Jauron Fired as Bills Head Coach Read the full story

Walking around downtown Cleveland on any given evening you may be left to wonder if folks haven’t all picked up and moved away from what has become known as ‘The Mistake by the Lake’.  The sidewalks are all but barren of anyone walking upright on two legs.  Passing by the Fat Fish Blue restaurant one is reminded of Cleveland’s southern connection and it’s deep rooted passion for the blues which is certainly an appropriate music format for it’s long suffering sports fans.  Perhaps, most peculiar though is that while the city’s population base has been cut in half from what it was in 1950, the general populace continues to find shelter at any one of its 3 major sports venues.    I use the word shelter very loosely, as Cleveland sports teams have been anything but a haven of comfort for its loyal fans in this or the previous century. 

In 1948 the curtain was lowered on Cleveland Indians World Series victories.  Coincidentally, the Soviet Union was also lowering its iron curtain on all things American.  The iron curtain has since been raised, and while the bubbly spilled from East Germany to the Eastern most regions of Russia, it has never flowed through an Indians dugout with championship flavour since the Indians beat the Boston Braves that year 4 games to 2.  No doubt there are still a few Clevelanders around who attended Game 5 of the World Series that year – a game that was attended by more that 84 000 at the new Municipal Stadium.  Hot on the heels of Jackie Robinson’s inspiring entrance to Major League Baseball, Bill Veeck then part owner of the Indians signed Lary Doby out of the Negro League 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson signed with the Dodgers.  Later during the stretch run, Veeck turned again to the Negro League in favour of Hall of Famer Satchel Paige.  Doby and Paige along with veteran Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau would lead the Indians to their last World Series victory. 

Few clubs have produced results of greater futility over the years than the Indians.  From 1960 to 1993, only 6 times did the Indians finish any higher than last place.  When a team spends so much time in the basement, it is only natural if their fans wonder if they will ever see the light.  Cleveland baseball fans have seen their team jettison to the playoffs more recently, twice making it to the World Series in the 90s.  This propelled an attendance record at newly constructed Progressive Field from 1995 to 2001 with 455 consecutive sellouts (a record that was only surpassed recently by the Red Sox).  This past year, while many prognosticators had picked the Indians to sit atop the A.L. Central division, the Indians provided us with little more than their best impression of the now defunct Montreal Expos in trading away arguably their 2 best players in Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez at the trade deadline.  Oh and did we mention they once again finished in last place this year – tied with the equally hapless Kansas City Royals.  Despite this finish, the Indians managed to attract an average of 22 357 fans in 2009.  Cleveland fans deserve better don’t you think? 

Will they find it in the Browns or the Cavs?  One thing is for sure, they won’t find it in the NHL, whence the Cleveland Barons left the scene in 1978 after a mere 2 years in Cuyahoga County. 

The Browns meanwhile continue to struggle and the days of championship football seem much farther removed than 1964.  The subsequent and more glorious days of Jim Brown, Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar, are of little solace to the new generation of Browns fans and for those who do remember fonder times it still feels more in the distance than springtime in Cleveland on a cool November day.  The compounding success of Bill Belichek in New England after a much maligned tenure in Cleveland only seems to heighten Browns fans angst and as has the recent trade that awarded the N.Y. Jets the rights to USC star Mark Sanchez in what would have seemed to have brought an end to a string of Cleveland quarterback woes.  Perhaps, a sign of the times in Cleveland was the hiring and subsequent firing of George Kokinis this year.  Poor George lasted less than a full 10 months in his tenure as general manager, an indication that the Dawg Pound is growing more restless than a kennel being visited by Michael Vick.  After last night’s loss in Cleveland to their foremeost rival Baltimore Ravens – a loss that left the scoreboard operator wondering if he would still have a job if his work were solely tied to the Browns performance – the Browns Super Bowl may come in a mere few weeks when they meet the Detroit Lions for what could be a battle for last place and the 1^st overall pick in next years draft.  Maybe, just maybe, the Browns will then be able to place their saddle on someone like the Longhorns Colt McCoy.  This is what the Browns had in mind when they pinned their hopes earlier this year on Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn.  One thing we know for sure, they won’t be pinning their hopes on Mangini’s old partner Charlie Weiss.  Hmmm, we think we know for sure. 

That leaves us with the Cavs who have never won an NBA championship, but are no doubt the closest to bring home some hardware (and we don’t mean copper piping from the abandoned homes over in Cleveland’s Slavic Village district).  After an 0-2 start the Cavs have won 7 of their last 8.  And with wins over the Magic and the Heat on back-to-back nights the Cavs seem primed to at least find themselves in the Eastern Conference final this year with or without Delonte West.  In fact, after being indicted this month on 8 charges, it may be time for squeaky clean general manager Danny Ferry to say ‘Go West young man, Go West’.  If he is looking for reinforcements, I’m sure Shaq and his law enforcement resume will gladly oblige.  So here is hoping the fine folks down at Fat Fish Blue will have something to cheer about this year.  They deserve it, don’t they?

The Duke

Alex Ovechkin, Andrei Markov, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Ilya Kovalalchuk , Marc Savard  and Jonathan Towes. Sounds like a list of NHL All -stars right, wrong, it’s a list of NHL injuries so far this year. Its hard to understand why a group of owners who rely heavily on such stars to attract fans to the games are not smart enough businessmen to realize they need to do whatever it takes to keep them on the ice and not “on ice “ due to injuries. Yes hockey is a fast game with big, strong men who wear equipment made of hard plastic ( I think NASA uses the same material on their space shuttles ) but can the NHL not take a look at another fast , hard hitting sport with big guys called the NFL and see how they have come to realize that they need to protect their stars. Its called changing the rules to protect stars such as the quarterbacks, rules such as not leading with the helmet, no chop blocking and no horse-collaring tackles. Yes these were rules that were implemented to minimize injuries and the players over time have come to accept them and understand why they are there. What has also been a key to these rules being effective is that they are enforced with a zero tolerance approach, unlike the NHL which even if they have the rules, completley ignore them during the playoffs showing that their is no consistancy in their approach.

Its time that the NHL governors did the same along with Gary Bettman, who should start worrying more about the injuries than worrying about keeping teams that are losing money in cities that don’t care about the sport. Maybe Bettman doesn’t realize that while the packaging on products and advertising is important, nothing will matter if the package is empty or full of damaged goods. Hockey fans are not going to dish out $100 a ticket to watch 3rd and 4th line players, unless of coarse they live in Toronto. That would be equivalant to watching movies such as, Oceans 11,12,and 13 without George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Counting on the players to solve this problem themselves is a long shot since they cannot even get themselves and their NHLPA properly organized, so how can they fix the game they play. It’s really a mess and if it keeps up we will be talking about the NHL in the same context that we talk about UFL or WNBA, second rate leagues that no body cares about.

SDG

If you’re anything like me, maybe you have been perplexed by the general inability of rookie WR’s in recent years to make an impact. Running Backs usually quickly assimilate the offense as do many other positions, lately though WR’s have struggled. I’ve often thought ‘how hard can it be? You know the pattern you are supposed to run, just go out and do it.’ In the November 2nd issue of ESPN The Magazine, Seth Wickersham provides  some great information with the help of Hue Jackson the QB coach for the Ravens and general wide-out guru. The article is Passing Fancy and has some great insight. Give it a read.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/news/story?id=4577668&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnfl%2finsider%2fnews%2fstory%3fid%3d4577668

Diamonds in the Rough

Antero Nittymaki, Tampa Bay – Nittymaki is owned in only 39 percent of Yahoo leagues and yet is poised to take over the title of number one goalie in Tampa Bay. In nine appearances this year, Nittymaki has posted a 5-1-2 record with a 2.05 GAA and a .937 SV%. Although Nittymaki started the year as a platoon netminder, it’s just a matter of time before he gets the bulk of the workload as his counterpart Mike Smith has struggled: 2-3-2 with a 3.64 GAA and .879 SV%. Nittymaki’s numbers have been improving for the past four years and he finally looks to be developing into a solid goaltender on a very talented and promising young team. In fact thus far, the Lightning are probably the league’s most improved team over last year: after finishing last year with the second worst record in the league, Tampa was 7th in the East going into the weekend, a remarkable turnaround. Their scoring is up slightly from last year, but most remarkably, their goals against has gone from 27th in 2008-2009 to a respectable 18th overall this year, allowing 2.88 goals against per game; their record is even better when Nittymaki is in goal. With a mixture of established superstars in St.Louis and Lecavalier, and promising talent in Stamkos, Hedman and Nittymaki, they look to make a run for the playoffs this year and Nittymaki should deliver a great performance for your fantasy team.

3 Tennessee Volunteers Arrested for Robbery Read the full story

I was trying to think of a way to get people to actually read a piece that had something good to say about Millen, so I figured I would have to make something up to pique your interest. I apologize but my hands were tied. Yes, even though he was  an unmitigated disaster as a GM, Millen is an elite level colour man. This past weekend he worked the Ohio St./ Penn St. game and I was reminded of the insight this guy has and also the rare ability to share it in an entertaining way without being irritating or condescending. After listening for an hour I found myself thinking, ‘man, this guy really knows football. Why doesn’t someone give him a shot as a GM?’ Well okay, maybe not, but sucking as a GM doesn’t mean you’ll suck at everything. Welcome back Matt, you should never have left.

The Heisman race is on and once again it looks like a popularity contest.
It reminds me of the Masters.  It’s talked about with this wistful romantic tone as if it were the ultimate form of sporting purity when in reality it’s archaic and hypocritical.

The BCS is -and rightfully so- a much maligned source of contention to college football fans.  It has turned sport into politics with its voting, polls, computers and propoganda determining the winner, but the Heisman isn’t much different is it?  Schools even launch ad campaigns for Heisman hopefuls.  What does that remind you of? Before you know it they’ll be launching smear campaigns too. Finally, the BCS gets dumped on (again rightfully so) for relying on the preseason polls in determining rankings, but the Heisman does the same.  Coming into this year the triumvirate of McCoy, Bradford & Tebow were already slated for the final ceremony unless someone else did something spectacular. How fair is that?

Now lets really get down to it, here are some of my core issues with the Heisman:

1.    How is it possible that the best player in college is always an offensive player? I guess I should have said almost always as Charles Woodson did win in 1997, but even then what won him the award was his special teams and offensive exploits not just his superior defensive skills. My question is, are defensive players inferior talents and impact their team’s success less than their offensive counterparts? The answer must be a big fat “Yes” to the average Heisman voter, as the Heisman allegedly goes to the Best Player in Football. Perhaps defensive players only play defense because they are not good enough to play offense, or why else would it be nearly impossible to win as a defensive player. Take that ………… So while it has been said that defense wins championships (another bogus argument) it appears that offense will win you the Heisman.

2.    How is it that they always come from a BCS school ? In the last 30 years all but 2 winners have come from the big six conferences.  For instance, in 2006 Colt Brennan threw for 58 TD’s, an all-time  NCAA record and had the highest passer rating in college football history but he doesn’t even get a sniff of the trophy.  In fact, he didn’t even crack the top 3.  Instead Brady Quinn and his 37 TD’s and eventual winner Troy Smith and his 30 TD’s got the love. How was that even possible? Some have said the numbers were skewed because they ran the spread offense and that he was the product of a system…doesn’t Tebow run the spread ? Yup! How many other teams are running the spread? Tonnes! How many have got close to Brennan’s year? None!

Fast forward to this year Tebow is on pace this year to throw for an amazing 15 TD’s!  Yet even with those mediocre numbers he is a clear front runner. This while you have Kellen Moore at Boise and Case Keenum at Houston  having great years and in the case of Keenum a spectacular year, not just because of the 28 TD’s and only 5 picks but also the way he has done it with thrilling 4th quarter comebacks.  Despite this, they are barely an afterthought. Fair? I think not. There is a great chance they will be watching the ceremony at home with their families because they didn’t even make the final cut.
3. Even within the big six there is a caste system. Last year Graham Harrell  had a better year than all three Heisman finalists, yet he made the mistake of going to Texas Tech, that highly regarded football factory.  What do you think would have happened though if he was the QB of Texas or Oklahoma for the last 2 years?  This guy could have won 2 Heismans, and would most certainly have one for sure.

So in short, this is how it works if you want to win the Heisman. First you have to play offense; Second you have to go to a BCS school and finally it cant’ be just any BCS school, it has to be a football power. How elitest and prejudiced can you be? In an era where people take more and more pride in the fact that we are winning the battle against discrimination we just find new, less offensive ways to discriminate.  While it’s true this is only football and means nothing in the grand scheme of things, sports is supposed to be about fairness and competition on a level playing field. The Heisman just doesn’t fit that criteria. The way it’s  presently configured it is no different than having a 100 meter race where a few runners get a 10 meter head start… that’s just not sport.

Personally, I think its time to put Heisman out of his misery.  It’s an impossible task for the 900 plus voters.  How many of them can truly vote with authority?  With over 100 teams to watch each of which play at least 11 games it is no wonder these guys use fraudulent criteria to narrow it down so they can just pick the best offensive player from one of 10 schools. Obviously, there is no way the Heisman will be laid to rest but can we at least quit pretending it’s as pure, wistful and romantic as it claims?

Necessary Roughness

One of the highlight signings for Toronto’s Brian Burke in the offseason was Jonas Gustavsson, a 24 year old netminder out of the Swedish Elite League. Without having played even a single game in North America, Gustavsson had captured the envy of nearly every team in the league this past summer, and with good reason – his play for Farjestad of the Elitserien League was nothing short of outstanding, having posted a 1.96 GAA and .932 save percentage in 42 games in one of the most skilled leagues outside of the NHL. Fast forward to the present day, and it seems as if Gustavsson, also nicknamed ‘The Monster’, is starting to live up to his billing.

Our first nominee for this week’s Brain Cramp of the Week goes to an old favorite, Robert Montgomery Knight.  After finding out that he was being inducted into the Indiana University Sports Hall of Fame what does the wacky coach decide to do?? He announces that he won’t be attending the induction.  Whaaat??? After years of somehow developing the mantle of “wronged martyr” in the state of Indiana, wacky Bobby has returned his reputation to the guy who threw chairs, strangled sophmores and made totally idiotic comments about the subject of rape! He couldn’t take the high road, even after the tragic passing of his former nemisis, ex School President Myles Brand which left him in possession of the field.  The “general” clearly misread this situation and leaves himself with far fewer fans among the “Cream and Crimson” and more importantly a “Brain Cramp of the Week, nomination.