Red Right 88

07 Apr 2011

Your first place Cleveland Indians!

After Thursday’s 1-0 win completed the Tribe’s sweep of Boston, the Indians are not only the second-hottest team in baseball (only Texas’ 6-game win streak tops the Tribe) but are in first place in the Central Division.

It’s the first time the Indians have been in first place at the end of the day since May 17, 2008.

And they did it in front of the largest crowd since Opening Day (according to Rick Manning).

Fausto Carmona bounced back from a horrific Opening Day start, where he gave up 10 runs and 11 hits in three innings of work, to shut down the Red Sox. Carmona held Boston to just two hits in seven innings of work.

The Tribe’s pitching the past few days has been absolutely phenomenal. Since the third inning of Saturday’s game, Cleveland pitchers have worked 43 innings and only given up nine runs – a 1.88 ERA.

The Indians needed that pitching today, especially with a lineup that included Austin Kearns (.000 batting average), Travis Buck (.143) and the struggling Shin-Soo Choo (.083). In fact, the Indians only had three hits on the day.

But one night after playing longball – with home runs from Asdrubal Cabrera, Matt LaPorta and Choo – manager Manny Acta showed the Tribe can also play little ball.

Adam Everett led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk and then stole second. Orlando Cabrerea sacrificed Everett to third and then Asdrubal Cabrera’s suicide-squeeze bunt put the Indians ahead in their fourth straight win.

“We did beat a very good ballclub – regardless if they’re struggling or not,” Acta said in published reports. “We won and it was a very well-played series. It wasn’t like they were sloppy and we got lucky. We played good baseball.”

Can’t argue with that. And we wouldn’t expect anything less from the longest-tenured coach in town.

We know it’s only been six games, and anything can happen when the Tribe goes out west for series with Seattle and Anaheim, but it’s sure been a fun first week of the season.

Most importantly, we’re ready to see more from this team.

***

Kent State made it official Thursday, promoting Rob Senderoff to the head coach position for the men’s basketball team.

Senderoff’s hiring is in line of KSU’s practice of promoting from within to the school’s flagship program.

The move should be popular with the players, more than half of which were recruited by Senderoff. That’s important as the team is only losing one player off this year’s 25-win team.

“It was good news to my ears,” guard Randal Holt told The Plain Dealer.

Leading scorer Justin Greene said the news was a relief, but also signaled some changes.

“Now it seems normal again,” the 6-8 junior said. “All the players feel comfortable, because we were all brought in by him. With the team we have coming back, we expect there will be some high expectations. But (Senderoff’s) best attribute is he will be tougher on us, held more accountable, than we have been in the past.”

The part about being more accountable is interesting. Plus the fact that the players don’t seem that upset that Geno Ford left.

Hopefully Senderoff is the right man to continue the team’s tradition of solid play. We’d hate to see the basketball team take a step back just because the school wants to emphasize football.

Some good reads on this from The Beacon Journal here and here.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, good pitching, Kent State | Leave a comment

06 Apr 2011

Better to be lucky than good

Sometimes in sports it’s better to be lucky than good. Too often, the Browns have been neither, both on the field and on draft day.

We were reminded of that when we read an article by Bob Labriola at steelers.com about how Pittsburgh – thanks to the Browns, of course – landed Hall of Fame cornerback Rod Woodson in the 1987 draft.

The Steelers owned the 10th overall pick in the draft because of their 6-10 record in 1986. The Browns had finished 12-4 and ended the season, of course, with the overtime loss to Denver in the the AFC Championship game.

On draft day, the Browns traded Chip Banks to the San Diego Chargers for the fifth pick of the first round. Since Banks was an outside linebacker, the Browns could have selected Penn State’s Shane Conlan, the highest-rated linebacker in the draft. But coach Marty Schottenheimer out-thought himself, and Cleveland used the fifth overall pick on Duke linebacker Mike Junkin.

Of course they did.

As the rest of the picks fell into place – the Cardinals whiffed by selecting quarterback Kelly Stouffer at No. 6 – Woodson fell to the Steelers.

So remember this story the next time you read that the Steelers win because the Rooneys do things “the right way.” Sometimes it just comes down to dumb luck. (h/t James Walker at ESPN)

***

We were understandably excited when we read that Liverpool plans to invest in some “top players” over the summer as the Reds continue on improving the club.

“There will be movement, that’s for sure,” Damien Comolli, the club’s director of football, told The Guardian. “We are very attractive for a lot of players because of what we did in January and a game like that [the 3-1 defeat of Manchester United] is fantastic publicity for us around the world. Since the day after I was getting phone calls from agents telling me that their player would love to come and that we are going to compete next year if we get it right. We are attractive to a lot of top players and we want to bring top players to this club.”

Despite the prospect of another season apart from the European elite, Comolli believes the club’s profile and the ambition of Fenway Sports Group will produce substantial investment this summer.

And then we saw this in The Wall Street Journal:

Basketball star LeBron James is joining forces with renowned hedge-fund manager John Henry and veteran Hollywood producer Tom Werner in a deal that brings together one of the biggest stars in sports and two of the world’s most renowned teams.

The deal between Mr. James and Fenway Sports Group will give Mr. James a minority interest in the soccer club Liverpool, which FSG owns. FSG, which also owns the Boston Red Sox, is partnering with Mr. James’s sports-marketing firm, LRMR Branding & Marketing to become the exclusive world-wide representative for Mr. James.

The deal marks the first time that a professional athlete at the top of his game has taken an ownership interest in a team with the size and reach of Liverpool, which is one of the most popular and powerful sports teams in the world.

Mr. James said he was “humbled” by the deal and looked forward to donning a red Liverpool jersey and visiting Anfield, the team’s legendary stadium.

According to Deloitte’s 2010 Football Money League report, Liverpool is the world’s eighth-biggest soccer team by revenue, with $320 million in revenue during the 2009-10 season. Liverpool and Manchester United have won 18 top division championships, the most among English teams, and both are wildly popular in Asia, where Liverpool will tour this summer.

“Eighteen championships,” Mr. James said. “I see myself trying to do the same things they have.”

Well that’s just great. We finally get over James leaving the Cavs and now he’s back in our sporting lives.

And forget about 18 championships – would it have killed James to give just one to Cleveland?

***

Just say no to Hate the Heat parties.

***

Dejan Stanković scored a sick goal for Inter Milan in its Champions League game against Schalke.

***

We obviously think Cleveland’s a great place, but sometimes we’re disappointed.

Posted in Cleveland, Cleveland Browns, LeBron James, Liverpool, NFL draft | Leave a comment

06 Apr 2011

How about that Tribe pitching?

Just the other day we were saying that Justin Masterson’s seven innings and one earned run on Sunday wouldn’t be the norm for the Tribe’s starting pitching, and then Josh Tomlin goes out Tuesday night and repeats Masterson’s performance.

“Josh used his change-up to keep the lefties off balance,” Indians manager Manny Acta said in published reports. “When they were looking for the change, he sneaked his fastball and cutter in there. He doesn’t throw in the mid-90s, but when his off-speed pitches are working, his fastball is effective.”

After a rough start, the pitching staff has clearly found a groove. In their last 25 innings of work (going back to the third inning of Saturday’s game against the White Sox), Tribe pitchers have given up just five runs. That’s a 1.80 ERA if you are scoring at home.

Included in those 25 innings are five scoreless innings, collectively, from Rafael Perez, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez out of the bullpen. Sipp was so efficient Tuesday night, needing only seven pitches to put the Red Sox down in the eight inning, that we missed his entire night while quickly stepping out of the room.

The pressure is now on Mitch Talbot to keep the positive trend going tonight.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, good pitching | 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

04 Apr 2011

What we know about the Tribe, so far

The Indians gave us a few takeaways from their season-opening series with the White Sox:

Travis Hafner hit the ball hard on several occasions. In addition to his first homerun of the season, Hafner hit a broken-bat flyout to the warning track, and had ball hit the bottom of the fence in right-center field. It’s not realistic to expect Hafner to return to the glory days of 2005-06, but if he can settle in at a reliable pace, it will help deepen the lineup.
Carlos Santana can hit. Three hits on opening day, another two in Sunday’s win. Having Santana on the big-league roster from Day one can’t be underestimated.
The starting pitching will end up being OK. While Justin Masterson’s seven innings and one earned run won’t be the norm, we also don’t expect to see many outings like Fausto Carmona’s in the opener or Carlos Carrasco’s five runs in the first two innings on Saturday.
The bullpen, especially Chris Perez, Rafael Perez, Tony Sipp and Vinnie Pestano, make us feel good. We especially liked Pestano’s inning of work on Friday.
Matt LaPorta is starting to worry us.
Jack Hannahan obviously won’t continue to hit .364, but if he can stay about .275 or so, especially with his glove, it will help as the front office doesn’t want to have to promote Lonny Chisenhall too quickly.
The attendance. Oh boy. Early season, cold-weather games are always a tough sell, but 9,853 on Saturday followed by 8,726 on Sunday doesn’t do much for the bottom-line. With summer weather still a couple of months off, the Tribe needs to start playing some competitive baseball real soon.

So, while the Indians are only three games into a long season, there are more positives than the 1-2 record would indicate.

***

As frustrating as the series against the White Sox was, the Red Sox come to town on Tuesday off an even worse weekend.

What The Boston Globe calls The Best Team Ever staggered through one of its worst opening weekends ever, giving up 21 extra-base hits and 11 homers in a three-game sweep at the hands of the defending American League champion Texas Rangers.

“Just a real bad series,’’ Theo Epstein told The Globe. “For this to happen in the first series of the year leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But we’ll be better than this. Maybe we crammed April of 2010 (11-12, six games out of first place) into three days. I hope so.’’

The Tribe might be catching the Red Sox at a good time. If Boston continues to struggle, the Indians have a chance to steady the ship before heading out west.

Plus, since Progressive Field will be over-populated with Red Sox fans the next few days, it would be nice to see the Indians not only beat Boston on the field, but take money from their fans in the process.

***

Remember a few weeks ago when we told you about Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed plans to unveil a life-size, color statue of Michael Jackson outside Fulham’s home ground?

Well, the statue was unveiled over the weekend and it’s just as strange and creepy as we feared.

Check out the video at EPL Talk.

***

Peter King weighs in with some not-so-good comments about Clemson defensive end Da’Quan Bowers’ Pro Day:

I think Clemson pass-rusher Da’Quan Bowers was underwhelming Friday in his campus workout and will slip out of the top 10. In November, he looked all but sure to be a top-five pick if he came out, but after undergoing postseason arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus, he needed a great effort Friday. He was just so-so. And to show how far his star has fallen, only one coach (Ken Whisenhunt) and two general managers (Thomas Dimitroff, Buddy Nix) attended the workout. He ran two 40-yard dashes in the 4.95-second range. To show you how mediocre a time that is, understand that 11 of the 14 tight ends at the Scouting Combine in February ran faster than 4.9.

Not good.

If this is true, it seems doubtful the Browns will take a chance on Bowers with their first pick in the draft.

***

Finally, James Walker at ESPN shares the story about the day Colt McCoy crushed Blaine Gabbert.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Colt McCoy, Da'Quan Bowers, Fulham | Leave a comment

02 Apr 2011

Yeah, about that Indians prediction

Well the Indians didn’t waste any time lowering expectations for the 2011 season, falling behind the White Sox 10-0 before rallying but falling short in a 15-10 loss.

“I can’t promise a win every day, but I can promise a team that is going to battle and fight for every out,” Indians manager Manny Acta said in published reports. “It was a weird game. All we could think of at first was there’s not many opening day games that are 14-0 right off, but we battled back. Unfortunately, we had to play catch-up baseball (but) we went down fighting.”

First the bad part. Indians No. 1 starter Fausto Carmona threw 82 pitches in just three innings of work, leaving after facing four batters in the fourth inning. The White Sox hit .555 against Carmona, with home runs from Adam Dunn and Carlos Quentin.

Carmona reminds us of Paul Shuey – you can almost tell from the first two batters if the good Carmona or the bad Carmona showed up. Once Carmona gave up hits to three of the first four batters we had the feeling it was going to be a long day for the Tribe.

Now for the good part.

The Indians never gave up. After falling behind 10-0, the Tribe outscored the Sox 10-1 and pounded the Chicago bullpen for six runs in just three innings.

The Tribe pitchers also struck out 14 White Sox, with Frank Herrmann notching five strikeouts in two innings of work and Vinnie Pestano striking out the side – and looking good doing it – in the ninth inning.

Carlos Santana had three hits, including a home run, and Jack Hannahan did the same as the Indians pounded out 17 hits.

If the Tribe can keep hitting like that, a lot of our worries will be eased.

The good thing is, there’s another game today. Carlos Carrasco takes the hill as the Indians start working toward those 81 wins we were talking about.

***

The Wall Street Journal came up with an interesting idea, creating a 64-team basketball to football “conversion bracket.”

They used this year’s basketball tournament results to create a football bracket, coming up with a final four of Oklahoma State, Air Force, Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois.

According to the article:

Beyond producing matchups that only the most hard-core fan would want to watch, the exercise exposed another downside of tournaments: that the most-deserving teams, the ones that had the best seasons, often don’t get anywhere near the championship – and this can affect the quality of the final games.

So teams that had the best seasons don’t get near the championship – like TCU this past season? And the quality of the final games would be affected with a tournament? Wow, that never happens under the current system.

Look, we’re not as opposed to the BCS as some people, and picking a year where the basketball tournament featured so many upsets doesn’t mean the same thing would happen in a football version of the tournament.

But we just don’t see any downside to having the national champion in football actually decided in a playoff like every other college sport.

***

With just eight games to go, the race in the English Premier League to stay out of the regulation zone is reaching historic proportions.

Of the 20 teams in the top division, a dozen are still short of the 40 points typically considered a minimum for survival. Among that group are teams normally in the safety zone by this part of the season, like Aston Villa (oh Randy!) and Blackburn Rovers – one of just four teams to even win the championship in the modern era.

Any of eight different teams could wind up in the relegation places after this weekend’s matches and just six points currently separate the entire bottom half of the table, the smallest margin since the Premier League was cut to 20 teams in 1995.

Relegation means big bucks, as teams dropping down a spot can lose an estimated $80 million or more per year in revenue. And even with Randy Lerner’s deep pockets, that’s a big number.

In addition, most players have contract clauses that will halve their salaries overnight in the event their team is relegated, while coaches rarely survive the experience of guiding a team that goes down.

Should be an interesting last month of the season.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, EPL, football tournament, relegation battle | Leave a comment

01 Apr 2011

Tribe Time is finally here

Opening Day has finally arrived and the Indians are back to save us from the NFL Lockout and a Cavs team that won’t be in the playoffs for the first time in six years.

While the Indians won’t contend for the division this year in all likelihood, there is much to like about the team.

Carlos Santana will be here for the whole season.

Shin-Soo Choo is still the must underrated player in the American League.

Matt LaPorta and Michael Brantley are ready to finally show that the are big-league players.

The starting pitching is going to be better than people expect.

The bullpen is settled, with Chris Perez anchoring it as closer for the whole year.

Finally, manager Manny Acta has the team believing in itself.

Throw in the fact that we are currently in Chicago and have had to hear and read about how great the White Sox are for the past few days and we’re ready for the Tribe to open it up.

We see where the over/under on wins this year is 71.5. We clearly like the over this year.

Let’s go 81-81 in what could be a fun year.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, opening day | Leave a comment

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

31 Mar 2011

What If?

What if the Indians had never been a part of Cleveland?

Opening Day is Friday.

Do you have Indian fever yet?

Posted in Cleveland Indians | Leave a comment

29 Mar 2011

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Breaking down the Tribe’s rotation

Now that the Indians have finalized their roster, we know what the starting rotation will look like heading into the 2011 season.

But can the five-man rotation of Fausto Carmona, Carlos Carrasco, Justin Masterson, Josh Tomlin and Mitch Talbot pitch the Tribe back to a winning season?

Let’s use math and history to try and find an answer.

For arguments sake, lets assume the rotation will make it through the season intact (we know, not likely). Based on their career numbers, this is what we could expect:

Carmona has won 46 games in 118 career starts. If he made 33 starts this season, he would end up with 13 wins.
Carrasco would win 5.5 games in his 33 starts (based on two wins in 12 career starts)
Masterson would finish with 9.5 wins from 32 starts (16 wins in 54 career starts)
Tomlin would have a breakout season with 16 wins in 32 starts (six wins in 12 career starts)
Talbot would notch 11 wins in 32 starts (10 career wins in 29 starts)

Add that up and the starters would combine for 55 wins on the season.

The Indians have had eight winning seasons since 1995. In those seasons, the starters, on average, have earned 63 percent of the team’s wins in a given season.

So, if this year’s rotation puts up 55 wins and that represents 63 percent of the Tribe’s win total, the Indians will win 87 games this year.

See how simple that was?

OK, we know there are some flaws in all this. It’s highly unlikely the Indians will only use five starters this year; and the sample size for everyone but Carmona is pretty small.

But other than Tomlin winning 16 games, are the win totals for the rest of the staff that far off? Is it too much to think Masterson will win 10 games? Maybe you take a couple of wins off Talbot’s total, but it wouldn’t be unrealistic to add a couple to Carrasco’s win column. Or Carmona’s.

Who knows? Give these guys half a chance and maybe they will surprise us all.

***

Pete Thamel at The New York Times looks at one of the reasons why Jared Sullinger is coming back for his sophomore year at Ohio State:

Satch Sullinger, the father of the Ohio State star Jared Sullinger, is a human fortune cookie. A retired high school and college coach in Ohio, the elder Sullinger speaks in coaching nuggets.

One of his favorite sayings sums up his son’s decision to return to Ohio State for his sophomore year, despite being projected as a top-five pick in the N.B.A. draft.

“Yesterday is history,” Satch likes to say. “Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.”

Satch Sullinger said his son had two goals. The first was to win a national title, which Ohio State was favored to do this season, coming into the N.C.A.A. tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.

“That’s exactly why he’s coming back,” Satch said. “He’s coming back because his goal is to win a national championship. He’s won A.A.U. and high school championships, and he wants to win a national championship.”

***

We all know how passionate we can be as Cleveland fans, but we’ve never seen anything like this in Cleveland:

Fans of the Colombian soccer team Cucuta Deportivo brought in a coffin to General Santander Stadium for a match Sunday between Deportivo and Envigado.

The story, which comes from Colombia Reports via Dirty Tackle, says 17-year-old hardcore fan Cristofer Alexander Jacome was murdered while playing soccer in his local neighborhood. Jacome was part of the fan group Barra del Indio that’s supposedly known for its crazy antics at soccer matches.

That beats the old keg in the dog house trick they used to pull at the old Stadium. (h/t Larry Brown Sports)

***

Former Great Plains vocalist Ron House, backed by Columbus’ own Moviola, with Fire Tressel, Not Teachers.

Ugh, that’s pretty crappy. (h/t UniWatch)

***

Finally, happy birthday to … us!

It was a year ago today we started this blog. A lot has changed in Cleveland sports over the past year, we can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

Posted in Cleveland Indians, crazy fans, Ohio State, pitching