YANKEES LOSE!

That’s right.  The New York Baseball Yankees, apparently god’s team, lost the ALDS in 4 games.  Reports are there was another team on the field, possibly from the midwest, but this ‘other’ team had nothing to do with the Yankees losing.

The point is, if you listened to the game last night that is the impression you are left with.  “17 outs left in the Yankees Season.”  “Is this Torre’s final visit to the mound as the Yankees manager”?  I was almost waiting for Chip Caray to say that  “The Yankees do not advance!” when the final out was recorded and the Indians charged the mound in a glorious display. Forget the fact that the Indians were cleary head and shoulders above the Yankees, and that they dominated in every facet of the series. 

But seriously, what spectacular display put on by the Tribe the last 4 games.  The best part about this ‘07 team is that they have everything that the teams of the 90’s lacked–namely great starting pitching and patient hitters.  Should the Tribe win the WS this year I couldn’t think of a better way to do it than by going through the Yanks and Red Sox (with Manny) to get there.  Of course, even with the games being on Fox now we’re still going to be forced to sit through a compreshesive look at the history and greatness of the Boston Red Sox, while this Indians team is largely ignored on a national stage. 

In the end, I like the Indian’ chances.  You get the feeling that the Red Sox are let down after hearing about the Yankees incredible late-season run, and having to hear all about them watching the game last night and then not getting to play them in the Series To End All Series.  They might even be duped into thinking that they drew the lesser of the two teams.  Either way the Sox will come into the game with their standard amount of arrogance that isn’t lost on their fans, and hopefully this will work to the Indians favor. 

Tribe in 6! 

Saving My Energy For Football

    

     To preface this post, please take a look at this.  In it, I asked the question: “It will be interesting to see where the Tribe are on July 1st…June is a huge month for them to get back on track.  I was saying this because we were an even 26-26 going into the month of June, and I was basically bitching because we were a full 8.5 games in back of the Tigers.

     Ahh, if only they could be 8.5 games out again!  Instead of getting back on track in the month of June they completely derailed.  In fact, the Indians went a paltry 9-17 last month, and saw their 8 and a half game deficit more than double to 18.  It’s so bad, as of July 1 we were tied with Baltimore for the 4th worst record in the AL.  All this for a team that many predicted would at worst be the Wild Card team. 

     Now, with the season essentially over, it’s either time to look back at what went wrong, or to look forward to football season.  I think that’s an easy choice.  Let’s keep in mind that training camp starts in three weeks!

Your Cleveland Sports Roundup

 

Since I haven't been able to post much lately, I figured I would give a recap of the past week in the land of The Burning River.  Let's just say, it hasn't been good.

• The Indians have dropped to 15 games out.  This after getting swept by the mighty Beer drinkers of Wisconsin.  For a positive spin, they are now only 11.5 games out of last place.  Although, we did learn in the process that CC should probably be our DH.  Boy were we wrong for question Charlie Manuel about his ability to hit.
• Jason Johnson, it was good to know you.  Actually, it wasn't.  Was anybody really excited when we signed this guy to begin with?  He was at best mediocre for his career, and let's just say he wasn't at his best with us.  This does mean that we will finally get a look at Jeremy Sowers. 
• Mini-Camp was completed by the Browns, and the biggest news is that they don't like their QB situation.  Were they really shocked to find out that they can't find a servicable back-up between Ken Dorsey, Derek Anderson, Lang Campbell, et al?  Hell, many people could argue that their number 1 guy isn't even a number 1 guy at all.  There were also reports of Kellen Winslow being near 100% which is fantastic.  It's like getting another 1st round pick if that guy can play a full season this year.
• Just a quick fact:  between the Browns starting QB, and their backup, there is a combined 1 season worth of starts (16).  I don't think there's any doubt as to where the question marks will be this season. 
• And finally, the Bernie and Babette Kosar divorce saga just won't die.  Bernie went on WTAM yesterday saying how the allegations are way off base, and how he is still trying to mend things with his wife.  C'mon Babs, how you not take him back?  He's Bernie Kosar, Cleveland Legend.  Also, by far more people get to my site by searching for "babette kosar" than by any other means.  Weird.

(UPDATE:  Somehow Jason Johnson was already picked up by the Red Sox.  Wow.)

Where’s The Luggage?

     I only ask because we're getting pretty close to packing it in.  And, let's be real here, even if the Tribe does make some sort of turnaround do we really have a shot at making the post-season?  The answer of course is, unfortunately, no.  Believe me, I am usually the very last guy to admit defeat, but had our hopes not been raised at the beginning of the season by all of the positive publicity about our team, we would have raised the white flag long ago.

     Now, we stand closer to last place than we are to first place, and there are too many problems to fix in order to right the ship and leap over 3 teams by the end of the season.  Indeed, the reality is setting in that you can't win 93 games one year and then take away  your best starter and reliever, replace them with mediocre talent, add little if anything else, and somehow expect to improve.  The numbers just don't add up. 

     For many people, the blame game has already started.  What bothers me is that many want to blame Wedge for the debacle that is occuring this season, and I can't understand why.  Let's see:  He took a team to win 93 games last year, was then handed a much less talented team this year, and the results are showing that in the win/loss column.  It seems very clear to me that the problem isn't management or coaching, but the fact that we're not putting a good team on the field.  This won't change until Dolan realizes that you have to open up the pocket-book in order to win.  There's no getting around that, no matter what argument you bring. 

     What I really question is whether or not Dolan cares about winning.  What reason does he have to spend a ton of money to make a team better, when we still come out to the park, and watch the game on his network regardless?  He can keep running out a mediocre group of guys year after year, trade away some young stars before they get too expensive, increase the payroll by 3-5million a year, and continue to profit from the team.  Before you know it, our young stars aren't going to be young anymore, and it's going to be rebuilding time all over again.  Guaranteed.

The good news?  Browns season is just two months away!  Mediocrity is the best.

Cleveland Teams Hate Me

     I've always felt that I was bad luck to my favorite teams.  As I've mentioned before, the first Browns game played after I was born was the Red Right 88 playoff game against the Raiders, and the first game I ever went to was a 42-0 loss to the Bills and resulted in the firing of our Head Coach Bud Carson.  The first Tribe game I went to they won with a walk-off homer in 14 innings–but only after I was forced to leave early because I had school the next day.

     Recently, this trend has been getting worse.  I was at yesterday's "business man's special", and the Tribe played like they were taking the day off like everyone else in the stands.  The last game I went to was the Memorial Day schalacking they took at the hands of the White Sox 11-0.  That means the Indians have scored a grand total of 1 run the last 18 innings of baseball played in my presence!  Seriously, I have seen this much bad baseball since little league.  They are a cool 1-3 in my presence this year.  I think I should just stop going all together.

     As far as the other teams go, I went to 4 regular season Cavs game last year (all losses), but I did go to Game 1 of the playoffs which was a win.  Cavs=1-4 in my presence.  For the Browns I have season tickets, but the two games I chose not to go to were wins (Bears, Titans). 

     I guess though, that since Cleveland teams typically have losing records as of late, it should be quite hard to attend a game and see a win.  But still, I'm starting to forget what it's like to watch your team win.

Cleveland Sports Teams Hate Attention

    

 That's what I'm starting to think.  Is it a pre-requisite that all Cleveland teams must suck tremendously whenever they are playing in a nationally televised game?  The Tribe have played in two ESPN Sunday Night games this year.  Last night was a 14-2 shalacking with our ace throwing, and the other was a season-opening crushing at the hands of the White Sox where our ace got put on the DL.  In total the Tribe is 0-3 in national broadcast games this year.

     The Cavs seem to have no better luck in the spotlight, including getting blown-out 3 times to the Pistons on ABC's Sunday afternoon broadcast (the last two coming in the playoffs, the final one being game 7).  I don't have the actual numbers for Nationally broadcasted games, but the Cavs were consistently coming up emtpy on the grand stage.   

     Then there are the Browns.  0-1 last year on ESPN, with that being a blow-out loss to the Steelers in P*******gh.  In 2004 they were also 0-1, with that being the Sunday Night game where Ed Reed returned a last-second Jeff Garcia interception 107 yards to end the game.  In fact, since the Browns returned to the NFL in 1999, they are an amazing 1-6 in nationally televised primetime games.

     so what is it with our teams?  Why do they hate being in the spotlight?  Are they ashamed that they are from Cleveland?  Do they not like the fact they they are in HD?  Does that freaky SkyCam thing scare them?  I need some help on this one.

Good Morning, It’s June.

     Looks like the Tribe decided to finally come out of their winter hibernation and start playing baseball for real now.  It's almost like they think spring training is 3 months long, and the games don't count until the kids are out of school or something.  I'd like to think it's coincidence, but we're going on 3 straight years now.  However, they're still 8.5 in back of the DETROIT FREAKING TIGERS, and despite already beating the ChiSux more this year than all of last year they are still 6 games back of them.  Like I said on Tuesday, this year is going to be doubly hard to play catch up since we're chasing two teams.

     The month of may wasn't a complete loss though.  Consider that on May 1st, the Indians were at .500, and 6 games out of first.  One month later they were at .500, but 8.5 game out.  So after what most people would consider a disastrous month, we only gave up 2.5 games to the division leader.  In addition, the team ERA was 4.05 in the Month of May which was a full 1.5 points lower than it was for April, and the bullpen went 17 games with an ERA barely above 1 (thanks to the AP for that one).  That is really the best news because they are going nowhere unless the pitching staff turns it around.  In any event, it will be interesting to see where we are come July 1.  This is a huge month for the Tribe to get back on track, and they now have some momentum. 

10 Back, and it’s Only May.

I'm guessing that if you told someone at the begining of the season that at Memorial Day the Tribe would be 9 games in back of the White Sox, there's no way in hell they would believe that it was for second place.  But nonetheless, that's the case.  However, most people will want to point out that we were as many as 14 games out in July of last year and still brought it to within 1.5 games of the Sox before ultimately blowing it.  That bad news is, this year we are chasing two teams, and we're already over 10 games out.  This makes capturing the division title twice as hard becuase we now need both teams to falter.

     The most alarming thing about this team is how they fail to show up in big games.  This past weekend was all the proof you need. In losing 3 of 4 to the two aformentioned teams the Tribe not only dealt themselves a significant blow, they also gave the impression that they don't care.  Yesterday's game was easily the most disturbing.  After coming off a big win to avoid a sweep against the Tigers, you would think that they would have come out with a little fire.  Instead Cliff Lee made it clear that he wanted to start his holiday early by serving up a nice bomb to the career leader in HR's at the Jake.  However, the apparent lack of desire didn't stop with Lee, no pretty much the whole team protested the fact that they didn't want to work on a holiday by pretty much not showing up.

     The point is, for those still holding out on the thought that the Tribe has proven that they can rally late in the year need to realize that they probably can't bank on that happening this  year.  Not chasing two teams, and not by simply going through the motions like they are now.  We are very close to being on the verge of a disastrous season, given the expectations that were set by last year.  The Tribe are quickly running out of time to prove that they actually care about winning.