My Sportsman of the Year: Terry Francona
December 12, 2014Bring on ‘Bama
December 12, 2014The Holiday Season is upon us, and for many, the holidays are a time of rituals and traditions. Here at Waiting For Next Year, we believe in tradition as well, and one of our personal favorites is the annual WFNY 12 Days of Christmas contest series! This is now the seventh year in a row we have done this contest, as hard as that is to believe.
How does it work? It’s simple. Every week day from now through Christmas, we will have a different contest with a different prize package to give away to you guys. It’s our small way of showing our appreciation and saying thanks for hanging in there with us for another year. Each day will feature a different, unique contest. Some will require getting a correct answer, some will be selected randomly among all entries, and some will feature haiku writing, of course. So check back every day for your chance to win one of our prize packs!
Previous Day’s Winner
Holy cow we got a lot of awesome responses to yesterday’s contest. As someone who has never lived in Cleveland but has rooted for all of Cleveland’s sports teams, I often feel like a stranger on the outside looking in. It was great to see the things you guys all cherish about the region. Well done all around, and I truly wish I could give a prize package to each and every one of you who responded.
But alas, there can only be one winner. And yesterday’s winner, as chosen at random, was “Drew”, who put these things in his Cleveland box:
A burger from Swenson’s (more Akron-y but close enough)
Some Handel’s ice cream (see above)
A polish boy from Hot Sauce Williams
A Michael Stanley Band LP
Mike Polk
My deteriorating Cavs foam finger from the 90-91 season
Tom Hamilton’s voice
The entire Muni Lot (assuming it stays quietly in the box when not wanted)
Most importantly, all the friends and family from the area that are dearly missed
So congrats to Drew for winning an official box from the fine folks at Cleveland in a Box! Hopefully he reports back and lets us know what was all put in his Cleveland Sports Box.
Day Five is a day for reading. Sing it with me, “FIIIIIIVE PLUTO BOOKS!” Well, ok, maybe not five of them. But we do have one really great Terry Pluto book for you guys! Today’s package is Terry Pluto’s latest book, Glory Days in Tribe Town: The Cleveland Indians and Jacobs Field 1994-1997, courtesy of our friends at Gray & Company Publishers.
And of course once again we also have a Gift Card for Two Bucks (note, that’s not a generic $2 gift card, it’s a gift card you can use at the establishment called “Two Bucks”…apologies for any past confusion). So why not pick up a copy of Terry Pluto’s latest work, and enjoy a few chapters while enjoying some quality nourishment from Two Bucks? If you win this contest, you can do just that!
Today’s Contest
Ok, so what’s the biggest story in Cleveland sports right now? Is it the Indians’ trade for Brandon Moss? No. Is it LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers? No way. It’s Johnny Freaking Football, of course! Manziel-mania has sunk its hooks into Cleveland and this Sunday we get our first real glimpse of the person we all hope can become a franchise QB for our beloved Browns. So why not have a Manziel-related contest to hold us over through the weekend? So today’s question is: How many passing yards will Manziel have against the Bengals on Sunday, how many TDs will he score (throwing and/or running), and how many INTs will he throw?
The winner of this contest will be the person who is closest to the amount of yards Manziel throws for. To enter, simply leave a comment in the Comments section below prior to the start of the game on Sunday1 with the answer to today’s question. For example, if I were entering the contest, I would say: “I predict that Manziel throws for 205 yards, has zero passing TDs and one rushing TD, and will throw two interceptions”. See? It’s that easy. So what are you waiting for? Go get your best guesses in below, and good luck!
The Fine Print (in normal sized font) and Rules
Only one entry per person per day is allowed. This is very important. Anyone who submits more than one entry is immediately disqualified. Only one winner per household per year is allowed. Winners will be notified via email. Prizes will not necessarily be delivered by Christmas, but we will try our best to make it happen.
- and as always, please be aware of our Before You Comment guidelines and technical information [↩]
47 Comments
I predict that Manziel throws for 246 yards, has 2 passing TDs and one rushing TD, and will throw 1 INT
225 yards – 1 passing TD, 1 rushing TD, 1 INT
I predict that Manziel throws for 150 yards, has zero passing TDs and zero rushing TDs, and will throw one interception.”
I predict JFF to throw for 214 yards with 1 pass TD, 1 rush TD and 1INT.
I foresee JFF throwing for 275 yards, 2TDs and 2INTs
233 yards, 1:1:1 passing TD to rushing TD to INT ratio
blind optimism!!!, 333 yards 2 pass TD 1 rush TD, 1 int
Manziel – 146 passing yards, 1 passing TD, 1 rushing TD, 3 interceptions
308 yards passing, 5 TDs, 3 INTs, 6 rushing TDs on 136 yards, Browns win 77-17 (because the only thing that matters, per the contest rules, is yards passing)
280 yards, 3 total td’s, 1 int
150 yards 1 TD 2 INT
257 yards, 2 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD, 1 INT
I predict that Manziel throws for 218 yards, has one passing TD and one rushing TD, and will throw two interceptions. On the bright side, he probably won’t get injured until the Ravens game.
Call me Clevelander. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on at home, I thought I would go about a little and see the athletic part of the world.
It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sport as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.
With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the stadium. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the football with me.
But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the stadium, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the factory of sadness; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the despair as they possibly can without falling from the I-480 bridge and there they stand- miles of them- leagues. Clevelanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets avenues- north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither to the Northcoast?
But here is an artist. Jonathan Paul Manziel desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the Cuyahoga. What is the chief element he employs?
Go visit the Berea in June, when for scores on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among Tiger-lilies- what is the one charm wanting?- Football- there is not a drop of football there! Were Canton but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it? Why did the rich poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian football team North of him?
Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to football? Why upon your first voyage as a fan, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your team were about to kick off the game? Why did the Greeks give it a separate time to celebrate the Olympic games?
Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the football, plunged into it and was concussed. But that same image, we ourselves see in all games. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.
Again, Johnny Football always go to games as a player, because they make a point of paying him for his troubles, whereas they never pay fans a single penny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, fans themselves must pay. And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But being paid,- what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!
Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where Johnny Football spiralled his throws; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the quarterback runs; these, with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped to sway me to my wish. With other men, perhaps, such things would not have been inducements; but as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. And Johnny Football loves to raise teams with minimal hope, and go up against barbarous teams.
By reason of these things, then, the football game was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open with the start of Johnny Football, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the man, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.
Oh…
243 passing yards (+53yds rushing)
3 Touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing)
1 Interception (1 fumble but recovered by Browns)
throws 173 yards, 0 passing TDs, 1 rush TD, 2 INT
200 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
187 yards 1 passing TD and 1 rushing TD and 2 interceptions plus a fumble and will run for 64 yards
251 pass yds, 2 pass TD, 1 run TD, 1 int.
What’s the over/under on money signs?
175 yards 2 TDs, 1 Rushing TDs, and 1 INT
I’ll say 314, 2 TDs, 50 rushing yds, 1 int, 1 fumble.
215 yards, 2 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD, 2 INTs, 1 W
JFF will throw for 255 yards, with 2 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD and 2 INTs.
In a Browns win, of course.
I’m hoping JF doesn’t have to do much. 140 passing yards, 1 passing TD, 68 yards rushing, 1 rushing td, 1 int. Crow & West combine for 187 yards rushing. Defense dominates, J. Hill gets a broken bone, Old Greg gets one dump off catch that “makes us pay” with a fumble returned for a TD.
198 yards passing, 83 yards rushing, 0 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD, 1 INT, 2 fumbles, 4 money fingers
192 yards passing, 1 Passing TD, 0 Rushing TD, 3 INT
How many passing yards will Manziel have against the Bengals on Sunday, how many TDs will he score (throwing and/or running), and how many INTs will he throw?
Manziel will have 178 yds passing, 1 INT and no touchdowns running or passing.
205 Yards 1 Passing TD, 1 Rushing TD and 3 INTs
I predict Manziel will throw for 197 yards, 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions
Looking into my crystal ball, I’m going to predict 197 yards passing, a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown and one interception.
I predict that Manziel throws for 198 yards, has two passing TDs and 0 rushing TD, and will throw one interceptions
I predict that Manziel throws for 160 yards, has no passing TDs and 1 rushing TD, and will throw two interceptions.
Manziel will have 247 yards, 2 TDs (1 pass, 1 run), and 2 INTs. Let the good times roll!
I predict that Manziel has 228 passing yds, 1 passing TD, 1 rushing TD, 48 rushing yards, 0 INT, 1 fumble
I predict Manziel throws for 249 yards 2 passing TDs and 1 INT
Browns win 27-21
I predict that Manziel will throw for 222 yards, have one passing TD, no rushing TD, and will throw one interception.
Are we going price is right rules? If so, I bid one yard. And I guess no touchdowns. But I hope I lose.
I predict that Manziel throws for 212 yards, has two passing TDs and one rushing TD, and will throw zero interceptions”.
Also, Handel’s is Youngstown-y not Akron-y. Come on man.
I predict for Johnny Football to throw for 240 yards and 2 TD’s, 1 rushing TD and 1 Interception.
“I predict that Manziel throws for 188 yards, has one passing TDs and one rushing TD, and will throw one interceptions”
“How many passing yards will Manziel have against the Bengals on
Sunday, how many TDs will he score (throwing and/or running), and how
many INTs will he throw?”
I predict that Manziel throws for 243 yards, has 2 passing TDs and 1 rushing TD, and will throw zero interceptions.
i predict 266 yards passing, 66 yards rushing, 1 passing td, 0 rush td, 4 rushing 1st downs, 0 turnovers.
JFF Prediction: 271 Passing Yards, 2 TD (1 Pass, 1 Rush), 0 Int
188 yards passing, 1 passing TD, no rushing TD’s, 1 interception.
Browns win 23-13.
245 2TD (1 pass/1 rush) 2INT
251 yards 2 TDs 1 INT
I think Johnny Freaking Football will look not as great as his stats end up indicating, but he’ll finish with the following line:
297 yards passing (24-41) with 2 TDs (Flash, Cameron) and 1-2 INTs (an early tip and/or a deep ball that’s basically a punt). He’ll also rush for 57 yards and perhaps a score.
The above may or may not have to do with my starting Gordon, Cameron, and the Crow tomorrow in my last-gasp fantasy playoff game.
Can I go back and pull a price is right and predict 1 yd?