Los Angeles Lakers at Cleveland Cavaliers: Behind the Box Score
February 8, 2015LeBron James subtweets Kevin Love about “fitting in”
February 9, 2015
The Super Bowl is over. Winter meetings have long been closed. The NBA is approaching All-Star break. Throughout much of the country, Cleveland included, snow still surrounds the local streets. Thus begins the dog days of winterâthe days leading up to the NFL Draft and NBA playoffs and even Spring Training where there’s little to discuss. The battle for fifth starter? Where will Yan Gomes bat? The All-Star break tends to be fun (especially if you’re there) , but the Cleveland Cavaliers’ front office even took the wind out of the sails a bit by making deals well before the trade deadline (a concept worthy of acclaim in and of itself) and leaving fans wondering what they may do with that 15th roster spot.
There’s nothing sexy. There’s little speculationâRay Allen or bust? We will obviously be chatting about the impending NFL Draft over the next several weeks, but this is undoubtedly the point of the year where there’s little in the way of redeeming sports quality. This obviously provides some hurdles for those who are tasked with producing pieces of written work on these teams on a daily basis, but it’s also boring as a fan who cares little about off-field/court items. I guess there’s always the potential for getting things done around the house, but let’s not get too carried away…
âŠâŠâŠ
Interesting discussion in Craig’s recent podcast with Jeff Nomina. In talking about the Cleveland Indians, Nomina referenced something along the lines of the majority of Indians fans not being baseball fans. I’ve long had a lack of understanding for this. Like, when following All-Star weekend events on Twitter, how many “fans” have no idea who some of the National League stars are. Not that this is the overarching issue of the Cleveland attendance woes (those can be found here), but there is undoubtedly an impact by this frame of thinking/interest.
I imagine that this weird logic carries, at least partially, through the other two teams, but to a lesser degree. The Cleveland Browns play in the NFLâthe productâand the Cavaliers have national allure and play in a smaller venue, thus rendering the attendance impact negligible. I can’t help but think back to this Shoals piece wherein he says fans should watch one game a night, but then again, he’s talking to NBA fansânot those of a singular team. I oftentimes enjoy watching Giants-Dodgers just as much as I do Tribe-Twins. Same can be said for any NBA game. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’m also not the casual fan that the Indians so desperately need to start attending games once again.
âŠâŠâŠ
Like most Grammy Award shows, last night provided some hits and some misses. E! has turned the red carpet into a two-hour event leading up to the actual show. Very few lulls in action, the powers that be have found a good mix of awards (10 on the night) and performances (plenty of them). A big fan of the Grammy’s, I was thoroughly appeased with both performances from Kanye Westâthe one with Rihanna and Sir Paul was solid save for McCartney’s microphone either being very low or not turned on at all.
Like most award shows, or shows in general, the Grammys have become a giant Snark Off on Twitter. The songs, the wardrobes, the pageantry, the fact that time has in fact moved onânothing’s safe from the spit takes from the (mostly) anonymous. This summed it up perfectly:
"all music is bad" – the internet
— Lana Berry (@Lana) February 9, 2015
But once shedding away the incredibly small percentage of the world that Twitter represents, the show did a solid job of mixing old school artists with those of today, appealing to a wide audience. There’s a solid portion of those watching who are no longer in the target demographic, so throwing them an Annie Lennox or AC/DC makes a ton of sense. It was a night of social stance and sideboob. There was a dedication to domestic violence, for example, and there was Nicki Minaj’s dress. The close, typically reserved for some high-energy, was Common, John Legend and Beyonce. Beck over Bey was a surprise for Album of the Year. Kayne’s bound to pull the bulk of the headlines for his performances and antics. But it was one hell of a night for Sam Smith. It’ll be interesting to see how the kid follows up on such a big year.
âŠâŠâŠ
I realize this has been linked to several times in this space, but with the passing of Dean Smith this weekend, I’d be remiss if I didn’t once again share Tommy Tomlinson’s profile of the long-time Tarheels coach from last spring. It’s fantastic, and worth the read even if you took it in last year.
âŠâŠâŠ
Takes so hot they melted the snow in your driveway this past weekend. Here’s this week’s edition of #ActualSportswriting:
“Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s jumpshot, voice remain a work in progress” by Lee Jenkins (Sports Illustrated): “Kidd-Gilchrist is rummaging through his backpack on the 14th floor of the JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles, searching for a DVD of The Lion King, which he carries almost everywhere he goes. His earliest memories are of watching the movie with his father, Michael Gilchrist Sr. He was Simba. His dad was Mufasa. They bought the stuffed animals. They recited the lines.”1
“Requiem for Bobby Knight” by Jeremy Collins (SB Nation): “Bob Knight wasnât some guy, but a force, an earthquake, a thunderclap. And as Jason and I slowly made our way down the dimly lit steps toward the darkened floor, we braced for the blast of that voice: What the hell are you two doing? Who let you in here?”2
“The Year Ron Hunt Got Hit by 50 Pitches” by Jonah Keri (FiveThirtyEight): “Flipping balls back to pitchers wasnât something Hunt reserved for titans of the game like Gibson. He did it nearly every time after getting plunked by a pitch. And nobody in baseballâs modern era has been hit more times in one season than Hunt. He retired in 1974 with 243 hit-by-pitches (HBPs), but his record-breaking season came when he was playing for the Montreal Expos in 1971.”3
“A Life on the Line” by Mike Fish (ESPN The Magazine): “What’s clear, according to dozens of interviews and thousands of pages of legal documents, is that Walters beats the odds everywhere — in the stock market, real estate, criminal proceedings and his true wheelhouse, sports gambling. His talent brought him from a life of poverty in rural Kentucky to one of wild success. He owns a fleet of car dealerships, several high-end golf courses, a private jet and fabulous homes in places like Palm Desert and Cabo San Lucas.”4
âŠâŠâŠ
And finally, this week’s Brew du Jour: Conway’s Irish Ale from Great Lakes Brewing Company
In the grand spirit of ushering in the next seasonal taste the very second the last on is in the rear view mirror, all of that spaceâwell, maybe not all of itâthat was provided to Christmas Ale has quickly given way to Great Lakes’ springs seasonal. Conway’s has always had a slew of fans due to it’s small window of availability coupled with the fact that it signals the arrival of St. Patrick’s Day and, in turn, spring. Helping matters: It’s pretty damn good.
Pouring a darker redish amber with a crisp white head, Conway’s provides solid retention around the glass. Scents are nothing uniqueâyour standard malts and toffee. Taste adds some caramel, some hops and a hint of a sweeter element akin to brown sugar. Clocking in at 6.5 percent ABV, you start to teeter off of a session style ale, but it’s nothing egregious. Given my IPA fancy and the otherwise short shelf life of Conway’s, this may very well be my favorite red ale Smithwicks and Sam Adams have done a nice job with their various ales, but if faced with the choice at the similar price point, I’m going with Officer Conway. Especially since he’s not getting his label alteredâyet.
This is gonna take some getting used to, @GLBC_Cleveland pic.twitter.com/gD5914yitV
— Scott @ WFNY (@WFNYScott) February 3, 2015
- I’m simultaneously bummed that MKG isn’t a member of the Cavs and elated that he’s faring so well through his first three years in the league. Great story. [↩]
- It’s apparently Former College Hoops Coaches Day here at #ActualSportswriting. This profile is so well-written and so well-produced. Those SBNation guys are killing it. [↩]
- I love learning things. I thought Craig Biggio’s 34 HBPs in the late 90s was incredible. [↩]
- I’m not a betting manâI place incredible value my moneyâbut I’ve always been captivated by the culture. This story is everything that’s intriguing and interesting about sports wagering. [↩]
49 Comments
always appreciate your actual sports writing links, Scott. Already read the one on MKG; laughed to myself remembering that I vainly hoped he might fall to the Cavs at #4. In reality he’s been as much or more of a project than Dion.
My new working theory on those drafts where there’s no “duh” pick right in front of you: at least maximize your chances by picking that really good, really hardworking kid. Kidd-Gilchrist seems to be coming on now much like Oladipo, who has the same sort of work ethic.
RE: Baseball bit.
I think it’s a MLB problem, not merely a Cleveland or [insert city here] problem. How many people could pick Mike Trout out of a line-up of random baseball players? NFL players wear helmets, and most people could more readily identify them than probably any baseball player.
I feel like many people in Cleveland like the Indians because they’re a Cleveland team. And you know some of the players. And baseball is an awesome way to spend a summer Saturday. But the impetus to watch other MLB games just doesn’t feel like it’s there. Maybe it’s because they play 17,000 games. Or maybe they just haven’t marketed the sport as “must watch” the way the NFL and NBA have.
I love Conway’s Irish Ale. It’s right there with Oktoberfest, Christmas Ale, and Holy Moses White Ale in my GLBC Mount Crushmore. It’s a pity the latter is no longer available in stores.
Asdrubal Cabrera is with TB now. They signed him for 1 yr @ 7.5 M. Only reason I brought this up is it seemed like he was often talked about when players reported. He always seemed to be bigger and out of shape. Excited to see Jose Ramirez get a shot for more playing time this season
Because of the long seasons and more than 50% of teams make the PO in the NBA, they are not must watch games for me either. I don’t know if MLB will ever be must watch for a casual viewer.
“How many people could pick Mike Trout out of a line-up of random baseball players?”
[Raises hand]
That’s true as well. However, I think there are a lot of NBA fans who watch non-hometeam games because they want to see Durant, or Kobe, or LeBron, or Big Star play. The MLB doesn’t really have that.
I think the probem with MLB is the audience age. It is easier for the NBA to draw younger fans into the sport than any other sport. Bloomsberg did a study of average age of fans. NBA is 39, MLB is 54. To put it a different way for ever 10 year old fan, there is a 68 year old NBA fan (or two 53 year olds) or a 98 year old MLB fan (or two 76 year olds).
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-04-01/fixing-baseballs-old-people-problem-with-merchandise-highlights
same here, love the links. I wanted him in that draft as well, but agree that he has been more of a project than expected. a bit of an anti-Dion in that his strengths/weaknesses are pretty much the opposite.
I totally agree, but I would add that I think these issues are interrelated.
EDIT: Great article by the way.
Ever since Sam Adams made Noble Pils a year-round brew, Conways is now my favorite spring seasonal brew, but it doesn’t really reflect the spring freshness I associated with SANP previously. We’ll see what other brewers come out with in the next couple months.
Have the Indians had attendance problems? Huh. Wonder what’s causing it and how to fix it . . .
Conways changes more year to year than any GL product. Been a few years it’s been their best product and a few the worst.
I would argue the issues are somewhat interrelated. A basketball player is going to make a lot more plays, and be involved in a lot more plays than a baseball player. If I love Trout, I get to watch him bat 3 or 4 times and make a great play every 3 games or so. I get to see him bat on average about once every 50 minutes or so. Not really comperable IMO to basketball.
I am definitely NOT a baseball fan. But I am a huge Indians fan. For me personally, it is too easy to skip watching other games because the Indians play 5-6 games a week and so where would I have the time to watch another team? Plus the number of games and lengthy series means almost none of the games are must-win/must-watch. If the Indians only played 3-4 games per week I might watch other games to fill the void or if the post-season series were scaled back to 2-3 affairs the excitement level would suck me in.
I was going to say something similar. As closely as I follow the Indians, my knowledge of the rest of the League is spotty. Local sports don’t cover non-local teams (anyone not the Astros in my case) and even ESPN doesn’t run highlights of the non-top tier teams and players. If you want to see non-local baseball players, you need to have cable and then you need to make a point of watching the MLB channel or Baseball Tonight.
Meanwhile, the NFL continues to broadcast multiple games on free TV while making a point of always showing highlights of every team (mostly). And, of course, you can’t underestimate the power of fantasy football.
My theory as to why this is: fiscally speaking, MLB teams operate and earn much more independently from each other than NFL franchises. For a team like the Yankees, there is no real incentive in making any non-Yankee player look good.
Clearly the stadium is haunted. I think we should call Scooby and the gang to find out if it is really old man Dolan in a rubber mask.
It’s really interesting to me how the fans of the particular sports have formed over the years. Speaking in general terms only here:
NFL – many are fans of the NFL with their current team being an anchoring point only. Fantasy football has really been a perfect way for them to instill people to care about the entire league (along with betting for those that wager).
NBA – Stern decided to market players over teams and it has continued to work. We all mocked LeBron when he said “LeBron fans will still root for me,” but he really is correct in that many people are fans of the players more than the jersey, which is crazy to me. I guess it’s understandable between the marketing and the highlights tending to focus on individuals (even when done within the team concept). Shortening the contracts has just exasperated it too.
MLB – It seems to be the one sport that is still about “root, root, root for the home team.” The issue there is that the younger generation wants to be filled with more breadth of information rather than depth of information. It is still a great sport and I hope that quickening the pace helps, but MLB is going to have to figure out how to add incentives to watch games across MLB. It is not an easy problem to solve especially considering the resistance they get from many of the older fans.
MLB.tv had dabbled with a “player tracker” option on their APP. So, if you set it up correctly, then you can get updates and click to watch either highlights (if you missed a defensive play) or the current AB of your favorite players (or fantasy players). The actual setup last year was poor though and they didn’t have a way of doing it once the night’s games ended. But, if they keep going along that route, they could let you see all of Trout in maybe 5 minutes that night and then go through your favorite players.
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
The CHUDs?
Didn’t yet hear the podcast, but I hope they didn’t conflate poor attendance with lack of interest in the Tribe. Because their most recent television ratings were way high, indicating the failure to put fannies in those seats is not a general lack of familiarity with the team or an issue with baseball in particular.
Wow, nailed it on all three descriptions. I’d argue that MLB cannot change it to a league-wide because on any given night YOUR team is playing.
that is fair and a completely valid point. I tend to cheat on the Indians while watching on the MLB.tv app in that I’ll click over to the best pitching matchup on commercial breaks or when I know a specific batter is coming up soon.
I think it was every other year. I always chuckled at the “the best shape of his career” articles.
I really want Jose Ramirez to be this year’s Yan Gomes. The guy we aren’t sure about that proves he can be reliable. I really loved watching him play down the stretch last year and hope he can keep it up.
“It seems to be the one sport that is still about “root, root, root for the home team.””
Part of me wonders if baseball has always been this way and the supposed decline is just a by-product of contemporary observers falling into the trap of nostalgia along with the 24-hour sports news cycle (got have a take, the hotter the better).
For a variety of reasons, this is not a 1:1 comparison, but…
In 1954 (a year we went to the WS):
Yealry attendance: 1,300,000; Cleveland population: 900,000
In 2013:
Attendance: 1,500,000; Cleveland population: 390,000
(Granted, that’s only one data point and it needs a bunch of asterisks.)
File under “Baseball is weird”:
In 2015, Asdrubal Cabrera is a one-win player on a $7M/1yr contract.
In 2015, Jhonny Peralta is a six-win player on a $37M/3yr contract.
Who saw that in 2010?
yeah, gotta go metro-Cleveland for obvious reasons.
but, I do think that baseball has always been a local sport. it’s just that other sports used to be as well and that has changed over time, while baseball hasn’t. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but MLB has to be careful to ensure that they get the younger fans interested locally at least if that is their niche.
true but this depends on a person taking the time to set everything up. Seeing Trout 5 minutes a night is not what the MLB is hoping for. They want players to watch games and if they move to this, the younger fans can just watch “youtube like” videos instead of watching the games.
that is my point though. MLB needs to detach themselves from their current concept to attract the younger fans. my kids don’t want to watch a 3hr game with me. but, they LOVE watching highlights (and bloopers) and will watch those for 30min to an hour.
MLB is the one sport where it is difficult to do it still. the NFL and NBA readily make available video highlight packages for pretty much whatever you want to see. for MLB, there is a bunch more work you need to do yourself. it is the one spot where they are lagging behind.
and, my argument would be that you want to get the kids hooked however you can. getting them hooked gets them to want to see their guys live at games, which leads them to loving the game more.
1.4M then vs 2.0M now. CLE/Elyria metro area population, I mean. Which is Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and Medina counties.
I think any gain in population is basically negated by the added distance. North Madison is considered part of the metro-area and it’s a good hour away from the stadium. How many people are the Tribe drawing from there? More numbers: Cleveland-Elyria metro area population density by square mile is now 831. By my calculations, Cleveland’s in the 1950’s was around 11,000.
Which is to say, when we had a LOT more people living closer to the stadium, people still weren’t going to games all that much.
People expect MLB and every other sport to be the NFL. And they can’t and shouldn’t.
Eerily similar 162 game averages according to baseball reference. Big difference is that Peralta’s dWAR has been in the positives whereas Cabrera’s in the negative.
They can start by making sure their stupid website with its stupid video player actually shows the actual play after it forces me to sit through a stupid ad for every stupid highlight that I stupidly want to see. Making your contact difficult to access while heaping on the ads isn’t raising your exposure any, MLB.
I bet I couldn’t, you know, unless he was wearing a uniform. As I type this I have no idea what his uniform number is.
I’ll try to not make it too hard. At least easier than finding pictures of people not in their baseball stuff.
Player A
http://m.mlb.com/assets/images/6/9/6/102720696/cuts/Donaldson_1280_zfic53qi_zbp2u2tp.jpg
Player B
http://wac.9ebf.edgecastcdn.net/809EBF/ec-origin.dmv.barstoolsports.com/files/2014/03/harper.png
Player C
https://cbsphilly.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/trout_mike-millville-_madden.jpg?w=420&h=315&crop=1
Player D (far right)
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/05/805b0ac7-b842-5ded-ad0a-37420b40b460/51c04dab395bf.preview-620.jpg
That’s a clown lineup, bro.
Lineups are notorious for producing unreliable evidence.
I am surprised there is no story about Gordon filing a grievance to get to free agency a year earlier on the site today.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/04/gordon-grievance-coming-soon-over-week-17-suspension/
Wish I could tag Craig in this post đ
did you notice the girl scout cookies?
Looks like Thin Mints and Samoas? Can’t argue with the choices (but he probably stole them).
Didn’t see this until now. Emailing the tips address is a great way to get things up sooner. Just a heads up.
At this point, I’m wondering if I even care. Maybe the Browns should not challenge it and let him try to walk when his suspension is done.
he would never steal from the Girl Scouts. he may bully a nearby person into buying the cookies for him, but he would never steal from the Girl Scouts.
http://www.glaad.org/sites/default/files/images/2014-03/1.-Samuel-Adams_0.jpg
No…
http://www.beerguerrilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/sam-adams-noble-pils.jpeg
Man, I loved Holy Moses. GLBC needs to ship to Colorado.
And Texas. Interstate liquor laws need to change. More commerce clause, please.
Alas, boys, today it’s only available on draft at the brewery on 25th St.
Which is another good reason to go there.