Brad VanFossan's Cleveland Indians fan blog

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"

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"

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"

 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"

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"

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."

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."

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"

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"