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In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Cleveland Indians”

16 Mar 2011

Cleveland’s No. 1 newspaper, everyone

We were excited when we saw that Kent State beat St. Mary’s on the road last night in their opening game of the NIT.

But then we read the game article on The Plain Dealer‘s website.

The area’s largest newspaper couldn’t be bothered to send a beat writer to cover a local team playing in a national tournament (well, the NIT, but still) because, well we’re not sure why. Instead, they relied on the Associated Press for its coverage from the game at St. Mary’s McKeon Pavilion in Moraga, Calif.

We were surprised to find out, according to the article, that Kent State lost to Akron in the Horizon League title game and the Golden Flashes are apparently coached by someone named Geno Gord.

Give it up for Cleveland’s No. 1 newspaper folks!

It’s bad enough that someone from the AP couldn’t take 30 seconds to check the game notes to find out how to spell Gino Ford’s name correctly. But shouldn’t the PD have, we don’t know, an editor look at the story before it’s published? Especially since Kent State is a local team.

Maybe everyone on Superior Avenue is so tired from bashing The Cleveland Clinic, writing about themselves and chasing the ghost of Eric Mangini to actually care about getting the details right.

It’s clear, though, that at The Plain Dealer, God does not reside in the details. Jay Spry would be very, very disappointed.

Thankfully The Beacon Journal had its act together, as beat reporter Stephanie Storm put together an actual game story with the right names and everything.

Imagine that.

***

Do you have plans for the weekend? Grady Sizemore does.

Sizemore, the Tribe’s Gold Glove center fielder, could play in his first game in 10 months on Sunday.

“If everything continues to go well, and it’s going well, there’s a chance that Grady can start participating in games on March 20,” manager Manny Acta told The Plain Dealer. “I saw him [Tuesday] working on fundamentals, cutoffs, relays, chasing balls around in the outfield during batting practice like it was nothing. It was very encouraging.”

***

Bad day for sociopaths, as NFL vice president Ray Anderson said in a conference call Wednesday that the league will be even more stern in disciplining players next season, especially repeat offenders.

Bad news for the Steelers, who may now have to play football rather than playing to intentionally injure someone.

According to Anderson, many of those big hits that resulted in fines and personal fouls could lead to suspensions in 2011, which would hurt Pittsburgh in subsequent games.

We don’t see how that’s a problem. Do you?

***

Interesting response from Grant Hill, who didn’t hold back, to some of the comments Jalen Rose made in The Fab Five, a documentary shown Sunday night on ESPN.

We watched the program and thought Rose was pretty clear that his feelings about the type of black players that Duke recruits were how he felt as a freshman on the Michigan team – not how he feels now.

Apparently not everyone took the message that way.

Posted in bad reporting, Cleveland Indians, Fab Five, Grant Hill, Jalen Rose, NFL | 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
11 Mar 2011

Can’t we all get along?

Somehow, the NFL and the NFL Players Association were not able to decide after 16 days of work with a federal mediator how to divide up the league’s $9 billion revenue pie.

Now we’re left to wonder what’s next and when (if?) we will see the Browns and the rest of the league on the field again.

The players association has filed papers to decertify, effectively disbanding the union and giving it the chance to sue under antitrust laws if there is a lockout.

“They have chosen to choose another strategy, and that is their choice,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in published reports.

According to a statement from the NFL, the players’ union left a good deal on the table, including:

  • An offer to narrow the player compensation gap that existed in the negotiations by splitting the difference;
  • A guarantee to reallocate savings from first-round rookies to veterans and retirees without negatively affecting compensation for rounds 2-7;
  • Ensure no compensation reduction for veterans;
  • Implement new year-round health and safety rules;
  • Retain the current 16-4 season format for at least two years with any subsequent changes subject to the approval of the league and union;
  • Establish a new legacy fund for retired players ($82 million contributed by the owners over the next two years).
  • A reduction in offseason programs of five weeks (from 14 to nine) and of OTAs (Organized Team Activities) from 14 to 10;
  • Significant reductions in the amount of contact in practices.

Sounds pretty good to us.

The union responded:

The NFL Players Association announced today it has informed the NFL, NFL clubs and other necessary parties that it has renounced its status as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of the players of the National Football League.

The NFLPA will move forward as a professional trade association with the mission of supporting the interests and rights of current and former professional football players.

So, for now, there is no free agency and no trades, and while there will still be a draft in April, drafted players can have no further contact with their new teams after draft day beyond the traditional congratulatory phone call.

Just great.

***

Oh, Stan? You won’t see him no more.

***

Some cool old program covers from the Indians.

We especially like the one of Chief Wahoo using his baseball bat as an arrow to aim at opposing American League teams. (h/t to UniWatch)

***

Finally, Phillip Morris at The Plain Dealer weighs in on the hypocrisy of the gumbo of lies Jim Tressel has been cooking at Ohio State:

In recent years, Ohio State has gone out of its way to project itself as a bastion of good sportsmanship. It has educated and encouraged players to demonstrate a respect for opponents, the law, the university and NCAA rules. It has made quite a show of doing this.

When the school hosted the U.S. Naval Academy to open the 2009 season, for instance, the teams lined up in the south end zone together. Tressel shook the hand of each midshipman, looked him in the eye and thanked him for his service to country. Then both teams ran onto the field together.

But it’s all been a farce. Two prominent players were then or subsequently breaking NCAA rules. They were consciously profiting from the sales of memorabilia that compliance officers had warned them against. They were consorting with at least one character who exposed the entire program to a high degree of risk.

What that means is the players were only pretending to be good sports. The same with the coach.

Tressel was only pretending to be a good sportsman. He knew what was happening. But he sat for months last year on information that he knew could cause serious harm to his 2010-2011 season. He sat on information that could harm his win-loss record and ultimately his financial future.

And Christopher Cicero, the Columbus lawyer who sent the e-mails to Tressel in April, revealed he’s received death threats since the story broke earlier this week.

Way to stay classy Buckeye fans.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Jim Tressel, NFL, Ohio State | Leave a comment
10 Mar 2011

Golden Flashes drawing NFL interest

Nine NFL teams, including the Browns, Ravens and Steelers, were represented at Kent State’s pro day this week.

Not a big surprise as the Flashes had 10 players in the NFL last season, including former Pro Bowlers Antonio Gates and Joshua Cribbs and 2008 defensive player of the year James Harrison.

Ten players and no NCAA violations. Maybe a certain school to the south should take notes.

Several eyes were on defensive end Monte’ Simmons, who finished his Kent State career with 21.5 sacks and 38.5 tackles for losses.

”He looks the part; he’s a specimen,” Raymond Jackson, Pittsburgh’s director of player development, told The Beacon Journal. ”He reminds me so much of Courtney Brown. Size-wise, he’s a rare specimen. If you go off of looks, he’s a day-one guy. The film doesn’t lie. If he can play he’s going to be on somebody’s roster.”

”I still feel like I had more in me to show,” said Simmons. ”I have another pro day on March 15, just to get myself seen more.”

Watch, the Steelers or Ravens will probably take a chance on him and Simmons will torment the Browns for the next 10 years.

Scouts were also looking at safety Brian Lainhart, who had 17 interceptions and 344 tackles as a four-year starter, and middle linebacker Cobrani Mixon.

***

According to Paul Hoynes at The Plain Dealer, Nick Johnson is expected to arrive this week at spring training for the Indians.

The oft-injured Johnson is recovering from wrist surgery and is still a few weeks away from being able to swing a bat. The minor-league deal he signed with the Indians has a July 1 out clause. If he isn’t in the big leagues by then, he can become a free agent.

If the Indians bring him to the big leagues, he’ll make $750,000. They can exercise a club option for 2012 worth $2.75 million. He can earn another $1.75 million in plate appearances.

Please don’t hurry back, Nick. No seriously, there’s no rush.

***

Every once in a while we feel a little guilty that we are not more adventurous. But then we read stories like this and realize that’s not such a bad thing:

A Weipa (Australia) fisherman desperately held on to a tree and screamed for help from his mates as a monster croc bit into his legs and tried to pull him under the water.

Rangers will converge on Weipa today to try to catch the aggressive croc that attacked Rio Tinto mine worker Todd Bairstow, 28, as he was fishing on the banks of Trunding Creek yesterday.

Mr Bairstow was fishing in the creek near Albatross Bay Resort, about 4.10pm, when the crocodile lunged at him and tore off his finger.

The crocodile lunged again, grabbed his legs and tried to pull him into the water.

A Queensland Police spokesman said while the man suffered extensive lacerations and dislocated bones, his injuries were not life-threatening.

Yeah, maybe hanging out on the couch isn’t such a bad idea after all. (h/t to Deadspin)

***

Good news as Browns running back Montario Hardesty’s recovery from a knee injury that cost him his rookie season is progressing nicely.

“Rehab is going well,” Hardesty said on the team’s website. “I think I have a little bit of work still left to get myself there. I wouldn’t say I’m well ahead of schedule, but it’s coming along great. I just have a little bit of a ways to go before I’m back to 100 percent.”

If Hardesty can give the Browns anything this season it will be much appreciated, especially by Peyton Hillis, who wore down by the end of the last. (h/t to Waiting for Next Year)

***

Not surprisingly, Zydrunas Ilguaskas is planning to retire after this season.

“I think I’ve had enough of this game,” Ilguaskas told alietuvis.com. “I’ve played enough. Sitting on the bench doing nothing is not what I want to do. The long trips and the intensive schedule have taken its toll – I’m not a 20-year-old anymore and my body is telling me that it would be the right time to retire from NBA after this season. I have given everything I could to basketball and now I’d like to spend more time with my family.”

It can’t be fun for Z to be riding the bench for a Heat team that is not as good as the Cavs teams Z played on the past two years.

***

Finally, this from The New York Times gave us a good chuckle.

Turns out Jim Tressel had to cancel a book signing appearance the other night to try and explain the web of lies he’s weaving at Ohio State.

Tressel was promoting his book, Life Promises for Success: Promises From God on Achieving Your Best.

It’s been a while since we were regulars in church, but we did go to a parochial school through eighth grade and we’re pretty sure lying to your bosses wasn’t one of those life promises.

Posted in bad ideas, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, culture of lies, Kent State, Ohio State | 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
04 Mar 2011

Browns investing wisely in McCoy’s future

The Browns took another step toward ensuring Colt McCoy’s future when they signed quarterback Seneca Wallace to a three-year deal worth $9 million plus incentives.

While Wallace talked about wanting to be a starter next season, it’s clear that the Browns (i.e. team president Mike Holmgren) convinced Wallace that staying in Cleveland is the best place for the eight-year pro.

The key here is the Browns aren’t looking for Wallace to be a starter, but someone who can accelerate McCoy’s learning curve so the Browns can find out sooner, rather than later, if McCoy has what it takes to be a starting quarterback in the NFL.

Since Wallace doesn’t have the talent to be a starting quarterback in the league, he’s had to work harder and study more to try and find an edge, and obviously something is working as he’s made it this far. Having him around gives the Browns another voice experienced in the West Coast offense who can work with McCoy every day – and nothing bad can come from that.

While we wouldn’t want Wallace to be the Browns starting quarterback, as we learned last year having a capable backup is a good thing. If McCoy goes down early in a game, or misses a game with an injury, Wallace can hold his own for a game or a half – it’s not like the team has to rely on Todd Philcox or Spurgeon Wynn here.

More than anything else, the Browns have to find out what they have at quarterback with McCoy. And resigning Wallace moves them one step closer to putting the puzzle together.

Oh, the Browns also resigned linebacker D’Qwell Jackson to a one-year deal.

Jackson has missed 26 games over the past two seasons with injuries.

***

Indians pitcher Mitch Talbot doesn’t want to hear about the team being too young or too poor to compete in the American League.

“Same thing we heard in Tampa,” Talbot told The Plain Dealer after making his first start of spring training against the Texas Rangers. “Enough of this. Young? I don’t care. Let’s go win.”

If nothing else, we like the kid’s moxie.

***

While watching the Kent State-Akron game, we saw a commercial for ESPN Film’s upcoming documentary on The Fab 5 from Michigan.

We can’t believe its been 20 years since Chris Webber, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard and Ray Jackson were college freshmen.

While that makes us feel old, there’s no way we’re missing this one when it airs on March 13.

***

Finally, Brian Phillips at Slate has a great read on Parity vs. Greatness: The Most Important Debate in Sports.

Phillips writes that:

We don’t usually think about sports in these terms, but a league is a design problem—an aesthetic problem, really. A professional sports league has to balance distinct and often contradictory priorities, and how it does so helps to determine, before a player sends a single ball moving through space, the sort of experience it will offer fans.

One reason people like to watch team sports is to witness intensely competitive games—contests between evenly matched opponents in which the outcome hangs in doubt. Another is to watch extraordinarily gifted players play the game at the highest level. If you engineer a league to have an even distribution of talent—tightly regulating player movement, enforcing spending limits, funneling cash and talent to the weakest teams—then you encourage close games. But because the best players are spread out across more teams, you discourage fantastic displays of skill.

Phillips makes some interesting points. And as Cleveland fans, we face that question more now than ever.

When the Indians had an All-Star at every position (or so it seemed) in the mid- to late-’90s, we wanted greatness. But the economics of baseball changed and now the Indians can’t compete.

When the Cavs had LeBron, we wanted greatness; now we long for the team to be relevant again.

As for the Browns, all we really have is enduring hope. There really isn’t anything else.

Greatness or parity?

Which would you choose?

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Colt McCoy, Seneca Wallace | Leave a comment
02 Mar 2011
3 Comments

Brandon Davies should have gone to OSU

On Tuesday, BYU dismissed starting forward Brandon Davies from the team for the rest of the season for a violation of the school’s honor code. Davies reportedly had sex with his girlfriend.

Davies, who started 26 of 29 games for the third-ranked Cougars, averaged 11.1 points and a team-leading 6.2 rebounds. The team felt his loss right away, losing Wednesday night to New Mexico.

The dismissal greatly reduces BYU’s chances of being this year’s Butler in the upcoming NCAA tournament, as Kurt Kragthorpe explains in The Salt Lake Tribune:

This team could not lose afford to lose anybody from the playing rotation, and Davies is one of BYU’s best athletes. The Cougars were not especially deep to begin with, basically using six players for extended minutes and piecing things together from there. … The Honor Code is part of what distinguishes BYU as a private, church-owned school. … There’s obviously no double standard in play for prominent athletes.

No double standard for prominent athletes? What’s that about?

Davies should have gone to Ohio State. Then he would have just been suspended for a game next season against IUPUI.

Clearly BYU needs to get its priorities straightened out.

The only thing we can’t figure out is how Jim McMahon made it through four years at BYU without violating the honor code?

***

Tribe general manager Chris Antonetti reportedly has doubts that center fielder Grady Sizemore will be ready to start the season on the opening day roster.

We’re cool with that. The Indians are not going to contend this season, so we’d rather see Sizemore get healthy and play in the last 140+ games of the season than rush to be ready for the opener and then miss a bigger chunk of the season if he’s not fully healthy.

***

Andy Carroll, the £35 million pound man, is reportedly set to make his Liverpool debut on Sunday against Manchester United.

Time to start earning your money, son.

***

Showing how great minds think alike, Terry Pluto echoes something we touched on briefly yesterday, that the NFL Combine is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to drafting players. Pluto writes that:

When it comes to the NFL draft, let’s hope the Browns do exactly what they did a year ago in the first round — they took the best pure football player, according to their ratings.

They didn’t lose focus with all the smoke from the NFL combine about how Joe Haden’s 40-yard times (about 4.5) showed he couldn’t be a big-time NFL cornerback. In fact, some scouts wondered if Haden could be better suited for safety.

Browns General Manager Tom Heckert did something very surprising for the NFL. He watched game tapes of Haden, over and over. He relied on reports from his scouts, who personally observed Haden in game conditions. They checked his character. They determined he was a guy who could really play, basing that judgment on how he played in games.

Until he shows us otherwise, we’re confident the Browns are in good hands with Heckert and team president Mike Holmgren running the draft board.

***

Staying on the NFL Draft, would the Browns consider selecting Oregon linebacker Casey Matthews?

That would be fine with us – as long as the Browns feel Matthews is a solid pick.

We’d hate for them to pick him, though, solely because they didn’t draft his brother, Clay III, in 2009. That wouldn’t make any sense, but we’re getting the feeling that people seem to be leaning toward that way of thinking.

Hopefully general manager Tom Heckert isn’t one of those people.

Posted in Brandon Davies, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Liverpool, misplaced priorities, NFL draft
23 Feb 2011

Is contraction really the answer?

Should Major League baseball start eliminating under-peforming teams? What about the NBA or the NFL?

Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal is the latest to ask the question, putting fans in Oakland and Tampa on, if not high alert, at least an elevated level, writing that:

Fans of the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays need not worry. But don’t be surprised if the “C” word — contraction — returns to the baseball lexicon soon.

I’m already hearing rumblings that certain big-market teams want to drop the A’s and Rays, even though the idea stands little chance of actually becoming reality.

Still, a major battle is brewing over revenue sharing, baseball’s method of rich teams helping the poor. Contraction would be an extreme solution, but one that addresses the big-market concern: Why keep struggling clubs afloat?

This comes on the heels of stories last fall that the NBA would consider contracting teams as a way to solve the league’s financial troubles:

“It’s a sensitive subject for me because I’ve spent 27 years in this job working very hard not only to maintain all of our teams, but along the way add a few,” commissioner David Stern said during his preseason conference call.

“But I think that’s a subject that will be on the table with the players as we look to see what’s the optimum way to present our game, and are there cities and teams that cannot make it in the current economic environment. I’m not spending a lot of time on it.”

While we understand the financial realities of pro sports and it makes sense that fewer teams would possibly be better, as Cleveland fans any talk of contraction makes us nervous.

The big unanswered question is: How would teams be selected for elimination?

Certainly the Browns wouldn’t be contracted if the subject ever came up within the NFL, not after everything that went on after the move. And Cleveland couldn’t have supported the Cavs any stronger than they did in the past seven years; same with the Indians from 1995 to 2001.

But teams generally cycle through good times and bad, and fan support cycles with them. Teams that are down now would, in theory, be the ones facing contraction. But is that fair?

If we were having this conversation in the 1970s or ’80s, it would be hard to argue that the Indians should not be eliminated. Year after year of owners with no money fielding bad teams in a crumbling stadium in front of 5,000 fans each night would have left the Tribe as prime candidates for contraction.

Same with the Cavs during Ted Stepien’s reign of errors and the dark years pre-LeBron, when Ricky Davis and Trajan Langdon played before a sea of blue seats on a nightly basis.

Imagine Cleveland as a one-sport town, where we would get 16 Browns games a year and that’s it for pro sports. Not something we like to think about.

We sometimes lose sight of how other fans are impacted by their teams, because nothing anyone else goes through compares to the pain of being a Cleveland fan. But on the issue of contraction, we would feel their pain.

Because this time they might be coming for them. But next time, what if they come for us?

***

Yeah, poor Denver (speaking of not having sympathy for other teams).

Again, don’t remember this being such a problem last July.

***

If this truly is Liverpool’s away shirt for next season, the only thing we have to say is Blech!

Adidas can’t really think putting the Reds in the color of cross-town rival Everton is a good idea. That would be the same as having the Browns come out for a game in black-and-gold.

Please tell us it ain’t so.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Liverpool | Leave a comment
22 Feb 2011

Browns decide to do right by Phil Dawson

The Browns reportedly placed the franchise tag on kicker Phil Dawson on Tuesday, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The move to bring back Dawson, who’s been on the team since the Browns returned in 1999, always seemed like a no brainer to us, but media reports at the end of the season made us worried.

Dawson passed Hall of Fame kicker Lou Groza last season as the Browns all-time leader in field goals. He’s the ninth-most accurate kicker in NFL history at 83.1 percent, which is even more impressive when you consider the conditions he has to kick in at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

The fact that the Browns may have entertained the thought of parting ways with a kicker who can produce in conditions like this gave us pause. But the fact that team president Mike Holmgren and general manager Tom Heckert understand Dawson’s value makes us feel better.

But we do have to wonder: is the move to retain Dawson a sign that the new coaching regime is thinking field goals rather than touchdowns? Because we all know how well that worked out for the last coach.

***

Seneca Wallace is reportedly looking for a starting role next season as he ponders his future as a free agent.

“If I do go back (to Cleveland), hopefully it’s a chance to compete for the starting position,” he told Pro Football Weekly.

We like the thought of Wallace being on the Browns next year in a mentor role to Colt McCoy as he learns the West Coast offense. And Wallace is fine as a fill-in in case of injury. But as a starter? Not so much.

We understand that Wallace would want to be a starter, but after eight years of not being a starter in the league, we really don’t see the need for the Browns to be the test case.

***

Maybe there is something to the “Dolans are cheap” talk.

According to UniWatch, the Indians have scaled back the Bob Feller memorial patch they will wear this season from this to this.

Why? Because the photo the original patch is based on is owned by Photo File and the Indians won’t reach a deal on the licensing fees to use the image.

Unbelievable, and sad, that a team as cash-strapped as the Indians may in fact be, can’t find the dough to honor the greatest picture in baseball history.

Posted in bad ideas, Bob Feller, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Phil Dawson, Seneca Wallace | Leave a comment
19 Feb 2011
3 Comments

Browns need to pass on Sanders

Before the hoople heads start getting riled up, we need to put the kibosh on any talk of the Browns signing safety Bob Sanders, who was released Friday by the Colts.

Fans are going to see Sanders’ name on the transaction list and some will immediately want the Browns to pursue him simply because they’ve heard of him. But the team needs to stay far, far away from him.

Injuries have limited Sanders to just nine games over the past three years. He played six games in 2008; missed the first five games in 2009 then, in his second game back, tore his left biceps and missed the rest of the season; last year he tore his right bicep on the first defensive series of the season and missed the rest of the year.

With that kind of injury history, why would anyone think Sanders would be able to stay on the field for any significant amount of time?

***

Is former coach Eric Mangini heading back to the sidelines?

The UFL’s Hartford Colonials are “interested” in Mangini to replace another former Browns coach, Chris Palmer. Palmer recently became offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans.

“He is one of the people we would hope to talk to,” Colonials owner Bill Mayer said of Mangini this week, according to ESPN. “What comes out of that, I don’t know. I’ve been looking at our Facebook site, and it certainly has generated a lot of conversation. He’s a Connecticut native and he’s had experience. Whether we end up doing anything with him or not, we haven’t sat down yet, so it’s not at all clear whether this timing would work for him.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re in negotiations or that he’s going to be the next coach, but he’s certainly on the list.”

Well, it’s not as if Mangini is on the list for any NFL jobs.

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As spring training gets underway for the Indians, manager Manny Acta expects the bullpen to be one of the strongest parts of the team – if not the strongest.

”It was last year, and there’s a very good chance it will be very good again,” Acta told The Beacon Journal.

The bullpen struggled early in the season, putting up a 4.69 ERA, but after the All Star break the relievers posted a 2.95 ERA, second best in the American League. Closer Chris Perez led the way, as he posted a 0.53 ERA after June 18 and converted 18 of his final 19 saves on the season.

If the bullpen can turn into a reliable asset for the Tribe, that will make Acta’s job a lot easier, take some of the pressure off the team’s young starters – who can’t be expected to go very deep into games – and maybe give the team a chance to surprise some people this season.

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Finally, check out the latest from Uni Watch for something on the birth of the Browns facemask.

The story behind the development of the facemask is well known to longtime Browns fans: a late hit on quarterback Otto Graham in 1953 led to the first protective Lucite mask on the Browns helmets.

But it’s definitely worth reading about again, especially for the photos.

Posted in Bob Sanders, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, hoople heads

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