Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Cleveland sports”

29 Mar 2012

Happy Birthday to us!

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the launch of our site.

During the past two years we’ve seen a lot. We haven’t seen a championship, but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been interesting.

If you’ve been with us from the start, thank you.

If you’re new to the site, either because of our partnership with The Cleveland Fan or because of some other reason, welcome. Have a look around and we hope you come back.

We’re not sure what the upcoming year has in store, but it’s Cleveland so there’s no doubt it will be interesting.

Posted in Cleveland sports | Leave a comment
29 Jan 2012

It’s Cleveland; what’s not to like?

It was quite a week in Cleveland sports, with two stories dominating the headlines.

First off was Prince Fielder signing a nine-year, $214 million contract with the Detroit Tigers.

The second, while off the field, made just a much news, as The Plain Dealer pulled longtime reporter Tony Grossi off the Cleveland Browns beat after Grossi sent a Tweet that personally criticized Browns owner Randy Lerner.

And the reaction to those stories from a growing legion of fan-driven sites highlighted what makes Cleveland such a great sports town.

Read more…

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland fans, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland sports | Leave a comment
20 Aug 2010
3 Comments

Nothing But Static on the Dial

With three pro sports teams in town, along with what is probably the largest Ohio State following outside of Columbus, you would think that we would have top-notch sports talk on the radio in Cleveland.

Well, think again. From the soupy drek of local and syndicated shows on WKNR, to what passes as sports talk in the afternoon on WTAM, Cleveland sports fans can be excused for asking “haven’t we suffered enough?”

The sad part is that it wasn’t always this way. I’m old enough to remember listening to Pete Franklin, who hosted Cleveland’s Sportsline radio show from 1966 to 1987 (if you can find Terry Pluto’s book on Franklin, You Could Argue But You’d Be Wrong, grab it).

Franklin knew what he was talking about, he had the ear of the fan and the local teams knew it. He could get 40,000+ fans into the old stadium by promoting I Hate the Yankees Night. He helped get the Cavs out of the grasp of Ted Stepien and worked to bring back Joe Tait.

Who in town has that kind of power today?

Now, if you want to talk sports on WKNR, you have to wait for the syndicated Mike and Mike Show (oof) to finish before Tony Rizzo comes on at 9 a.m., followed by more syndication with Jim Rome (why?) before Michael Reghi and Kenny Roda (double why?) come on at 3 p.m.

Think about that for a minute: in the 12-hour period from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., we only get six hours of local talk? You don’t think there’s enough going on sportswise in this town to warrant more than that?

Rizzo and Reghi are good examples of the current state of Cleveland radio – they’re both nice guys that are miscast in their current roles. Reghi is a solid announcer – I enjoy his work on MAC basketball – but not much of a talk show host. Same with Rizzo – he’s entertaining doing 4-5 minutes on the nightly news, but put him in front of a mike for three hours (well, more like 75 minutes when you factor in commercials, sports tickers, commercials going into and coming out of sports tickers) and there’s not enough there.

It’s not even worth talking about the abomination that is WTAM.

The big question in all of this is why? Why do Cleveland fans put up with this? Why don’t we demand quality? I can see where this may have worked in the ’70s, when WTAM’s signal was the only thing you could pick up on the radio and there were only five channels on the TV.

But in the age of The Well-Educated Fan, where all the sports information we could ever dream of is at our fingertips, why is this acceptable?

The one thing that saved my sports sanity was becoming a Sirius subscriber in 2005. No longer was I tied to dinosaur radio, and having a choice in what I listen to is wonderful. If you’ve never had a chance to hear real sports talk, take a listen to this clip from the NFL Channel’s Training Camp stop in Cleveland.

Maybe that’s the answer. If fans turn away and refuse to listen to what’s on local radio just because it’s there, if they go somewhere else – be it satellite radio, the Internet or wherever – then maybe we’ll finally get the level of sports talk radio we deserve.

Because, seriously, haven’t we suffered enough?

Posted in bad radio, Cleveland sports, suffering fanbase
01 Aug 2010
2 Comments

The True Heartbreak City

Some people just don’t get it.

In his latest ESPN column, Bill Simmons explains why he is bored by the Red Sox this season. He lays out some really good reasons, as always, but, as the national media is wont to do, he misses the mark when he compares Red Sox fans – and fans of other teams – with Cleveland fans.

His misstep comes when he talks about how, since the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and 2007, the games don’t take on the “life or death” aspect they used to (we’ll overlook the fact that sports are entertainment, not life or death) and only a few franchises still have that hunger for a championship, writing that:

“Nobody wanted to live a full life, then die, without seeing the Red Sox win a championship. Cubs fans know what I mean. So do Vikings fans, Indians fans, Maple Leafs fans … only the true sufferers know.

“In just the past decade, five franchises lost life-or-death status. Boston in 2004. The White Sox in 2005. St. Louis in 2006. Philly in 2008. And really, the Yankees in 2009 – since every Yankees fan was secretly having a heart attack about the fact that they were 0-for-the-century, the Red Sox/Yankees dynamic had flipped and A-Rod had become the Reverse Curse of the Bambino, so we have to count them.

That leaves San Francisco and the Cubs as the last remaining big-market, life-or-death teams … although you certainly can count Cleveland, Houston and Milwaukee as well, and maybe even Seattle, San Diego and Texas if you’re feeling magnanimous.)”

So we’re lumped in with Houston fans, Minnesota fans, San Francisco fans? Seattle? San Diego? Really?

Here’s where Simmons tripped up, just like almost every other national writer:

All those other fan bases? They only have to live with their misery for one season out of the year. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series in more than 100 years? Well, those fans also get to root for the Bears and saw the Bulls win six titles over an eight-year period.

The Giants haven’t won a World Series since the team moved from NY? It must have been real hard after baseball season ended watching the 49ers win five Super Bowls.

Same with Boston. For all the “misery” and “why us” wailing from Red Sox fans, they still knew when baseball season ended the Patriots and their three Super Bowls or the Celtics and their 17 NBA titles would be there.

Cleveland? We live with our sports misery 365 days a year. The Indians (last championship in 1948) finishing another title less season rolls into the Browns (no championships since 1964) breaking our hearts which rolls into the Cavs (no titles ever) over and over, like the French distress signal playing on a loop on Lost.

Even when we get a taste of success, something always goes wrong. The Indians make it to the World Series in 1995 and become the only team to lose to the Braves. That’s followed up a few weeks later by the announcement that the Browns are moving to Baltimore.

Or consider 2007, collectively the greatest sports year in Cleveland in 40 years:

  • The Cavs make their first NBA Finals – where they are swept by San Antonio.
  • The Indians take a 3-1 lead in the ALCS – and lose the series to Boston.
  • The Browns finish with a 10-6 season – and miss the playoffs because of tiebreakers.

So you tell me, how can any other town even think they have suffered like we have? Simmons himself put all three Cleveland teams on his list of fully tortured sports fans, what does that tell you?

At least some people get it.

Posted in Cleveland sports, fans, heartbreak, misery
10 Jul 2010

Everything will be all right

Rise up this mornin’,
Smiled with the risin’ sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin’ sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin’, (“This is my message to you-ou-ou:”)

Singin’: “Don’t worry ’bout a thing,
‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right.” – Bob Marley

I’m as disappointed and hurt as any Cleveland fan about LeBron James leaving for Miami. I don’t understand why these things seem to happen only in Cleveland. I just want to be a normal fan; I want to watch an important game involving a Cleveland team and not always be worrying about something horrible happening.

But I can’t, because I’m a Cleveland fan. For whatever reason, that’s the way it has always been, at least in my lifetime. When Mike Davis intercepted Brian Sipe in the end zone, I learned what it meant to be a Cleveland fan. That lesson has remained with me for 30 years. This is the path I have chosen.

Even though it can be painful and frustrating at times, luckily I can view Cleveland sports from the perspective of adulthood. I have a career, a beautiful wife and a wonderful daughter. I watch sports because I enjoy them tremendously and because I know, someday, when a Cleveland team finally brings a championship home, it will be exciting, unbelievable and something I will never forget.

And because I’m an adult, when one of our teams lose, I don’t need to stomp my feet, shake my fists or throw things like a hoople head. I know I may be down for a few hours after a loss, but the sun will come up the next day. The millionaires won’t ruin my day just because they happened to play poorly.

This doesn’t make me, or anyone, “less” of a fan, the same way that disagreeing with the President doesn’t make someone “less” of an American. There are so many real problems in this world that whether the local team wins or loses is insignificant in the grand scheme.

Being a Cleveland fan is what I am, but it’s not who I am. I have my opinions about what the GMs, coaches and players should do; but they are no more or less valid than anyone else’s. That’s the great thing about sports – there’s room for everyone and for everyone’s perspective.

If you are Dan Gilbert, Randy Lerner or Larry Dolan, then sports is a business. Same for the players. For the rest of us, it’s entertainment.

At the end of the day, win or lose, we’re all Cleveland fans and we all want the same thing – to cheer for a championship team. And that day will come.

Until then, “every little thing gonna be all right.” I promise.

Posted in Cleveland fans, Cleveland sports, disappointment, heartache, LeBron James | Leave a comment
09 Jul 2010
1 Comment

It Always Ends Badly

Everything in Cleveland sports ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t be Cleveland. – Coughlin’s Law

LeBron James took the easy way out: he’s going to Miami to play with the Heat. The LeBron Era is over. We all saw it happen live on national TV.

This time it was supposed to be different. This time the free agent wasn’t supposed to leave.

This time Brian Sipe threw the ball into Lake Erie, Ernest Byner held onto the ball, John Elway went three-and-out, Michael Jordan missed the shot, Jose Mesa got the save.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way. This time it wasn’t supposed to be about money. It wasn’t about a team unable or unwilling to pay top dollar.

You’re supposed to be rewarded for trying to build a winning franchise, for putting money, facilities and passion into a team; not for intentionally destroying your franchise for a pipe dream of signing a free agent.

This wasn’t supposed to be a press conference in a parking lot in Baltimore.

But, of course, it was. T.I.C.

So now we pick up the pieces and move on. And we will, because we’re Cleveland fans; it’s what we do. We will show the country that Cleveland sports fan can be beaten, but we can never be broken.

We’ve lived through far worse and survived. We will get through this.

And when the championship finally comes – and we have to believe it will, because without hope what are we left with – men will say, “This was their finest hour.”

Posted in Cleveland sports, despair, LeBron James
05 Jun 2010

No coach, no GM … no Problem?

“Danny Ferry and their ownership have proven they care deeply about winning and about people. That is a winning combination to sell.” – Jeff Van Gundy

Well, not so much anymore. With Danny Ferry’s surprise resignation as GM on Friday, the Cavs’ winning combination has taken a big hit and no one may be buying what they are trying to sell.

It’s obvious that despite the unprecedented success the team has enjoyed the past five years under Ferry and former coach Mike Brown, owner Dan Gilbert has decided he knows best. Ferry wanted to keep Brown, understanding that finding a new coach that would improve the team would be a difficult, possibly impossible task.

Terry Pluto summed it up in today’s PD: “Ferry could have signed an extension to remain with the team. His contract expires June 30. But after five years — the best five years in franchise history — it’s obvious Ferry and team owner Dan Gilbert had a significant disagreement.

“A good guess is the coaching situation.”

Great. Instead of staying out of the way and letting his basketball people do the job they were hired for, Gilbert has decided to insert himself into the process. That always ends well when owners get “hands on.”

Art Garcia, writing on NBA.com, asks a chilling question: Is it possible that the departures of a wildly successful coach and an equally accomplished general manager are good for a franchise?

This is Cleveland, Art. That answer seems pretty obvious.

He continues:

“Last week’s firing of Mike Brown and Friday’s resignation of Danny Ferry would signal chaos, especially considering what’s been achieved in Cleveland the last five years. Sure the Cavaliers didn’t win a title, and despite having the best record in the league didn’t get out of the Eastern Conference playoffs the last two years, but just line up the teams in the league that would gladly trade places with Cleveland.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty darn long line.

“Dan Gilbert also needs to make sure everyone in the organization is 100 percent behind the LeBron Plan, whatever it is.

“Ferry wasn’t anymore. He felt uneasy with dismissing the coach he hired, and has watched Gilbert take on a more active role in day-to-day operations, further comprising his sphere of influence. Ferry stated publicly before firing Brown that his goal was to continue to build a championship organization under Gilbert. Clearly, Ferry’s role in that project had changed.”

Gilbert does deserve credit for having a plan in place with Ferry’s departure, naming Chris Grant as GM. But will Grant have the same power and ability to battle the owner when Gilbert wants to make a move that hinders the progress of the team?

It’s amazing that the situation has gotten this far, this fast. Was it really only a few weeks ago that Cavs fans were dreaming of an NBA title? And now we’re wondering who the next coach will be and looking at a rookie GM running the show in the “Summer of LeBron.”

Just another day in the paradise of Cleveland sports.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland sports, Danny Ferry, NBA coaches, sinking ship, uncertainty | Leave a comment
14 May 2010

Rats!

Everything in Cleveland sports ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t be Cleveland. – Coughlin’s Law

Less than 24 hours after the Cavs season ended prematurely in Boston, a feeling of numbness still envelopes Cleveland. I still can’t believe when Sunday afternoon rolls around there won’t be a Cavs game on.

On one hand, for long-time fans this is reality. If it says Cleveland on the jersey then, ultimately, something bad is bound to happen. On the other hand, why? Why does this always seem to happen?

How did the Cavs become the first NBA team to post 60-win seasons and not make it to the NBA finals?

Why us?

The answer is both simple and complex. The Cavs – both the coaches and the players – just didn’t get the job done. That’s the simple answer. The other answers are harder to find.

Last season, the Cavs built a team to beat Boston. But then they didn’t face Boston and lost to Orlando.

This year, the Cavs built a team to beat Orlando. Of course, they never made it to Orlando.

In hindsight, it’s easy to say that trading for Shaq was a mistake. Same with Antawn Jamison. That’s the thing about hindsight, it’s easy to be right after the fact.

Maybe a better approach would be to just build a solid team, not worrying about matching up with just one particular team in the league. I don’t know, but it seems like in the coming months we’re going to find out the team’s new strategy.

Mike Brown has taken way more than his share of the blame for this loss, even for him. The hoople heads are missing the bigger picture when they call for his head. Firing the coach is the easy part; hiring a new coach is far more complicated. Just ask the Browns. But we’ll cover that another time.

Probably the worst part about the Cavs early exit is it unleashed the national media’s quest to have LeBron leave Cleveland. If the Cavs had advanced, we would have been spared the nonsense for a few more weeks. Sadly, that’s not the case, so already today we’ve been treated to “analysis” such as:

Fallout from Megaflop: LeBron needs new team

Oh no, LeBron took his jersey off – after the game – there is symbolism there, I tell you!

LeBron’s playoff exit means John Calipari watch

Yes, let’s hire a college coach who failed miserably in his previous NBA job.

LeBron James’ flirtations with free agency will leave some cities feeling scorned

So New York won’t buy any LeBron jerseys if he’s not a Knick? Oh, poor you.

And let’s not forget the “experts” at ESPN.

I swear, when LeBron resigns in Cleveland ESPN may actually just shut down, with all the hot air they’ve wasted talking about how certain they are that he just has to leave.

And on, and on, and on: LeBron Media Recap

Look, this isn’t easy and it’s certainly not fun. But this is Cleveland. We’re not Chicago, where they cry because the Cubs can’t win. We’re not Boston and the formerly “tortured” Red Sox fans. We deal with disappointment every year, every sports season. It’s what we do, but it’s not who we are.

Just remember this Chinese proverb:

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

That sums up the Cleveland sports fan pretty well.

Posted in Cleveland sports, disappointment, friction, frustration, trials | Leave a comment

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