Blogger eating entries

I don't know how many entries I've lost to Blogger recently, but this hasn't been fun.

Anyway, I've had a few posts about the Cavs coach prospects and the Broncos revamping their line in the mold of the 2004 Browns.

But they've been eaten.

So I have no fun links for you today, sorry. But I do have some takes:

The word is that Doug Collins is happy broadcasting and isn't interested in coaching the Cavs. Good. I don't want Collins, he never did much with Jordan and didn't really do too well in Detroit. I keep hearing Flip Saunders and Phil Jackson as the two main guys, with Eric Mussleman as the dark horse. I don't think we could go wrong with any of them, but the coach I'd like to have the most is of course Jackson. And I keep hearing how the Cavs aren't an attractive team, compared to New York or Los Angles. Really, a team with salary space, a new owner (and a new GM, probably), an energized fan base, a legitmite center in Z and a All-World player in LeBron James. So the Knicks look better? The Lakers with Kobe as the GM? Puh-leeze. The Cavs are the most attractive team out there right now.

As for the Broncos, geez, do you guys want Orpheus Roye and Kenard Lang too? I mean, just take the whole line why don't you. I'm not sure how well Droughns will do away from Denvers line, but I don't mind losing Ekuban and Myers. Denver is gonna have fun watchin Brown and Warren underachieve for another year. Good times. I might miss it....

Of course, Brown and Warren could turn it around and show why they were drafted number 1 and 3 over all, respectively. I would put my money on Brown, he underachieves because of injuries, while Warren is mostly training. And I can't see Gerard Warren thriving in the high altitude. But hey... who knows...

Browns get Droughns

Continuing their ongoing dream to have the entire 2004 Browns powerhouse defensive line, the Broncos traded 1,240 yard rusher Ruben Droughns to the Browns for Ebenezer Ekuban and Michael Myers.

Now, I don't know if Droughns or Lee Suggs in the answer at running back. Suggs gets hurt about every other Sunday and Droughns played in Denver, so who knows how inflated his running numbers are.

But the Broncos... man... I can't get over this. Part of me is waiting for the Broncos to trade for Kenard Lang and Orpheus Roye, I mean, go all the way. Lang and Roye were the most consistant and productive of the Browns linemen. So why not.

Again, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Brown and Warren and all them worked out in Denver. That's the Cleveland luck for ya... But these are the same underachievers that got Butch Davis fired, what is Mike Shanahan thinking?

Broncos = Browns West?

So the Broncos signed Courtney Brown. The ESPN.com article does a good job mentioning how Brown never lived up to expectations in Cleveland. But it doesn't mention another thing. Gerrard Warren. How could you not mention this? Both guys were high draft picks in Cleveland and underachieved. And the Broncos brought them both in. What the hell? Did I miss something here? The Browns couldn't stop the run OR get sacks, our line sucked. And the Broncos saw our crappy line, and thought 'Yea, we need those guys, they show up for about 8 games a year. Awesome'

But that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if both worked out really well there. But something tells me Brown will get hurt, and I can't see Warren being in shape in the high altitude.

Start of Spring Quarter

So I'm back from Spring Break and spring quarter as begun. First off I want to let ya know that the OSU Jazz Lab (which I'm in) has a concert on April 9th (that's a Saturday) and April 8th Toothpick will be playing at Little Brothers in Columbus, and there's a chance we'll have a smallish (as in just beer) party. Should be good times.

Juan Gone made the Tribe's roster (mild surprise) and Peralta won the starting shortstop job (no surprise). I would've liked Phillips to given Peralta a better run for the job, but I think they would've been okay with either guy. I sitll think Phillips could be our starting second baseman at the end of the year. The Tribe should be able to score some runs this year (like last year) and this season the bullpen is in MUCH better shape. So hopefully CC comes back healthy (for the Tribe AND for my fantasy team) and the starters can continue on the good season(s) they had last year.

AP Hall Vote

Bonds in, Big Mac out.

At first I thought I would feel that none of them should get in. No Bonds, Sosa, Mac- anyone. Fuck 'em all.

But then I read Jason Starks column.

...nothing was done to police this issue while McGwire was playing. Zero. So like virtually all members of this number-inflated generation, he probably gets lumped into the same category as Gaylord Perry. Perry was allowed to cheat, wrote a book about cheating, even made a video about cheating. And people not only looked the other way, but thought it was hilarious. So all we could do, when he appeared on our ballot, was vote on what he did on the field – which was have a Hall of Fame career.

I pretty much agree. Perry cheated, and talked about it, and people thought it was funny. But Perry also never broke major records, especially the hallowed home run records. Stark also has another great observation:

Meanwhile, I hate to quote Jose Canseco as an authority on anything. But he was right when he said there is no way to know exactly how many more home runs anybody hit because they took any specific substance. Would they have hit more if the pitchers weren't taking them, too? How much were the shrunken ballparks and the harder bats and the livelier balls responsible for those numbers.
So if you're just asking me to judge the Mark McGwire I saw on the field, that guy was the best slugger of his generation – a man who represented his sport at the time with class, and with respect for its history and for the men he played with and against. That's the guy I'll vote for.

I'm baaaack

I'm back from the road trip with Scott and Matt and I sure missed a lot.

On the morning I leave the Cavaliers fire Paul Silas. I'm kind of suprised, but at the same time... not. The team has been in a funk, they just got a new owner, and there's no rhyme or reason for the rotation. The subs don't have regular minutes, so our shooters (who really aren't as bad as they look) can't get into a rhythm. I figured that they would wait out the year and deal with the problems in the offseason, but I guess they felt they needed the change now.

Pluto has some nice columns on the whole deal here and here.

And the Plain Dealer's columnists really hit on the topic too. Here, here and here.

Thoughts from home

Well, my bracket is pretty much screwed, I was doing really well too, until last night...

Robbie Alomar retired and Don Nelson resigned. Both are really too bad, I'll miss both. Robbie gave the Indians some of the best years of baseball the city has ever seen. An infield of Thome, Robbie Alomar, Vizquel, Fryman and Sandy Alomar. Those were the days. I think Alomar is pretty much a lock for the hall of fame (with Thome and Vizquel as possibilties).

And Nelson was always experimenting with lineups, Chris Mullin as point forward, good times. He always had crazy defenses (he used zones before zones were legal) he always managed to do something amusing (even if it was just his tie).

Cavs 81, Sixers 93

Well done. Sheesh guys, can anyone else play on this team besides Bron and Z? Honestly. Hit a shot. If Z and Bron have an off night (like last night) the team is screwed. This season is really starting to go down the tubes, I just hope they make the playoffs, that experience is invaluable, look at the strides Dwayne Wade has made this year if you don't think so (having Shaq helps too).

McGwire

heh, once I say I'm going to update daily, I dont update... er.. anyway

So baseball went to Congress. Players testified, cameras rolled. Mark McGwire refused to admit that he used steroids. He wasn't going to talk about his past. So, if he didn't use steroids, what's the problem with him saying so. Sosa and Palmero said they didn't do it. (I believe Sosa didn't take steroids, I just believe he took Human Growth Hormone, the same stuff Bonds has taken... allegedly). So McGwire refused to name names, and he said he wasn't going to bring up his past (that is steroid free). McGwire has to be nervous as hell, he's up for the hall of fame in a few years, if he admits anything, he is screwed. But he just screwed himself in the court of public opinion.

Simmons Mail Bag

I found this hilarious, I just had to share:

Q: After reading over the intern finalists' new TV shows, I think they all
missed one that would be a huge hit for ESPN6. It would be called, "Win Mark
Blount's Money." Here's how it would go. After going through some tryouts, a
player gets the opportunity to play in Mark Blount's place for one game. If he
can better Blount's stats in one major category (points, assists, rebounds),
Blount has to give that player the amount of money he would've earned for that
game (about $85,000). If he can do better than Blount in all categories
(including blocks and steals), Blount has to give him $1 million. Who wouldn't
want to watch that?– Shane Ebbert, Provo, Utah
SG: I'd rather see a game show called, "Get Mark Blount's Attention During
a Timeout." Three contestants would pretend to be the Celtics coach during a
timeout, and they would have 90 seconds in the huddle to somehow divert Blount's
attention away from the Jumbotron, the cheerleaders or the first five rows of
the stands. It would be like the NBA version of "Make Me Laugh."

What if...

LeBron had gone to school? Carmelo stayed? Josh Smith? This morning I read some of Sports Illustrated On Campus Edition and it has an entire NCAA bracket of what the Tourny would look like had the players stayed in college for 4 years. Needless to say it was like a basketball fans wet dream. But alas, tonight all I can find is a SIOC article about the title game of that fantasy tournament. Syracuse vs UCLA. Carmelo vs Tony Parker. That would've been sweet. But I can't find the link for the entire article, (you can read it online by signing up for SIOC with your email, just click on the link that says 'Get the FREE and complete digital edition of SI on Campus'). My only beef with the article is that the Buckeyes were a 4 seed. Really, with LeBron as one of the best in the NBA right now, you think his presence alone wouldn't make the Buckeyes at LEAST a 2 seed? Could you imagine?

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

When I started this blog I wanted to write about sports and music. I've gotten a few sports coments down everyday (though I'd like to write longer and more frequently). This is my second music post (Daniel Erb was the first) and this is going to be a full length CD review.

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

I saw Johnson a few years ago at Bonnaroo and I thought he was okay. He didn't seem too special too me. I've burned a few of his CDs since then, and I've never given them my full attention, and I'm not really sure why. I love accoustic guitar and (sophisitcated) pop music, and I don't know if it was the fact that his fan base overlapped with the DMB fan base (which I grew up around and turned me off to their music since).... Needless to say, I've heard his singles, but never listened too much to him.

The other day I had the radio on in my car (which is very rare) and I had it on a music station (even rarer, I listen to Air America or Sports when I have the radio on). The DJ talked about Johnson and played his new single, 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing'. I thought it was okay, and didn't really think much of it. Then I was watching SNL the other day and Johnson was the musical guest. He played SWW and then for the second song he played 'Mudfootball' with G. Love. I've been humming 'Mudfootball' ever since (it's been4 days). Finally, my friend Matt asked me to go to Target with him to buy a grill, I had nothin better to do (besides study for finals) so I went. He told me how he heard this song off Johnsons new album that's really sweet and he's trying to learn it on guitar. I don't know if it was a sign or what, but with everyone talking about Jack Johnson and his new album, I decided to spend the 10 bucks and pick it up.

It was one of my smarter CD purchases in quite some time.

The album just has a summertime feeling to it. I don't know if it's because the weather is finally hitting spring here or what, but combined with 'In Between Dreams' it feels like summertime. The album is mostly accoustic strumming and simple arrangments, but it works. My biggest complaint is that the songs are too short (as is the CD itself, about 40 mintues long). There's 14 tracks, which I like, but they rarely go much past the 3 minute mark and I'm honsetly not sure if there's a song that reaches 4 minutes on the entire album. For some of the songs it works, like 'Better Together' and 'Never Know' but for some of the songs it feels like half a song. Like Johnson had the idea for the beginning of a song, but could never finish it, so he just recorded the beginning. I think 'Belle' and 'Situations' suffer the most from this.

My favorite tracks on the album are 'Banana Pancakes,' 'Good People,' 'Breakdown,' and 'Do You Remember.' To me, 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing' is okay, and I can see why they released it as a single. It sounds the most 'radio friendly' of all of the tracks. It's one of the longer selections and it has electric guitar and some minor chords.

Needless to say, I've been enjoying this album for a few days now and I can't take it out of my CD player. I listen to it and I smile; it's just a happy CD, and I highly recomend it.

Random March Maddness Stuff

First of all, again, finals week, lack of updates- sorry. For the record I have Wake Forest winning it all, beating UNC in the title game.

A lot of NBA careers are started during this next month (Wally-World anyone?) and Bill Simmons has a nice article on what to look out for: He can't lay an egg in the Tournament -- if he shoots 3-for-130 like Blake Stepp did against Nevada, there's a good chance it will happen again at the next level. He can't provoke an announcer to say anything resembling, "He's got all the talent. He just needs to get it done every night." (Call it the Jerome Moiso Syndrome: if you can't get it up when you're gunning for an NBA contract, you aren't going to when you're getting a guaranteed paycheck.)

Continuing with our NCAA to the NBA theme, Drew Packman listed his top five NBA players who won an NCAA title (out of a possible 31 - no UNC guys who are in the league right now have a NCAA title, isn't that weird?) I'll let you read the article for yourself, I will make a case for one guy who didn't make (though aparently it was close) the top 5: Rip Hamilton.

How many people in the NBA have a championship ring (belt?) from both the NCAA and the NBA. From my count, 2, Rip and Corliss Williamson. So only two guys have both rings, and neither of them make the top 5 NBA players with championship rings? Now I love the Big Nasty as much as anyone, but I understand why he's not on the list. But Rip? Come on, he was one of the main reasons (if not THE reason) that the Pistons won last year (and personally I think he got hosed in the Finals MVP). If we applaud Tom Brady for just winning, not being fancy, not about the numbers, but winning, then how couldn't Hamilton make the list while being the only guy who won at the 2 highest levels of basketball in America.

Pluto on Hudson

Now for some Hudson sports. The basketball team was pretty good this year and Terry Pluto has a nice column on them here.

Hudson

So I don't know if you've heard about the HudsonHigh School walk out incident, but here's the story. Aparently all the reason kids need to walk out of HHS these days is the principal being fired. Hey, at least when we walked out we had a teachers strike. Aparently kids were peppersprayed by some cops during the walkout. To make matters worse, it was caught on film. Good times.

Now, to make sure no one gets exploited in this, Michael Moore has stepped into the fray. Now, there are certain times I like Moore and there are certain times I don't, and this is of the latter. I'd be really surprised if kids really feel that bad for the principal OR if they just wanted a reason to leave school for a little while.

Imagine you're sitting in the commons and some kids come up and say we're walking out tomorrow at 10 am (600 kids actually walked out, a decent amount) to protest the principals fireing. you think to yourself, yea, I got math class then, fuck math class, I'm walking out! So maybe some kids do think the principal got a raw deal, I just find it hard to believe that all 600 felt this strongly.

Jose Immunity

Little updates (and late at that) today, I have a few papers due tomorrow. I just wanted to pass along this little tidbit from Congressional baseball hearings:

Retired baseball star Jose Canseco wants immunity if he is to testify fully at a congressional hearing on steroids, but a spokesman for the lawmaker who will chair the proceeding offered no promises Thursday.

I'm not sure what Jose wants it for, but I'm interested to see these players go up there and testify under oath. Should be fun, and it'll probably be better than whatever congress has been doing anyway. Oh, and here's Keith Olberman's take on how the baseball record book will look down the line.

Bill Bradley

Continuing with our sports and politics theme today, here's a nice interview with Hall of Fame basketball player and Senator Bill Bradley. At one point he describes one of my favorite moments in basketball:

I thought of myself as an artist in a team sport. Certain were situations
allowed me to transcend the moment I was in. For example, I have written about
the backdoor play. If you know what's going to happen and then you see it
happening -- you see it developing -- and it's kind of a moment of transcendent
joy.

Having solved all of the nations problems

Congress has summoned baseball players to testify what they know about steroids. Now the baseball fan in me loves this. Finally make the players speak, spill their guts; its gonna be great.

But the person who follows politcs is a little disgusted. As much as I want baseball cleaned up (and cheaters exposed) shouldn't Congress be investigating Jeff Gannon, or election reform or, I dunno, WMDs (or lack there of)? Although if they cleaned up some of the politcal messes AND clean up baseball (which baseball hasn't had any intention of doing itself) then its a win-win.

Scoop Jackson

ESPN's Page 2 debuted a new columnist and his name is Scoop Jackson. He reminds me a lot of Ralph Wiley, at least Wiley's style on Page 2. Yea you could say that I'm just seeing another black writer talking about basketball, but there's a different feeling to the writing:

It got quiet all of a sudden. Poppa Joe Harris had nothing to say. The SI with
the colla-poppin' Prince on the cover got looked at hard, almost as if Poppa's
stone was rollin', almost as if he was blaming SI for the loss. Then he thought
different. Instead, the magazine found the trash.

So far, after reading his column and his manifesto, I have to say I like him (but it's early in the game).

Monday Morning QB

Peter King has another great MMQB column and he rates the offseason NFL moves so far. He likes the Cowboys (and agrees with me that they probably overpaid Anthony Henry) but he doesn't seem to like the Browns Trent Dilfer move. I don't really mind it, I was never (ever) a big Kelly Holcomb fan, and having Trent Dilfer makes the season that much more funny (and a throw away)

Rolle to the Ravens

Man, the Ravens are good, we take Baxter and they just turn around and sign Samari Rolle. The Ravens have signed both of the big name Titan players who were cut (Derrick Mason being the other). They should be good enough to challenge the Steelers for the top of the AFC North.

Baxter in, Holcomb Out

We replace Anthony Henry with Gary Baxter. Nice. Great pick up for the Browns, anytime you can get a player from a division rival it's a good thing. I hear we're looking to draft a CB with our first round pick, so we could totally revamp the secondary in one offseason. That would be nice.

Kelly Holcomb signed with the Buffalo Bills and I don't really care. Holcomb was a tease, he would have amazing games with 400 yards passing. Then amazing games where he breaks his leg on a QB sneak. The thing is, the Browns have now lost their two 'top' QBs from last year, so are we going after Dilfer? Drafting Charlie Frye? Who knows.

Judge Wedge

Some people don't like Indians manager Eric Wedge, some do. Personally I really have no opinion of him, the teams the Tribe have fielded haven't exactly been World Series contenders. And last year the entire bullpen sucked, so there weren't many 'should he have brounght in the righty instead?' debates, cause the righty and lefty both sucked major ass.

But this year is The Year. 2005. The year the Tribe is supposed to contend. So now we can bitch about Wedge, we can defend him or we could not care at all (the Indians did have some pretty shitty attendence figures last year). I'm really looking forward to this year, the Tribe should be pretty good. Assuming Wedge can manage.

He just wins

So the Browns might trade for Trent Dilfer? Wha? I guess I like it better than Holcomb, but still, nothing will get the Browns fans going like a good Dilfer chant.

An early review of Jimmy Fallons new movie

It's called Fever Pitch, you may remember them filming it during the baseball playoffs, and Fallon and Barrymore running out onto the field after the Sox won it all. Fever Pitch is a Farely Brothers film and Moriarty (from Aint it cool news) says it's better than Something About Mary, and he's not too sold on Jimmy Fallon either:

I actually saw TAXI yesterday morning, just before John Robie called to invite
me to see FEVER PITCH, so I walked into the screening ready to hate Jimmy Fallon
in this film. I don’t get him. I think he’s painfully unfunny on SNL, and TAXI
was like being kicked in the balls by my DVD player for two hours.

C-Webb vs Chris Webber

I usually like Jason Whitlock, and this week is no exception. He has a column about Chris Webber not being comfortable in his own shoes, as in he's embarrassed to be himself. It's really pretty interesting.

My newest column

Here's my newest column to the Lantern. I've gotten mostly positive feedback from it. There's a few times they use exclamation points where I had periods, and I'm kinda peeved (I feel that it makes the humor less dry, but that's just me). Enjoy.

Cheeks Fired

The Blazers fired Maurice Cheeks today. It's really too bad. Maurice is a great guy (we all remember his National Anthem moment) and he's a great coach, but the Blazers are sinking fast. They have a ton of salary (again) and a ton of under achievers/malcontents (again), so this could be a blessing in disguise for Cheeks. Could he go to Minnesota? Lakers? Knicks (please no) or possibly Orlando?

More Maurice

There are two sides to everystory, and here's Maurice's.

This is an interesting read from ESPN, it chronicles Claretts thought process and goes through his Combine. There was one line I found intereting:

His closest confidants felt he'd over-trained, but the spin had already been spun by then. Word traveled fast. NFL people said he was a bust, that he might not get drafted. It broke his heart, and in a post-40 interview with The NFL Network, which no one in their right mind would have expected him to do, he was inconsolable and took full responsibility for his collapse.

Where does he go from here? He's back in L.A., and he's headed back to the gym, back to a trainer who specializes in speed and fast muscle twitch. He said he will work out at Ohio State's Pro Day, on March 8, but this is news to Ohio State, where he is essentially on a black list.

Warren gone

Gerard Warren was just traded to the Broncos for a fourth round pick. Sweet, a former first rounder for a fourth... awesome.

I actually don't mind the trade too bad, it sure does clear up some salary and we could always use some more draft picks. The team (defense especially) will look a lot different come next year, The Browns already waived Robert Griffith. William Green will probably be next to go, it'd be nice to get a 3rd rounder for him, cause at least Green has produced in games (unlike Warren).