Brad VanFossan's Cleveland Indians fan blog

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"

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!"

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 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"

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 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."

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. 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"

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"

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"