Red Right 88

03 Jun 2011

Indian Fever goes national

The rest of the country is about to be swept up in Indian fever, as three upcoming Indians games have been picked for a national TV slot.

Fox will televise the Indians game at San Francisco on June 25 and the July 2 game at Cincinnati in its Saturday national telecast position.

ESPN will feature the Tribe and Giants on June 26 in its Sunday night slot.

Get ready for plenty of references to Willie Mays and Dusty Rhodes, Cleveland.

***

Kent State won its opening game in the Austin Regional of the NCAA Championship on Friday, beating Texas State in extra innings.

The Golden Flashes won 4-2 as pinch hitter Jason Bagoly came through with an RBI single in the top of the 11th inning.

The 24th-ranked Golden Flashes (44-15) advances to Saturday’s regional semifinal, where they will face the winner of the Texas-Princeton game.

“We’re in great shape,” said seventh-year head coach and Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year Scott Stricklin. “Everyone assumes we’re playing Texas. Princeton is a good team, but I think we are prepared to play Texas.”

***

What did we learn from the hearing between the NFL and players that took place Friday morning before Judges Steven Collton, William Benton and Kermit Bye of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit?

Well, the lockout is still on, but Judge Bye informed both sides that the panel would reach a decision in “due course.”

He also warned the panel could reach a decision that “neither party will like.” He further added, with a smile, “We wouldn’t be all that hurt if you go out and settle that case” on your own.

Whatever.

***

Which team will be foolish enough to sign wide receiver Plaxico Burress when he is released from jail?

As long as the team doesn’t rhyme with “Cleveland Browns” we will be happy.

***

Finally, some rough news for anyone who likes the summer tradition of corn on the cob (and who doesn’t?)

Because of the seemingly never-ending rain this spring, it is still too wet for many farmers to plant their corn. Normally, about 93 percent of the acreage farmers devote to corn has been seeded by May 29; this year the number was 19 percent.

If we can’t get our weekly corn fix from Szalay’s, things could get ugly this summer.

Posted in baseball, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Kent State, NFL, summer corn, Szalay's | Leave a comment

03 Jun 2011

Flashes are golden on the links

Kent State continues to prove you can have a successful athletic program without cheating, as the men’s golf team is on the verge of its second-consecutive Top 20 finish on the season.

The Golden Flashes posted their best round of the 2011 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship on Thursday, shooting a final-round 8-over 296. Kent ended the NCAA Finals with a 54-hole total of 902 (304-302-296).

“I’m extremely proud of this group, the wind picked up today and our guys went out and shot not only our best round of the tournament, but one of the best final rounds by the entire field,” said coach Herb Page. “All of the young guys played well today and senior (John) Hahn capped off a wonderful career. It was a great way to finish the year and I’m really happy for all the players.”

A Top 20 finish would be the sixth in the program’s history.

The men’s basketball team was also in the news this week, as ESPN.com’s Pat Forde named Kent State as one of the top 10 schools that get the most out of their basketball programs.

Ford wrote that: In a league full of boom-and-bust cycles, the Golden Flashes are remarkably consistent, riding a streak of 13 winning seasons. They’ve won at least 20 games in 12 of those seasons, one of just 10 programs that can make that claim during that stretch. The highlight came in 2002, when they advanced to the Elite Eight as a No. 10 seed.

Since 1998-99, Kent State is tied for 15th nationally with 306 wins which places the program ahead of more than 61 BCS schools and ranks 5th nationally among the 272 mid-major schools. Additionally Kent State, Kansas, Gonzaga and Creighton are the only four schools in the country to win at least 10 league games in each of the last 13 years.

During that same span, Kent State has put together the most outstanding postseason run in the history of the Mid-American Conference with 12 appearances in the past 13 years. The stretch includes five MAC regular season titles all while appearing in five NCAA Tournaments, six NITs and the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

Finally, the No.24-ranked baseball team is in Austin, Texas, where they will take on Texas State on Friday in regional play of the 2011 NCAA Championships.

With all the good things coming out of Kent recently, maybe Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee and athletic director Gene Smith should take a ride up from Columbus this summer and take some notes on how to run a clean program.

They could certainly use some help.

Posted in Kent State, Ohio State, winning | Leave a comment

02 Jun 2011

On irony, Ohio State and Jim Tressel

Some final thoughts on the Jim Tressel situation at Ohio State.

It’s ironic that Ohio State has only itself to blame in all this. The NCAA does not make the rules, the governing body only enforces the rules that its member schools put in place.

So because people like Ohio State President Gordon Gee cling to an antiquated fairytale of college athletics as some kind of pure amateurism, the NCAA must enforce a host of silly rules – like the one saying you can’t sell memorabilia that has been given to you if you are a player.

Maybe if the schools weren’t so interested in trying to create a utopian society in college sports, they could get rid of the little things that bog down the NCAA and drive fans batty and let them take on the types of serious violations that really matter.

College football analyst, and former Browns quarterback, Gary Danielson was on Chris Russo’s Sirius radio show on Tuesday and he made some really good points about the situation at Ohio State and college athletics in general.

First off, he rightly pointed out that players selling items has been going on for decades, probably as long as there have been college athletics. Danielson said that when he was at Purdue, players knew not only who to go to when they wanted to sell their game tickets, but who would pay the most money.

The difference now, he said, is that today’s players aren’t happy with just a little extra spending cash, they have a sense of entitlement and a need for more – money, cars, jewelry, etc. – that leads to bigger trouble with the NCAA.

He also pointed out that athletes at most, if not all, schools learn quickly where the black market is in their town for the types of services they want. The generational and cultural gap between coaches and players is too great nowadays for coaches to know all the games players run and corners they cut.

Danielson came up with a solution that actually makes a lot of sense – college athletes should be treated like Olympic athletes and be allowed to sign endorsement deals with corporate sponsors.

If Nike wants to sign Vince Young to a shoe contract while he is at Texas, or if Ford wants to support Reggie Bush, why not allow it?

The big money would go to the superstars, of course, but even if you are a back-up, in most college towns you could get a sponsorship from Bob’s Automart of Crazy Carl’s Appliance Store.

It certainly wouldn’t eliminate every problem, but would it really make things worse? Like Danielson said, the Olympics are doing it and the last time we checked, the world hadn’t come to an end.

The idea probably makes too much sense to actually be implemented; after all, we’re talking about a group of people, in college presidents, that can’t see the hypocrisy of not having a playoff at the top level of college football because it would hurt the players’ studying – but somehow it is OK for every other sport at every level in college.

But we can certainly dream of a better day. And until that day comes, stay classy Buckeye fans.

***

There’s no World Cup this summer, and the next European Championship is still a year away, but there is still plenty of soccer action coming this summer.

Posted in common sense, Jim Tressel, Ohio State | Leave a comment

31 May 2011

Should we be worried about the Tribe?

The Indians have been rather ugly and disappointing of late on the field, losing four of their last five games.

During the losing streak, the Tribe has only scored eight runs, has a .213 batting average, is just 2-of-20 with runners in scoring position and have posted an ERA of 6.27.

The skid hit rock bottom (we hope) Monday night against Toronto when the Indians couldn’t figure out how to get to Blue Jay starter Jo-Jo Reyes, who came into the game with an 0-4 record, a 4.70 earned-run average and a losing streak (28 starts) that stretched to 2008.

Told you it has been ugly.

So should we be worried?

Probably not.

On May 1, the Indians were 19-8, a winning percentage of .704, which they obviously were not going to sustain for an entire season.

Heading into last night’s game with Toronto, the Tribe was 31-20, which means they have played .500 ball for the month of May.

But (and there is always a but) the Indians have increased their division lead during the month, from 4.5 games over second-place Kansas City on May 1 to to 5 games over second-place Detroit heading into last night’s game.

So they have made it through a month of mediocre play and still sit comfortably in first place.

But (there it is again) the past week has put the team’s shortcomings in the spotlight.

The team has been trying to hold down the fort while waiting for Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner to return from injuries. Their absence definitely thinned out the lineup. Sizemore is back and hopefully Hafner will return sooner rather than later so the bench players, like Shelley Duncan and Travis Buck, can go back to the bench.

So the lack of offense may correct itself.

Then there is the defense.

After being solid for the first month-and-a-half of the season, the Tribe defense has fallen off a cliff. In the last six games, the Indians have committed six errors. The one game they didn’t commit an error? Saturday’s 7-3 win against Tampa.

In the first 40 games of the season, the Tribe committed 16 errors; in the past 11 games the number is 12 errors.

The Indians have to have solid defense to have a chance to win, especially with the offense slumping the way it is. This team just can’t afford to give away outs.

Luckily defense is something that should be easily fixed (or at least we hope so).

So that leaves the starting pitching.

After being so good, the starters have struggled – a lot – recently.

From Mitch Talbot (3 innings pitched, 12 hits, eight earned runs vs. Boston), to Justin Masterson (5 IP, eight hits, seven earned runs) to Fausto Carmona’s stinkfest against Toronto (4 IP, nine hits, seven earned runs), the pitching staff is slumping just as bad as the offense.

The pitching staff has given up seven or more runs five times in the last 11 games – the same number they put up in the first 40 games of the season.

And that right there probably gives us the answer we are looking for.

With the offense, the pitching and the defense all struggling at the same time, any team is going to look bad. The Tribe is most likely not as good as they looked when they started 19-8, but neither are the as bad as they have been during the 12-12 stretch of the past month.

As we write this, the Indians are in the process of building a 3-0 lead in the third inning against Toronto. So maybe the past week – and month – are just a normal part of the ebb-and-flow of a long baseball season.

After all, the only number that counts is the one that says the Tribe is in first place by five games.

***

Lots to like as the alma mater participates in post-season play.

The Kent State golf team posted a team score of 304 (16-0ver) during the first of three stroke play rounds on Tuesday at the 2011 NCAA Championship at Oklahoma State.

The Golden Flashes finished the day in ninth place among 15 teams.

After winning its third consecutive MAC championship over the weekend, the baseball team drew a No. 3 regional seed in the 2011 NCAA Championship tournament.

Ranked No. 24 in the nation, the Golden Flashes will play in the Austin Regional this weekend, opening on Friday against the No. 2 seed, Texas State.

***

TV ratings for Saturday’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United were up 64 percent from last year.

***

Finally, Peyton Hillis’ Madden cover has been released.

Would it have killed them to show him steamrolling a Steeler?

Posted in Champions League, Cleveland Indians, Kent State | Leave a comment

30 May 2011

Life lessons from Jim Tressel

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Wow, we certainly did not see this one coming.

Jim Tressel “resigned” on Monday as football coach at Ohio State, possibly at the urging of the university. You know, the old “you should quit because we are going to fire you” move.

What makes this all the more bizarre is that it never had to come to this.

If Tressel had just told his bosses that some players were up to shenanigans when he first learned about it, life would have gone on at Ohio State. The way life went on at Georgia following A.J. Green’s four-game suspension last season for selling memorabilia.

But he didn’t want to lose some of his best players to suspension so he sat on the information.

So that’s life lesson No. 1: What we do when no one is watching is the true reflection of our character.

It’s easy to “honor” players from the Naval Academy with a stadium full of people and the TV cameras focused on you. The same with singing the alma mater – which when you really look at it is a pointless gesture.

But when a situation came that called for Tressel to show true character, he shrunk from the moment.

He only made things worse by continuing to lie and deny that he knew something was wrong. Signing off on the players before the season started by claiming they were clean, denying he knew anything before the Sugar Bowl, lying about how he was trying to “protect” the players involved.

Once those lies started piling up, it got harder to keep them straight and, just like a loose thread on a sweater vest, everything started to unravel.

That’s life lesson No. 2: Don’t lie. We all learn that at an early age.

While we were surprised at first to learn that it was Ohio State that made the call to let Tressel go, the more we think about it the more that makes sense.

Ohio State tries to set itself up as being a program that is better than everyone else; one that doesn’t do things like “schools in the SEC.”

But for the school to continue to do nothing, or impose cosmetic punishments, would reveal it as having a win at all cost mentality. Throw in the fact that coaches who willingly lie to the NCAA – which is clearly what Tressel did – rarely keep their jobs and Ohio State was finally left with no way to spin this.

And a Sports Illustrated article detailing how this been going on for years should come as no surprise. The first time you get caught doing something wrong is rarely – if ever – the first time you committed a crime.

So now the apologists will be out looking to shoot the messenger – the media, the NCAA, Kirk Herbstreit, the players, whoever they can find – because they don’t like the message. And on some level we can understand their frustration.

They were sold a fairy tale about Tressel being a saint among sinners in college football and, it turns out, their false idol is no better than anyone else.

But above everything else, there’s no denying that Tressel has no one to blame but himself.

Posted in culture of lies, Jim Tressel, Ohio State | Leave a comment

28 May 2011

Cavs looking to make a deal?

Apparently, the Cavs may not be willing to settle for having the No. 1 and No. 4 pick in next month’s NBA draft.

According to ESPN, “sources” say the Cavaliers are in discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons about a three-team trade that would give Cleveland the top two picks of next month’s NBA draft.

Wait, it gets better.

The Cavs would reportedly use their $14.6 million trade exception to trade for Detroit’s Rip Hamilton and also receive the Pistons’ first-round pick, No. 8.

The Cavs would then send the No. 8 pick and the No. 4 pick to Minnesota for the Timberwolves’ pick, No. 2.

Finally, the Cavs would buy Hamilton out of the last two years of his contract, which calls for him to make $25 million.

So let’s summarize: the Cavs would get the No. 2 pick in the draft (meaning they would be picking 1 & 2), they wouldn’t have to give up any players, and it would only cost them cash?

Why would they not make that trade?

As with any rumors originating from ESPN “sources,” it’s impossible to know how much truth there is to this.

Piston beat writers Vincent Goodwill (The Detroit News ) and Vincent Ellis (Detroit Free Press) both say the story has no legs.

More than likely, the trade falls into the category of “if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.” At least this far away from the draft. As we get closer to draft night though …

In any event, it is good to think that the Cavs are being creative and aggressive in trying to improve the team.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA draft, NBA trade | Leave a comment

27 May 2011

Turns out, their is an I in team

With their victory over the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Miami Heat continue to disprove the old adage that there is no I in team.

By making the finals in the first year of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh playing together, the Heat are creating a new model for the NBA where the individual is more important than the team.

The Heat deserve some credit, we suppose. They manipulated the system to their advantage, the players colluded to play together, and now they have been rewarded with what could be the first of multiple trips to the NBA Finals.

As for the Bulls, the writing is on the wall. They learned the same lesson the Cavs learned the past two years: one superstar player and a supporting cast of role players isn’t going to get it done in today’s NBA.

And really, how are the Bulls any different than the Cavs of ’08-’09 and ’09-’10?

They both were led by a dominant player (Derrick Rose and James), with a group of role players (Carlos Boozer/Antwan Jamison, Joakim Noah/Anderson Varajeo, Keith Bogans/Mo Williams) and a head coach that preaches defense first (Tom Thibodeau/Mike Brown).

How long before Rose decides, rather than looking for help, that he can’t beat the Heat and leaves Chicago? Does anyone really think that in a couple of years, when Kobe Bryant is done in LA and Dwight Howard and the Lakers come calling, that Rose won’t head out west?

The Heat haven’t won the title yet; the Mavericks still have a say in this.

But we’ve seen the future and it doesn’t look pretty, at least in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

***

Former Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse, who suffered the most inexcusable injury in baseball history, feels sorry for San Francisco catcher Buster Posey but doesn’t join the hoopleheads in calling for a rule change to protect catchers.

“The game has been around more than 100 years, and now they’re going to start protecting catchers?” Fosse told The San Francisco Chronicle. “I can’t see anything that can be changed. In high school, you can’t run over a catcher. But that’s high school. This is professional baseball. The idea is to score runs. If the catcher has the ball and he’s standing there, the runner has to stop? Is that the protection?

“I can’t believe anything can be done, and I don’t see how you could regulate something like that.”

***

The football season comes to and end on Saturday when Manchester United takes on Barcelona in what should be an exciting final of the Champions League.

Will the game by the last hurrah for Barcelona and Spain?

Can Manchester United learn from the mistakes of 2009?

Can Edwin van der Sar go out a winner?

Finally, six of the best matches between the two teams.

And just think, with a 2:45 p.m. kickoff from London’s Wembley Stadium, we’ll be able to watch the final and only miss a couple of innings of the Tribe game vs. Tampa.

Posted in Barcelona, Champions League, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, hoople heads, Manchester United, NBA | Leave a comment

27 May 2011

2 Comments

Does Cleveland not hurt?

Wednesday night in San Francisco, Giants catcher Buster Posey suffered a brutal leg injury in a home plate collision with Florida’s Scott Cousins. Posey ended up with a broken bone in his left leg and speculation is that he also suffered ligament damage.

This lead to cries from Posey’s agent that Major League Baseball must change its rules to protect catchers in these situations (no word, though, on what the agent thinks about a runner being injured. Apparently that’s OK). Others jumped on the rule change bandwagon as well.

Funny, but we don’t remember anyone calling for rule changes when Indians catcher Carlos Santana was injured at home plate last season against Boston.

Apparently injuries are only a national crisis if the player who is hurt doesn’t play for Cleveland.

***

When is a sellout not a sellout? Apparently it depends on who is doing the accounting.

According to Forbes, since attendance has become such a key component for sports leagues, the actual idea that it shows how many people are actually at a game is a fantasy.

And that includes the Indians:

In terms of Major League Baseball, sellout figures are often well below seating capacity.

Case in point, the Cleveland Indians announced last Friday that they reached a sellout for Saturday’s interleague game with the Reds, the first non-Opening Day sellout since May 24, 2008 when they played the Texas Rangers. But, when the numbers came in, you had to scratch your head.

Capacity for Progressive Field is 43,545. The announced attendance was 40,631, or 2,914 short of capacity. Sellout?

In speaking with the Indians, they explained part of the difference by saying their sellout threshold varies, but 41,721 is a good barometer, getting us to 1.090 shy of a sellout, but not to capacity.

Why the difference?

According to the Indians, that threshold was broken with comps related to several factors including rainout exchanges, Club Seat benefit for season ticket holders, group leader tickets, fan appreciation coupons from last Sept, etc.

But, that still doesn’t explain how all the variation. As an MLB source said, “We need to look into this.”

Ah, when you have a six-game lead over the second-place team in your division, we can overlook a little accounting voodoo.

Posted in Buster Posey, Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians, freak injuries

26 May 2011

Razor thin Tribe

The last two days against Boston highlighted just how thin the Tribe’s margin of error is right now.

With Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner out of the lineup with injuries, and Carlos Santana in an 0-for-19 slump, the Indians need to have outstanding pitching to have any chance of staying in the game.

Tuesday night’s game was a perfect example. Fausto Carmona went eight innings and really only made one bad pitch – the two-run home run he gave up to Jason Varitek in the seventh inning of the Indians 4-2 loss.

Most nights four runs would not have been that much to overcome, but the Tribe lineup is currently a bit thin. Add in the fact that the Indians forgot how to run the bases – they had a runner thrown out at third, two base stealers were caught at second, and Matt LaPorta was doubled off in the fifth.

With the offense in its current state, that’s not going to get it down.

And the less said about Mitch Talbot’s performance in Wednesday’s 14-2 loss the better. Doesn’t matter how well you are playing, few teams are coming back from 7-0 in the first inning.

So the Indians hit the road with a two-game losing streak. Does that mean the good times have come to an end? Of course not.

Detroit was rained out Wednesday, and the Twins and White Sox both lost. Pending the outcome of the Royals game, the Tribe leads second-place Detroit by 5.5 games, KC by at least 7.5 and Chicago by 9. Minnesota is so far behind they are lucky there isn’t relegation in baseball.

The Indians entered May 4.5 games ahead of second-place KC, so they’ve increased their lead during the month. And Sizemore is expected back on Friday.

So while the last two days haven’t been fun, the Tribe is a long way from the panic zone.

***

Former Cavs coach Mike Brown has agreed to become the coach of the Lakers, taking over for the retired Phil Jackson.

“In response to rampant speculation and reports about our head coaching position and Mike Brown, we’ve met with Mike and are very impressed with him,” the team said in published reports. “In addition, we have an outline for an agreement in place and hope to sign a contract within the next few days.”

Who saw this one coming?

Although, once you get past the initial surprise, the Lakers may have made a good hire.

During his time in Cleveland, Brown:

Won the third-most games in team history with 272 wins;
Won the most postseason games in team history with 42 wins;
Coached the team to the playoffs five straight years;
Coached the team past the first round of the playoffs every year;
Posted at least 45 wins five straight years, the first time in team history;
Posted back-to-back 60-win seasons;

And no one was under more of a spotlight than the Cavs during Brown’s last two years with the team, so the pressure of coaching the NBA’s marquee franchise shouldn’t faze him.

Plus, you don’t think Kobe Bryant is just itching to prove he can win a title without Phil Jackson?

“If you’re building a championship team, the DNA always has to start on the defensive end of the floor. Always. I’m a firm believer in that,” Bryant told The Los Angeles Times. “I don’t believe in building a championship team on offense. It has to be built on defense and rebounding. Period.”

Brown certainly knows defense, so if that’s what Bryant wants, he’s going to get it.

Congrats to coach Brown – a good guy who may gotten a raw deal at the end in Cleveland.

***

The Tribe is finally getting some love from the worldwide leader – with two (two!) columns praising the team in one day.

Tim Kurkjian risks being struck down by lightening for suggesting that Asdrubal Cabrera may be the best shortstop in the American League:

The best shortstop in the American League this year is not closing in on 3,000 hits, he’s getting close to 500. He has an unusual first name, his last name is the same as his double-play partner and he was traded for a current ESPN analyst who had only 17 hits after the deal.

Meet Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians. He is 25 years old, a switch-hitter and, so far this season, the best player on the best team in baseball.

Then Jerry Crasnick came through with a look at how the Indians fleeced the Mariners of both Cabrera and Shin-Soo Choo in separate trades in 2006:

The Cleveland Indians lack the financial wherewithal to compete for big-name free agents and their recent draft history is nondescript, to put it kindly. But the Tribe sure does hold its own on the trade market.

Scan the roster for the Indians, the surprise American League Central leaders, and you’ll find quite a bounty by way of the Pacific Northwest. Asdrubal Cabrera, who leads AL shortstops with 10 homers, 58 hits and an .900 OPS, arrived from Seattle five years ago in a late June deal for Eduardo Perez. Less than a month later, the Indians acquired outfield prospect Shin-Soo Choo and pitcher Shawn Nottingham from the Mariners for Ben Broussard.

Two positive stories in one day? Things are definitely getting strange around here.

***

Finally, today is the anniversary of arguably one of the greatest games in Champions League history – Liverpool’s win in the final against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005.

Trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Reds scored three times in the first six minutes of the second half and eventually won the game in a penalty shootout for their fifth European Cup championship.

Posted in Champions League, Cleveland Indians, Liverpool, Los Angeles Lakers, Mike Brown | Leave a comment

24 May 2011

Tribe bandwagon getting crowded

It took 45 games and almost two months of the season, but the rest of the country has finally figured out what we’ve known here in Cleveland since early in April – the Indians are the dogs bollocks this year.

The Tribe is No. 1 in the latest ESPN.com power rankings, have held the top spot in Real Clear Sports’ ranking for the entire month, are getting love from sites as diverse as The Wall Street Journal and Gaming Today, and have even won over Boston Red Sox announcer Jerry Remy:

“They’ve been no flash in the pan,” Remy said of the Indians. “They’ve done everything. They’re pitching well, they’re hitting well, they’re playing good defense. They’re just playing great baseball right now, and they’ve gained some confidence in themselves where they figure they can win this division.”

We were listening to Mad Dog Radio on Sirius today and Larry Bowa, a studio analyst for the MLB Network, was on and said he’s taken a seat on the Tribe bandwagon.

Life is truly good for the Wahoo Warriors.

***

American Brad Friedel will be part of Fox’s coverage of the Champions League final on Saturday between Manchester United and Barcelona.

The Fox pregame show will include host Curt Menefee along with Friedel and Eric Wynalda. Martin Tyler and Alan Smith will handle the play-by-play of the match.

Friedel, who has spent the past few years with Randy Lerner’s Aston Villa squad, is rumored to be returning to Liverpool, where he played from 1997 to 2000, next season to backup Pepe Reina.

Posted in Brad Friedel, Champions League, Cleveland Indians, dogs bollocks, Liverpool | Leave a comment