WFNY Podcast – 2013-01-25 – Cleveland Frowns in a two-part podcast
January 25, 2013Pat Shurmur “awarded” Worst Coach, Most Useless Challenge
January 25, 2013You might not have been at the Renaissance Hotel located in downtown Cleveland last night, but five of us from Waiting For Next Year were there for you — Rick, Scott, TD, Jon Cole and I.
Earlier this morning, I shared with you some of the highlights in narrative form. But now it’s something a bit more.
Thus, courtesy of Jon Cole’s awesome photographic skills and our media permission from the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, we are honored to share with you a look inside the incredible spectacle that is the 2012 Sports Awards. We hope you enjoy the gallery and we look forward to seeing you there next year.
What gallery is complete without the Cavalier girls? They were perusing the crowd during the cocktail reception, with many pictures being taken such as this.
Here are some of the many auction items on display, and a little look at the early crowd in the cocktail reception area. It got much more crowded after this. For good measure, the requisite shot of the WFNY logo on the giant sponsorship screen located at the cocktail reception.
The entertainer of the night, as he’s been his entire career, was Cleveland native Don King. As Scott tweeted, you think you’re well-dressed going into a fancy night like this, then you see him.
Sir C.C. was there, along with Moondog, Chomps, Slider and plenty of other mascots. Nice shot here, Jon, of C.C. and I.
Larry Nance hopped on Cleveland.com’s streaming radio last night with Dan Labbe and Glenn Moore (not pictured). Hard to miss the once-6-foot-10 Nance in a crowd.
Austin Carr is always a crowd-pleaser, and here he shared moment on the air with TV 20’s Christian Patterson.
Unsurprisingly, Jimmy Haslam III again was clad in his usual blue shirt and orange tie. He always was quick to introduce his wife Dee to any fan he met. And I had a chance to chat with him briefly during the cocktail reception about the importance of events like this. That’s the money shot, Jon.
One last shot of the reception: I chatted with Cavs’ broadcaster John Michael on the positives he’s seen from the Cavaliers over the last month.
As many others tweeted, Kyrie Irving was backstage calling more friends and family shortly after receiving the news about his All-Star selection.
Now, on with the show. Scott Van Pelt was the delightful host, and here he was delivering his opening monologue.
The second award of the night was Professional Athlete of the Year, which GM Chris Grant and head coach Byron Scott presented to Cavs star Kyrie Irving. He’s still only 20, folks.
Haslam has a mighty firm handshake. And along with former Brown Eric Metcalf, he helped present the Lifetime Achievement Award to the team’s current broadcaster Doug Dieken.
Can’t get away with a post like this without the obligatory shots of Mayor Frank Jackson and the Fox Sports Ohio Girls. Not going into politics. Just trying to be a bit of paparazzi.
New Browns coach Rob Chudzinski presented the Cleveland Clinic’s Courage Award to Molly Miller, a 14-year-old cancer survivor who plays varsity soccer for Notre Dame Acadamy. Miller’s father passed away from cancer in 2009 and was Chudzinski’s childhood best friend.
Urban Meyer, who just like last year on this stage still hasn’t lost as a Buckeye head coach, presented the Collegiate Athlete of the Year honor to the Kent State University baseball team.
Did I mention yet how Don King was the entertainer of the night? He continued to ramble on stage, even with Cleveland State head coach Gary Waters at his side, while making some closing remarks to end the evening.
Once again, thank you to the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission from all of us at WFNY. Scott, Rick and I had this fun shot taken by Jon during the reception (obviously, I didn’t get the vest memo). We never were able to get all five of us together at one time — but I can promise you, we all are real Internet people who truly love Cleveland sports.
One final thanks goes out to Jon Cole. If you’re interested, Jon can be reached at joncolephoto.com and envisionedmemories.com. I don’t think we could possibly send along a higher recommendation.
—
(Photos: Jon Cole/WFNY)
19 Comments
Nice! Does anyone know if Terry Francona was in attendance?
@ThatAlex:disqus — As far as I know, no. I didn’t see him anywhere, nor did I see tweets saying he was there.
Often, team’s athletes won’t come unless they’re being honored. I think Kyrie was the only current Brown-Cavalier-Indian in attendance. But usually the managers/coaches are presenting awards. So yeah, a bit odd then that a new Indians manager wasn’t there.
I find it odd that the Pro Athlete of the Year award is the second of the night. I thought that would be towards the end if not last. Other than that, looks like a blast. Great pics.
Thanks! Yeah I just found out that Francona was in Boston last night receiving his own award, the Judge Emil Fuchs Award on from the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. I think he was also out there promoting his book.
Reward for anyone having information on the two Cavaliers girls in the middle (ideally the second from the right but hey I’m not being picky I need to make at least one of the young ladies dreams come true!)
But seriously nice work, photos. Imagine the day when there is a championship to celebrate, lol!
Great pics, especially the one of you and Haslam, that’s getting framed for sure!
Any truth to the rumour that Haslam, showed up wearing the exact same jacket as Don King and had to do a quick change to avoid embarassment?
Thanks, Jacob. Enjoyed this and the other write-up very much.
Nice to see that this was attended by so many out-of-town heavy-hitters like Urban Meyer and Don King, and some old friends like Greg Pruitt and Larry Nance.
Also nice to see Doug Dieken get his recognition. (I wonder if the radio broadcast team is one of the things that Hasgrum is “evaluating.” Hope not.)
they’re all cute, but introduce me the one on the left – wow.
By you?
@ea160ee8a4ebd1df06f357383fccbcc1:disqus – Ha! I was discussing other framed photos with my dad just in generic conversation today, shortly after showing him this post. And he said “Oh maybe you’ll want to get some framed photos when we go to the store, maybe that one of you and Haslam.” I kind of brushed it aside, saying “meh” as usual.
Shortly thereafter, I looked back at the comments on this post. Showed my dad your comment. We both cracked up.
@disqus_RbIy6kexHS:disqus — Good point. Was wondering about that at one point too. Here was the order of operations for the various awards (obviously, other videos and such took place too):
HS Athlete
Pro Athlete
Amateur Athlete
Sports Development Gold Medalist
Best Moment in Cleveland Sports
Courage Award
Collegiate Athlete
Lifetime Achievement
Here is an interesting question:
If your name was drawn as the golden ticket winner, how psyched would you be?
I was thinking that would really rock, but after a little more thought, are any of the teams going to be competitive next year? Season tickets are the kind of thing that even if you got them for free, you need a lot of money for the other expenses (food, parking, BEER). AND you could make the argument of selling some of the tickets, but wouldn’t it be crappy to sell some of the golden ticket tickets?
no karma problems as long as you use the money from selling some tickets to buy food, parking, and beer
May I ask why there is never any video coverage? For instance, I would love to see SVP’s monologue. No idea why it’s never on, say STO or FoxSportsOhio.
@2759745fcd9fa3f069f7320d362e7c8c:disqus — I think in previous years they had a live stream of the event online. Don’t know for certain why that wasn’t the case this year. I’d be surprised if none of the TV stations at all showed some clips from the day. Whether or not you can find SVP’s full monologue, I don’t know either.
Great recap and pictures. That’s a really nice coincidence that the ND girl was able to receive the award from her dad’s childhood best friend, and not just the new Browns’ coach – very classy.
I wonder how good of seats that guy got
Recently I was REALLY low on money and debts were eating me from all sides! That was UNTIL I decided to make money.. on the internet. I went to surveymoneymaker dot net, and started filling in surveys for cash, and surely I’ve been far more able to pay my bills! I’m so glad, I did this.. With all the financial stress these years, I really hope all of you will give it a chance. – nnp6