Super Bowl Aspirations?

Training camp in Berea opened on Wednesday. And this is the season. This is the season for the Browns. This was supposed to be the season for the Indians. But we're not going to talk about that. And we're going to focus on the positive. And the positive is playing in Cleveland Browns stadium this fall!

The defense is going to be much improved. With the additions of Shawn Rogers and Cory Williams on the D-Line, which was the weakest part of the '07 Browns, may be the strength of the '08 version. The reviews on Rogers have been real good so far. He's very quickly becoming a leader on the D.

And so far all I've read are great things about Kellen Winslow. He wants a new contract, but he vows to not be a distraction... Again, positive thoughts, so we're not going there. But it really sounds like he's dedicated to being the best player out on the field.

Not to change the subject abruptly, but I'm watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network. I do believe this guy has the best job in the world. He goes all over the place eating good food. Not the gourmet crap that most food reviewers go to. He's at a BBQ place in Memphis right now, and I'm seriously considering hopping into the car and heading down there...

Anyhow, all of the things I've read so far about the first 3 days of training camp are good. And of course the debate is who is goign to play QB for this team. I hate this debate, and I'll never understand why having 2 capable QBs is a bad thing?? I don't know what the stat is, but very few QBs made it through last season unscathed. Also, do we forget the DA has only been a starter for one year? He started 3 games in the lost '06 season after Charlie Frye was nearly decapitated because he enjoyed holding onto the ball and making poor, slow, decisions? DA didn't even start the first game last season? And for the majority of last season, he play fantastic football. So well that both Braylon and Winslow made the pro bowl. Along with rookie left tackle Joe Thomas. You don't think that had anything to do with the way Anderson played?? Yes, he played horribly against Cincinnati. That was painful to watch, very. But if you are going to crucify the guy for 1 or 2 bad games, in his first season as a starter, you're crazy.

It's frustrating to listen to. The blogs that I read from the Plain Dealer talked about the first couple days of Training Camp, talked about how DA threw 3 interceptions on Thursday. And there were already talking about how horrible he is and how he should be the backup, and how Brady is such the better QB, and how... Just annoying. Braylon even came out and said that it was a huge distraction last season not knowing who the QB is going to be.

DA is the guy, he's going to stay the guy. So stop all of the Brady Quinn talk for a while. I'm already tired of it. Again, what's the problem with having 2 quality QBs?? Exactly.

Looking forward to signing up for the NFL Sunday ticket! Can't wait for the season to get going! Can't wait to see the excitement in Cleveland!

Let's Get Back to Baseball!

Now that the All-Star break is over, it's going to be nice to get back to some baseball. This promises to be a fantastic 2nd half of the season. Not really for the Indians, but there are some real good races that are going to take place this summer and fall.

The best is the race in the AL East. With the Red Sox, again, leading the way after the break, it's really going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Will the Rays be able to get out of the funk they found themselves in going into the break?? Are they young enough to just go out and play baseball forgetting that they're taking on the Yanks and the Sox. Or are they going to be too young and falter in the 2nd half.

The NL Central leading Cubs who are up 4.5 on the Cards and 5 on the Brewers. Both the Cubs and the Brewers greatly improved their pitching staffs in the acquisition of Harden and Sabathia. Both of which are starting to pay dividends. This is going to be a great run. 3 teams, half a season. Lots of excitement on the Northside.

The AL Central with the Sox up a game and a half on the Twins. Not even close to what was predicted at the beginning of the season. But the real wild card is going to be what Detriot can do the rest of the season. They have really been surging in the last month or so and may come back to surprise the Sox and Twins. There's too many good players in Detriot to just falter.

The NL West, it's going to be a race. But everybody has a sub .500 record. I don't even want to comment. The Dodgers should be much better than they are. Maybe because they have Juan Pierre playing outfield. That guy has a worse arm then most kids in little league.

And another fantastic race is goign to be the NL east. Will the Phillies be able to come through and hold the half game lead over the surging Mets? Hopefully Ryan Howard learns to not strike out so much, my fantasy team would be very happy about this, but the rest of the lineup, outside of Howard, Utley, and Burrell, needs to start producing. The pitching has been solid, but they need to score some consistent runs to make the post season.

So, my predictions:

AL East - Sox. The Rays will falter. Sadly.
AL Central - Twins. The Sox just don't have enough to hold off the rest of the AL Central
AL West - Angels. Boring
NL East - Phillies. Too much offense, Howard is going to blow up in the 2nd half.
NL Central - Cubs. They're going to hold off the Brewers. The Cards will fall off, Cubs and Brewers will go down to the wire.
NL West - Dodgers, I guess.
AL Wildcard - Detroit
NL Wildcard - Brewers

My cat, Manny, just caught a fly. It was pretty cool watching him stalk this thing for the last hour or so. He's pretty excited about his catch!

Have a great Thursday!

A Busy Week-in-Review

Big week in sports. Between Brett Favre being a little bitch and not just retiring. Josh Hamilton putting on a display in the homerun contest Monday night. The Rays demise in the AL East. Life after CC. And training camp opens in a week!

Where to start where to start???

I guess we'll get the bad out of the way. Apparently Brett Favre is waging a media war against the Packers. He's now claiming that he was forced to retire. Or something, I can't stand to listen to him anymore. Just go away. Why wait until now to try and wage this battle? Why not 4 months ago. Maybe at that point they would have been more open to the idea of him coming back. You don't think the coaching staff and the management teams have been feverishly working on a game plan with Aaron Rogers?

Which brings me to my next point. Why does he have to be given the starting role? Why shouldn't he fight for the starting job. If he's the better man, then he's starts. Isn't this usually how things work? I think it's ridiculous the way he's acting! Don't get me wrong, I think Farve is a great QB. I love his intensity, the fun he has on the field, and just the way he plays the game. But this is just an old, tired act.

And the real kicker. He went on Greta's On the Record to whine about all this. How many different places could he have gone to vent? When I worked nights I watched Greta just about every night. And if you've never watched the show, you can just watch one and you've seen them all. She always has the same guests and asks the same questions. I didn't watch the interview, but I would not be the least bit surprised if she asked him if he knew where Natalee Holloway was.

Life without CC is much better than originally thought. They're somehow hitting and they just swept the Rays in Cleveland. This really shouldn't be too surprising. They're lineup is exactly the same, they just have Sowers or some other lackey pitching every 5th day. And the offense started producing. So, they swept the Rays. Stranger things have happened.

Which brings me to the fact that the Rays have collapsed. They were 7 games up in the loss column about 2 weeks ago. Now they're down a game. The All-Star break could not have come at a better time. They need this break to get back on track and start again dominating the AL East like they did for most of the first half of the season. They've got a great young team. And there's nothing more I would love to see than both the Yankees and Sox out of the postseason. I'm not holding my breath that this is going to happen, but miracles do happen.

Monday night at the "House that Ruth Built" was simply amazing. Did you know that they were tearing it down at the end of this season? Yeah, me either. Anyhow, Josh Hamilton put on an amazing display. It looked like he was hitting balls off a tee the way he was launching them out of Yankee Stadium. It looked effortless. He made it look like anybody could hit a baseball 400 feet.

It's a great story about him also. Got rid of the drugs, got his life back on track, and is now an all-star putting on a display nobody is going to forget about anybody anytime soon. It was amazing. I enjoyed watching the competition and all of the fun that the other major leaguers were having sitting and watching.

I'm not going to get into A-Rod not entering the competition.

And lastly, the Browns open training camp next Wednesday. Where did the summer go??? But I, along with most of the rest of the country, have very high hopes for the Browns this season. Let's hope they don't collapse and pull what the Indians did this summer. From what I hear, Brady is playing some good football and DA is playing better. The O-line is back together. They got some help on the D-line. The linebackers have matured, Jamal Lewis has revitalized his career. And the recieving corps is going to be 2nd to none! And with my purchase of the Sunday ticket this season, I can't wait for football to start!!

Bye Bye, CC...

Well, the Indians and their 2nd worst record in the AL went to drastic measures this weekend. They got rid of last years' Cy Young winner, CC Sabathia. This is a sad, sad day. It was very difficult to see him in a Brewers uni when he was being interviewed on Monday. I can imagine how it would feel to be playing for one team, for as long as he played with the Indians, and then have to walk out on the field for the Brewers.

And the Indians got some prospects in return. And from what I hear, these prospects are real good. I sure hope so, becuause CC was, and is, that good.

It's always tough to see a player you like to watch on your favorite team get traded. But it's a necessary evil. This trade had to happen. It was a matter of time, and the Indians management made the correct decision. And anybody who thinks otherwise is out of their mind.

This season is over, it was over about 2 weeks ago. And this is sad. The hopes for this team were real high, after the season they had last year, everybody coming back and healthy, a Cy Young winner, the best 1-3-4 hitters in the game... This should have been a huge season, but it couldn't be any worse.

They've dealt with injuries and guys just not performing. The list is pretty unreal. Cabrera was a complete waste at the plate, Garko can't hit, Hafner was hurt, Martinez lost all of his power, Blake can't make contact... Look at this lineup and you barely recognize anybody!!

So, this season was lost, CC was gone at the end of the season. They needed to get something out of a trade for him. And they did exactly that. They got some real good prospects, their future is bright.

But look at the pitching the Indians have right now. The cupboard is hardly bare. Starting out with the 11-1 Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, Jeremy Sowers, and Aaron Laffey. They've got some very solid youth. And if some of these prospects they have traded for, and Hafner/Garko/Martinez remember how to hit again??? They aren't that far away from being very good again.

But it's very depressing to see a favorite player get traded, even if it is the right move.

He's still on my fantasy team, and I'm pretty happy he's going to be getting 2 starts this week...

It's been a long time...

There are a couple of reasons I haven't written lately. 1. There's nothing to write about. and 2. I have been real busy. Neither is a good reason, I should be able to find some time a couple of times a week to write some magic.

Anyhow. The Celtics won the NBA title this year. First, I really don't care. I'm just happy that I'm not going to have to deal with Stephen A. Smith on SportsCenter yelling at me. So that's good. Second, if I remember correctly, the Celtics sucked last year and Danny Ainge traded a couple of scrubs for Kevin Garnett and look what happened. Maybe Danny Ferry should take some lessons.

As an aside, I was at Tower City at the CD place when I was in High School checking out some CD's and looked up to my left and there was that tall ass Danny Ferry standing next to me. That was pretty cool. He could have been such a great pro. I think he's done a great job with the Cavs so far. Give him a couple more years and I think he's going to bring a championship to Cleveland. Or at least another finals appearance. Injuries decimated the Cavs this year and I don't think people played up to their billing....

Whoa??? Did that just happen??? I blacked out for a minute..

Moving on. Joe Tiller is getting rid of all the fat on the Boilermaker football team. I can't find the email, but he booted another WR off the team a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month or so. He was caught stealing rubbers from a local supermarket. Couple of things. He could have been stealing much worse. It's still a little embarrassing buying those things. And to add insult to injury, the judge he had to stand before was Les Meade. I had this guy as a Business Law professor at Purdue. He was probably the best professor I had at Purdue. He enjoyed what he did there, it showed. He enjoyed teaching. He was very memorable! I probably remember 3 professors at Purdue, and he's the only one that I remember for the right reasons. Great class! I still tell people that play the lotto that they're just paying "taxes for idiots."

Purdue football has to get their shit on straight this year. It's Tiller's last year, he's turned the program around, and then turned the program around again. I know they're probably never going to be a Michigan or Ohio State or Penn State, but they need to be in the top half of the Big 10 each year. And they've been struggling to be that for the last couple of years. Let's hope his booting off the a-holes will shape the rest of the guys up, just like Painter did.

I'm not even going to talk about the last couple of Tila Tequila's and Real World's. I've never seen anything like either of them. I can't even put into words what's happened to MTV.

And that's about it. Hopefully it won't be a week and a half to the next entry...

The Real World?????

I've been a big Real World Fan for years. There was a point when it was a very interesting social experiment in which they would put strangers of differing backgrounds, races, religions, sexual orientations... and see how they interact with each other. And it was very interesting. Good personalities, interesting interactions, and it generally seemed they all ended up better, more well-rounded people for the experience.

Not anymore.

Each episode of this Real World - Hollywood is more amazing than the other. This is the most vain, egotistical, ridiculous, horrible bunch of people MTV could have found.

One of them, Joey, ended up in rehab after being in the house for about a week. He's now back in the house and with the exception of Sarah, nobody is the least bit sensitive to his situation. Not even close. He was home for about 30 minutes, everybody was sooo happy, they're all going to help him through this tough stretch in his life. They're all going to do everything they can to be supportive and help poor Joey through his addiction. They're all going to help, maybe starting tomorrow, because we all have to go out, get completely fucked up, come back to the house at 4:30 AM with about 4 new people they met that night, wake Joey up, mere hours after he got back from Rehab. The poor guy is a mess. He needs some decent people around him. This group is probably the worst group he could possibly be with.

Will is just pathetic. He falls in love with every girl he meets. He's had a "kindergarten crush" on all of the girls in the house, 3 other ones that have come back to the house, Janelle from one of the other horrible Real Worlds', and probably the woman that is their boss at IO.

Sarah is the only one with a conscience. And to be honest, I don't know why she's there? She actually cares about people, about others, about the addiction that Joey is going through. She appears to be the only one that doesn't have an agenda.

The stripper is just a horrible person. She claimed that she cared about Joey's addiction. But she very obviously doesn't give a shit about anybody but herself and her "singing career".

Kim is just a dumb blonde. Doesn't have a clue.

And the worst of the worst is this Greg guy. Talk about not giving a shit about anybody but yourself! I don't know how anybody would ever speak to this guy. We're finally put out of our agony and he got kicked out last night because he didn't understand that he had a job that he had to show up for. "...I want to be a high fashion model..." is the only thing he said. Sooo fucking pathetic. The best part of the show was when he got kicked off, not one of the roommates stood up for him. None of them said a word. In fact, I believe there was a little smile that came across Dave's face.

He's been playing all these pranks too. He put rocks in Will's bed. He put money on his own bed, he cleaned the floor with Kim and Sarah's toothbrushes, he stole Sarah's undies... Call me crazy, but aren't pranks supposed to be funny??? Because none of the "pranks" were the least bit funny. He's just a fucking moron!

And he was upset that nobody stood up for him. What a jackass.

How any of these people get through life is beyond me????

I'm not even going to put up pictures of these people. I'm just annoyed. How far has this show fallen from where it once was.

Not to mention all of the other horrible programming MTV is showing right now. I can barely remember the days of when they actually played Music Videos.

Is This Really What All The Fuss Is About???

So I caught a little of the MMA thing on CBS last night. I had never really watched this except for when I was in Cancun on spring break when I was in college and something similar was playing on the TV in the bar I was at. Anyhow, I don't think I'll be tuning in anytime soon.

I flipped it on pretty late and got to see the final 2 fights of the night. When I turned it on, I was hoping that I hadn't missed this Kimbo Slice guy I kept hearing about on Sportstalk Radio and PTI. All I heard was about how much a beast this guy was and he's apparently the greatest fighter in MMA history. He was dominant. He was unbeatable. He's never lost. He knocks guys out in mere seconds. He IS what MMA is all about.

Well, when he was announced they commentators told me he was 2-0 in his MMA history with 2 KOs. Wait, I thought this guy was the greatest ever in the history of the sport?? How can he possibly be 2-0?? Shouldn't he be something like 40-0 if he's the supposed greatest the sport has ever seen??? Since this is broadcast on network TV, and not the Versus network, or ESPN 14 or some other no-name channel, this has to be the real deal, right? I must have heard wrong, no way he could be 2-0.

Apparently his claim to fame is his YouTube videos of him street brawling. Whatever.

So the fight finally gets started and I watch these 2 guys proceed to pummel each other for the first 5 minute round. There were about 4 times that I said to myself, "...this is over, no way this guy is going to stand up to the greatest ever Kimbo Slice..." But this guy, whoever he is, just kept fighting back.

By the end of the 2nd round the 2 were completely winded. They were lying on the ground, Kimbo was taking about 60 seconds worth of forearms to the head. Neither of them could move. I kept waiting for something amazing to happen, but they both just stayed in the corner of the ring, Kimbo getting pounded on. The announcers were more exciting than the fight. Sure, they were beating the shit out of each other, but nothing was really happening. The great Kimbo was just lying there taking the beating. The other guy was just, well, I don't know what he was doing??

To end the misery, Kimbo put about 4 solid shots to the head of the other guy and the ref jumped in to end the fight. All the announcers kept saying was that "...this was sooooo controversial...." What?? This guy was about to get killed!!!! 2 more shots to the head, and he still would have no idea what his name was!!

In conclusion, I'm not really impressed. I just don't have that much aggression in my body to watch 2 guys in a ring beating the hell out of each other. But I have also heard, from a couple of different sources, that this was a horrible display of what MMA is all about. Kimbo Slice is nothing more than a circus act. The other guys that were shown on the telecast were not the top notch guys in MMA. And I also read that CBS completely f'd up the show, it ran an hour too long, they were introducing people twice, and they were doing way too much talking and way too little fighting.

I'm not saying that Kimbo isn't a complete bad-ass. He is! The guy is huge. Quite a fighter. But apparently in the realm of MMA he's got quite a bit of work to do. Maybe I'll tune in again, I guess it depends on how good or bad my day has been until that point?? Who knows??

TV is real bad these days.

Oh, and one other thing I noticed about the fight last night. When Kimbo was getting acknowledged as the winner, there was some dude in his corner. This guy was fucking HUGE!!! I mean, HUGE!!!!!! I wish I could find a picture of him, this dude was enormous!! He was like the SNL skit about the All-Drug Olympics when Kevin Nealon pulls his arms off when he's trying to clean 1500 pounds! He was comic book huge!

In better news, Manny Ramirez hit his 500th homerun and is a .312 lifetime hitter. Impressive. He just hits. A lot of fun to watch!

The Indians just lost 2 of 3 to the Royals, they've scored 3 runs in the last 2 games. I don't even know what to say? I guess I should be happy I no longer live in Cleveland because I'm sure I would have watched every miserable AB this season and be even more upset than I already am about their dismal season.