Red Right 88

20 Apr 2011

Waiting … and waiting … and waiting

We’re used to waiting here in Cleveland – we’ve been waiting our entire lives for a Cleveland team to win something.

But we have nothing on the fans of Stoke City.

The Premier League team earned a spot in the finals of the FA Cup over the weekend for the first time in franchise history – and that history dates to 1863.

The Potters are the oldest club in the Premier League and, despite periods of on-field success, have never lifted the FA Cup trophy.

“For 147 years, we have waited,” team chairman Peter Coates told the Stoke-on-Trent Sentinel.

“For me, this was without doubt the biggest win in the football club’s history because it puts us in the final of the biggest cup competition in the world,” Coates said on the team’s website. “To be honest, it really doesn’t get any better than this and going to the final is very exciting for us all.

Forget a lifetime of “waiting for next year,” how about generation after generation after generation after generation of waiting?

Kind of makes 1964 seem not that long ago.

The FA Cup was first held in 1871. The knockout tournament is open to all football clubs from the top flight all the way down to amateur teams – think if Major League Baseball held a tournament with every team down through the independent leagues – and drew more than 750 entrants this year.

The tournament is so much a part of English culture that it has been nominated as a cultural icon, along with Stonehenge, a cup of tea and the double-decker bus.

“The FA Cup has a unique place in English sporting culture and a magic all of its own,” said Brian Barwick, FA chief executive. “It has consistently generated some of the great stories and moments in sport and we are delighted that it has been recognised in this way.”

***

We know that Browns running back Peyton Hillis has made it to the finals of an online tournament to be the next cover athlete for the Madden NFL 12 video game.

We’ve also read and heard how EA Sports will never allow someone with a low profile like Hillis to be on the cover of the company’s flagship game.

But would Hillis really have a negative impact on game sales? Not according to this article from Sports Biz.

“What drives gamers to a particular title is that game’s review scores, gameplay and feedback from peers,” said David Riley of the NPD Group in the article. “While cover art can certainly enhance appeal and awareness, it’s hard to fathom that a gamer would drop $60 based solely on what appears on the cover.”

Riley said there is no hard research on an cover athlete’s ability to better sell a game.

“Great covers help practically sell everything, but can a cover alone sell a video game?” Riley asks. “Sure, some gaming consumers who stumble upon the latest title will be compelled to look the game over based on the cover, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to drive them to purchase it.”

The Madden cover spot this year is reportedly worth around $125,000, even though it does include some work—about a week full of commitments.

So while the Madden curse lurks for the winner of the tournament, it apparently doesn’t translate to game sales.

***

The NFL released the 2011 schedule and the Browns have an interesting year ahead of them.

Once again they will see familiar faces in news places as they take on Kamerion Wimbley (probably) and Oakland, Derek Anderson (maybe) and Arizona, former offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and Miami, former special teams coach Brad Seely and San Francisco, Mike Holmgren’s former team in Seattle and Pat Shurmur’s old team, St. Louis.

After opening the season at home against Cincinnati, the Browns won’t play another division game until Nov. 27, when they see the Bengals again. They face Pittsburgh and Baltimore twice each over the last five weeks of the season.

Should be interesting.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Peyton Hillis, Stoke City, waiting for next year | Leave a comment

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

18 Apr 2011

Sorry, but we just can’t do it

Browns running back Peyton Hillis has somehow made it to the finals of an ESPN contest to see who will be on the cover of the Madden NFL 12 video game.

ESPN.com’s SportsNation announced Monday that Hillis earned 61 percent of votes cast to “upset” Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Hillis now will face Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick in the finals.

Hillis’ campaign has grown with get out and vote calls from many.

But not from us.

We know it’s just superstition, just a coincidence, there’s no basis in logic or fact, but … the Madden Curse is real. Don’t be swayed by so-called “logic.”

The Browns and Cleveland sports have enough problems without going out and looking for trouble. Why not just start selling Hillis voodoo dolls in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati? Or have a gypsy come to the locker room and give him the evil eye?

With the way things work around here, if Hillis makes the cover he probably won’t even make it to training camp before being stricken by some fluke injury or strange, never-before-seen ailment.

This is Cleveland, after all.

And we’re going to sit this one out.

***

Another reason to like Cleveland is the upcoming opening of the Sports Research Center, which is scheduled to open April 25 in the Cleveland Public Library.

According to The Plain Dealer, the center, the only one of its kind in Northeast Ohio, will showcase the best of Cleveland sports history with more than 25,000 books and magazines and research materials, including old photos, scrapbooks, movies and movie clips.

“We will have more baseball-related material than any other building in the country” except the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., Tena Wilson, a library administrator, told The PD. “We’ll be revealing a lot of hidden treasures.”

“Sports are a part of Cleveland DNA,” Felton Thomas, Cleveland Public Library director, said in the article. “Clevelanders either love or hate the changing weather seasons, but they always embrace the start of a new sports season. And this [center] gives fans a chance to travel back into Cleveland sports history to reminisce about a favorite player or game or discover something new about their beloved sports teams and heroes.”

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland sports history, Madden Curse, Peyton Hillis | Leave a comment

17 Apr 2011

1 Comment

Manny being Manny

We really didn’t think much when Manny Ramirez announced he was retiring rather than face a 100-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance.

But then we read Sheldon Ocker’s column in The Beacon Journal remembering the playful Manny that was in Cleveland from 1993 to 2000. That’s the Manny that we will always remember.

We’ve always been pretty ambivalent about baseball’s steroid era. The commissioner didn’t care, the owners didn’t care and the players association didn’t care, so why should we?

And, over the years, it has become obvious that, since no one was being tested, it’s impossible to know who was – and more importantly was not – using something.

While it’s easy enough to see the physical changes and improved performance from players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte taught us players used banned substances to recover from injuries and Jason Grimsley showed us not everyone turned into the Incredible Hulk when they used PEDs.

So unless someone has a time machine and can go back to test everyone who played in the 1990s, there’s really no way to be certain – its all speculation. So you either assume everyone was clean or you assume everyone was on something.

It may not be fair to paint everyone with the steroid brush, but it is also probably naive to think that just because someone’s head didn’t grow to the size of an overripe melon that they were clean.

It’s also unrealistic to think that baseball players weren’t using steroids before the 1990s. The San Diego Chargers were using steroids in 1963 and the Steelers probably owe much of their Super Bowl success in the 1970s to steroid use.

Does anyone really believe word of that didn’t spread to major league baseball teams?

It’s unfortunate that Ramirez had to leave the game this way. But he willingly broke the rules and there are consequences for that.

But we’ll always remember him for what he did on the field, rather than for the choices he made off the field.

***

Fausto Carmona picked up his first win of the season, Grady Sizemore homered in his first game action since last May and your first-place Indians swept Baltimore on Sunday for their 11th win in the past 13 games.

Carmona extended a streak of unbelievable starting pitching for the Tribe, going seven innings and giving up just one earned run.

Indians starters have thrown 87 innings over the past 13 games, giving up just 18 runs, good for a 1.86 ERA, and posting a 9-1 record. They have not allowed a run in the first inning of the past 13 games, and opponents are hitting just .095 (4 for 42) in their first at-bat.

It almost goes without saying that Tony Sipp and Chris Perez each notched another scoreless inning of work.

We hate to say the Tribe’s pitching is unprecedented, but really how else to describe it?

And then there was Sizemore, who homered in his second at bat and added a double in his third.

“I just wanted to go up there, have good at-bats, help the team and get a win,” Sizemore said in published reports. “I was definitely nervous.”

There’s no way of knowing yet how much of the old Sizemore the Indians will see this summer. But anything he can bring to the plate and the field will only be a bonus.

The Indians now head to Kansas City for a four-game showdown for first place.

We could really get used to this.

***

Hats off to the Kent State gymnastics team, as the Golden Flashes finished the season ranked No. 12 nationally, the highest ranking in the program’s history.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, Grady Sizemore, great pitching, Kent State, Manny Ramirez

16 Apr 2011

Masterson the Man for the Indians

Justin Masterson started what will hopefully be another winning streak as the Tribe beat Baltimore on Friday night.

Masterson gave up one run on four hits in seven innings as the Indians beat the Orioles 8-2 for their fifth consecutive win at Progressive Field. Masterson is now 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA on the season.

”He was tremendous,” manager Manny Acta told The Beacon Journal. ”He threw 20 first-pitch strikes to the 26 guys he faced. He had good velocity and good sink on his fastball. All they could do was beat the ball into the ground.”

”A lot of it is throwing strikes, pitching ahead in the count rather than behind,” Masterson said. ”It’s very simple, subtle stuff [altering his mechanics], but I’ve done it enough that I don’t have to think about it.”

The Indians are now 9-2 in their last 11 games, fueled by starting pitching that has been off the charts.

During that stretch, the starters have thrown 74 innings and given up just 15 earned runs – a 1.82 ERA. They’ve also gone an average of 6.2 innings in their starts.

Compare that, for example, to the much-hyped Phillies rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton.

In their last 11 starts, the Phillies starters have a 4.19 ERA, giving up 31 earned runs in 66.1 innings of work.

Oh, and the Tribe is paying its starting rotation just a shade over $8 million this year. The Phillies? They have $67 million invested this year in their starting five.

Impressed yet?

And as good as the starters have been, the main guys in the bullpen have been even better. Tony Sipp, Chris Perez, Rafael Perez and Vinnie Pestano have yet to give up a run in 22 combined innings of work.

Josh Tomlin gets his turn today (weather permitting) to build on the streak of solid outings from the starters.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, dominant pitching | 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

12 Apr 2011

The grass isn’t always greener

Fernando Torres continued to learn a hard lesson today during Chelsea’s 2-1 elimination loss to Manchester United in the Champions League:

The grass isn’t always greener.

Torres just had to move from Liverpool to Chelsea, thinking the Blues were not only a better fit for his talents, but also offered him a better chance of winning Champions League glory and league titles.

“‘The Champions League is a big ambition and all the footballers want to play in it,” Torres said at the time of his move from Liverpool. “I have a very bad memory of the semi-final of the Champions League in my first season in England when Chelsea beat us and they played the final. Hopefully now I’m here we can go through to the final together and win.

“Chelsea have the chance every season to win all the trophies that they play for, so when you have the chance to play in a team like this you cannot say no. I felt from last summer that I needed a step forward in my career.”

So how’s that working out?

Chelsea currently sits in third place in the Premier League, 11 points behind Manchester United with seven games to play. It’s pretty clear they are not catching Man U at the top of the table.

Torres, the £50million-man, hasn’t scored in 11 games with Chelsea.

And now they are out of the Champions League, with Torres being substituted at halftime by manager Carlo Ancelotti, who may lose his job after the season over disagreements with owner Roman Abramovich about the best way to use Torres. Ancelotti even admitted after the game that playing Torres may have been a mistake.

“Maybe. Could be. But I thought for a lot of time before taking this decision,” Ancelotti told The Guardian. “I preferred to start with Fernando for this kind of game, with this kind of tactics. But Didier (Drogba) played very well in the second half.”

Torres works best operating as a lone striker. He is quick, adept on the counterattack, can hold the ball and is smart enough to use the ball to bring support from deep into play. He was used most successfully at Liverpool in that role, but Chelsea persists in using him in a 4-4-2.

The schedule certainly has not done him any favors, as playing for Spain in the European Championship, the Confederations Cup and the World Cup, he hasn’t had a summer off to recover since 2007.

But now he carries the burden of being the £50million-man, which means people want goals, not excuses.

We’ll always have a soft spot for Torres. We enjoyed watching him at Liverpool and still enjoy his play with Spain.

We just wish he would realized that Anfield was the best spot for him.

Posted in Champions League, Chelsea, Fernando Torres, Liverpool, regrets | Leave a comment

11 Apr 2011

How are they doing it?

How did the Indians go from 0-2 horror show to the hottest team in the majors with an eight-game winning streak?

The old-fashioned way: pitching and defense.

It was Mitch Talbot’s turn Monday night and he came through, going eight scoreless innings while allowing only five hits.

“My biggest thing was locating my fastball down in the zone,” Talbot said in published reports. “It had a little bit of sink, a little bit of run, and I was getting ground balls. Most hitters are going to try to run your pitch count up, and maybe take a pitch here or there, so it always helps to get ahead. It’s a pretty big accomplishment to stick around that long in the game.”

“The pitching,” Indians manager Manny Acta told The Plain Dealer. “Other than Opening Day, our starters have all been able to go deep into the game. It gives us a chance to keep the guys rested in the bullpen so we can match up with them.

During the winning streak, the starters are 6-0 with a 1.55 ERA.

The starters have also concentrated on throwing first-pitch strikes.

”They’ve been successful, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop telling them,” Acta told The Beacon Journal. ”It’s easier said than done, but they understand. And having success, they see that it does work. The success Masterson has had so far is due to that. Not that this is rocket science. The numbers are there to show it. You can’t pitch from behind.”

As good as the starters have been, the key members of the bullpen have been even better:

Tony Sipp has thrown five scoreless innings, giving up just one hit and striking out four
Chris Perez has thrown five scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out three
Rafael Perez has thrown four scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out four
Vinnie Pestano has worked three scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out four.

With that kind of pitching, it’s no wonder the Tribe is on a roll.

As for the defense, the Indians have made only four errors – second-fewest in the AL – and have allowed only one unearned run. Two of those errors have been made by the infield, which made 72 errors last season.

The fast start by the Tribe is important on a lot of levels. With the NFL Draft still a few weeks away and the Cavs out of the playoffs for the first time since 2005, the Indians have NE Ohio’s undivided attention. If they were 2-8 instead of 8-2, many fans would have already checked out on the season.

Plus every game they win now makes it less damaging when they inevitably go on a three- or four-game losing streak. Think about it: if the Indians play .500 ball the rest of the way they will finish with 84 wins – a 15-game improvement over last season.

And hey, there ain’t no shame in that.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, good pitching | Leave a comment

09 Apr 2011

Indians give Seattle a wedgie

The first-place Cleveland Indians took it to former manager Eric Wedge and the Mariners in Seattle on Friday night, winning 12-3 for their fifth-consecutive victory.

The Tribe continued to show its flexibility, using a 10-run fourth inning – highlighted by Travis Hafner’s three-run homer – to back a solid rebound effort from starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco.

“Travis’ three-run homer was a big dagger in that inning,” manager Manny Acta told The Plain Dealer. “That inning pretty much summed up the game for us. It was a huge inning.”

The Indians pounded out 17 hits one day after only getting three against Boston.

Longball, smallball, everything the Indians are doing is currently working. Who doesn’t love Mannyball right about now?

Just like Fausto Carmona on Thursday against Boston, Carrasco erased the memories of his first start by working six innings of one run, four-hit ball.

“Carrasco basically set the tone for us,” manager Manny Acta said in published reports. “He threw some zeros out there and gave us an opportunity to come up in the fourth inning and do what we did. We put together a lot of good at-bats there.”

Tribe pitchers have now only given up 11 earned runs in their last 52 innings of work – good for a 1.90 ERA.

We have no idea how long this will continue, we’re just along for the ride.

Justin Masterson, who started the streak last Sunday, gets his turn to keep it going tonight.

***

Found this one on Uni Watch and we have to admit, we were intrigued.

While we’re not fond of the font choice, we like the idea of bringing red back as an alternate jersey color rather than the current blue.

What really caught our attention was using Tribe rather than Indians on the jersey front. For as long as we can remember everyone has referred to the Indians as the Tribe, so why not embrace that as part of a unique uniform set?

And the team has certainly made it synonymous with the team over the years through marketing slogans like “Tribe Time” and “Are you in the Tribe?”

While we certainly don’t want to see Chief Wahoo go anywhere, using Tribe on an alternate uniform, at the very least, has a lot of potential.

If nothing else, it sure beats a giant script I.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

08 Apr 2011

A big day in Indians history

Today is the anniversary of Frank Robinson first game as the first black manager in major-league history. On this day in 1975, in the Indians home opener, Robinson debuted as the Tribe’s player-manager.

As Indians fans everywhere know, Robinson, the designated hitter, hit a home run in his first at-bat and helped beat the New York Yankees, 5-3.

We still remember listening to the game on the radio while playing baseball with our friends (not to sound all fake nostalgic or anything) and that day still stands out as one of our top Opening Day memories of the Indians.

You can read The Plain Dealer‘s game story here, the front page of the Sports section from that day is here.

And look at that lineup! Charlie Spikes batting cleanup? How did that team end up winning 79 games?

Here’s an article from Sports Illustrated from October 1974, after Robinson had been named manager, where he talks about the historic decision.

It seems strange today to think that this was ever an issue, but the fact that the Indians took a chance on Robinson, the same way they did with Larry Doby in 1947, gives us another reason to believe Cleveland is an OK place.

***

Of course, that feeling is tempered a bit when we read stories about the city actually working to drive businesses out of town, as the owner of the popular food truck Dim and Den Sum says he will soon be out of business if the city doesn’t change a law that bans food trucks from operating downtown.

“We probably have about four weeks of operating left if we can’t service highly populated lunch places,” owner Chris Hodgson told The Plain Dealer.

Hodgson has a second truck on order for a new business that will serve gourmet tacos. He said he hopes to employ as many as 20 people once both trucks are operating.

Apparently creating jobs is no longer a priority in Cleveland. Good to know.

Maybe Hodgson should have said he was going to open a casino. Because that apparently is the type of business city officials have no problem with.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, Frank Robinson | Leave a comment