Brad VanFossan's Cleveland Indians fan blog

Shaq or Kobe? The debate’s not dead just yet.

Really? It’s not? You’re saying to yourself, this guy is a complete and utter moron, how can he be asking this still now? I was so tired of hearing about this five years ago, and you’re asking this now?

Ok, back to reality, yes, Kobe is by far the superior player now. But think about this one, I’m not going to go as far as to say the NBA is fixed, but out of all the major professional sports, it’s the one that I’ve questioned the integrity of most, even before the whole Tim Donaghy debacle.

I am a Cavs fan and now I’ll probably be called a conspiracy theorist, which I’m not, but I think this is definitely food for thought. If you’re David Stern, not only would the Lakers winning be ok with you because Los Angeles is a major market, arguably a top three star in your league in Kobe Bryant would get another ring, and Kobe would get his first ring without Shaq. Of course this has been talked about over and over, Kobe has gotten all three of his rings with Shaq, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Continue reading "Shaq vs. Kobe - You thought the debate was over? Think again."

Former Penn State and Cleveland Browns' fullback Tim Manoa played four seasons in the NFL, three with Cleveland and one with the Indianapolis Colts.  Tim was also a member of the 1986 National Champion Penn State Nittany Lions who knocked off the high-powered Miami Hurricanes led then by 1986 Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde, 14-10 in the Fiesta Bowl.  Tim rushed for 938 career yards on 236 carries with 6 touchdowns and caught 40 passes for 308 yards with 2 touchdowns in his NFL career.

Tim was kind enough to spend some time with me at Rocky's Personalized Training in Boardman, Ohio where he helps out his cousin and owner Rocky Taumoepeau.  In my interview we touched on a little bit of everything from Tim's childhood, his high school career, and all the way to his time with the Browns.  Tim was born in Tonga and ended up playing high school football in western Pennsylvania by way of Hawaii, and that's how my interview starts.

Continue reading "My interview with former Penn State Nittany Lion and Cleveland Browns' fullback Tim Manoa"

Tampa Bay Rays @ Cleveland Indians

May 26, 2009

Matt Garza vs. Carl Pavano

Progressive Field

Cleveland, Ohio

Its game two of the series, or better known as the night of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Indians are looking to build momentum after last night’s incredible comeback. I don’t remember ESPN covering even a Tribe playoff game in ‘07 as intently as they did last night’s game. Opposing hitters are only hitting .199 against Matt Garza, which leads the league, and he picked up a victory over the Tribe a little over a week ago. That being said, Carl Pavano has been the best Indians pitcher not named Cliff Lee. I like Cleveland to win their 15th straight at home vs. Tampa Bay 5-2. I also like the Cavs tonight in a tight one 97-94. We will definitely see what the guys not named Lebron are made of tonight.

Continue reading "Carl Pavano and the Indians win the game played by Cleveland's other team tonight."

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, I missed most of, well a big part of today's game due to Memorial Day activities.  By the time I got home, it was already 9-0 in the 4th, then 10-0 and I just checked the message boards real quick on TheClevelandFan.com, and we all pretty much wrote the Indians their eulogy.  The Indians got two runs in the bottom of the 4th to make it 10-2 after a 2-run home run by Ryan Garko.  At that time I thought to myself, great, he finally hits one when it doesn't matter for shit, big deal.  A couple more innings dragged on, and the game was turning into a documentary about Tampa Bay shortstop Reid Brignac's cousin (if you were watching on STO), apparently a softball player who was 25-0 with a 0.00 ERA.  I don't know if it was in high school or college and personally I don't care, but it seemed to be the focus of Matt Underwood, and quite frankly, I can't say that I blame him.  Time had to be killed and what better way to do so rather than talk about the garbage of a game being witnessed.

Continue reading "Walks, Garko, and the heart of the Tribe key 7 run 9th. Tribe 11, Rays 10"

Cleveland Indians @ Cincinnati Reds Sunday May 24th, 2009 I wasn’t able to catch all of yesterday’s game, so I didn’t write about it, but I was able to catch a good deal of it here and there. It was good to see the Tribe come back and win 7-6, but not so good to see David Huff struggle mightily again. Today it’s Cliff Lee vs. Johnny Cueto with the Tribe looking to take their second consecutive series for the first time all this year. The Indians need to take advantage of Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips being out of the Reds lineup today. This should be a good pitching matchup, and I like the Indians to take the game, and the series, winning today 4-3. Here are some things of note from the game and or other things I found interesting from life in general: -Asdub

Continue reading "Alex Gonzalez, Reds make the Memorial Day weekend a memory the Tribe would rather forget"

Sporting News Major League Baseballs 50 Best

I am going to list the Top 50 according to the Sporting News and their panel, and then list my top 50 using their top 50, and then finally amending the Top 50 by inserting players that I think should be on it, and taking out the ones who I feel shouldn’t be.

Here is the list according to 100 Former players, former GM’s, and baseball analysts surveyed by the Sporting News:

1. Albert Pujols
2. Alex Rodriguez
3. Johan Santana
4. Manny Ramirez
5. Hanley Ramirez
6. Chase Utley
7. Roy Halladay
8. Derek Jeter
9. Mariano Rivera
10. Chipper Jones
11. Ryan Howard
12. Grady Sizemore
13. David Wright
14. Justin Morneau

Continue reading "The Sporting News Major League Baseball's 50 Best vs. My 50 Best"

Indians @ Reds Recap Friday May 22, 2009

It looks like Grady read my preview earlier today as he hit a blast to right field in his first at-bat tonight. It’s hard to not type lead off the game. It’s like those first couple documents or checks you have to date on January 1st every new year. Here are some things that caught my “I” today:

-It looks like even fans in Cincinnati either stayed home or went somewhere to watch the Cavs game tonight.

-Anthony Reyes is turning into the pitching version of Rick Ankiel in the first inning.

-Three batters into the bottom of the first and Rick Manning is irritated, as am I. What time is the Cavs game?

-There are Indians fans out there who are still bitter about the Brandon Phillips trade hoping he hit’s a grand slam right now. Actual result: Phillips hits a sacrifice fly to left, 1-0 Reds. Phillips RBI count for the series stands at 1.

Continue reading "Arroyo sharp, Tribe bats dull. Cincinnati Reds 3, Cleveland Indians 1"

Cleveland Indians @ Cincinnati Reds, Friday May 22, 2009

Reyes (1-1, 6.88) vs. Arroyo (5-3, 6.56)

Interleague play is back. I personally don’t have a problem with it. It’s lost it’s luster for sure, but I don’t mind the change of pace for a handful of series during the year. At the same time if they got rid of it tomorrow, it wouldn’t bother me either. One thing that I’ll never feel different about is that I don’t see the Reds as a rival to the Indians. I would prefer to play the Pirates every year if we must do this interleague thing. This year the Indians do play Pittsburgh, but it’s been the Reds who are the annual National League opponent. Plus, it gives Cleveland fans at least one opportunity to say one of our teams beat a Pittsburgh team. I wish that I could say I was being sarcastic.

Continue reading "Cleveland Indians at Cincinnati Reds Preview - Bronson Arroyo looks to rock out some killer whiffs."

Indians at Royals, May 21, 2009

Carl Pavano vs. Zack Greinke

First off I want to say that in my preview I stated the Indians needed to win today to salvage the season. What I meant was they needed to win today in order to salvage any remaining hope for this season. The Tribe cannot afford to lose anymore series to divisional foes at this point in the season. Game three from the show me state. I’m looking for Carl Pavano to show me something today.

Here are some things that stood out, much like that you gotta ciabatta commerical. Again things can be good or bad because bad thinks that commercial sucks. For new readers the below contains things that happened during the game, and anything I thought about not related to the game during the game. I digress, here are those things:

Continue reading "Pavano, Inidans Crown Greinke and the Royals"

I have to make this quick, I had trouble logging in to get to the area where I can post a new entry.  Carl Pavano is quickly becoming my favorite Indian, and they need this series to have any hope at salvaging the season.  The Indians give Zack Greinke his second loss of the year 4-3.  I'll be back later with a post game recap.

Continue reading "Quick prediction, Indians vs. Royals Thursday May 21, 2009"