Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

Monday June 1, 2009

Jeremy Sowers vs. Joba Chamberlain

Progressive Field

Cleveland, Ohio

The Indians look to go 6-2 on their 8 game home stand, and improve to 4-4 vs. the Yankees this year. We’ll see if Jeremy Sowers can bring some momentum into this start following his great performance in relief last Monday in the year to date’s most exciting game, for the Tribe at least.

It will be interesting to not watch a game on STO. I’m thinking I’m going to like the ESPN broadcast less than FOX’s. I’m setting the over under on “when I was GM of the Mets” references by Steve Phillips at 17. Some things that caught my script “I”:

-Orel Hershiser said he hates when analysts talk about their playing career but he followed that up with a story about his career, but it was actually self deprecating. Orel is a class act, but since he’s on ESPN, I had to take at least a small jab at him.

Continue reading "If Bill Walton did baseball games, he would say Kelly Shoppach is biblical proportions bad, Yankees 5, Indians 2"

I wrote this a few months back so it's not actually my first column, but without further ado, here it is:

This is my first column of what I hope to be many for not only Cleveland sports fans, but sports fans in general, in hopes of entertaining all who stumble upon this. I hope that this column will provoke thoughts, spark memories, and make you laugh.

I am a 32 year old lifelong suffering, lifelong disappointed, lifelong die-hard, and always hopeful Cleveland sports fan. I am old enough to remember the drive, the fumble, the shot, the late 80’s and early 90’s Cavs being very good, and the Bulls of that same time being even better. And while I don’t remember watching the game, I got to hear from my dad about a cold day in January of 1981 when Browns fans had their hearts ripped out of their chest. I don’t think I need to beat a dead horse by mentioning the name of this play. But, since we seem to like name type acronyms in this town like K2, DA, JMIKE, AC, and LBJ to name a few, I’ll just call this play RR8X11.

Continue reading "An ode to Cleveland Sports from a lifelong suffering fan"

Only a true fan could watch this game. The Indians have as many players on the DL as it would take to field a lineup: nine.

Continue reading "Cliff Lee not shy to show why he won the Cy. Indians 10, Twins 1."

What is the fastest way to alienate an already bitter fan-base? Trade your best young player. Trade a guy who made the all-star team last year, won a gold glove, is still only 27 years old, and the guy you made the center of attention in your marketing and advertising materials? Who would do this? Hint: they have had 16, that’s right 16 straight losing seasons. Kids who just finished their sophomore year of high school have never seen them have a winning season. The answer: The Pittsburgh Pirates.

I think first year General Manager Neil Huntington tried to be too cute with this deal. In return the Pirates received a 21-year-old AA outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, 25-year-old AAA pitcher Charlie Morton and 21-year-old Jeff Locke who is in A. In the Baseball America team by team Top Ten prospects which was done on December 15, 2008 for the Atlanta Braves, Hernandez was #4, and Locke was #7.

Continue reading "Why Pittsburgh Pirates fans should have no faith left in their team and the people that run it."

That trash being the ‘09 Cleveland Indians season. Just as recent as yesterday at the time I’m writing this, myself and many fans were ready to throw this season away, chalk it up as another ‘06, and ‘08, and be prepared for the possible managerial and front office changes that could happen at any moment. It was a strange day in Cleveland Indians history as former owner Dick Jacobs passed away, and one of the most promising pitching prospects as recently as two seasons ago was sent down, not only to the minors but to Arizona Summer League in Fausto Carmona.

You can say that at the start of today, not only was the Jacobs news somber, but the feeling of most Indians fans about this season was as well. We were teased with a nice win in the second game of the Twins series only to follow that with a horrible performance by Fausto, and an 11-3 loss for the team. Damnit! I said to myself, now we’re done. I can’t take this anymore, injury after injury, batting practice after batting practice being thrown by Fausto, the inability to win four games in a row, being sucked into this constant magnetic field of being ten games under .500 that we can’t seem to escape, the Indians were done.

Continue reading "Something happened while taking out the trash"

 I actually wrote this back in the winter, around January following the Browns 2008 season and prior to this past April's NFL draft, but just thought I would post it for hopefully all of you Browns fans to enjoy.

Us Browns fans had high hopes in 2008. Our division seemed down, though our schedule looked rough, things looked great.

In came the Cowboys and the game was a flop. Braylon had his first, and possibly biggest drop.

Sunday night vs. the Steelers and right before kickoff, my power went out. I was so angry, I started to shout. I was able to find a radio to tune in Jim and Diek, but once again Pittsburgh made our offense look weak.

In Baltimore came loss number three, Ray Lewis set Winslow up on a tee.

Game four, the Bengals, a win but a bore. Is this really the kind of season we have in store?

Continue reading "A look back at the 2008 Cleveland Browns through black and blue eyes"

Cleveland Indians vs. Kansas City Royals

Cliff Lee vs. Brian Bannister

Tuesday June 9, 2009

Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio

The Indians are looking to win their second straight series vs. a divisional opponent tonight. With a win tonight, the Indians can also leap frog KC and climb into 4th place in the A.L. Central and climb out of the basement, hopefully for good. Some things that I kept my “I” on:

-I’m liking the navy alternate jerseys at home.

-Jamey Carroll’s hit streak sits at seven, we’ll see if he can make it eight tonight.

-Well that was quick, it’s now at eight, not too shabby for a utility guy.

-Before I forget, I would like to send my condolences out to Matt Underwood and his family for the loss of his mother.

Continue reading "Indians give General Lee the support he's been wanting. Cleveland Indians 8, Kansas City Royals 4"

Cleveland Indians vs. Kansas City Royals Preview/Recap

By Brad VanFossan

Wednesday June 10, 2009

Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio

Carl Pavano vs. Gil Meche

My favorite Indian is on the hill tonight looking to help lead the Indians to three in a row and push the Royals a little further into last place. Tonight’s stats of the night going into the game: Pavano has struck out 56 hitters while walking only 15 in 72 innings pitched this season, and he has gone 6-1 with a 3.00 ERA since the end of April. To put that into perspective a bit, CC Sabathia has struck out 61 in 86 innings pitched while walking 27. Am I saying that Pavano > CC? No, not quite, but when looking at the stats, one thing is for sure, 1.5 million < 15.2 million. Ok, time for the game and any other random thoughts that might come along.

Continue reading "What a Meche that was! Royals 9, Indians 0"

Los Angeles Lakers at Orlando Magic (Lakers lead the series 2-1)

NBA Finals, Game 4 - June 11, 2009

Amway Arena - Orlando, Florida

Game 4 preview and in-game recap

By Brad VanFossan

Tonight the Lakers look to put a choke-hold on the series while Orlando looks to even things up. I’m interested to see how Kobe Bryant will come out with all the talk of him being tired lately in the media. I think he will come out firing and will this team to victory. Game 1 was the only game that hasn’t been close, but there hasn’t been a game yet that the Lakers haven’t been in control or have been close late. The Magic shot 62.5% from the field in game 3 and still only managed to win by four. The Magic have been in two out of the three games, but in my opinion they haven’t shown enough where I can see them taking control at home. If the Lakers win tonight, which I think they will, there’s a good chance this series will be over in five.

Continue reading "Derek Fisher the new Robert Horry? Los Angeles Lakers 99, Orlando Magic 91"

Cleveland Indians vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Friday June 12, 2009

Progressive Field - Cleveland, Ohio

David Huff vs. Joel Pineiro

Interleague play is back and the Indians will be taking on arguably the National League’s most historic franchise who arguably has the National League’s best player in Albert Pujols. This is definitely an interleague matchup to get excited about, not like the two vs. the Reds every year. This is when I kinda dig interleague play. The Indians are looking to win two in a row and start this nine game home stand at 3-1. A win tonight would be “nothing but a good time”, and hopefully David Huff isn’t on the “wild side” tonight to kick off 80s weekend at Progressive Field.

Here are some things that caught my script “I”, as well as Tron’s (this weekend only):

Continue reading "Huff's the stuff as Indians fans "don't go away mad" on 80s night. Cleveland Indians 7, St. Louis Cardinals 3"

Cleveland Indians vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Sunday June 14, 2009

Progressive Field - Cleveland, Ohio

Cliff Lee vs. Chris Carpenter

I just heard that there will be no John Miller on the ESPN broadcast tonight, nice! The Indians are looking to take their third, yes you read that right, third series in a row for the first time all year. I’m looking forward to Cliff Lee vs. Albert Pujols and to see if Pujols can add to the three home runs he already has in this series.

Things that caught my script “I”:

-Brendan Ryan from the Cardinals looks a little like Rob from MTV’s Rob and Big.

-I’m not a big fan of the block “C” hats or the cream uniforms for that matter. Throwback or not, I think in 2009 all uniforms should have the players names on the back.

Continue reading "Cliff Lee almost untouchable, three-hits the Cardinals. Cleveland Indians 3, St. Louis Cardinals 0"

Unfortunately that goes for both teams.

Screw it, I'm not going to edit this, this was how things were going to appear as late as the top of the 8th:

The best thing that can happen when you're team isn't getting the best pitching performance in the world is for your opponent to be having the worst pitching performance in the world.  Ok, it wasn't quite the worst in the world, but the Brewers pitching was worse than the Indians tonight.

Things that caught my script "I"

-I don't really understand why on the night of the Ricky Vaughn bobblehead why the Indians and Brewers didn't wear the retro uniforms again, why not just wear them the whole weekend and tonight?

-Nice to see the long ball back at Progressive Field and all of them not being hit by Albert Pujols.  Shin-Soo Choo, Mark DeRosa, Victor Martinez, and Travis Hafner all went deep for the Tribe.  Ok, probably every column in Cleveland is going to say it was nice to see Hafner go deep, but it really is.

Continue reading "If you can't pitch, swing for the fences! Milwaukee Brewers 14, Cleveland Indians 12"

Cleveland Indians vs. Milwaukee Brewers - June 17, 2009

David Huff vs. Jeff Suppan

Progressive Field - Cleveland, Ohio

Well so much for my 7-2 homestand prediction. The Indians will have to win this game just to go over .500 at 5-4. Every time I say something positive the Indians give me two reasons to be negative. Carl Pavano is suddenly terrible, and the bullpen has been atrocious again. The offense is averaging 8.5 runs a game vs. the Brewers in the frist two games of the series and has won neither.

I’m not a huge fan of Eric Wedge or Mark Shapiro for that matter and I’ve been trying to give Wedge the benefit of the doubt lately. But one thing that is really starting to infuriate me is the lineup inconsistency. Even before all the injuries, it was almost a different lineup with guys in different positions every night.

Continue reading "Brew Crew gives Wahoo Blues x 3. Brewers sweep the Indians, win 9-8."

I just wanted to post a little something on here since it's been a few days since I last did.  I jokingly said on twitter before the Cubs series that the Indians were going to get swept.  I mainly was saying this out of frustration and also the fact that it would be a safer bet than saying they might win a game, let alone the series.  Sadly, my somewhat sarcastic and fed up prediction came  true.  The Tribe was swept by the Cubs and I'm afraid they might just get embarassed in Pittsburgh as well. 

It's bad enough the Browns can't beat the Steelers, the Penguins got another championship for the city of Pittsburgh, and that the city of Pittsburgh has three professional sprots titles in four years while Cleveland has had none since 1964.  So while the Indians players probably could care less about any of that, I think it would be disastrous for Pittsburgh fans to also be able to say they won this series, on top of having a better record than the Indians this year.  That's right, a team that hasn't had a winning season since 1992 is looking at the Indians in their rear-view mirror.  I hope that at least for the sake of the fan's pride that this deadbeat baseball team can at least pretend to care for three more games to give us Cleveland fans a little bit of scoreboard over Pittsburgh.  At this point that is the only saving grace left in this grease fire of a season.  See you during the Pirates series.

Continue reading "Cleveland Indians reach a whole new level of suck.....Pittsburgh awaits anxiously."

Cleveland Indians at Pittsburgh Pirates

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Carl Pavano vs. Zach Duke

Since I live in the Youngstown television market, I also get FSN Pittsburgh on my cable package, so tonight I’m going to mix things up a bit. Tonight I’m going to watch the game on FSN Pittsburgh and give you a perspective through the eyes of Bob Walk and Tim Neverett, the Pirates tv announcers for tonight’s game. I thought it would be interesting to see what they had to say about the Tribe throughout the game, and what FSN Pittsburgh does a little differently than STO.

Some things that caught my script “I”:

-Bob Walk was pretty complimentary to Grady Sizemore. He said despite the low average this year, he’s a great overall player/athlete when healthy. 

Continue reading "Indians-Pirates or Browns-Steelers? Pittsburgh Pirates 10, Cleveland Indians 6"

Indians vs. Reds

Friday June 26, 2009

Progressive Field - Cleveland, Ohio

Jeremy Sowers vs. Aaron Harang

Interleague foes have led to interleague woes for the Tribe this year. Coming into tonight’s game vs. Cincinnati, the Indians are 4-11 vs. National League opponents. One good thing going into tonight, this Reds lineup doesn’t look the least intimidating on paper, minus Joey Votto, it’s nothing to write home about. Then again, neither is ours!

Some things that caught my script “I” during the game, today, or from recent happenings:

-If you’ve gotten a negative vibe in my writing lately, you’re correct. I really don’t have too much good to say about the Indians and I probably won’t until there are upper and field level management changes, but I will still give credit where credit is due to individual players and I still want to see this team win games.

Continue reading "Reds have the effect of a bad meal, Indians get the runs, win 9-2"

Cleveland Indians vs. Cincinnati Reds

June 28, 2009 - Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio

David Huff vs. Micah Owings

Watching the Indians lately is liking going into something knowing in advance it’s going to give you a migraine but you continue with it anyway. With aspirin in hand, I’m ready to watch game three of the “Ohio Cup”. I haven’t heard of a worse cup since the Apple Cup between Washington and Washington State. Today is game one without Mark DeRosa, who was acquired from the Cubs in the off season for three pitchers, then later traded to the Cardinals for a pitcher and a player to be named later? Makes sense when pitching has been the weakest part of your club right?

Some things that caught my script “I”:

Continue reading "Cincinnati Reds leave town with the Ohio Cup! Please take Wedge and Shapiro too!"

I recently had a chance to talk sports, working in sports, and even a little Arod with 710 ESPN Seattle’s Liz Mathews. Liz is “The Professor” John Clayton’s producer on The John Clayton show on 710 ESPN Seattle, an avid Seattle Seahawk fan, and she practices law. Liz was nice enough to take the time to answer every question I had for her, and did a great job in doing so.

I got a chance to stream John’s show this past Saturday, and I can honestly say I thought it was very good. My readers know I tell it like it is, so I wouldn’t just say this. Not only was the NFL insight great, but it was very cool to hear John talk about baseball and other sports as well. And not to mention the great music Liz plays coming in and out of the breaks! Overall, the show is very well done, informative, easy to listen to, and fun! Without further ado, here are the questions I had for Liz and her answers:

Continue reading "My interview with 710 ESPN Seattle's, and The John Clayton Show's producer Liz Mathews"