Art Modell not among 25 finalists for NFL Hall of Fame
November 21, 2013Tribe Talk: Murphy, 40-man additions, and the Kinsler/Fielder trade
November 21, 2013Cleveland sports fans are waiting. Thus, while we’re all waiting, the WFNY editors thought you might enjoy reading. Because you never know how long we might be waiting. So here are assorted reading goodies for you to enjoy. Send more good links for tomorrow’s edition to tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“Fans were happy to hand over their money to not only wear the number of their favorite athlete, but to also send funding to the American Cancer Society. After all, the NFL claimed that 90 percent of the royalties from its sales went to the ACL. But not all was as it seemed.
According to Business Insider, The Washington Times and Sports Illustrated, the NFL was actually pocketing most of the proceeds from the pink merchandise. When all was said and done – the manufacturer was paid, the retailer kept half and the ACS administration took its cut – only 8.01 percent of the proceeds even made it to cancer research.” [Owen/The Sun News]
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“Most fans probably don’t care how baseball news breaks, just that it does. And the news of outfielder David Murphy leaving the Texas Rangers via free agency and signing with the Cleveland Indians isn’t as riveting as, say, the destinies of Brian McCann or Shin-Soo Choo.
And yet, how the world found out about Murphy changing addresses Tuesday night/Wednesday morning is an original piece of reporting that’s worth noting. As with many of these stories, it started with a leak. Murphy’s young daughter leaked the news at daycare, telling all of the teachers there that her “daddy was going to be an Indian.” [Brown/Big League Stew]
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“Many believe that now that Yan Gomes has been great for half a season, the Indians should trade Carlos Santana for “a real DH,” overlooking the fact that Santana is one of the best hitters in the league. Santana is wildly underrated because he doesn’t have a good batting average or hit a ton of home runs, and far too many fans still don’t appreciate the value of Santana’s fantastic walk rate (14.5% in 2013, second in the AL to only Mike Trout). Others understand Santana’s value, but still think he should be dealt, because some other team will value him more (as a catcher). A smaller segment of the fan base wants to keep Santana behind the plate, and deal Gomes away, because 2013 might have been a fluke. I think Gomes’ hitting is due to regress quite a bit, but his defense his legit, and I think his bat will still be above-average.
Santana is signed to a team-friendly deal through 2017, and Gomes is under team control through 2018, with the next two season costing only the league minimum. Those are exactly the kind of players the Indians need: good and cheap. Any offer for one of them would either hurt the team in 2014, or cost a lot more money (either immediately or very soon). Neither of those is a good fit for the Tribe. If some team comes in with a fantastic offer for one of them, swell, but the team shouldn’t feel any pressure to move either of them. The two of them coexisted very successfully in 2013, even as Gomes caught more and more as the season went by. Why rush to change what works?” [Lukehart/Let’s Go Tribe]
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Your Browns wild card rooting interest. “To summarize, we want to root against the Ravens the most, followed by the Dolphins. If both of those teams tank, it’d be nice if the Jets just tanked too. However, if Miami stays competitive, we’d need the Jets to also stay somewhat competitive so they can prevent the Dolphins from getting a head-to-head win over us.” [Pokorny/Dawgs by Nature]
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Finally, your tweet of the night. From Jose Canseco.
Just got pulled over with goats in the car. The cop laughed at our poor goats . Awesome pic.twitter.com/hN1WiE7qDG
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) November 21, 2013
6 Comments
1. Must admit I was taken in by the NFL’s apparent overwhelming concern about breast cancer, which I naively thought was purely altruistic.
2. With a license to print money, Modell went broke not once, but twice.
3. My goat loves to stick his head out the passenger-side window.
People need to smarten up over any type of cancer “awareness” campaign, not just the NFL and Breast Cancer, but all of these groups. Pink products != revenue to fight breast cancer.
It amazes me that there is a segment of fans that do no appreciate Carlos Santana and TJ Ward. Both are among the best at what they do, but do not have the type of fan appreciation that usually comes with it.
1. I was never naive enough to think that the NFL wasn’t getting rich off the pink merchandise. That’s how things work in the United Corporations of America.
2. As a parent, I find that Murphy story adorable.
I have to agree, TJ Ward is the best give up 5 yards, whiff on half your tackles and chicken wing another 25% of them, safety that I have ever seen.
The portrayal of the NFL with the awareness campaign is really unfair. They pocketed almost nothing, and the awareness they bring is not to be underrated.
More importantly, let’s be real: The people buying jerseys etc. are not buying them “to support breast cancer research”. They’re buying them to buy stuff, and the charity aspect makes them feel better about it. If they really wanted to donate to cancer research they would. This is ‘free money’ for cancer research, not the NFL or the other parties siphoning funds away from them.