Posted in Byron Scott, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, NBA | Leave a comment
18 Mar 2011

The comedy stylings of Jim Tressel

Jim Tressel is having a laugh, yes?

We mean, he can’t be serious, right?

Really, what else is there do but laugh after the latest nonsense coming out of Columbus in regard to the paella of lies Tressel continues to cook up?

Tressel will now miss at least the first five games of the 2011 season after allegedly “asking Ohio State to increase his suspension” to match the suspensions handed to five Buckeyes for selling memorabilia.

Sure. And Charlie Sheen cured himself with his mind.

No one, outside of Brutus Buckeye himself, actually believes Tressel asked for an increased suspension so that “the players and I can handle this adversity together.”

This is a blatant PR move by Ohio State to stave off possible punishment by the NCAA – nothing more. The school tried to get away with only a two-game suspension and now, in the face of overwhelming backlash over the hypocrisy, decided to do what they should have done originally.

If it was so important for Tressel to stand side-by-side with the players, why didn’t he “ask” for a five-game suspension originally?

If anything, Tressel should be suspended longer than the players. It’s irrelevant that the rule they broke is a stupid one; Tressel is the coach and, as such, he has to be the adult in the room.

Instead, Tressel knowingly broke an NCAA rule, willingly lied to his bosses, and now that he is being punished, acts as if this is some burden that he is heroically bearing.

There’s obviously still more to this story; we can’t wait to see what else Ohio State can cook up.

***

Remember the other day, when we wondered if the Cavs have quit on the season?

Well, we got as clear an answer as possible last night in Portland.

***

The quarter-finals of the Champions League are set, and there are three good matches:

  • Real Madrid vs. Tottenham Hotspur. If Spurs can get an away goal in the first leg, things will get very interesting when they come home to White Hart Lane for the deciding leg.
  • Chelsea vs. Manchester United
  • Barcelona vs. Shakhtar Donetsk
  • Inter Milan vs. Schalke

It all starts April 5-6.

Posted in Champions League, Cleveland Cavaliers, culture of lies, Jim Tressel, Ohio State | Leave a comment
17 Mar 2011

Owners Gone Wild

It’s been a weird week among team owners, starting at Craven Cottage in North London.

Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed announced plans this week to unveil a life-size, color statue of Michael Jackson outside Fulham’s home ground.

The statue, which overlooks the River Thames and stands between the Riverside and Hammersmith Stands at Craven Cottage, shows Jackson standing on his toes in what is being called an ‘iconic pose’. The words to his smash hit Thriller are engraved on the podium below.

We admit we don’t know much about Fulham’s history, other than they have a thing for signing American players, but this definitely sounds odd.

But we’ll let David Lloyd, editor of the popular fanzine There’s Only One F in Fulham, have the last word:

“If you has asked me if I wanted a statue of Michael Jackson at Craven Cottage I would have said ‘no.’ However, we owe an enormous debt to the chairman and if this is one of his whims, then that’s fine. As a football chairman he is one of the best; he’s been fantastic.”

OK then.

Closer to home, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert got loose again after the Cavs beat Sacramento for Cleveland’s 13th win of the season.

Gilbert took to Twitter to taunt Yahoo! Sports’ Kelly Dwyer, who had predicted the Cavs would only reach 12 wins on the season.

Gilbert reverted to his schoolyard days by asking “who is Kellie Dwyer?” and saying “Never heard of her.”

Oh boy.

We like Gilbert’s passion and willingness to spend money to try and make the Cavs better, but it seems as if the owner of a major professional sports team could act more maturely than a 14-year-old girl who just got dumped and is taking out her feelings on Facebook.

We first learned of the tweets at Ben Blog (check it out) and Waiting for Next Year weighed in as well with a good take.

But L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling wins the prize for this week’s for wackiest owner.

While testifying in Elgin Baylor’s wrongful termination civil trial against the team, Sterling claimed that he didn’t know of Baylor’s Hall of Fame career before hiring Baylor as vice president of player personnel in 1986.

Baylor was the NBA’s first overall pick in 1958 and a member of the league’s 50th anniversary team, was an 11-time All-Star who once scored 71 points in a game and brought the Lakers to the cusp of a title they would ultimately win the season he retired.

“I didn’t know that,” Sterling said according to The Los Angeles Times. “I hired him for $3,000 a month. I didn’t really know what his role was…. He was working in a mail-order company back then.”

What a goof.

***

Lost a little bit in the NFL’s labor issue, is a proposed rule change for next season that would potentially neutralize one of the Browns best scoring threats.

The league’s competition committee is expected to propose moving the kickoff up to the 35-yard line and bringing touchbacks out to the 25 – but only on kickoffs.

In addition, the kicker will be the only player allowed to line up more than five yards behind the ball and the committee will suggest outlawing the blocking wedge on kickoffs completely.

“The injury rate on kickoffs remains a real concern for us and the players and the coaches’ subcommittee,” Falcons president Rich McKay, the chairman of the competition committee, told ESPN.com. “This is a pretty major change.”

Opposing teams were already doing everything they could to kick the ball away from Josh Cribbs. Now with a shorter field to work with, the number of non-returnable kicks should increase, limiting Cribbs’ opportunity to handle the ball on kickoffs even more.

***

James Walker at ESPN.com weighs in with some good advice for the Browns in regard to their No. 1 pick on next month’s NFL Draft:

I agree that Georgia receiver A.J. Green is a tremendous prospect. But he’s not better than Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald. The aforementioned players are elite NFL receivers and they all played for losing teams in 2010. My point is the receiver position is not very important in the NFL hierarchy.

Games are won and lost in the trenches, and if you noticed, teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers take offensive and defensive linemen nearly every year. These are non-sexy draft picks that turn out to be huge when it’s time to play football.

Cleveland needs to start learning from the dominant teams in its division. President Mike Holmgren and general manager Tom Heckert drafted a lot of skill players last year and it’s time to add some meat to the NFL’s 27th-ranked run defense.

Makes a lot of sense. Here’s hoping Holmgren and Heckert are thinking along the same lines.

***

Finally, the NFL Network may start feeling some heat as players may be less than willing to appear on the network’s programs during the work stoppage because the network is owned by the league.

According to The New York Times, the NFL Players Association, which is now a trade association, has not advised players to boycott the network. But it is not pushing them to appear on it, either.

George Atallah, the association’s assistant executive director, told the paper, “My message is, regardless of the outlet, check with the association to get a sense for its previous coverage.”

Arizona kicker Jay Feely told the paper, “I wouldn’t go on there now. It’s a league-owned network, so I would take that stand. But other players can go on if they choose.”

We’ll admit, we didn’t see that one coming.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, crazy owners, Dan Gilbert, Fulham | Leave a comment
14 Mar 2011

Have the Cavs quit on the season?

We knew it was going to be a long year for the Cavaliers as the team goes through the beginning stages of the rebuilding process.

And we know because of injuries and trades the team has been forced to give significant minutes to several players who may not be ready yet (or ever).

But that doesn’t excuse the team’s continued lack of effort on the court.

“I’m really starting to question what type of heart we have as a basketball team,” coach Byron Scott told The Plain Dealer following Sunday’s loss to Oklahoma City. “If you are a competitor, no matter what the situation is, no matter what the year has brought, you’re going to come in and compete every single night. We haven’t done that the last two games. That’s my biggest question: Do we have enough guys in that locker room right now that have heart and some other things to go out there and play the way they’re supposed to play?”

That’s not good, especially since Scott has been preaching that message since the start of the season. And if the players start falling into bad habits now, it will take that much longer to break them out of those habits when this team is ready to start winning again.

Is the team just playing out the string with 17 games left in the season?

“I’m hoping they’re not thinking that way because we’re not thinking that way,” Scott said. “We’ve got to come in every day and try to figure out a way to keep these guys motivated and keep these guys working. I’m hoping they’re not all looking at the schedule and going, ‘OK, April 13, the season’s over and we can take a deep breath and enjoy our summer.’ I don’t necessarily put that past a bunch of the guys on the team right now, but I hope that’s not the case.”

Hopefully Daniel “Boobie” Gibson is right when he says the team still cares.

“I think they really care about winning and playing the right way,” Gibson told The PD. “It’s a matter of when you want to play the right way, you have to know how to play the right way. We have a lot of young guys, and it takes time. It takes time to learn what it takes to play at this level. I think sometimes it might come off that way [lacking heart], but I think guys on this team really care.”

***

Looks like we’ll have to wait a while longer for the Lonnie Chisenhall era to begin at Progressive Field.

Chisenhall was among seven players the Indians sent back to the minor-league camp on Tuesday, ending the third baseman of the future’s attempt to have the future start now.

“Lonnie has had a very good camp, but he has some development to do,” Tribe general manager Chris Antonetti told The Beacon Journal. “He needs to be a little more consistent against left-handed pitchers and do a better job of knowing the strike zone. Defensively, he is still learning the nuances of third base after being a shortstop.”

That’s probably true, but we can’t help shake the feeling that delaying the start of Chisenhall’s service time on the Major League level played a large part in the decision.

”That definitely is not the case,” Antonetti told The Beacon Journal. “We meet at the end of every season and talk about each of our guys. Every person thought that Lonnie had further development to do. If he was that far advanced, he would already have been to Triple-A.”

Whether it played a role or not, it’s evident that under the current reality of baseball’s payroll discrepancies questions about service time are going to be a part of the Tribe’s decision-making process.

It would be great if the team could make decisions based only on baseball, but that’s not our Tribe in 2011.

***

Good luck to the University of Akron, who will take on Notre Dame in their opening game of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

The Zips lucked out as they could have been scheduled to play the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day on Thursday. Now they catch the Irish on Friday, when the Notre Dame players may be a step slow from being meat-deprived because it’s Lent.

As for Kent State, they will open up NIT play Tuesday night at St. Mary’s.

Posted in Byron Scott, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Kent State, Lonnie Chisenhall | Leave a comment
10 Mar 2011

Honoring a team that does it the right way

After yesterday’s news about the culture of lies that surrounds Jim Tressel and the Ohio State football program, we need to take a moment to recognize a coach and an athletic program that truly does things the right way.

Congratulations are in order for Kent State basketball coach Geno Ford, who was named the Mid-American Conference’s Coach of the Year, and Justin Greene, the Flashes’ junior center, who was named Player of the Year in the MAC.

Ford took a team with only three returning players and repeated as MAC regular season champions, the first conference team to pull off the feat since Ball State in 1988-89. And he did it without being confused about doing what is right versus doing what is easy.

Seven times since 1999, KSU has had the MAC Coach of the Year – going to four different men.

Kent State has had 11 seasons of at least 20 victories in the last 12 years, five NCAA and five NIT appearances. They have had four coaches, and the worst record since 1999 was 19-15 in 2008-09, Ford’s first season.

And they’ve done it all without cutting corners or lying to their bosses.

Greene averaged 15.6 ppg and delivered 10 double doubles, including the last three games of the season.

The Flashes open conference tournament play Thursday night against Buffalo at the Q.

The Bulls are going to be a tough out, as the two teams have split their two regular-season games for the past three seasons.

But we’re confident the Flashes are going to get it done the right way. The Kent State way.

***

Remember Subbuteo? Sure you do.

EPL Talk reports there there is a documentary about the legendary table soccer game in the works and scheduled for release this year.

Definitely going in the Netflix queue.

***

Lonnie Chisenhall keeps doing his part to make it tough on Indians manager Manny Acta during spring training.

If he keeps it up, it will be interesting to see what the Indians will do. Because of their silly signing of Orlando Cabrera to play second base, the Indians are in a situation where they are trying force Jason Donald, a natural short stop to play third base, blocking Chisenhall.

Why the Indians don’t just go with an infield of Chisenhall at third, Donald and short and Asdrubal Cabrera at second is baffling.

***

Finally, good news from Terry Pluto, who reports that Joe Tait is hoping to be back calling the Cavs game on March 21.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, culture of lies, Geno Ford, Kent State, Ohio State, Subbuteo | Leave a comment
01 Mar 2011

What a difference four years make

With the Spurs coming to town tomorrow night to take on the Cavs, it got us to thinking about the 2007 NBA finals.

We realize there is turnover in professional sports and especially on the Cavs in the past 2-3 years as they chased their first championship.

But we were still surprised when we looked back and realized there are only two players left on the Cavs roster from that season – Anderson Varajeo and Boobie Gibson (by comparison, the Spurs still have four players: Matt Bonner, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker).

That says something, we’re just not sure what.

***

Now that the NFL Combine is over it’s good to remember that just because someone trained for that particular event and put on an “impressive” performance doesn’t mean they can actually play at the NFL level.

Real Clear Sports came up with a list of the Top 10 Combine Performers over the years. The list shows that when considering who the Browns should draft, there’s more than just how many times you bench press 225 pounds.

***

Finally, here’s a good article about how Cleveland-based BioEnterprise is working to bring bioscience companies to Northeast Ohio. Since 2002, the group has helped 90 companies bring more than $975 million in new funding to the region.

Proof that something is going right in the region.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, NFL combine | Leave a comment

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